SA 2013 vs SA 1970 vs Aus 2006

[KungFu_Kallis]

Since SA are currently dominating the Test cricket world and haven't lost a single Test match for over 18 months, I thought it would be a good time to imagine 2 hypothetical match ups to measure them by - firstly against Ali Bacher's previously recognised great South African side circa 1970. Although that side were sadly to be excluded from 1970 onwards due to a stand against Apartheid they did show a great demonstration of what they were capable of by whitewashing Bill Lawry's Australian side who had just come from a victorious tour of India. And some of the players did go on to be recognised as greats despite their Test exclusion.

The other match up would be against the other dominating side of the past 20 years, who are well documented and of course dominated for a lot longer at this stage - Australia. I've chosen the last line of this generation as it's the most recent, and they ended of course with that glorious Ashes whitewash.

Would be interesting comparing personnel in each position, playing styles, remembering great performances and theorising who might prevail in each match up - remembering that in some cases it's hard to rate players still playing as opposed to retired players who have done more in the final cut. Having said that it would be an interesting exercise creating a composite SA XI or composite modern SA/AUs XI to argue where the players would stand relative to each other and what the selection criteria would be in this case.

I purposely haven't included the great Windies side in this analysis because they are acknowledged as the greatest and I am seeing which modern side might come next.

I'll start off by selecting the players who I believe were most integral to each of these sides in the respective eras.


SA 2013:

*GC Smith
AN Petersen
HM Amla
JH Kallis
+AB De Villiers
F du Plessis
JP Duminy
RJ Peterson
VD Philander
DW Steyn
M Morkel


SA 1970:

BA Richards
TL Goddard
*A Bacher
RG Pollock
EJ Barlow
BL Irvine
HR Lance
+DT Lindsay
MJ Procter
PM Pollock
AJ Traicos


Aus c2006:

JL Langer
ML Hayden
*RT Ponting
DR Martyn
MEK Hussey
MJ Clarke
+AC Gilchrist
SK Warne
B Lee
JN Gillespie
GD McGrath


Let the debating/posturing/hero-worshipping begin...

 

[KungFu_Kallis]

P.s. Apologies for accidentally starting this thread in the Ashes section - d'oh! Mods please move to the correct section.

 

[Riggins]

marto, what a guy. it was nice when we had someone making runs at numero 4.

 

[marc71178]

SA currently are nowhere near that Aussie side - that side just kept winning, SA have this tendency to lose random games / draw random series.

Best in the world yes, but that's more to do with the other sides having more weaknesses than anything else.

 

[uvelocity]

yeah great thread. they only won 16 in a row

 

[Red]

Did this side ever take the field?

Langer
Hayden
Ponting
M.Waugh
S.Waugh
Martyn
Gilchrist
Warne
Gillepsie
Kaspa
McGrath

 

[Adders]

Did this side ever take the field?

Langer
Hayden
Ponting
M.Waugh
S.Waugh
Martyn
Gilchrist
Warne
Gillepsie
Kaspa
McGrath

That batting line up certainly did during 2002 (M Waughs final year) , not sure about the bowlers though as Brett Lee was prominent then and was keeping one of Kaspa or Dizzy out.

 

[Bahnz]

Look, SA are a brilliant side, but you only have to look at how they've gone against the current aussie team (a somewhat flattering 2-1 scoreline over 5 tests in the last 18 months) to guess how a series against the 06/07 vintage would've turned out.

 

[Justo]

I'd regard the current SA side to be behind the Aussie side. Both sides have 2 Gun Bowlers (although Philander still has to prove himself in the longevity department) but the Australian side has an excellent batting line up. The SA batsmen have a tendency to all fail at once although I suppose its not like Australia didn't have its failures. In the overall scheme of things though the SA side needs to perform for a few more years before they can truly be considered great. It'll also be interesting to see how SA deal with the retirement of Kallis when the time comes as I suspect that'll be when they start to fade. The Australian side also had far greater depth (E.G. Batting and McGill) than the current SA side.

I couldn't really comment regarding the SA 70s side since I never saw any of them play. I do believe that that side could have quite well dominated the 70s and perhaps reinvigorated fast bowling before Lillee, Thompson and the WI quicks came along.

All in all I think if you could have these 3 teams competing against one another along with a WI 80s team and the invincible's it'd make awesome viewing. I'd have to say that the current SA side would fall short in such a competition though but would be capable of achieving a few upsets.

 

[Coronis]

Windies in the 80's are overrated. Warnie would carve em up. 06 Aussies win here, easy. Think SA would've been one of the top few sides ever, if they had continued.

 

[Biryani Pillow]

Windies in the 80's are overrated. Warnie would carve em up. 06 Aussies win here, easy. Think SA would've been one of the top few sides ever, if they had continued.

Errrr no!

Some very blind Aussie tripe that.

The SA team of the mid/late 70s wouldn't be bad.

Barry Richards
Kepler Wessels
Peter Kirsten - way past his bet when he finally played Tests
Graeme Pollock
Brian Davison - a fine player
Mike Procter - maybe fading slightly
Clive Rice
Garth Le Roux
Keeper of choice
Denys Hobson (apparently a fine leggie) - John Traicos
Vincent van der Bijl

Additional good players like Henry Fotheringham (apparently a top player) and Duncan Fletcher around as well.