It is a very long time since I competed at international level -- at
least it feels like a very long time -- but one thing I clearly remember
from the many one-day series in which I was involved was the thrill of a
possible clean sweep.

   There is only one thing harder than winning a series, and that is to win
every single game.  It rarely happens, even between undoubted favourites and
significant underdogs, so when you get the chance to do it, especially in a
five match series, the competitive instinct kicks in as hard as ever.

   The most vulnerable game in a five match series in which a team has gone
three nil up is, perhaps obviously, the fourth.  I know all too well what is
said in team meetings about maintaining focus and preserving standards in
the game after a series has been won, but the truth is -- words are words,
even when they are good words, and sometimes it is hard to produce actions
which are as good!

   But the Proteas chased down 300 to win the fourth game and, although it
was a bit scrappy at the end, I know how important that result would have
been to them.  Every team is vulnerable in the match after a series has been
won, but I thought they showed as much determination as they had in any of
the three preceding matches.

   They will have been a little disappointed that it came down to the last
ball, but at least they got the job done -- again.  It reminded me of my old
friend Lance Klusener¹s favourite saying: "Set out to win every game with an
over to spare.² The run chase was brilliantly organised and professionally
managed for 98% of the way, but could still have gone wrong in the final
couple of deliveries.  Rather remove that possibility from the equation a
little earlier on!

   Easier said than done.  I know that.  I've been there.  And if I was
still there, I'd probably be slightly irritated hearing that comment from a
former playerS!

   I'm not sure what everybody else is feeling about Hashim Amla, but from
my position -- either behind my Standard Bank desk or from my surfboard --
he is one of the best current players in the world. I know that statistics
will back that up, but the evidence of the eyes is just as important.  He is
in phenomenal form which comes from his deeply researched knowledge of his
own game.  It doesn't matter whether anybody else knows your game when you
know it as well as he does.

   AB de Villiers, too, is in the form of his life.  Four centuries in his
last eight ODIs at a strike rate of over 100 and an average of 67.  Nobody,
not even Sachin (though he comes close) can match that.

   Not many teams get the chance to win every game in a series.  It is very
rare.  If Graeme and his team can do it, they deserve a respectable break
from all the conjecture about the Oquality¹ of the four previous wins.