I agree but why should his performance in the 47 ao be discounted
I assume Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen were telling you this over afternoon tea?
Certainly not discounting it, but it needs to be put into context.I agree but why should his performance in the 47 ao be discounted
Its been a while since ive looked forward to a series this much as a neutral... two best bowling attacks in AGES coming up against each other. Steyn will be fired up not because of Philander stealing the limelight but also coz some of the English dont rate him as highly as others because of his relatively average record there.
South Africa's batting a bit of a worry for me... on paper theyre damn good, but the middle order is really brittle. Kallis is in a similar position as Steyn imo, as he has failed time and again in England, which is the only really big hole in his record. He's the key obviously... if he fails again, i can see the middle order getting ripped apart regularly.
My point is how can you say Broad is the equal of Steyn or Philander when one year ago, people were seriously considering dropping him. Yeah, since then he's performed well against India and Pakistan (both of whom are rubbish against seam anyways) on helpful tracks and all of a sudden he's the equal of Steyn? Steyn is the number 1 Test bowler and Philander averages 14 per wicket. I just don't know how anyone can say that Anderson and Broad are as good as that.LOL your making out to be some huge injustice because people rate the English pair over your two. I'd suggest you're being a bit one eyed, if you think the English attack the past year haven't been the equal if not better than SA, each to their own I guess.
By the way prepare to be disappointed this summer.
How is a middle order consisting of Amla, Kallis, de Villiers and Rudolph brittle? Kallis has a poor record in England unquestionably but I just take that as a good sign; a cricketer of his class must be due some big scores in England. He's scored runs in seaming and swinging conditions everywhere else so no real reason why he shouldn't be able to this time. Even if he does fail for some reason, how exactly will the middle order be "ripped apart"? You talk about them as if these are a bunch of village cricketers. Amla and de Villiers are easily the two best Test batsmen going around and Rudolph has plenty of experience in English conditions. Don't worry, they'll be more than fine.
Rudolph and duminy big question marks for me... and they ARE brittle. In the last couple of years, they have inexplicably collapsed against bowling attacks you would expect them to do well against, like Sri Lanka. As i said, on paper they are great.. i dont think many will disagree with my opinion that they havent done nearly as well as they should.
Why is this idea thrown around so much? There's just not that much truth to it. For the past few years SA have had a very solid team with respect to both batting and bowling, but haven't had anything that extraordinary at all. The period in which SA are seen to have been 'underperforming' is from about 2009 onwards, but guess what, their bowling attack, up until very recently with the introduction of Philander, just hasn't been that amazing. Mostly it's been Steyn, Morkel, Harris and Ntini (who was garbage in his last year of 2009 anyway) with the occasional unspectacular fill-in bowler (e.g. Ttotsobe, McLaren etc.). Steyn has been the only superstar bowler in their ranks for the past few years, and that's not enough to ensure the team will dominate all of the time. The SA side now is the first time in a few years it has actually been a genuinely good one. So I expect relatively more dominance.
2nd Test: South Africa v Sri Lanka at Durban, Dec 26-29, 2011 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo 3/103 --> 6/118, 2/97 ---> 6/133
We were not nearly as good on paper previous decade than we are now. Bowling was strong but batting was pretty much Kallis and Smith holding us together (Kirsten was around for the first few years too I guess).
LOL you think Broad bowled on helpful tracks in UAE, even in England against India 2 of the sets were played on pretty flat pitches. Really surprised you've tried to put him down like this considering who Philander has got his wickets against and where.LegendaryProtea;2830523[B said:
Did I say he was a top drawer? He's better than Broad for me.
Well, personally, I think there's a sizeable gap between the two.
