A year to forget

AB de Villiers and Makhaya Ntini walk off at Durban © Getty Images

At Durban they were 290 for 8, chasing an unlikely 378 to win, when the weather closed in with 15 overs remaining and England enjoying the new ball. There was a minor triumph in the steady stride of the 20-year-old AB de Villiers, buoyed by a defiant maiden half-century, but the South Africans were happy to escape to the dressing-room with a draw.

That was a better result for Graeme Smith's team than the seven-wicket hiding they endured in the first Test, and suddenly 2005 - and the New Year Test at Newlands -loomed significantly less ominously.

It brought to an end a forgettable year which, let's not forget, started with only Australia rated a better team than South Africa, albeit by a country mile. At the start of 2004 South Africa were already two up in a four-Test series against West Indies that they eventually won 3-0. The one-day series that followed threatened to be one-sided when SA won the first two games and the third one was washed out, but West Indies bounced back with a win of their own. And when the Windies piled up 304 in the series decider at the Wanderers, the first signs of cracks seemed to be appearing ... only for Jacques Kallis to reel in the target with a masterful 139 in a thriller that South Africa won by four wickets with just two balls to spare. Kallis's innings took him past a total of 1000 runs in eight international matches.

Eight days later South Africa embarked for New Zealand, and all seemed well. But a 5-1 defeat in the one-day series proved otherwise, and they came perilously close to losing a Test series to New Zealand for the first time before rallying to draw it 1-1.

Jacques Kallis's batting form was one of the few positives for South Africa in 2004 © Getty Images

Things went from bad to worse when South Africa went to Sri Lanka in July. A gritty draw in the first Test at Galle was followed by humiliation in Colombo, where Sri Lanka won by 313 runs. Mahela Jayawardene made 237 at Galle, and Kumar Sangakkara piled up 232 in Colombo.

And then Sri Lanka cleaned up the one-day series 5-0: two weeks later in England Eric Simons's tenure as coach ended after South Africa were escorted out of the ICC Champions Trophy by West Indies.

Simons's successor, the combative Ray Jennings, seemed happy with a 1-0 defeat in the Test series in India, especially after one of his protégés, Andrew Hall, scored 163 in the drawn first Test. But South Africans demand winners, and Jennings hadn't proved himself to be one by the end of 2004. He didn't start 2005 too badly, though ...

Telford Vice is a South African sports-writer who works for the MWP Sport agency.