***Official*** Australia in South Africa

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Haha love how the South African comm's have been rubbishing him all innings. Imagine if he was South African, all they would talk about is his amazing start to his career and his massive scoring throughout age cricket etc

 

[four_or_six]

Like an episode of "Dancing With The Stars" watching these two at the crease.

Katich doing reality TV dancing, now there's a thought.

 

[four_or_six]

Yeah just said it to Gelman on MSN a while back. Would be very close if not.

He's very good though, his technique deceives. Same thing with Katich, the way he bats draws you to bowl at him in areas that benefit him.

Yeah, I'm definitely interested to see how he goes, with all the hype I've heard on here.

 

[Top_Cat]

Hughes looking a fair bit like Slater in playing the short ones i.e very uncomfortable. Wouldn't be surprised if he gets a lot more in those areas. The big footwork can get you in trouble if you don't play the pull consistently.

EDIT: Ooo, big touch on that one from Hughes... I see Smith has picked up on the rib balls too.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

You can't imagine Hughes would've faced anything like Morkel before. If Morkel keeps bowling well Hughes will go eventually.

Looking really gloomy as well, wouldn't make Morkel easy to see.

 

[Top_Cat]

Haha, Hughes very impulsive like Slats too. Touched up with a few fairly sadistic short ones from Morkel, gloves one down the leg side then slashes just short of 3rd man.

 

[Uppercut]

Hughes looking a fair bit like Slater in playing the short ones i.e very uncomfortable. Wouldn't be surprised if he gets a lot more in those areas. The big footwork can get you in trouble if you don't play the pull consistently.

EDIT: Ooo, big touch on that one from Hughes... I see Smith has picked up on the rib balls too.

Wouldn't have overturned it anyway though, since the referral system here is obviously just a blind man in a dark room saying he can't be sure of anything so will defer to the guy on the field.

 

[Top_Cat]

You can't imagine Hughes would've faced anything like Morkel before. If Morkel keeps bowling well Hughes will go eventually.

Looking really gloomy as well, wouldn't make Morkel easy to see.

Yeah that's true, the gloom is probably making the whole situation look worse for Hughes.

 

[four_or_six]

Sky/Virgin and their bloody red button again, can't believe they're not going to show this match after tea.

 

[oitoitoi]

Can anyone explain why the odds on an Aussie victory are drifting? Is the threat of rain really that bad? With 2 days and a session left very hard to see SA drawing this.

 

[pup11]

That was one hell of a tough period for the young Prince, but the thing is he is still there, and if he can go on and make some runs here, then that would give him a lot of confidence and sense of belonging.

 

[silentstriker]

How much is that non-referrel going to hurt?

 

[Briony]

How much is that non-referrel going to hurt?

Probably not as much as Smith grassing that chance on day one. Things seem to go badly for SA after that. He's had as bad a match as you can for a skipper. Maybe he should have had that elbow op and got himself sorted. He may have run out of chances with dodging that injury but the problem is when the captain is stuffing up the team morale goes down.

 

[pasag]

How much is that non-referrel going to hurt?

Similar to what I was just saying to Smith on MSN, not a lot in the context of the match (276 ahead with a batting line up that goes down till 9), but could be pretty bad for SA in the context of the series if Hughes goes on to get heaps of confidence from a score here.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Personally would look to push it along here. 2 and a few days to play, 276 ahead, all wickets standing. Wouldn't settle for much less than 4 per over if I was Ponting.

Hughes entitled to a little grace in this respect as every run is precious for him now, I guess.

 

[Redbacks]

Wouldn't have overturned it anyway though, since the referral system here is obviously just a blind man in a dark room saying he can't be sure of anything so will defer to the guy on the field.

 

[Redbacks]

I say we attempt to make their 1st innings score of 220 and set them 466 to win!

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Katich, gah.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

What a nut from Morkel. Seamed a foot.

 

[Uppercut]

Pretty decent nut again. The quality of cricket here, even from an underperforming SA, is miiiiiles ahead of what's going on in the West Indies.