Australia tour of South Africa |OT| Battle of the Batsmen

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Great score to wake up to. Especially reading all the comments they were showing on the Cricinfo commentary. A heck of a lot of gloating for having a side at 4/100.
 
legend166 said:
Great score to wake up to. Especially reading all the comments they were showing on the Cricinfo commentary. A heck of a lot of gloating for having a side at 4/100.
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yep, even in here people were expecting the Aussie collapse after the third wicket.

I watched the first two sessions live and then the third session on recording this morning.

Smithy is fast becoming a world class batsman. His judgement has improved so much and his eye is so good it makes up for his technique.

If he scores a hundred, it will be four first innings hundreds in the last seven matches, spanning three different countries and the two best opposition attacks he could face in test cricket. This is why I rate him so highly.

If he ever has any self doubt, all he has to do is look back at this period in his career.

Moxx19 said:
For mine, he is closer to Steve Waugh than KP. Tough gritty character coming out and pouncing on tired bowlers, steadying the ship and mounting a counterattack and batting with confidence in the tail. Gonna wait and see how he plays this innings before I keep talking him up though.
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The reason why I think he is more like KP than anyone else is his awesome hand eye coordination making up for a suposed "bad" technique, the upright position he plays the ball in, the crunching drives and love of working the ball on the onside based on length and not line (pulling balls from outside offstump). He naturally scores runs quickly.

That doesnt mean that he doesnt have any grit or determination. KP had that as well if you saw him bat in India.
 
chicko1983 said:
Sometimes I feel like the only Australian supporter who is optimistic.
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You and me both. Keeps me from commenting more often than not, I just can't be bothered with negative nancies. Not enough minutes in my day for them.

On the other hand, I've taken up playing indoor cricket Wednesday nights and didn't keep up with last nights' play.

Read all the cricinfo commentary this morning over breakfast though. Well done to Marsh, hopefully he kicks on tonight - I feel like it's been awhile since someone made a genuinely big century - or double - for Australia (probably selective memory though). And Smithy, my what a period of cricket he is enjoying! So happy for him.

Looks like the pitch is very tepid once the ball softens up a little, however even the second new ball was made to look the size of a watermelon by the two set batsmen. Hopefully our bowlers are paying attention at the length SA were bowling, which was too short way too often, and make suitable adjustments themselves.
 
I haven't seen much of Marsh batting so I dont have anything to say on him, other than its great to see him get a good score first go back in.

I was disappointed the top order didnt fire again, but given we still had Smith in I was less worried about it than I was six months ago. Especially with Haddin still to come. Its obvious that persistently sticking with these players is paying dividends, but it still makes me wonder what could have been if they stuck with Hughes and Khawaja.

Also, no surprise today to see Ponting confirm it was Cricket Australia/BCCI and racists that drove Andrew Symmonds out of the game.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-...australia-ricky-ponting/5257112?section=sport
 
chicko1983 said:
yep, even in here people were expecting the Aussie collapse after the third wicket.

I watched the first two sessions live and then the third session on recording this morning.

Smithy is fast becoming a world class batsman. His judgement has improved so much and his eye is so good it makes up for his technique.

If he scores a hundred, it will be four first innings hundreds in the last seven matches, spanning three different countries and the two best opposition attacks he could face in test cricket. This is why I rate him so highly.

If he ever has any self doubt, all he has to do is look back at this period in his career.



The reason why I think he is more like KP than anyone else is his awesome hand eye coordination making up for a suposed "bad" technique, the upright position he plays the ball in, the crunching drives and love of working the ball on the onside based on length and not line (pulling balls from outside offstump). He naturally scores runs quickly.

That doesnt mean that he doesnt have any grit or determination. KP had that as well if you saw him bat in India.
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I just managed to hang on to the end. The whole time I was expecting Smith to hit out to try to bring up his ton before the close of play and probably get out. The fact that he relaxed and very visibly played every ball like the last without letting the milestone hang over him was the most impressive part. He's definitely maturing into someone comfortable in test cricket.
 
bomma_man said:
Well smarsh certainly proved us wrong
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I thought he was a talented guy who didn't deserve to be in the team.

He has hit a great score, but he did that before too and then went on to do absolutely nothing.

Jury is still out on this one for me. Lots of people do well as soon as they come back in. Keeping it up is always the problem.
 
First time seeing marsh in tests. but it seems like most of his troubles has been that he seems to do pretty shit in the sub-continent when he first started out.
 
Antiwhippy said:
First time seeing marsh in tests. but it seems like most of his troubles has been that he seems to do pretty shit in the sub-continent when he first started out.
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Actually he did well there (sri-lanka), scoring a 100 in his first match and then an 80 odd (141, 81, 18).

Before this innings he has only played in Australia (0, 3, 0, 11, 3, 0) and South Africa (44, 0).
 
Haha yeah, looking at the scorecards now (didn't watch that series) the margins in which australia is winning at is ridiculous. :lol

India really can't win outside of the SC.
 
I remember reading a long time ago that Shaun Marsh is one of the most striking feast and famine players. Good form followed by atrocious form. There was never any doubt that he could play the good innings, but the consistency is and should remain the key question.
 
Hi guys! Long time no see.

Just came to give mad props to Marsh. I was one of his ardent doubters and while he has a long way to go, he really made a statement yesterday. Good on him.

Also had major doubts that Steve Smith would ever have a test temperament but he has made me a believer over the summer. The image of composure yesterday.

Baffled as to why Graeme Smith sent us in, especially with Steyn under the weather.
 
This wicket is really starting to misbehave. Wonder if it'll flatten though when australia comes out for a bowl.
 
Bit of a missed opportunity for Australia here. With South Africa a bowler down they've managed to see off the front line bowlers and are now getting out to the 2nd string. They should still be aiming for 400 plus here.
 
I find it incredible that the laws of cricket even have stipulations on when a bowler can bowl depending on what kind of injury he gets.
 
And gone, great innings! Hopefully he isn't hit by a dry spell like the last one.

Antiwhippy said:
I find it incredible that the laws of cricket even have stipulations on when a bowler can bowl depending on what kind of injury he gets.
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I suppose it's an effort to clearly define injuries caused during the game, obvious collisions etc... and those maybe brought into the game or used as an excuse to go on and off the field. It does kind of assume anyone with a soft tissue injury/strain and the like is faking it.
 
Nicked from another forum:

Average 1st innings score at Supersport Park is 303
Average 2nd innings score at Supersport Park is 345
Average 3rd innings score at Supersport Park is 250
Average 4th innings score at Supersport Park is 151
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400 here would be fantastic.
 
reptilescorpio said:
Seems odd and a little alarming that the second innings average is nearly 50 more than the 1st lol
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I don't really know enough about the ground but it seems as though there is something for the bowlers early on, first session or two, possibly justifying Smith's decision and it then hardens on day 2 and 3. Then like most grounds it falls apart as it gets older.

A lot of humidity in the area, maybe SA and the groundkeeper like a little green at the beginning?
 
Pretty disappointing not to get 400 up from their position this morning. But the pitch is showing a decent amount of varying bounce.
 
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