*Official* England in South Africa

[Jono]

Back home and back with Sky. Ahhh.

Amla seems genuinely humble guy with a great Indian/Yarp fusion accent, but wish he'd shave his 'tache an inch or two lower down. The bits that come above his upper lip look proper wispy and daft. Should take note of Mohammad Yousuf & Mushtaq Ahmed: could set your watch to their beards.

Lol!

 

[Uppercut]

I would tend to think AUS didn't bowl at him there since none of Hilfenhaus/Johnson/Siddle had/has the ability to make the ball leave the left-handers like how Morkel got him.

Technically the bowler than can possibly do it in the AUS side now Bollinger.

Johnson and Siddle are both capable of moving the ball away from the left-hander. I suppose the real problem is that they both bowled very badly.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Johnson and Siddle are both capable of moving the ball away from the left-hander. I suppose the real problem is that they both bowled very badly.

Yeah, I'd say that was the main issue too.

 

[aussie]

Johnson and Siddle are both capable of moving the ball away from the left-hander. I suppose the real problem is that they both bowled very badly.

Dont think Sidvicious generally bowled "very badly". He has his off spells yes, but i'd say he held his own. He didn't show that accuracy he displayed in South Africa though. But i have never seen him move the ball away from any left-hander to date in his career. The most he would likely get is some slight seam movement, but his strenght his ability to hit the pitch & be at the batsmen.

Johnson case is a bit more complicated. Him swinging the ball in his career depends solely on conditions. In South Africa he swung the ball into the right-handers & away from the left-handers, but he never has at any other stage. His strenght is also is ability to test batsmen physically with an aggressive back-of-a-lenght line.

In the Ashes he was never likely given to swing the ball given he struggled to get accustomed to the duke ball, which was the reason Johnson bowled poorly up until the 2nd innings of the 3rd test.

Although as he himself admitted, some personal did have some effect as well - Mitchell Johnson reveals Ashes demons | Cricket News | Australia v West Indies 2009/10 | Cricinfo.com

 

[Uppercut]

Dont think Sidvicious generally bowled "very badly". He has his off spells yes, but i'd say he held his own. He didn't show that accuracy he displayed in South Africa though. But i have never seen him move the ball away from any left-hander to date in his career.

Mate. Do you even watch cricket?

 

[aussie]

Mate. Do you even watch cricket?

I have seen all of Siddle's test live he doesn't move the ball i have never seen him move it away from left-handers. He himself said recently that he is hoping to add swing to his bowling armory.

Siddle looks to get in the swing | Cricket News | Australia v West Indies 2009/10 | Cricinfo.com

The only time Sidvicious had gotten any serious movement was when he got the ball to reverse swing in the Sydney test vs SA. But thats it.

 

[Athlai]

As I said earlier in the thread that's a problem with the current system, there is no allowance for how far the ball has to travel from the point of impact to the stumps.

Someone could be halfway down the track and as long as it fits with the usual lbw rules and is going on to hit a significant enough portion of the stumps then it will be given out on review (or similarly padding up to Murali miles outside off). On the other hand you could be hit on the back leg a foot in front of the stumps and if it's only half knocking the stump over it will be not out when the bowling side call for a review.

Actually in the Pak-NZ series they showed us a 4th option of the ball hitting over 2.5m from the stumps which was as bad as it not hitting inline.

 

[Briony]

I have seen all of Siddle's test live he doesn't move the ball i have never seen him move it away from left-handers. He himself said recently that he is hoping to add swing to his bowling armory.

Siddle looks to get in the swing | Cricket News | Australia v West Indies 2009/10 | Cricinfo.com

The only time Sidvicious had gotten any serious movement was when he got the ball to reverse swing in the Sydney test vs SA. But thats it.

That was an unusual pitch in that there were big cracks there from day one.

 

[superkingdave]

Shot Jimmeh, 100 on the cards today

 

[Briony]

Shot Jimmeh, 100 on the cards today

Fell a bit short of the ton, caught down the legside.

 

[GIMH]

Erm looking at the scoring rate do you think it's fair to say we're playing for the draw?

 

[GIMH]

balls

 

[King Pietersen]

Erm looking at the scoring rate do you think it's fair to say we're playing for the draw?

You'd think so. If they keep scoring at this rate it'd take 'em about 3 weeks to chase this down.

Quite worried about Trott, doesn't seem to know how to score against spin. Hopefully he'll get a few boundaries away and get into form.

Eugh, Cook gone now as well. Least he didn't get out edging behind from a ball just outside off-stump. Harris is not the buffet bowler he's been described as.

 

[NUFAN]

Really looking forward to watching KP bat. Cook needs a break in County Cricket.

 

[GIMH]

Cook will probably get the winter I reckon. Only thing is, it's fill your boots time in February so if we were going to make a change I'd want it to be during this series. Don't want anything being decided on the basis of Tests against Bangladesh, they are our first opponents in the summer as well. So if Cook was going to be dropped, I'd give him the Boxing Day Test and see what happens. Alas, we've no reserve opener so I expect him to get the winter, and fill his boots against Bangladesh.

 

[GIMH]

Can't remember the last time Pietersen scored a ton, feels unusual to type that. Kevin, please address this today.

 

[wpdavid]

Cook will probably get the winter I reckon. Only thing is, it's fill your boots time in February so if we were going to make a change I'd want it to be during this series. Don't want anything being decided on the basis of Tests against Bangladesh, they are our first opponents in the summer as well. So if Cook was going to be dropped, I'd give him the Boxing Day Test and see what happens. Alas, we've no reserve opener so I expect him to get the winter, and fill his boots against Bangladesh.

Is this the squad for the Bagladesh tour as well?

Obviously Cook will play for the rest of this series as our selectors thought it a good idea only to bring two openers. But if he keeps failing surely he'll need replacing before we go to Bang. Mid you, he's probably not enamoured with going into a test series in SA with nothing more than a couple of 2-day games against school kids behind him. More evidence of the brain-dead mentality that will continue to prevent us being serious contenders.

 

[GIMH]

Is this the squad for the Bagladesh tour as well?

Obviously Cook will play for the rest of this series as our selectors thought it a good idea only to bring two openers. But if he keeps failing surely he'll need replacing before we go to Bang. Mid you, he's probably not enamoured with going into a test series in SA with nothing more than a couple of 2-day games against school kids behind him. More evidence of the brain-dead mentality that will continue to prevent us being serious contenders.

I think we pick a different squad for the Bangladesh tour. What I meant was, that whichever way we go for that tour, it doesn't really tell us what we want to know. Say we persist with Cook for the Bangladesh games and he averages 300, does it really mean he's turned the corner? Or if we bring in a replacement opener, and they do well, so what, what does it really tell us?

If we're going to drop Cook it needs to be during this series if we want any questions at all answered. Let's not forget that Ian Bell was picked for the 2005 Ashes series on the back of exploits against Bangladesh which saw him have a Test average of 297.

 

[wpdavid]

I think we pick a different squad for the Bangladesh tour. What I meant was, that whichever way we go for that tour, it doesn't really tell us what we want to know. Say we persist with Cook for the Bangladesh games and he averages 300, does it really mean he's turned the corner? Or if we bring in a replacement opener, and they do well, so what, what does it really tell us?

If we're going to drop Cook it needs to be during this series if we want any questions at all answered. Let's not forget that Ian Bell was picked for the 2005 Ashes series on the back of exploits against Bangladesh which saw him have a Test average of 297.

Yeah, I have no problem with your logic. I just can't see them bringing in a replacement mid-series. The really dumb thing was not giving themselves any options for the duration of this tour. That and not giving the tests-only players any sort of chance to get their eye in.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah, agree on both counts. The Aussie selectors were hammered this summer for not bringing a reserve opener, and they wound up sticking Watson there (tbf he did well and they've stuck with him). Wondering if they'll do anything similar, let's face it our selectors do like to copy the Aussies from time to time, remember when Geraint Jones opened in ODIs?

Cook has scored one century this year, and if I recall correctly he waited about a year before scoring that one. And it was on a pitch where I'd back one of my two year old daughters to score at least fifty. I like Cook, I really do, but enough is enough.

Give him a break. It worked wonders when they did that with Strauss. It's just a case of who do you open with instead?