DOWNFALL 2013:

                      All were fine for South African cricket team until the start of calendar year 2013. They were the top ranked ODI side towards the end of 2012 and they were peaking at the right time. SA started their campaign with a shocking series loss against NZ at January. Then SA did host Pakistan for a five match ODI series and won it which tends to be their only series victory this year. But that too did'nt come easily for a full strength South African side.
                    Then came CT2013, one of the most important limited overs tournament this year. Even before the start of the tournament, team SA was hit by twin injuries of their star batting duo of Greame Smith and Jacques Kallis. And adding to the woes, Dale Steyn too hit by injury just before the start of first game against India. South Africa went on to lose againt India but won the next league game against Pakistan. In a must win game against West Indies, DRS and poor shot selection of Windies batsmen resulted in a proteas win and proteas were slotted to play against the host England in the semi finals. Again SA surrendered meekly in knock outs against the mighty England side which gave them the chokers tag once again.
                           Now, SA is currently touring Sri Lanka where they have already lost the series by 3-1 with still one more game to be played. The first thing that hit South African team was the injuries of the star players. Dale Steyn,Morne Morkel,Smith and Kallis have not played more than 9 ODI's in last 7 months. This main reason have haunted SA team at crucial points of the games.
                        This long injury list of seniors players have also lead to  serious concerns about South Africa's bench strength. Alviro Pietersen who is filling in Greame Smith's opener slot, has played 3 games so far and scored just 59 runs at an average of 19.67. Colin Ingram another young batsman who is filling in the crucial No.3 slot in the absence of Jacques Kallis looked good but failed during important phases of the game when the team did depend on him. But he is much better than many other proteas batsmen in the terms of runs. He has played 14 matches and scored a century and three half centuries at an average 34.19 with 451 runs this year. JP Duminy who's just back after injury did'nt do much after his century in the game against Netherlands. Faf du Plessis who was hailed as the find of the year 2012 too disappointed and looked like a fish out of water.
                         Bowling has always been SA's strength but this year none of protea bowlers' stats has been impressive so far.  Rory Kleinveldt, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Chris Morris were not upto the mark and failed to deliver with wickets. Hashim Amla who had a fantastic 2012 and also a star batsman in the side has been struggling to be among runs this year. Amla played 12 matches and scored 364 runs at an average 33.09. But only the absence of stars due to injury is not the only reason as SA played with the full strength squad in many games they lost. So it's the performance slump that's been hurting them.
                        SA started the year as numero uno side but now they are already 5th in the recently released ICC ODI rankings. The main problem is the performance slump and that can be corrected only with training and training. SA are all set to tour Pakistan to play tests and ODI's and to host India for the rest of the year. SA should have to regroup quickly in these series and must have to learn lessons from their mistakes to be back among victories and to attain the top team status again soon.