***Official*** South Africa In Australia

[pup11]

I think we Aussie fans don't need to worry much about Steyn because as far as i am concerned he won't have much of an impact on Aussie tracks, its guys like Ntini and Morkel who could cause more problems as they both are bowlers who generally tend to hit the deck hard and extract good pace and bounce of the deck, so if they get their lines right then they could prove to be handful, i can only see Steyn causing Aussies any real problems if he comes across overcast conditions or a similar pitch that we saw recently at the Gabba for the 1st test between the Black Caps and the Aussies.

 

[pup11]

Whats the News on the Perth pitch ..

Have Australia ever lost two consecutive test match at Perth ??

Well Ponting has been saying that the relaid WACA pitch is back to its fiery best and he therefore thinks having a 4 man pace attack for the 1st test would be good idea, but i seriously think they should play Krezja, the WACA pitch has been helping spinners in domestic cricket this season as there is plenty of bounce and pace for them to work with, so i hope since Krezja is fit now they should pick him and not make the mistake of going into the game with a one dimensional attack like they did last time around when they played here.

 

[Briony]

They're not using one of the relaid pitches and Moody and other WA people think that a spinner is needed for balance and variety.

SA is falling apart with injuries to Steyn, Harris and Smith. I also think Steyn will struggle on our pitches, he has to prove he's a very good bowler by performing well against us.

 

[stphn]

'Injuries' to Harris, Smith and Steyn are not new they have been nursing them before arriving in Aus. Harris injured his thumb playing Bangledesh but nothing serious. Steyn like most top fast bowlers gets the occasional hamstring/ankle etc. problems that must be managed so that it does not become serious. Smith has been playing with 'tennis elbow and elbow problems for the last 2 years' and still scoring good runs. Not playing them in some of the warm up games is purely a precautionary measure.

Neither team is going to go into this test without a spinner, unless something pretty dramatic happens, if either team do go in without a spinner it will be a stupid move as both teams have enough top quality fast bowlers already that another one probably won`t make a differrence especially if the pitch is 'juicy'.

The South African team or South Afrcan public is in no delusions how difficult this series is going to be but this is by far the best team we have sent to Australia in the last 20 yrs, they are in form and this gives us our best chance to beat Aus for the first time in Aus.

This will be a good one, regardless who wins in the end.

 

[four_or_six]

Even if they miss Steyn for a match or two, it's not as if they can't win. SA played pretty well in England even when Steyn was injured.

It may be that they're putting a lot of pressure on Steyn at the moment, but maybe it's also quite clever from SA in that it's taking a lot of pressure off the rest of their attack.

 

[Cricket_God]

Biggest myth that Steyn was "tonked" around in that match. His economy rate was 3.2 which was the 2nd best among all fast bowlers in that match. Also dont forget that it was a torrid road. The wickets he got were of Dhoni, Harbhajan, Kumble and RP Singh, three of whom are no mugs with the bat, and two of them are century makers. Also note Dhoni was beaten repeatedly by Steyn before he attempted a slog and was caught behind. The others simply had no clue dealing with his speed.



Another clever statistical jugglery. He started the collapse of Indian batting in the first innings by getting both Sehwag and Dravid (the in-form century makers) bowled, and was taken off after a very good spell. When he came back, he had only the tailenders to bowl to and dispatched them quickly. Is it his fault that the Indian batting was so abysmal in the first innings?



3/71 is no way ineffective. Don't forget 2 of them were Ganguly and Sehwag.

If you watched the match then you are fooling yourself ,steyn got hammered by toporder batsman specially shewag then he got wickets of tailenders who were slogging to get a big lead.and for economy rate ask dravid

.
he was taken off as he was bowling huge wides down legside,go watch the match
again.he got dravid,shewag but in second innings he was ineffective and got ganguly
who did not edge the ball and economy of 4 in second innings

in third test on dreadful pitch he was ineffective 3/71 on that pitch is ineffective when you consider his economy rate was 3.55

and fact is he is weak against lefthanders and australia has many of them.i can guarantee
he will have a poor series in australia.he does not get enough bounce as he is short and will struggle against top order batsman he can ball the odd magic delivery but he is too
inconsistent in line and length

 

[Cricket_God]

RP Singh was strictly mediocre. 13 wickets @ 39 with an economy rate of 4.3 should suffice.

if you watched the series then you could not have given that comment or may be you are
a stats man.he bowled well in perth and sydney and got injured in adelaide.he got top order wickets of hussey and hayden who were in great form.for a guy who is 22 and
without any experience fast bowler that is verygood ,your points are medicore i may say

 

[stphn]

If you watched the match then you are fooling yourself ,steyn got hammered by toporder batsman specially shewag then he got wickets of tailenders who were slogging to get a big lead.and for economy rate ask dravid

.
he was taken off as he was bowling huge wides down legside,go watch the match
again.he got dravid,shewag but in second innings he was ineffective and got ganguly
who did not edge the ball and economy of 4 in second innings

in third test on dreadful pitch he was ineffective 3/71 on that pitch is ineffective when you consider his economy rate was 3.55

and fact is he is weak against lefthanders and australia has many of them.i can guarantee
he will have a poor series in australia.he does not get enough bounce as he is short and will struggle against top order batsman he can ball the odd magic delivery but he is too
inconsistent in line and length

Steyn is a top quality bowler and any 'proof ' that states he is ordinary tends to look at a few spells or a single innings and I have never heard of a cricketer to always have a good day.
Fact he took the third spot in 2007 for most wickets at 45(behind Murli and Kumble), and is now the leading wicket taker in 2008. He has taken these wickets against varied opposition on varied pitches and being pretty consistent.
His strike rate is pretty good and economy not bad for a strike bowler. If his 'poor' bowling takes 3 wickets an innings I cant wait until he start bowling well, he might get some 5 wicket innings!

 

[Precambrian]

If you watched the match then you are fooling yourself ,steyn got hammered by toporder batsman specially shewag then he got wickets of tailenders who were slogging to get a big lead.and for economy rate ask dravid

No, Sehwag only dominated Steyn on a belter of a wicket. He scored 46 off 48 balls of Steyn, at a slightly lower SR than his match SR.

he was taken off as he was bowling huge wides down legside,go watch the match
again.he got dravid,shewag but in second innings he was ineffective and got ganguly
who did not edge the ball and economy of 4 in second innings

No, he bowled only 1 wide in his 4th over of the match which apparently got out of his hand. The legside wide was in his second spell, which was immediately followed by Dravid wicket. Ganguly's wicket might have been fortuitous, but there were many he beat the batsman yet unluckily didnt get a wicket. Pointless argument.

in third test on dreadful pitch he was ineffective 3/71 on that pitch is ineffective when you consider his economy rate was 3.55

Haha what? It was a wicket that had nothing in it for the pace bowlers, and yet Steyn got 3 wickets @ less than 24, which is a very good show considering the wicket. And don't be fooled by the economy rate, he was specifically asked to go after the batsman and was bound to go for runs. 3.5 is never horrible though.

and fact is he is weak against lefthanders and australia has many of them.i can guarantee
he will have a poor series in australia.he does not get enough bounce as he is short and will struggle against top order batsman he can ball the odd magic delivery but he is too
inconsistent in line and length

Another myth. Here's the breakup of Steyn's averages against LHBs and RHBs

Here are figures of Ishant Sharma, who had a good series against Aus in unhelpful conditions

There is nothing statistically suggesting that Steyn is bad against Left handers.

 

[Top_Cat]

if you watched the series then you could not have given that comment or may be you are
a stats man.he bowled well in perth and sydney and got injured in adelaide.he got top order wickets of hussey and hayden who were in great form.for a guy who is 22 and
without any experience fast bowler that is verygood ,your points are medicore i may say

Nah he really only bowled one good spell in Sydney and Perth each when the ball was new and swinging. They were very, very good spells but aside from them, was generally innocuous.

Seriously, you're using pretty much the same logic to over-rate Sharma's bowling and under-rate Steyn's. Not really fair.

 

[Matt79]

Cricket God getting pwned all over the shop...

 

[Precambrian]

if you watched the series then you could not have given that comment or may be you are
a stats man.he bowled well in perth and sydney and got injured in adelaide.he got top order wickets of hussey and hayden who were in great form.for a guy who is 22 and
without any experience fast bowler that is verygood ,your points are medicore i may say

Blah. RP was strictly mediocre in that series, stats or otherwise. I can only laugh at any suggestion that he was "good" in that series, because save for two innings, he went well above 4 per over in that series. Hardly the hallmark of a good pace bowler, and should be considered abysmal since you "reasoned" earlier that Steyn's 3.55 economy rate was dire.

 

[Uppercut]

Another myth. Here's the breakup of Steyn's averages against LHBs and RHBs

Here are figures of Ishant Sharma, who had a good series against Aus in unhelpful conditions

There is nothing statistically suggesting that Steyn is bad against Left handers.

Steyn's certainly better against the right-hander though, that much was clear in the series in England. He struggles to get the right line against southpaws, even if his bowling has the potential to be just as effective against them.

The funny thing is, for two straight months in England all we heard about this attack was that they were bowling too short for conditions. Now they're touring Australia and everyone's suggesting they'll bowl far too full to have any great success. Personally I'm waiting for them to bowl somewhere in between too full and too short and have a field day.

 

[iamdavid]

The South African seamers dont scare me all that much, although thats where most of the hype seems to be directed, in my eyes Ntini is past his best (ala Gillespie 2005), Morkel has obvious potential however so far he's displayed some Harmison-esque shortcomings and despite Steyn's excellent record there remains a perception that his methods won't be best suited to Australian conditions and batsman.

That said the bowler who Steyn most reminds me of over the past decade or so, Darren Gough, did have a handy record in Australia (41 wickets @27). Both bowled at a similar pace with a similar skiddy trajectory, and like Gough, Steyn's bowling is built around his outswinger, both also bowl an excellent yorker. However I think Gough was physically stronger and bowled a 'heavier ball' than Steyn which was very handy in adjusting to Aussie conditions.

If we do loose or draw this series then I suspect it will be the inability to bowl South Africa out twice which will bring us undone, rather than being trampled by Steyn, Morkel, etc.

 

[Easto241091]

Is it just me or is dale steyn one of the most over-rated cricketers there are.

 

[Precambrian]

Steyn's certainly better against the right-hander though, that much was clear in the series in England. He struggles to get the right line against southpaws, even if his bowling has the potential to be just as effective against them.

The funny thing is, for two straight months in England all we heard about this attack was that they were bowling too short for conditions. Now they're touring Australia and everyone's suggesting they'll bowl far too full to have any great success. Personally I'm waiting for them to bowl somewhere in between too full and too short and have a field day.

He is definitely "better" against RHBs. However his record against LHBs would make any bowler proud. His performances in England should be seen with a pinch of salt, because he was well far from his best there.

 

[Matt79]

Is it just me or is dale steyn one of the most over-rated cricketers there are.

Dude's the leading wicket taker this calender year, bowls faster than Brett Lee and gets the ball to move around - what's not to rate. It remains to be seen how he'll go against Australia, but he deserves the buzz he's getting at the moment.

 

[Precambrian]

The South African seamers dont scare me all that much, although thats where most of the hype seems to be directed, in my eyes Ntini is past his best (ala Gillespie 2005), Morkel has obvious potential however so far he's displayed some Harmison-esque shortcomings and despite Steyn's excellent record there remains a perception that his methods won't be best suited to Australian conditions and batsman.

That said the bowler who Steyn most reminds me of over the past decade or so, Darren Gough, did have a handy record in Australia (41 wickets @27). Both bowled at a similar pace with a similar skiddy trajectory, and like Gough, Steyn's bowling is built around his outswinger, both also bowl an excellent yorker. However I think Gough was physically stronger and bowled a 'heavier ball' than Steyn which was very handy in adjusting to Aussie conditions.

If we do loose or draw this series then I suspect it will be the inability to bowl South Africa out twice which will bring us undone, rather than being trampled by Steyn, Morkel, etc.

Steyn's pace >>>>>>>>>>> Gough.

 

[Top_Cat]

Steyn's pace >>>>>>>>>>> Gough.

Gough was regularly clocked going past 145km/h in the 1998 series, though. That puts him and Steyn on about equal footing pace-wise.

 

[iamdavid]

Gough was regularly clocked going past 145km/h in the 1998 series, though. That puts him and Steyn on about equal footing pace-wise.

This....

Steyn's pace is pretty over-stated imo, he's probably about the same pace as Lee is now (at 32)..mid 140's....he's never been in the same bracket as Lee/Shoaib were in about 2002.