***Official*** Australia in South Africa

[Top_Cat]

'Panic' (or decent foresight) would be axing Boucher and Ntini, not making only two changes. Australia’s selectors were in some ways helped when they lost at home that the likes of Lee and Roy had external circumstances which meant the tough decisions didn’t have to be taken and Haydos jumped before he was pushed. Not as easy with the South Africans, the likes of Boucher and Ntini (maybe) won’t jump.

The South African selectors have only dropped a guy who can’t buy a run and bowler who couldn’t string a decent over together. It is hardly panic stations. Prince opening is dodgy, hasn’t done the job since he was an U19 batsman but similarly Katich got the Aussie gig after not opening domestically in either Aus or England.

I may or may not have been exaggerating purely to annoy Hingston.

Also, the difference between Prince and Kat is that Kat was coming off a summer where he broke the Australian record for runs in a season and on some tough pitches too. It really wouldn't have mattered where they batted him, he was going to score runs because his form was so good. Prince has no such recommendation.

 

[Prince EWS]

Katich opened for NSW in his record-breaking year IIRC..

Nah, he wasn't.

 

[Matt79]

'Panic' (or decent foresight) would be axing Boucher and Ntini

Don't get what Boucher's doing wrong, besides being of a certain age, to have people calling for his head. He's still extremely reliable behind the stumps and as a lower order bat from what I've seen.

Also, don't get the push to get rid of Ntini when the best replacement that could be found for Morne was Albertus Morkel! He's flawed, but much better than any alternatives, I'd have thought.

 

[Inferiority]

Boucher MUST retire, he has become a liability for SA in the past two seasons. It's time for Kuhn, who is 24 yrs old, to come in. He played an impressive innings in the tour game but he has been performing against the likes of SL as well.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Katich opened for NSW in his record-breaking year IIRC..

You don't RC.

 

[Matt79]

Boucher MUST retire, he has become a liability for SA in the past two seasons. It's time for Kuhn, who is 24 yrs old, to come in. He played an impressive innings in the tour game but he has been performing against the likes of SL as well.

Haven't noticed him being a liability at any stage during this series or the previous one, tbh.

 

[Pieface]

Just got back from eating large amounts of humble pie! Well done to our boys, I was one that had written them off for this tour. The Aussie selectors have suddenly gone from mugs to wizards thanks to the bat of Hughes.

Looking forward to see if SA strikes back in the final test or if the Aussies show some killer instinct and sweep the series. I don't think the English will have been glad to see this reverse in Aussie fortunes!

 

[Craig]

Well I will always be a fan of McKenzie for the rest of my days, but I'm not surprised he went. But could it be that he is not actually an opener anyway?

 

[Redbacks]

Ponting led the series victory the best way he knows how: with an 83 on a difficult day 1 track at strike rate that wouldn't appear rational. Credit to pup also.

Then a great opening stand in the 2nd test from Katman and The Prince + some good furtune that the 1 day the wicket was difficult to bat on, we put the balls in the right area and rolled SA cheaply.

 

[Briony]

I think Australia has the sort of killer instinct which SA lacks so I'm expecting us to give it a great shot and ultimately clean sweep the series. The changes SA has made may unsettle it though it had to change the team to eradicate the sort of complacency which was evident after their win over here. It's a big ask for Prince to captain and open in the third test. I'm pleased to see Morne Morkel dropped. He's a veritable pie chucker and it will be interesting to see if Albertus gets a run because while he's not that penetrative with the ball, he can be very handy with the bat. Parnell might be a bit young for inclusion at this stage.

Siddle may be rested and Geeves might get a go. McGain will probably replace McDonald who seems a luxury in the team in the way that Harris seems to be for the Proteas.

 

[TT Boy]

Don't get what Boucher's doing wrong, besides being of a certain age, to have people calling for his head. He's still extremely reliable behind the stumps and as a lower order bat from what I've seen.

Also, don't get the push to get rid of Ntini when the best replacement that could be found for Morne was Albertus Morkel! He's flawed, but much better than any alternatives, I'd have thought.

His keeping is fine but he isn’t contributing with the bat and in the past South African line-ups have had numbers 8's and 9's as good as Polly, Boje, Hall, Zulu but those days have gone. Australia has a wicket-keeper who isn’t particularly good behind the stumps but if he wasn’t scoring a run but keeping well, would he be in the side?

Boucher is a luxury when you don’t have a tail who can bat.

As for Ntini, he hasn’t contributed or be the experienced bowler South Africa has needed and wanted in the past two years. Tsotsobe is the obvious alternative to replace him but his injured but anyone who has watched a decent amount of cricket featuring South Africa in the past couple of years would know Ntini has not been at his best or particularly impressive. I think the performance of Makhaya especially at the Wanderers was pretty awful for a guy who has played that much test cricket.

 

[TT Boy]

I may or may not have been exaggerating purely to annoy Hingston.

Also, the difference between Prince and Kat is that Kat was coming off a summer where he broke the Australian record for runs in a season and on some tough pitches too. It really wouldn't have mattered where they batted him, he was going to score runs because his form was so good. Prince has no such recommendation.

A good 2008 with the bat in test cricket? And a great tour of England? Prince before injury was arguably South Africa's most inform batsman whilst his form domestically has been good recently and has played a few of his trademark innings (back-to-the-wall).

Asking him to open isn't great but making him captain for me is worst after his experiences in Sri Lanka, where he didn't like being captain one bit. Surprised Amla or AB were not asked.

 

[oldmancraigy]

Nel is Kolpak

Ntini is the one who should be concerned for he hasn’t got the ‘excuses’ that Morne has, Ntini really has been a big disappointment but anyone who has watched South Africa since the West Indian test series knows that he was getting carried and it became obvious during the England test series that he was nigh on finished. It will be interesting to see if South Africa does go down 3-0 whether they decide to leave Ntini stranded on 99 test caps…

Sorry - but please explain a coupla things!
What is Kolpak?

What are Morne's excuses? I thought the only real 'excuse' was that he's a genuinely untidy bowler? But I've only seen him bowl through the Aus summer and this series in SAf. I've been THRILLED every time he gets picked.

I did forget about Nel - whatever happened to him? He looked pretty good at test level as a wicket taker... why replace him with Morkel in the first place?

And on Ntini - they gave him free tests at the start of his career - I've got a feeling they'll give him one last for the hundred.

 

[Matt79]

But again, who replaces them? Is there an obvious heir being wasted in the style of a Gilchrist with Healy, or Haddin with Gilchrist? I admit I haven't seen him play recently besides the two series vs Aus., nor checked his stats on Statsguru yet - will do in a minute, but my impression is that he's been ok with the bat - has fought some pretty good rearguard actions recently. You don't want to go down the English route of giving the gloves to every keeper who can slog his way to a couple of centuries in FC, irrespective of whether that batting form was anything more than luck and more particularly whether or not he can actually keep wicket.

If Tsonbe was fit, he'd be in for Morne. So who then replaces Ntini?

 

[Matt79]

Sorry - but please explain a coupla things!
What is Kolpak?

What are Morne's excuses? I thought the only real 'excuse' was that he's a genuinely untidy bowler? But I've only seen him bowl through the Aus summer and this series in SAf. I've been THRILLED every time he gets picked.

I did forget about Nel - whatever happened to him? He looked pretty good at test level as a wicket taker... why replace him with Morkel in the first place?

And on Ntini - they gave him free tests at the start of his career - I've got a feeling they'll give him one last for the hundred.

Kolpak, as I understand it is a miracle of the EU, whereby in renouncing your citiZenship in favour of any European one you qualify for, you become counted as a local player in county cricket. It's a steady meal ticket if you're a good FC player but rules you out of national selection.

 

[Craig]

I think Australia has the sort of killer instinct which SA lacks so I'm expecting us to give it a great shot and ultimately clean sweep the series. The changes SA has made may unsettle it though it had to change the team to eradicate the sort of complacency which was evident after their win over here. It's a big ask for Prince to captain and open in the third test. I'm pleased to see Morne Morkel dropped. He's a veritable pie chucker and it will be interesting to see if Albertus gets a run because while he's not that penetrative with the ball, he can be very handy with the bat. Parnell might be a bit young for inclusion at this stage.

Siddle may be rested and Geeves might get a go. McGain will probably replace McDonald who seems a luxury in the team in the way that Harris seems to be for the Proteas.

No chance Siddle won't play unless he is injured. I know they give out random Test caps to spinners these days, but not to Aussie fast bowlers.

 

[Craig]

A good 2008 with the bat in test cricket? And a great tour of England? Prince before injury was arguably South Africa's most inform batsman whilst his form domestically has been good recently and has played a few of his trademark innings (back-to-the-wall).

Asking him to open isn't great but making him captain for me is worst after his experiences in Sri Lanka, where he didn't like being captain one bit. Surprised Amla or AB were not asked.

So in essence Prince is a charity/quota Test captain? Mind you Amla would also count.

 

[Jakester1288]

Siddle may be rested and Geeves might get a go. McGain will probably replace McDonald who seems a luxury in the team in the way that Harris seems to be for the Proteas.

McGain replacing McDonald? McDonald hasn't even secured his spot in the side, and hasn't exactly done a heck of a lot of bowling lately. Johnson should be rested and McGain brought in, and Siddle replaced by Bollinger. That way, there are the 3 of McDonald, McGain, Bollinger and Hilfenhaus fighting for the two open positions in the bowling attack (Johnson and Siddle are set in stone for the moment). Clark should take one of those spots when he is back, and McGain/Bollinger/Lee the other (McGain for spinning pitch, in form Lee > Bollinger, but with Lee returning Bollinger has to be ahead at the moment).

 

[TT Boy]

Sorry - but please explain a coupla things!
What is Kolpak?

What are Morne's excuses? I thought the only real 'excuse' was that he's a genuinely untidy bowler? But I've only seen him bowl through the Aus summer and this series in SAf. I've been THRILLED every time he gets picked.

I did forget about Nel - whatever happened to him? He looked pretty good at test level as a wicket taker... why replace him with Morkel in the first place?

And on Ntini - they gave him free tests at the start of his career - I've got a feeling they'll give him one last for the hundred.

Lack of experience? Played probably the same amount of first class (franchise) games as Siddle did before his test debut. Ntini doesn’t have such an excuse to fall back on, his been there, done that and got the t-shirt.

Nel was dropped for Morne because was even worse then Morne. Had a shocking time of it against the Windies and played on a first day greentop at Durban and still somehow managed to get smashed when the wicket was doing all kinds of silly stuff. Nel’s pace has also gone. He bowled in Australia some years back pretty well at lively pace but he struggles to get past 130kph now.

 

[Evermind]

Nel was dropped for Morne because was even worse then Morne. Had a shocking time of it against the Windies and played on a first day greentop at Durban and still somehow managed to get smashed when the wicket was doing all kinds of silly stuff. Nel’s pace has also gone. He bowled in Australia some years back pretty well at lively pace but he struggles to get past 130kph now.

How could a guy that size struggle to bowl past 130kph? Gunther is humongous.