A year later and fickle South African fans, quick to question the selection of Vernon Philander, are still eating their words. A tough bunch to please, Proteas supporters will be quick to criticise the arrival of Rory Kleinveldt too.
South Africa's Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander, Australian Michael Clarke and Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara have been nominated for the ICC Cricketer of the Year award.
There was a lot of cricket on the go this month, with October's XI pretty representative of the successful teams. No surpise, then, that India stars line the ranks.
Michael Clarke leads a pack lined with Aussies and void of Englishmen, while Pakistan enjoy a find in Aizaz Cheema and Tino Mawoyo represents the minnows.
Graeme Smith makes up the numbers at the top of the knock, Darren Bravo impresses through the middle order, Ravichandran turns the tables on Harbhajan Singh and Pat Cummins and Vernon Philander announce their arrival on the Test stage.
South Africans fans, ever a fickle bunch, were always going to demand the world of Imran Tahir. While the expectations remain, more can be asked of him, writes Jonhenry Wilson.
As in the the competition itself, our Indian Premier League Team of the Tournament is limited to just four international players. The rest is left to local Indian talent. Given the restraints and the need for balance, here are our finest XI.
While Australian-born batsmen turning out for Holland and South African-bred bowlers playing for Scotland are pretty commonplace in cricket these days, the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier on the go in the United Arab Emirates poses a few other cosmopolitan combinations.
This is certainly one XI you don't want to crack the nod for, but Phil Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Ricky Ponting, as many as four Indians and a trio of Pakistanis did more than enough - or nothing at all - to garner this infamy.
24 men made the penultimate cut, but there could only be 11 in the end. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting 2011's finest performers - four Englishmen, three Indians, an Australian, West Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan make up the illustrious numbers.
A two-hour passage at Newlands was, indeed, spectacular. There was simply no hiding. The seamers were lethal and the prolific use of the Decision Review System certainly aided the wealth of wickets.
There are two sides to every story, yes, but until we've heard Lonwabo Tsotsobe's version - other than his juvenile Twitter rant - of what went wrong at Essex, it's open gates on the South African fast bowler.
Really? Another India versus Sri Lanka ODI. We've seen it all before - Asia Cups, tri-series in Dambulla, meaningless bilateral series in the backwaters of India - 30 ODIs since June 2008, in fact.
