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***Official*** Australia in South Africa

Cevno

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
TumTum said:
241/4 to 266 ao. Massive collapse. But SA never disappoint. We just have to capitalize this time.
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This.

SA never fail to give opportunities to the opponent.

Australia would really have to show a improvement in their collective batting from recent times though and not just rely on one batsman playing a special innings to get them a decent score.
 
Top_Cat

Top_Cat

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Just shows to go ya that the bowling unit, no matter how many times it's been tinkered with/rotated, has been generally good over the past couple of years. Bowling SA out for < 300 on that deck is a top effort. Even before the collapse, they had the Saffers at least working for their runs (the half-volleys dished up to Kallis notwithstanding).

Not surprised Cummins didn't disgrace himself. Really good to see a young bloke picked and look like he belongs straight away, will bowl worse than he did today and take a bag. One can only hope it sparks Johnson to new heights because there's a new attack leader on his six; Johnson can really only exist in this team as the nominated gun so if he gets bumped from that perch, you'd think he wouldn't really survive selection as a support bowler.....

Seems pointless to even mention the batting, tbh. It's been clear for a while that they're the ****ing problem, even with trying every possible bowler and bowling combination short of picking a bolter or two from Futures and changing all of the back-room staff. Again, Australia are ahead in the game so some runs from Hughes, Ponting, Khawaja would be nice. Would love some from Haddin too because the first step on the road out of a team for a 'keeper is for people to start going after your batting. What follows fairly quickly if no runs are forthcoming is they go after your keeping.
 
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heh, pretty funny of Heals to say that considering his early days. Lack of decent alternatives saved him for a long time. That Zoehrer, his only serious competition, was a total **** helped too.....
 
Ruckus

Ruckus

International Captain
Pretty good result that. Easily the most impressive thing about Cummins was that he really didn't bowl much loose stuff and keep things tight. He still has a fair bit of work to do though before he will become genuinely threatening opening bowler imo. Having pace isn't enough in itself, like Pollock was saying earlier, he probably needs to work a bit on adjusting the seam position so he can get more movement. I really hope he doesn't fall into the trap of so many fast bowlers to focus on just bowling quick as he can as well, because with his jolting action it could mean a very interrupted/short career. Hopefully he will try and emulate someone like Steyn.

As far as the whole bowling effort is concerned though, it really wasn't that impressive considering most of the wickets were poor shots. On other day, we might not have been so fortunate. Was really more a case of poor batting rather than good bowling imo. Will be a different pitch when SA come out to bowl I think, so it could still be quite a challenge.
 
Cabinet96

Cabinet96

Hall of Fame Member
I think the main difference between England and South Africa at the moment, apart from the depth of the bowling, is the lower order batting. When AB and Prince were together I always had the feeling SA could collapse. If England were in the same position with Bell and Morgan together I feel it would be less likely. AB and Prince are probably just as good as Bell and Morgan but Boucher and the SA tail are nothing compared to Prior, Bresnan, Broad, Swann and Anderson. All of the first four are capable of Test centuries and 2 average above 40. If England had lost a couple of wickets at 200 odd for 4 you would still back them to get near 400, if not above.
 
Howe_zat

Howe_zat

Audio File
Exaggeration there re: 200/6 -> 400 - I'd be bloody impressed with that. But a fair point nonetheless. In the Lord's Test against Sri Lanka I remember us going from 200/5 to about 430 and it didn't really seem out of the ordinary.

With South Africa it's bothered them for a while now, in all formats. It's one of the reasons Philander has been brought in, so it'd be pretty disappointing if he didn't deliver on that front sooner or later. Time does seem to be sneaking up a bit on Mark Boucher too.
 
Cabinet96

Cabinet96

Hall of Fame Member
Howe_zat said:
Exaggeration there re: 200/6 -> 400 - I'd be bloody impressed with that. But a fair point nonetheless. In the Lord's Test against Sri Lanka I remember us going from 200/5 to about 430 and it didn't really seem out of the ordinary.

With South Africa it's bothered them for a while now, in all formats. It's one of the reasons Philander has been brought in, so it'd be pretty disappointing if he didn't deliver on that front sooner or later. Time does seem to be sneaking up a bit on Mark Boucher too.
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Yeah probably an exaggeration. They had the problem in the world cup. A gun top 4 but Botha was arguably a place to high at number 7.
 
TumTum

TumTum

Banned
DeusEx said:
Pretty good result that. Easily the most impressive thing about Cummins was that he really didn't bowl much loose stuff and keep things tight. He still has a fair bit of work to do though before he will become genuinely threatening opening bowler imo. Having pace isn't enough in itself, like Pollock was saying earlier, he probably needs to work a bit on adjusting the seam position so he can get more movement. I really hope he doesn't fall into the trap of so many fast bowlers to focus on just bowling quick as he can as well, because with his jolting action it could mean a very interrupted/short career. Hopefully he will try and emulate someone like Steyn.
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Yes just what I came here to post. He has good control for his pace and at such a young age. Lee in these conditions would have been smacked all over the place. He needs to find a way to get some movement then he would be a handful. But he does look like a clever boy so it's a good sign.

Just realized Hazlewood is back bowling again, hope it isn't too long before he makes his Test debut and we could have a good young attack here.
 
howardj

howardj

International Coach
Reluctant to praise Australia after the turnaround in the 1st Test.

Would be nice if they showed some spine tonight.
 
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