***Official*** South Africa In Australia

[gettingbetter]

I'm calling that Amla will be MOTM, the Xmas festivities will have no effect on his performance.

 

[Craig]

I'm calling that Amla will be MOTM, the Xmas festivities will have no effect on his performance.

Crap. Then BI better start producing that new avatar...

 

[Evermind]

It's professional cricket mate. To hell with Siddle's feelings or needing to re-assure guys on the fringe of the team - we're down 1-0 so the team's interests, and us winning this Test, must come first. To me, that means Siddle should have missed out on this game. That doesn't mean he's condemned to the wilderness forever, but just that, in the interests of the team winning this Series, he misses out on this cut-throat match.

Agreed with the above, but the basic problem is that there's nobody else who has proven himself on the international stage to take Siddle's place. What makes everyone think Hilfenhaus or Bollinger will do any better?

 

[howardj]

Agreed with the above, but the basic problem is that there's nobody else who has proven himself on the international stage to take Siddle's place. What makes everyone think Hilfenhaus or Bollinger will do any better?

Fair enough comment. For mine, having observed him on TV, it's what Hilf can do with the ball. He's a genuine outswing bowler, much in the mould of Damien Flemming. Outswing is a much-lost art. By contrast, Siddle from what I've observed, doesn't do all that much in terms of moving the ball. Having said that, he's played his first two Tests on pretty benign tracks.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Hilf bowls outswing straight from the hand though. It never goes the other way, it's either straight or outswing from the hand. Any good batsman would be comfortable against him unless it's hooping sideways.

 

[NUFAN]

Lee Johnson Siddle Hauritz rank below South Africa, India, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lankas attacks.. Shocking for Australia.

 

[Redbacks]

Hope Siddle can have a good match on his home deck! Like people have said, we need to give bowlers more than 1 game to show their ability, thus I am happy for Siddle to get another chance. He just needs to bring his line 5-10cm closer to off-stump IMO

 

[Matt79]

Poor selection for mine. Should be Hilfy and either Watson or Krejza, rather than Siddle and Hauritz for mine.

 

[Top_Cat]

Hilf bowls outswing straight from the hand though. It never goes the other way, it's either straight or outswing from the hand. Any good batsman would be comfortable against him unless it's hooping sideways.

This. Has a tendency to drop short more frequently than most too so those away swingers quickly turn into short an wide cuttables.

As far as I'm concerned, Siddle wasn't that bad in Perth. Deserved another go.

 

[pasag]

Hope Siddle can have a good match on his home deck! Like people have said, we need to give bowlers more than 1 game to show their ability, thus I am happy for Siddle to get another chance. He just needs to bring his line 5-10cm closer to off-stump IMO

People should get time to settle in when they're the right selection, like Haddin for example. When it's the wrong selection to start with I don't see why they should be persisted with. Admit it was a mistake, rectify it and move on IMO. That said I hope he proves me wrong and takes a bag tomorrow.

 

[Craig]

People should get time to settle in when they're the right selection, like Haddin for example. When it's the wrong selection to start with I don't see why they should be persisted with. Admit it was a mistake, rectify it and move on IMO. That said I hope he proves me wrong and takes a bag tomorrow.

I want photos tomorrow.

 

[Langeveldt]

Here's a question related to statistics.

Despite the perceived weakness of the Aussie team going into the Boxing Day test, can you say that Australia will probably win anyway because of their winning streak on this ground?

I'm hoping for a draw.. Sounds like a funny thing to say, but it would be nice to shut Australia out of winning the series, and I don't think we can put in another performance like we did at the WACA..

 

[Evermind]

Lee Johnson Siddle Hauritz rank below South Africa, India, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lankas attacks.. Shocking for Australia.

I don't care about the "official" rankings - no way are they worse than those 3 up there.

 

[Evermind]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,24841577-23212,00.html

The standard of sports journalism in Australia generally seems abysmal?

 

[Langeveldt]

I don't care about the "official" rankings - no way are they worse than those 3 up there.

Sri Lanka with Mendis and Muralitharan, not as good as Australia's?

 

[grecian]

Sri Lanka with Mendis and Muralitharan, not as good as Australia's?

Yeah, agree with this, would rather face the Aussies at the moment then M&M, Malinga and Vaas, if I'm being perfectly honest.

New Zealand and Pakistan are a bit of a stretch, I'd admit though.

 

[Evermind]

Was being very generous.

But I think you're right - M+M = the best spinners in the world by a very large margin. Nobody else comes close.

So just Pakistan and NZ, then.

Well now that I look at the England attack: they don't really have a world beater other than Flintoff. Flintoff = Lee (roughly, going by overall career and not current form) and they certainly don't have a Johnson within their ranks.

 

[howardj]

Hope Siddle can have a good match on his home deck! Like people have said, we need to give bowlers more than 1 game to show their ability, thus I am happy for Siddle to get another chance. He just needs to bring his line 5-10cm closer to off-stump IMO

Personally, down 0-1, I'd rather put the best XI on the park; the XI that is most likely to give us a win in this cut-throat match.

 

[Uppercut]

Was being very generous.

But I think you're right - M+M = the best spinners in the world by a very large margin. Nobody else comes close.

So just Pakistan and NZ, then.

Well now that I look at the England attack: they don't really have a world beater other than Flintoff. Flintoff = Lee (roughly, going by overall career and not current form) and they certainly don't have a Johnson within their ranks.

Sidebottom>Johnson IMO.

 

[HMas]

Was being very generous.

But I think you're right - M+M = the best spinners in the world by a very large margin. Nobody else comes close.

So just Pakistan and NZ, then.

Asif
Gul
Akhtar
Kaneria/Ajmal

Lee
Johnson
Siddle
Hauritz