**Official** South Africa in England 2012

[Teja.]

The bowling statistics

Philander - 12 wickets @ 23.66
Steyn - 15 wickets @ 29.2
Finn - 10 wickets @ 32.2
Morkel - 11 wickets @ 34.5
Broad - 11 wickets @ 39.7
Anderson - 9 wickets @ 40.6
Tahir - 8 wickets @ 47.25
Swann - 4 wickets @ 77.00
KP - 4 wickets @ 22.75

Hey GIMH, Philander came close to beating KP by the end.

The contrast that England has found with it's two best bowlers is amazing. With Steyn being a Waqar style aggressive, explosive bowler and Philander being the ridiculously accurate bloke who concedes 7 runs in an over and can go the next 10 overs conceding 8. I reckon they have a good case for being No. 1 and 2 in the world.

 

[Spikey]

it should just be noted, as a couple of people have mentioned it, that the article written about the great man V, was written by Aakash Chopra.....

 

[andruid]

*Insert off colour joke about S. Africa swallowing* That out of the system Well played S.A. How long your reign shall last.

 

[Jono]

"we miss u bouch" on smiths shirt

Great stuff

 

[Prince EWS]

He's being a modest classy man. He knows damn well he's the best bastman since bradman

Maybe it was a cheeky way of suggesting that he was not only better than de Villiers and Smith but better than Kallis as well. "Not the second best batsman in my team" still leaves #1 open. WAC.

 

[Jono]

So happy Smith mentioned the atrocities of the miners. Classy stuff

 

[Spikey]

Philander's cricinfo picture is pretty awesome:

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Well played SA, deserve the win and number 1 status. Even if we had fluked the win here it wouldn't have kept us on top for long as we will lose in India anyway.

 

[social]

Holy **** a positive post from Social

s

Always positive when the soap dodgers get beaten

 

[Spikey]

you know, i'm really starting to like the mace

 

[Prince EWS]

you know, i'm really starting to like the mace

Think it suits some people more than others. Looked pretty obscene when Strauss was handed it but it suits Smith more.

Maybe there's a hidden truth somewhere in that.

 

[SeamUp]

Well deserved 2-0 win boys ! Could have been sealed at Headingley but for a quality innings by KP.

Word on Matt Prior, he really is quality and the best keeper/batsman in the world by miles and he played a quality innings today. Hope he pushes for the ODI/T20 team soon.

Now for the u19 boys to do us proud later !

 

[Scaly piscine]

Sounds like we're stuck with the ginormous millstone that is Andrew Strauss for a while yet.

Wonderful.

 

[Heboric]

Well deserved 2-0 win boys ! Could have been sealed at Headingley but for a quality innings by KP.

Word on Matt Prior, he really is quality and the best keeper/batsman in the world by miles and he played a quality innings today. Hope he pushes for the ODI/T20 team soon.

Now for the u19 boys to do us proud later !

Yes Prior is the best.

I wonder what will happen regarding Proteas wicket keeping situation in Australia. Keep AB at keeper for the tour and put Thami in for our home series

 

[Dissector]

I think it would be foolish to continue with ABDV as keeper. It seems to have affected his batting; he looked awfully high-strung and tentative in his last innings. And Rudolph is not doing much with the bat anyway; might as well get a keeper/batsman in.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yes Prior is the best.

I wonder what will happen regarding Proteas wicket keeping situation in Australia. Keep AB at keeper for the tour and put Thami in for our home series

I was pretty surprised that de Villiers kept for longer than just the first Test here. Worked out well though.

 

[Valer]

I think it would be foolish to continue with ABDV as keeper. It seems to have affected his batting; he looked awfully high-strung and tentative in his last innings. And Rudolph is not doing much with the bat anyway; might as well get a keeper/batsman in.

awta IIRC he averages ~20 less with the gloves, so the replacement only has to average ~15.

 

[SeamUp]

Yes Prior is the best.

I wonder what will happen regarding Proteas wicket keeping situation in Australia. Keep AB at keeper for the tour and put Thami in for our home series

It is going to be a tough situation. There is no doubting Thami is a good gloveman which is the most important but runs are also important. There may be the case that Vern,Morne and Dale are scoring runs but I would still stick with Rudolph and Duminy at 6 and 7 for the Aus series.

Big series for Rudolph though with JP showing he is good enough & I have always been a JP backer...back to Rudolph ,straight bowling keeps him quiet and the English bowlers are more accurate than the Aussies...I think the Aussies may give him more width where he is very good.

Give Tsolekile a go against New Zealand where it will allow Quinton De Kock to step up for the Highveld Lions.

Also wouldn't write-off Heino Kuhn, Dane Vilas & Daryn Smit.

 

[Garson007]

Get Kuhn in for the tests. De Kock for the ODIs.

 

[Heboric]

I think it would be foolish to continue with ABDV as keeper. It seems to have affected his batting; he looked awfully high-strung and tentative in his last innings. And Rudolph is not doing much with the bat anyway; might as well get a keeper/batsman in.

I was pretty surprised that de Villiers kept for longer than just the first Test here. Worked out well though.

The thing is Thami is a terrible batsmen and that Australian series is very important. Plus we want to guard against the curse of being number one - dont want to be whitewashed lol