***Official*** Australia in South Africa

[Flem274*]

Bull****. Different country, different conditions.
We have Oram, and Oram>McDonald, hence we don't need him.

He's not good enough to make it as a batsman or a bowler alone, and we don't need another allrounder as we already have Vettori and Oram.

He doesn't fit in the side!

I'm sick of people saying **** like "he will fit into the NZ side easy".
It can never happen, so why speculate and rubbish another countries side?

****en stupid, get over yourselves.

100% agree.

He'd come close obv, because he's likely to be a solid cricketer, but a few things I'd like to point out:

Flynn was a one season wonder and the selectors are lucky he succceeded because it was a big risk.

Taylor is three times the batsman he was a couple of years ago.

McIntosh is quite likely to be rubbish.

How prior SA tour was rubbish (and now is again).

Hay and Fulton can feel very aggrieved indeed, and both are comfortably better batsmen then several incumbents.

McDonald would be Orams second though, because we have little allrounders that are any good. Anderson, Bracewell and Boam are all very young and Elliott is ODIs only material.

 

[Flem274*]

Exactly!

You can't have it both ways...

Either his batting is better than almost any of their batsmen, or his 29 boiwling average gets "seasonally adjusted" to become a lethal 22-23 in NZ standards...

AND: if the Oz pitches are such roads, then how good does his 29 first class bowling average look anyway?

I know - let's bag him out because he has red hair? There's got to be some crazy reason to hate the guy doesn't there?

He would actualy. Prior to this season (lots of roads this season surprisingly) the pitches have been nasty, sides bowled out for under 100 etc. When you're bowling to the Parlanes, Marshalls of this world it would be quite easy for him to do well. He'd run into problems when he hit a good batting line up (like CD) but he'd be sweet against rubbish batting like ND (bar Williamson and Watling).

Andre Adams averages like 24, there's a pointer to what our conditions are like.

 

[pup11]

Ah what the hell, someone's gotta say it.......

Ferguson for the Test side? Not for this tour obviously but he's gotta be in the minds of the selectors a bit. If he keeps his form up and the selectors continue their boycott of Victorian batsmen, he could slot in at 6. He doesn't get much of the ball for SA but the guy can bowl some handy meds too, tends to surprise guys with the pace he gets.

I've been quite used to bagging the crap out of him for years now but the truth is, he looks a lot better in defence these days. An absolute bolter but worth consideration.

Yeah his name would be their in the reckoning at some point of time, he has always "looked" great in terms of his talent even when he made those 10's, 20's and 30's earlier, but this season he seems to be batting with a lot of maturity and he is scoring big runs too.

I think selectors would try, North, McDonald, Symonds and Dussey/Hodge, before he is given a chance, so during that time he needs to make sure he keeps scoring runs for the Redbacks, and also if given a chance in the ODI's, do well there too, making it hard for the selectors to ignore him.

 

[HMas]

Raylor needs to bat at # 3 in ODIs....hes NZ best batter.

 

[popepouri]

Raylor

 

[jondavluc]

 

[mikeW]

Could be some injury worries for Aus, Mcdonald out of today Ford Ranger game with a hamstring strain.

 

[pup11]

Steyn eyes new opener Hughes

It was only a matter of time before the South Africans had something to say about Hughes, and its only more than fair enough, every newcomer has to go through this, Hughes would be tested to the hilt in the South African conditions by the Saffie bowlers, so he would have to battle really hard to come on top there.

I hope Hughes can have take some confidence from what a bloke like Duminy did in Australia, and have a similar impact over Australia' campaign over in South Africa.

 

[Athlai]

 

[Top_Cat]

Steyn eyes new opener Hughes

It was only a matter of time before the South Africans had something to say about Hughes, and its only more than fair enough, every newcomer has to go through this, Hughes would be tested to the hilt in the South African conditions by the Saffie bowlers, so he would have to battle really hard to come on top there.

I hope Hughes can have take some confidence from what a bloke like Duminy did in Australia, and have a similar impact over Australia' campaign over in South Africa.

Bearing in mind JP had a few years of international experience before playing his first Test.....

 

[pup11]

Bearing in mind JP had a few years of international experience before playing his first Test.....

Yeah he did, but it really was in Australia where he truly emerged into the kind of quality player he was always tipped to become.

 

[Craig]

Brilliant

 

[Precambrian]

Yeah he did, but it really was in Australia where he truly emerged into the kind of quality player he was always tipped to become.

He came good enough as an ODI player early in 2008, against WI.

As for tests, well he had to wait for his opportunity.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Yeah he did, but it really was in Australia where he truly emerged into the kind of quality player he was always tipped to become.

The point, as made above, is that the guy hasn't been fast-tracked as Hughes has been. The guy has been forced to wait in the wings, been slowly introduced into international cricket through ODIs, and was primed for his debut.

Big ask of Hughes to perform something similar when he has hardly played two full seasons of domestic cricket, and is only one season out of U/19s.

 

[pup11]

The point, as made above, is that the guy hasn't been fast-tracked as Hughes has been. The guy has been forced to wait in the wings, been slowly introduced into international cricket through ODIs, and was primed for his debut.

Big ask of Hughes to perform something similar when he has hardly played two full seasons of domestic cricket, and is only one season out of U/19s.

There is definitely merit in what you are saying, i am huge advocate of allowing players to adjust first in the lesser forms of international cricket (ODI' and T20') to get a feel of what international cricket is, and then introducing them on the test scene.

Though in Hughes' case everything has happened so quickly, he has been scoring amazing amount of runs this season, and the others openers have not been doing so (apart from Rogers), but had Jaques been fit and scoring runs, then he would have been Australia's prefered option over Hughes for such a big tour.

Rogers had a chance, but the selectors probably felt that Hughes was a better choice than him, and therefore Hughes founds himself in this position, it would be very tough for him to go to South Africa and face some very good bowlers, so tbh what i said was more in hope.

 

[GGG]

excellent

 

[pup11]

Upset Ponting wants more from his bowlers

I think going into the South African series, the lack of discipline and any planning in the bowling department is huge cause of concern, right through the Australian cricket summer almost every bowler made the mistake of bowling way too short most of the times, but it surprising that such an issue still hasn't been addressed.

 

[Precambrian]

Upset Ponting wants more from his bowlers

I think going into the South African series, the lack of discipline and any planning in the bowling department is huge cause of concern, right through the Australian cricket summer almost every bowler made the mistake of bowling way too short most of the times, but it surprising that such an issue still hasn't been addressed.

Just some articles picked form Cricinfo at Random (All during the recent Aus NZ summer)

Cricinfo - Upset Ponting wants more from his bowlers
Cricinfo - Ponting demands more responsibility
Cricinfo - Ponting says Australia need to prioritise
Cricinfo - 'We haven't been that bad' - Ponting
Cricinfo - 'Rebuilding will take a while' - Ponting
Cricinfo - Ponting says Australia will still be No. 1 next year
Cricinfo - Ponting predicts return to winning ways

Please gimme a break

 

[pup11]

Just some articles picked form Cricinfo at Random (All during the recent Aus NZ summer)

Cricinfo - Upset Ponting wants more from his bowlers
Cricinfo - Ponting demands more responsibility
Cricinfo - Ponting says Australia need to prioritise
Cricinfo - 'We haven't been that bad' - Ponting
Cricinfo - 'Rebuilding will take a while' - Ponting
Cricinfo - Ponting says Australia will still be No. 1 next year
Cricinfo - Ponting predicts return to winning ways

Please gimme a break

He is the captain of Australia and in tough times he (like any other capatain) is expected to face the heat and give answers to all the Aussie fans and the media, so that's not the problem, the issue is him lambasting his inexperienced bowling line-up publicly, and displaying his frustrations and displeasure towards them, the way he did in yesterday's game.

There are problems with the bowling group, but it would be much better if he, and his group of bowlers sit down with Cooley and discuss the issues and try to work on them, which obviously doesn't seem to be happening, because the Australian bowlers are repeating the same basic mistakes over and over again.

 

[Precambrian]

He is the captain of Australia and in tough times he (like any other capatain) is expected to face the heat and give answers to all the Aussie fans and the media, so that's not the problem, the issue is him lambasting his inexperienced bowling line-up publicly, and displaying his frustrations and displeasure towards them, the way he did in yesterday's game.

There are problems with the bowling group, but it would be much better if he, and his group of bowlers sit down with Cooley and discuss the issues and try to work on them, which obviously doesn't seem to be happening, because the Australian bowlers are repeating the same basic mistakes over and over again.

All right points. I am not miffed at Ponting, but Cricinfo's dire habit of starting new articles for literally the same thing again and again.