Tour of England 2012          Captain: Graeme Smith

Fiftieth official Test tour

Fifteenth Test-playing tour of England

 (July - September 2012)

The 2012 tourists came to England in the hope of a victory that would see South Africa becoming the top-ranked Test nation, and they duly achieved that with an emphatic two-nil victory in the series.

Graeme Smith, who had considered giving up the Test captaincy but was dissuaded by coach Gary Kirsten, played in his 100th Test and equalled Allan Border’s previous record of captaining his country 93 times in Tests. 

Preparations for the tour unusually included a few days cycling and rock-climbing in the Alps rather than net practice. The tourists had five preparatory side matches - but there was disappointment that only three Tests had been arranged yet five one-dayers and three T20 internationals, which were badly affected by weather and ended without either side in the lead.

Other South African tours

Previous Tour

To New Zealand 2011-12

Next tour

To Australia 2012-13

Next tour of England

 None scheduled

Members of the Test tour party (15 + 3)

Opening batsmen:  Graeme Smith, Alviro Petersen,  Jacques Rudolph.

Middle-order batsmen:   Jacques Kallis, A B de Villiers, Hashim Amla, J P Duminy, (Faf du Plessis - r)

Wicket-keepers:   Mark Boucher (Thami Tsolekile - r)

Slow bowlers:  Imran Tahir, Robin Peterson

Fast bowlers:  Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Lonwabe Tsotsobe, Marchant de Lange (Albie Morkel - r)

Representation of Supersport Series teams:   

CC(Bo, WP) - Cape Cobras (6)

D  (KZN) - Dolphins (1)

K  (FS, GW) - Knights (0)

HL(G, NW) - Highveld Lions (2)

T(Es, No) - Titans (4)

W(EP, Br) - Warriors (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(19 July 2012) :

     30 yrs  4 months.

ODI - member of squad for one-day internationals

T20 - member of squad for Twenty20 internationals

Test Appearances made before the tour

Kallis 152,  Boucher 147,  Smith 99,  de Villiers 74,  Amla 59,  Steyn 54,  Rudolph 43,  M Morkel 39,  Duminy 13,  A N Petersen 13,  Imran Tahir 7,  Philander 7,  R Peterson 6,  Tsotsobe 5,  Tsolikele 3,  A Morkel 1,  de Lange 2,  du Plessis 0.

Team Officials

Selectors

Andrew Hudson (convenor of selectors)  …..

Selection

Unavailable:  Graeme Smith recovered from an ankle injury in time to tour.

Tour Party Announced :  13 June 2012.

Not selected :  Ashwell Prince

One-day squad named:  25 July 2012.

AB de Villiers (capt), Hashim Amla (vice-capt), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Imran Tahir, Ryan McLaren, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Graeme Smith, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

A T20 squad was picked in August.

Time between selection and departure from South Africa

  19 days

(13 June to 2 July)

Travel

Members of the Test squad not in Zimbabwe for a tri-series joined in a conditioning programme under fitness and conditioning coach, Rob Walter. Alviro Petersen was playing for Essex for the first two months of the season

The touring party left O R Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, on Monday 2 July  To get ready for the tour, instead of traditional net practice, they spent four days at Chateau d'Oex in Switzerland as part of a team-building exercise with adventurer Mike Horn. The players arrived in London on Friday 6 July. Imran Tahir was asked to train with Abdul Qadir in Lahore rather than participate in the Switzerland exercise.

Graeme Smith returned to Cape Town after the first Test Smith on 23 July to be present at the birth of his child before flying back to Amsterdam and then to Leeds on Sunday 29 July.

Wayne Parnell, Faf du Plessis, Justin Ontong, Dean Elgar and Ryan MacLaren went to Ireland with South Africa A for three matches before joining the senior squad in England.

Time spent in England

   69 days

(6 July - 13 September)

On-tour selection panel

Gary Kirsten (coach), Graeme Smith (captain), and the touring selector.

Reinforcements

In the opening week of the tour wicket-keeper Mark Boucher was hit in the eye by a bail and had to return home injured. He was escorted by Proteas team manager, Dr Mohammed Moosajee, returning on a flight to Cape Town International Airport on 12 July: The injury caused his retirement from international cricket and subsequently from all forms of the game. On 11 July Thami Tsolekile was named as his replacement and he joined the tourists on 13 July.

Marchant de Lange strained his lower back and needed six weeks of rest and recuperation. Albie Morkel, already in England playing for Somerset, joined the touring group with Tsolikele on 13 July

Albie Morkel then turned an ankle and would be out of the tour for ten days so Francois du Plessis was called up. He was about to go to Ireland with the South Africa A team, which was deliberately touring Ireland so that reserve players would be available at hand, and joined the squad on Wednesday morning 1 August.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

⊕ Twenty 20 international

Time spent in England before First Test: 

13 days

(6 July- 19 July)

Test appearances on tour

3   -  Amla,  de Villiers,  Duminy,  Imran Tahir,  Kallis,  M Morkel,  A N Petersen,  Philander,  Rudolph,  Smith,  Steyn.

0  -   Boucher,  de Lange,  du Plessis,  A Morkel,  R Peterson,  Tsotsobe,  Tsolikele.

Highlights

•   South Africa scored 637 - 2 declared in the first Test at The Oval, with centuries by Amla, Smith and Kallis.

•   Hashim Amla (311*) added 259 with Graeme Smith, and 377 with Kallis (182*)

•   Steyn (5-56) ensured that England were dismissed without requiring South Africa to bat again.

•   Alviro Petersen scored 182 at Headingley, his highest score, after scoring a duck in the first match.

•   Graeme Smith added 120 for the first wicket with Petersen in the first innings and 120 with Rudolph in the second.

•   Philander was Player of the Match at Lord’s with innings of 61 and 35 and taking 5-30 with the ball.

•   Steyn, Morkel and Philander with 15, 12 and 11 wickets respectively, led South Africa’s bowling attack.

•   Amla finished with an aggregate of 900 runs in the nine matches he played against England across three formats.

Tour Summary

Return to South Africa

The team boarded a flight direct from London to Colombo on 14 September 2012 to participate in the ICC World T20 Championships in Sri Lanka.

Coach Gary Kirsten had missed the final T20 International returning to South Africa to spend time with his family. He joined up with the ICC World T20 squad on Sunday September 16 in Colombo.

The South Africans arrived back at O.R Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg from Sri Lanka on 4 October.

Time away from South Africa    74 days  

(2 July  till 4 October)

Published accounts

Neil Manthrop’s blog :   http://www.supersport.com/cricket/blogs/neil-uk-diary