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[Grug]

Respect Smith, always a gracious gentlemen and sportsman. Will be missed.

Another warrior. A real man's cricketer.

Will never forget him coming out to face Mitchell Johnson with a shattered thumb a few years ago, just to try and salvage a draw. Guts.

 

[master15]

Well Australia have come a long way. Before this series, I honestly thought the Saffers with their batsmen would dull our bowlers and our weak fragile batting would be exposed.

There were times both occurred but never with the consistency or frequency I expected. Plus the likes of Warner, Smith and Johnson continued their excellent form, which helped plug our holes.

What happens next? I'm far from convinced by Doolan at 3, and like someone alluded to last page Harris may not be the same bowler post-surgery (I hope so but we can't guarantee this) which would leave a big hole.

Another warrior. A real man's cricketer.

Will never forget him coming out to face Mitchell Johnson with a shattered thumb a few years ago, just to try and salvage a draw. Guts.

Yeah, I also have that moment seared in my memory.

 

[Grug]

Calmed down now. Think I can sleep.

I will leave with one comment... Test Cricket is magic.

 

[Moxx19]

I cannot sleep.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

God damn they did it, awesome stuff.

 

[hamchan]

Heck yeah awesome result to wake up to. Looks like it was an intense thriller with how close it came. Test cricket is great.

Respect to the South Africans for being a great team and fighting it out. They almost pulled it off once again, pretty impressive spirit.

Respect for Australia. I remember around a year to two years ago when Mickey Arthur was coach and everyone considered the team absolutely terrible, with a chance of losing back to back Ashes. Their turnaround has been amazing to watch. From such embarrassments like sacking their players because they didn't do their homework, to winning the Ashes 5-0 and now beating the no.1 test team in the world on their home soil, absolutely fantastic now.

Respect for Graeme Smith. Great Captain.

Respect to Ryan Harris. I hope he can retain his awesomeness after surgery. Managing to bowl his quality bowling, with his messed up knee, all 5 Ashes tests and the 3 tests here, what a guy.

Will remember this series for a while.

 

[Yagharek]

Wow, what a finish. Tense final session I wish I couldhave stayed up for.

 

[artist]

Smith, what a tough muthafucka. Good on him he didnt linger around selfishly like Kallis.

 

[elfinke]

Got it! Aussies win!!!!!

We'll done boys, I never lost faith!

No 1 test team ranking coming in April! Deserved for beating the no1 team at home!

Whoa!!!!!!

Yup, wonderful evening/morning of cricket. Never once doubted our high chances and likelihood of winning (except during one or two of Lyon's spells. Nah, I'm kidding, Harris and Johnson needed those breaks).

Damn near woke the neighbourhood up when Harris came through. The edge of my couch is now at a funny angle, too...

Lol (again) at the negative nancies and pessimistic Pete's on the prior page: Some of you guys are hard work to watch cricket alongside with but I'm glad you're here nonetheless. If we were watching the Socceroos this morning, well, that'd be a different matter (lol 4-3)!

 

[Antiwhippy]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/south-africa-v-australia-2013-14/content/story/725735.html

Christ, listening to what is going to be done to his knee I was surprised that he managed to bowl 24 overs. What a guy.

 

[Moxx19]

I also thoroughly enjoyed Pollock and Jackman applauding and cheering every dot ball (the crowd too) and whinging about bouncing it, only to end in up in tears right at the very end. Now I don't have to listen to any walking South African propaganda machine. That commentary was cringe worthy stuff. The constant references to Harris's body letting him down only for him to be the match winner was absolutely glorious.

What more can you say about Harris? What a champion of a bloke, cleaned up South Africa on one leg. Sorry Tugga Waugh step aside, Harris is the single toughest cricketer I've ever seen. This would be the perfect stage for him to bow out, but he STILL wants more at 34 and that knee of his.

What a player, what a champion.

 

[A More Normal Bird]

Crazy finish. Went to bed but listened to the final session on the radio. Almost nodded off at a few points but was brought back pretty quickly whenever something happened, or almost happened. It seems in contrast to the TV coverage the South Africans on ABC Grandstand were very unbiased, was great to listen to as the tension began to mount in the final overs. Two topics of conversation before the final over were how much the fast bowlers of both sides had given, with Steyn still holding out injured and Harris and Johnson both looking spent after monumental efforts, and the under-use of the yorker in the modern game. Cue Rhino.

I think Harris deserved Man of the Match for sheer grit alone, seeing as Warner got Man of the Series, but a century in each innings is obviously an amazing feat.

 

[reptilescorpio]

Harris you beauty! What an ending. Great series of test cricket. Would love for it to continue but I'm sure Harris is glad it's done lol

The doc was dry needling me, I think I had 30-odd mills [of fluid] drained out of my knee yesterday as well which wasn't great. But it's all worth it now. To get through that and come out on top, it's worth all that pain.

It was ridiculously sore, but a couple of Panadeine Fortes helped, and dulled the pain a bit. If the captain tells you to bowl you need to bowl, especially Test matches like that, that's our job to win Test matches, but when you've got bowlers at the other end like Mitch, if you say no then it would have been embarrassing.

Champion.

Just every bit as much as Steyn who still went out to bat in both innings despite his injury, surviving 27 balls in the first innings and 44 incredibly important ones in the second to almost stockade SAfrica to the draw. Gave 100% for his team and even accepted the ludicrous call to bowl 3 overs in Australia's second innings despite a damaged right hammy. Class act who left it all on the field.

Great series (even though I missed the second test when SAfrica took it to the Aussies) against 2 great sides to decide who is the best in the world. Really impressed with how consistent Australia were, expected more collapses and more wayward bowling. They were pretty worn out towards the end but they have a good rest ahead of them now.

Hope we get through the next period without Harris okay. He really was the difference in the 3rd test. Not sure we would have got the win with another bowler in his shoes. Hope he recovers brilliantly!

Any idea what Clarke was going off at the umpire about earlier? Been weird.

Ball tampering gets a lot of attention to avoid it. I didn't notice too many short throws though.

During the 74th over of the innings, the umpires Dar and Kumar Dhamasena called over touring captain Michael Clarke and inspected the ball while appearing to offer a caution against more bounce throws. The wicketkeeper Brad Haddin had taken to waiting for the ball to bounce until he took returns from the field, often allowing it to bounce on the pitch itself.

The umpires were up me about a few things. That was one of them," he said. "I always believed that if you're in the ring you should be throwing the ball on the full because it's a 20 metre throw. If the guys are on the boundary you can accept that some guys can't throw it that far.

Whatever criticism we cop for that I'm more than happy to cop but I think our players understand there is a line and we know not to overstep that. We were asked by the umpires to make sure we were throwing the ball on the full and I think we accepted that and listened to that.

Also

Tensions over the two teams' care of the ball has simmered since the second Test in Port Elizabeth, after which the opener David Warner openly questioned the legality of South Africa's handling, particularly AB de Villiers' use of his wicketkeeping gloves to rub the ball. The umpires were seen talking to de Villiers on day one of the Newlands match and gesturing about his use of the wicketkeeping gloves on the ball.

Faf du Plessis added another chapter to the affair when he expressed surprise on the third evening that Australia managed to gain sharp reverse swing within 30 overs, having not achieved any deviation through the air at St George's Park. Having heard of this allegation, the tourists made their displeasure known to du Plessis on the final day, being picked up doing so on the stump microphones.

Last year, du Plessis was fined 50% of his match fee during the second Test against Pakistan in Dubai after being captured on camera rubbing the ball near the zipper of his trouser pocket.

Aww Dale and Michael just had a bit of a cuddle.

Yeah sounds like he was pretty disapointed in something he said to Steyn, good to see him own up.

A player who I have the utmost respect for, who tries to kill me every time bat, who batted exceptionally well, and I was out of line. If any player on either team, it was me who was out of line. Let's just say he [Steyn] got me at a bad time. We just had a decision that didn't go our way that I would have liked to have seen go our way but that's the game.

And certainly as captain of your country you've got to be able to cop that on the chin. Something was said to one of my team mates. I seem to make this mistake a few times but I jumped in after him. It doesn't matter what happened, what I said was something out of character and I apologise for that. I shouldn't have said what I said.

Also nice work bowling at the stumps lol.

Yep! lol

I feel like all those years growning up with McGrath has ruined my ability to watch test bowling that isn't aimed at top of off lol

 

[Jables Swan]

Great work Aussies. The bowling attack looks great with Johnson, Harris and Patto. Bring in Bird whenever Harris is not playing and we might be close to having the best bowling line up.

Well done to Warner for his 2 tons. While he is a knob and needs to control his mouth, his cricket has really improved during the Ashes and this series.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Btw, looking at kimber's pieces it looks like he's a big fan of Harris.

Can't blame him. Who isn't at this point? The opposition probably loves him too because he at least only uses his bowling to do the talking.

 

[bobnowhere]

I fell fast asleep on the lounge about tea time and woke up about 4 hours later!

I hope we see Harris again, but I'm not convinced.

 

[elfinke]

Btw, looking at kimber's pieces it looks like he's a big fan of Harris.

Can't blame him. Who isn't at this point? The opposition probably loves him too because he at least only uses his bowling to do the talking.

Yep, it's full of romantic hyperbole, but damn if it isn't a fun thing to read:

In the years to come it will read 24.3 overs, 15 maidens, 32 runs and four wickets. But unless it was written in synovial fluid, tears, bone, tendon and blood, no one will ever understand how good Ryan Harris was today. Whatever is in that knee, I hope they remove it, and get Ryan Harris fit again. Then I hope they show the removed item in a museum and schoolkids are bussed in to see it for years to come.

:lol

 

[chicko1983]

I hope we see Harris again, but I'm not convinced.

I wouldnt put money on Harris ever recovering from his surgery and being picked again. I would love it to happen but realistically if he undergoes a full knee reconstruction, which I think it may be along with removal of floating bone.

Starc had bone removed I think and it was a 6mth recovery. He is much younger than Harris.

So Harris wont play during winter, but Cummins and Starc and Bird will be in England. If these guys progress as hoped and stay injury free over the winter, they will be in much better shape than Harris at the start of the next shield season.

I will be very hard for Harris to come back and bowl as well as he has been in the last 6mths or so.

I reckon for the home series against Pakistan and India, we will be blooding Cummins, Starc and Bird (and the rest) ahead of Harris.

This is for the longer term benefit of Australia, so that is why I think it will be very hard for Harris to come back.

As I said, I hope he does but I dont think it is likely.

Respect Smith, always a gracious gentlemen and sportsman. Will be missed.

Yeah, as much as I enjoyed every time MJ was running in and making Smith flinch, I do have respect for how good a player Smith is. And he does seem like a good bloke.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

Man, when they start barking when Faf gets out. Amazing.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Yeah, I don't get why some people are getting their panties twisted over it. Faf called them a pack of dogs and so they barked back. Fucking hilarious.

 

[Grug]

http://www.icc-cricket.com/team-rankings/test

Number 2 with a bullet.

 

[Grug]

First T20 hit and giggle abandoned due to rain.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

Fun match this morning, had to take an early morning curry dump and checked to see what was going on. Ended up being a 7/7 game. Some big hitting and a fun chase by Aus, won it in the last over with a few 6's.