***Official*** Australia in South Africa

[Prince EWS]

Said it before - Watson

Yeah should definitely be Harris and Watson for mine although it wouldn't be a disaster if it was Harris and Siddle.

 

[Burgey]

Oh, I can stop laughing.

Well it's pretty obvious it means the machine, for whatever reason, couldn't pick up the edge...

 

[SJS]

I don't doubt that mate, I'm just telling you what's happening. Players are products of their environments and upbringing.

Absolutely and thats what we need to also remember when we mock the lower batting averages of the earlier years . . .

 

[Spark]

the greatest 12* in history.

 

[uvelocity]

Now, who was predicting a 600 run lead

yeah idiot bloke. lost his money too.

needs sleep, based on mathematical progression saffers will make 30 here

 

[Pothas]

I don't doubt that, I'm just telling you what's happening. Players are products of their environments and upbringing. I don't disagree with you.

I'd also point out the law rule was far more favorable to batsmen in days of yore than now. On this pitch that would be crucial

Yeah not even to mention DRS, South Africa could still be batting if it was not in use.

Also seems that all the marginal LBW's have just been hitting, just one of those ridiculous days I think.

There have still been a couple of awful shots in there mind, no idea what Haddin was doing and Hussey's shot was poor on any wicket. Obviously they felt the need to hit out because of the state of the pitch but they were still poor shots.

 

[Ruckus]

All we need is one early wicket here, and it will be dominos.

 

[Xuhaib]

i did not watch SA bat but seriously Aus were rubbish,the worst batting displays I have seen since Pakistan's tour of England.

 

[intcricket]

Hope SA can successfully avoid a choke for once.

 

[ganeshran]

Well it's pretty obvious it means the machine, for whatever reason, couldn't pick up the edge...

Well that is obvious. I wanted to know the reason why it couldnt pick up the edge.

Someone else did post an explanation after that.

 

[Prince EWS]

I was exciting about seeing Rudolph bat in a Test today for the first time in ages. When he got out I certainly didn't envisage getting another chance before close...

 

[Burgey]

Absolutely and thats what we need to also remember when we mock the lower batting averages of the earlier years . . .

Preaching to the converted, SJS

 

[centurymaker]

OMG OMG
WHATs happened??

am i still dreaming?

 

[ganeshran]

Its a big ask, but South africa need to go through the day without losing a wicket.

 

[Phantom]

We can discuss this at length later but let me just say that the art of batting on difficult wickets is (or used to be) to move decisively front or back but not commit the bat till the last nano second and leave everything that was not going to hit the stumps PLUS the balls that were going towards the stumps not to be played with anything but the straightest of bats.

How many batsmen did we see doing that? Cant blame them for test match batting , specially test match batting on difficult wickets is not a practiced art any more. Gavaskar at Bangalore in his last test innings is the last I remember.

As for playing straight (t balls hitting the stumps) on a wicket with lateral movement and up and down bounce, we saw the great Sachin continue to play the straight balls on a very low bounce wicket to square leg and behind and again and again looking like an lbw candidate. Playing the same balls to the direction of mid on or straightish mid wicket would get the ball in the middle of the bat. And we are talking of THE modern day great.

This is not to underplay the difficulty of playing on a wicket with lateral movement but to highlight that you need a different type of batting technique to survive those type of conditions . . .

Hobbs and Jardine on a sticky for an hour or two won a match and a series once just by surviving remember . . . . There are rarely unplayable wickets, there are just wickets that are easy to bat on, difficult to bat on and very difficult to bat on and for the latter ones you need special technique.

Starting with the covering of the wickets and then with the doped wickets of the limited overs era we have just allowed that art to go out of the game. Its not new. Bradman decided in the 1920's and 1930's that such wickets are going to be so rare that he would rather mot change his technique while Hobbs whose career started 20 years ago and who played most of his cricket in wet England learnt and became a past master at it.

This is again not to criticise the modern day batsmen but to impress the point that those who batted in times of uncovered wickets had some special problems to over come.

Excellent post, good reading, thanks

 

[Prince EWS]

Well that is obvious. I wanted to know the reason why it couldnt pick up the edge.

Someone else did post an explanation after that.

The HotSpot cameras are fixed on a certain spot and because Lyon played such an odd shot, the cameras didn't pick it up properly.

 

[Prince EWS]

Rudolph actually got half forward there; progress.

 

[Ikki]

This is the most incredible match and I've missed it all studying at Uni. I want to watch the whole thing after exams. Rob...

 

[pup11]

I don't know whether it has already been said or not, but this pitch was just tailor made for Copeland and its just crazy he's not playing this game.

 

[ganeshran]

The HotSpot cameras are fixed on a certain spot and because Lyon played such an odd shot, the cameras didn't pick it up properly.

Thanks, PEWS