***Official*** South Africa In Australia

[Zinzan]

Oz have Clarke, Symonds,Lee and Tait injured

Marsh hasnt score a run all year

Warner has never played a fc match

Harris has never been in contention until this month

This is basically an experimental Australian team and Smith or no Smith, if SA dont win it will be embarassing for them

Your underestimating the impact of losing an established captain particularly when he's also the best player. You only need to cast your mind back 2 years ago when Hussey had to stand for Ponting and lead the side to NZ for 3 ODI's, in which they lost 3-0. Then Ponting returned to lead them to WC victory just a couple of months later.

 

[Briony]

Your underestimating the impact of losing an established captain particularly when he's also the best player. You only need to cast your mind back 2 years ago when Hussey had to stand for Ponting and lead the side to NZ for 3 ODI's, in which they lost 3-0. Then Ponting returned to lead them to WC victory just a couple of months later.

I agree that Punter is vital. If SA was given the choice of nominating a batsman to be eliminated from the oz squad I'm sure they'd opt for him because of his batting, captaincy and the intangibles that come with the latter.

 

[Zinzan]

Anyone else think that Botha is an odd choice for captain?

I still would have gone for Boucher who often seems to set the field anyway.

Can't believe how poor a fielding team the South Africans are. I always thought fielding was their forte.

Boucher, Kallis or even AB before Botha IMO, he's not even a certainty to make the side let alone be skipper

 

[Zinzan]

I agree that Punter is vital. If SA was given the choice of nominating a batsman to be eliminated from the oz squad I'm sure they'd opt for him because of his batting, captaincy and the intangibles that come with the latter.

Ind33d, and you can bet your bottom dollar the aussie's would choose Smith if they were given the choice (assuming he wasn't injured of course)

 

[social]

Ind33d, and you can bet your bottom dollar the aussie's would choose Smith if they were given the choice (assuming he wasn't injured of course)

Disagree

Smith's a good player but he's no Ponting or Tendulkar

IMO, I'd pick Steyn an bowlers win matches not captains

 

[social]

Anyway, Oz need a stack more runs as they may struggle to defend 280 with this bowling lineup

 

[howardj]

Where's Chappelli been so far this ODI series?

 

[Briony]

Disagree

Smith's a good player but he's no Ponting or Tendulkar

IMO, I'd pick Steyn an bowlers win matches not captains

Would be a toss-up, great bowlers win test matches but one day cricket's a bit different.

Punter is certainly a much better batsman than Smith though.

 

[pasag]

Might be a bigger list, but Smith's irreplaceable as the side's leader, not to mention his being one of the top 2-3 ODI batsman in the world and clearly their best oneday player.

Symonds isn't Aust's best batsman, he bats far too low to be compared to Ponting for mine & Lee's not as good a oneday bowler as Bracken & he and Tait are much & a muchness IMO

Symonds is our best one-day batsmen, you can really see how much he's missed in the middle overs here and in Melbourne where we've stuttered. Lee's also a better one-day bowler than Bracken, though perhaps not recently.

Anyways, poor partnership from the Husseys.

 

[Zinzan]

Disagree

Smith's a good player but he's no Ponting or Tendulkar

IMO, I'd pick Steyn an bowlers win matches not captains

Disagree entirely, Have you checked Smith's one-day record in the last couple of years?
Cricinfo Statsguru - GC Smith - One-Day Internationals - Batting analysis

He's at least been the equal of Ponting or Tendulkar in recent times (not to mention he's above both on the ICC rankings for what thats worth.)

Whereas Steyn's not even really established as a one-day bowler, averaging over 30 with an economy rate well over 5s

 

[Zinzan]

Where's Chappelli been so far this ODI series?

Not sure, but I'm missing he and Warnie tbh, better than this JB character, boring as bat****e for mine

 

[Briony]

Disagree entirely, Have you checked Smith's one-day record in the last couple of years?
Cricinfo Statsguru - GC Smith - One-Day Internationals - Batting analysis

He's at least been the equal of Ponting or Tendulkar in recent times (not to mention he's above both on the ICC rankings for what thats worth.)

Whereas Steyn's not even really established as a one-day bowler, averaging over 30 with an economy rate well over 5s

I was talking about Smith in general as a batsman. In ODIs, on song he's just as important as Punter because when he opens and does well he usually scores very quickly and sets the tone.

White is a very up and down sort of player.

Steyn is just establishing himself in one day cricket.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Only Ponting being injured would be equivalent to Smith - Captain & best batsman

Of course...3-4 out couldn't possibly equal Smith. Didn't you just call Symonds one of the better ODI players of recent times a page or so ago? He's out too if you haven't noticed.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Not sure I agree with that because SA has for eg. McKenzie who's clearly not a ODI player in the squad and played the hopeless van Jaarsveld so they have to be in some sort of rebuilding mode after losing the likes of Hall, Langeveldt, Kemp and Pollock. Apart from a couple of veterans, they're a young team with guys like the Morkels, Steyn and Duminy not having played a lot of one day cricket.

Seems to me that both teams are below strength and belie the ICC rankings. We've rested Johnson and have a few injuries but it remains to be seen how well Lee and Symonds come back anyway.

Yes, none of those guys would be in the team on ability

 

[pasag]

Nah, reckon Smith is the most valuable ODI batsman in the world, transforms the team from average to very good when he's there. Don't rate Steyn as an ODI bowler either for the most part.

Lol at Nicholas to Greig.

 

[social]

Disagree entirely, Have you checked Smith's one-day record in the last couple of years?
Cricinfo Statsguru - GC Smith - One-Day Internationals - Batting analysis

He's at least been the equal of Ponting or Tendulkar in recent times (not to mention he's above both on the ICC rankings for what thats worth.)

Whereas Steyn's not even really established as a one-day bowler, averaging over 30 with an economy rate well over 5s

Have you seen the standard of bowling recently?

Aside from Murali and Bracken in ODIs, the best bowlers are no more than promising (because they simply havent played enough) and it's no surprise to see Smith's stats improve with the decline/retirement/injury of some of the better bowlers

As I said, he's good but not great

BTW, Steyn is in the process of bowling SA to victory here

 

[Son Of Coco]

Your underestimating the impact of losing an established captain particularly when he's also the best player. You only need to cast your mind back 2 years ago when Hussey had to stand for Ponting and lead the side to NZ for 3 ODI's, in which they lost 3-0. Then Ponting returned to lead them to WC victory just a couple of months later.

Was that when most of the senior players didn't tour? I don't think Hussey's captaincy was the major issue, lack of players like Gilchrist etc may have been though. No offence, but you're talking a little bit of rubbish at the moment.

 

[Nate]

With only three real bowling options, Australia have probably lost this for mine. Going to need to bowl and field out of their skins.

 

[popepouri]

. McKenzie who's clearly not a ODI player

Averages 39 with that bat in ODIs with 2 hundreds. He certainly can play the shorter game.

 

[social]

With only three real bowling options, Australia have probably lost this for mine. Going to need to bowl and field out of their skins.

Yep, never say never, but on paper this is one of Oz's worst bowling lineups in the last 15 years or so