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

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A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
I agree that he has been pretty good. He's a very nagging sort of bowler.

I really hope rain wouldn't be a big factor in the game. It was so nice during the ashes where the weather wasn't a factor at all.
 
L

legend166

Member
Love this from the Cricinfo commentator on Day 1, commenting on some feedback.

"'I don't know why everyone is so quick to write off the ashes and call England 'paper tiger tourists'. This is the same England that won in India is it not? Australia took them apart with a very fine performance. Credit where credit is due." They played some decent cricket (particularly the bowlers), Dale. But England were 50 shades of awful"


dat decent cricket
 
C

chicko1983

Member
Great day, scary thing for Sth Africa is that siddle and Harris still to find their rhythm as well...

Yeah I am going to blast the cricinfo comments today.

Sth Africa better bowlers, philander is the best, steyn is an all time great, Mitch Johnson has only had one series, the Aussie batsmen are fragile and will be no match for the sa bowlers, England were crap not that Australia were good.

There is still a long, long way to go but I am not surprised by the way this game has gone so far.

Some of my comments directly after the ashes in the ashes thread:

chicko1983 said:
The Sth African top 6:
Smith - very good but limited when he can't score runs off the pads or straight. If the Aussies are disciplined and keep it outside off, he will struggle. If Johnson plays well, he will struggle.
Peterson - nothing special
Amla - very good but apart from Perth 2012, has struggled to make scores against Aussies
De cock( will come in for Kallis): in form youngster so fearless like joe root was. Ways to upset, like joe root.
De villiers - about to have hand surgery, will be underdone for the first test, no guarantee the surgery will go well and he will come back from it to keep as well.
Duminy - can be good but inconsistent, test average in the low 30s
Du plessis - good against Australia

So depending on de villi ears hand surgery, they may need a keeper instead of duminy or du plessis. Also ab will not be 100% for the first test.

And steyn and morkel may have some injury concerns they are not letting on as much. Steyn took 10 for 320 in the two tests against India and his pace was well done. Only in one spell did I see him hit 145km/hr, but mainly it was high 130s or low 140s. Morkel almost missed the second test due to injury but Sth Africa have no decent back up so risked him with his injury.

The Sth African team is very good, but at the moment we are playing very well as well.

The plan when batting will be to see off philander and leave well, like the Indians did in the first test. Then attack tahir and the fourth seamer (who they don't know who is at the moment) to wear out morkel and steyn.

I'm confident we can match and beat them. I watched them recently against india and the quality of cricket in those tests was well below what we saw in the Ashes by the Australians.
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So the obvious plan of seeing off philli, leaving well and wearing is being implemented....

chicko1983 said:
Don't think the current South African team is as good as the one that came out here and won last year (only just).

They are underdone, Kallis is out, and steyn is down on pace. I think the Aussies will win in Sth Africa based on what I've seen of the two teams in the last couple of weeks.
Click to expand...

Originally Posted by vcassano1
They have got a little bit worse and Amla's form is less impressive than it has been, but Steyn looked back in that last test vs. India. I'd be worried.
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Steyn bowling at Indians in Sth Africa will always look ok.

However, he barely touched 145km/h in either match and was more like 135-142km/hr consistently.

He is not the man he once was and I think he is injured. Look at his speeds in the second innings of the second test - 133, 135, 143km/hr were the wickets. He was severely reducing his speed.

A good sign a bowler is suffering back problems but playing through it is the reduction in average speed. Dont be surprised if Steyn sits out one or two of these tests.

Sth Africa will also be coming off a longer break than the Aussies which wont suit them.

I am not worried, in fact, I am confident of the Aussies success in SA.
Click to expand...

I could go on.

What I am really annoyed about is that I dint put any money on it this time...
 
J

Jables Swan

Member
Great work Johnson. Good to see the Ashes series wasn't a one off. Didn't get to see any of the play unfortunately but love the look of the scorecard. Keep it up. Put them to the sword.
 
M

mrpookles

Member
I put a token bet on Australia before the series, as well as a 2-1 result in our favour. Looking good.*





*I've just ensured a collapse in the 2nd innings.
 
B

bobnowhere

Member
Fatastic innings from AB, would not have begrudged him his century. Get the last one out, hit a quick 200 or so and give Johnson a crack with 1/2 hour to go at the end of the day.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Hope harris manages to find his rhythm as the series goes on. Though it's always going to be hard to stand out when johnson is on fire.
 
C

chicko1983

Member
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
Didn't he go for scans yesterday.
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Yeah he went for scans but came back and bowled again.

But now mclaren bowled I front of him and he gingerly ran for the ball and didn't through it back but underamrmed it. Devilliers yelled at him, held his hand out as if saying "what tha?!" And then turned to smith.

They are not happy with him for something and he is possibly injured.
 
C

chicko1983

Member
Antiwhippy said:
Lol at some salty south african commentators calling australia's attack bodyline.
Click to expand...

They didn't mind morkels bouncer to Rogers or the saffas short pitched plan to clarkey.....very salty if they were saying that it was body line.

Apparently Harris worked steyn over pretty good.

Also steyn off the ground injured....this is his niggle finally blowing up into a full blown injury. I said above that I thought he was carrying injuries worse than he was making out and that I wouldn't be surprised if he missed one or two matches this series. Hope they give an update soon.
 
C

chicko1983

Member
Antiwhippy said:
What's with all of the SA misfields? Nearly england-esque in that regard.
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It's starts when you are tired from being out in the field for so long with a short rest to bat....same as what happened to England due to Aussies dominating them.

The cracks are showing in the sa gameplan, Petersons first over had six men on the boundary!

South African commentators are trying to justify the field settings and Michael holding is just telling them they are wrong, pollock said that it could be a warm up over for Peterson and holding laughed at him!

Smith rivaling cook for worst captain award....
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
chicko1983 said:
It's starts when you are tired from being out in the field for so long with a short rest to bat....same as what happened to England due to Aussies dominating them.
Click to expand...

12th man should have gotten that catch though. But yeah, you're definitely right.

Another drop! How many lives have warner had already!
 
B

bobnowhere

Member
chicko1983 said:
Dolan two fours in two balls, both very nice shots.

C'mon Aussies!
Click to expand...

They're drifting a bit onto his legs giving him opportunity. They were doing a good job of tempting him outside of off but they seem to have given up on that and the game is slowly going away from SA. Smith definitely comes from the Cook school of captaincy, rely on your stars to win the game and sit back defending.
 
C

chicko1983

Member
This is now the highest second wicket partnership ever at centurion.
In the first innings smith and marsh had the highest fifth wicket partnership ever at centurion.

What happened to this no 1 bowling attack in the world?
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Steyn seems clearly unwell throughout the whole match. Philander has bowled pretty ordinarily, though he isn't helped by the fielding.
 
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