***Official*** Australia in South Africa 2013/14

[morgieb]

****mark tasting it with Doolan and Marsh being the catalyst for a collapse and Rogers scoring a ton. That's the only good news of last night.

Also, is it time to worry about Clarke? Hasn't scored a fifty since Adelaide.

 

[Tangles]

Ugly capitulation after such a great start from Warner & Rogers.

1-1 with 1 to play. At the start of the series we would have been happy with that scenario. The series is still there to be won.

Still in clover? Or just smoking it now?

 

[KungFu_Kallis]

I have to lol @ Ian Chappell's last cricinfo article cheerleading Clarke and criticising Smith suddenly disappearing from the internet. Decided to join the anti Dhoni club now instead.

 

[hendrix]

Gawd this is an awesome series.

 

[YorksLanka]

wow , what a turn around from SA? I watched unitl lunch and actually wondered wether SA had declared too early then i head out to cricket practice to return and find out that after Rodgers and Warner, the rest of the Aussie card looks like an international dialling code?

 

[benchmark00]

The worst possible scenario for the health of Australian cricket. Australia collapses on a docile pitch while Rogers makes an arse saving century. It completely needed to be the other way around if the team is going to go forward. Now we'll have a case of dropping Doolan because it's convenient despite him being the man (and others) that can actually take Australia forward. Just stunting Australia's growth having Rogers in the team only for him to make a century when he should have been dropped the innings before. Though I suppose the only thing that would have been worse was if the SA tale slogged out and Siddle picked up five, masking how poor he's been in this series (and for a while), the same thing with Rogers.

Full credit must go to South Africa though. Outbowled and outbatted Australia by a ridiculous margin. The fact that Australia were by far the superior fielding team throughout the match and still got belted just shows how dominant South Africa were. Nothing to do with third gears here, Australia just completely outplayed by a better team throughout the week.

One would expect Cape Town to suit the Australian players more, but that's not an excuse for the PE result.

 

[wiff]

Fell asleep in the last session. Did I miss anything?

 

[SeamUp]

That was one of the GREAT test wins for South Africa.

Must have been a great feeling in the dressing room afterwards. Thinking of a guy like Quinny being apart of that in his first test.

Quite a few blokes can be proud of themselves.

 

[SeamUp]

Hats off to both teams too. There has been moments of great intensity but all fair along with sportsmanship of the highest class.

On to Newlands. Got some Members tickets for the first time. Should be interesting.

 

[Blocky]

In my view, Australia are almost doing what New Zealand had been stuck doing for the last decade, selecting inconsistent guys from first class who don't have a history of sustained consistent performance and somehow expecting them to develop consistency at the top level.

i.e selecting Marsh and Doolan with their inferior average and conversion ratio. What makes me laugh is you still have guys in your first class circuit who could at least offer something to the new crop of youngsters, Katich should have been partnering Warner at the top, David Hussey should probably have come in at 5, Clarke at 4.

 

[Top_Cat]

Hilarious missing of the point by some pundits in here. The batting gets bulldozed twice and all the talk is about which bowler to drop for a bloke who's last FC game was the Lords Test 8 months ago, Harris has one bad day and suddenly he's 'cooked', etc.

Tough game if you're a quick, eh. I can see Siddle missing out but, as alluded to by Benchmark, it's not as simple as dropping one guy and grey skies are gonna clear up. SA are the better side and they really showed it here on a pitch which really didn't suit them.

 

[Blocky]

Hilarious missing of the point by some pundits in here. The batting gets bulldozed twice and all the talk is about which bowler to drop for a bloke who's last FC game was the Lords Test 8 months ago, Harris has one bad day and suddenly he's 'cooked', etc.

Tough game if you're a quick, eh. I can see Siddle missing out but, as alluded to by Benchmark, it's not as simple as dropping one guy and grey skies are gonna clear up.

Agree with this, especially considering how lorded they were for their performances against England but this was always likely once a side showed some fight. I'm surprised that Johnson has continued to have the impact he's had, kudos to him, I find himself starting to respect him more and more despite his prissy bitchy persona he seems to throw out there because he's gone away, worked hard on his action and mentality and thought about where best to attack. I just wish he had a bit more of Steyn's selective wording - Steyn kills you with intent, eyes and bowling. Johnson attempts to sledge the **** out of you and pick fights.

I think people laughed at me when I said that Australia have a very brittle batting line up and one of the huge issues is that the value of Clarke is probably over-estimated by most Australians. He had a great purple patch ( which coincided with the decline of the last great in Ponting ) but to me, he never seemed likely to continue it. I think we're seeing what Clarke will be for the rest of his career, a guy capable of some very good innings but largely a return to his inconsistent mid forties average, Steve Smith just doesn't strike me as a guy who will cut it long term as a bat for Australia. Watson is his inconsistent self, Marsh and Doolan are almost clones of Watson.

They're missing the steel they used to have through the order (think Ponting, Hussey, Katich) and they're relying heavily on Haddin, who simply won't perform his Ashes miracles in every match.

 

[GotSpin]

Nah. Smith is becoming a very good player. Not his fault he picked up a inswinger first ball.

 

[Blocky]

Nah. Smith is becoming a very good player. Not his fault he picked up a inswinger first ball.

Smith has some very good performances recently, don't get me wrong, but I just don't get the feeling that he's a guy that you can build a batting order around him being consistent.

 

[howardj]

It was always folly to not pick Watson because he couldn't bowl

That's saying, in effect, that Marsh and Doolan are better Test batsmen than him

Watson averages 42 at No.3

They're starting to get funky again

 

[BackFootPunch]

Agree with this, especially considering how lorded they were for their performances against England but this was always likely once a side showed some fight. I'm surprised that Johnson has continued to have the impact he's had, kudos to him, I find himself starting to respect him more and more despite his prissy bitchy persona he seems to throw out there because he's gone away, worked hard on his action and mentality and thought about where best to attack. I just wish he had a bit more of Steyn's selective wording - Steyn kills you with intent, eyes and bowling. Johnson attempts to sledge the **** out of you and pick fights.

I think people laughed at me when I said that Australia have a very brittle batting line up and one of the huge issues is that the value of Clarke is probably over-estimated by most Australians. He had a great purple patch ( which coincided with the decline of the last great in Ponting ) but to me, he never seemed likely to continue it. I think we're seeing what Clarke will be for the rest of his career, a guy capable of some very good innings but largely a return to his inconsistent mid forties average, Steve Smith just doesn't strike me as a guy who will cut it long term as a bat for Australia. Watson is his inconsistent self, Marsh and Doolan are almost clones of Watson.

They're missing the steel they used to have through the order (think Ponting, Hussey, Katich) and they're relying heavily on Haddin, who simply won't perform his Ashes miracles in every match.

 

[Woodster]

Agree with this, especially considering how lorded they were for their performances against England but this was always likely once a side showed some fight. I'm surprised that Johnson has continued to have the impact he's had, kudos to him, I find himself starting to respect him more and more despite his prissy bitchy persona he seems to throw out there because he's gone away, worked hard on his action and mentality and thought about where best to attack. I just wish he had a bit more of Steyn's selective wording - Steyn kills you with intent, eyes and bowling. Johnson attempts to sledge the **** out of you and pick fights.

I think people laughed at me when I said that Australia have a very brittle batting line up and one of the huge issues is that the value of Clarke is probably over-estimated by most Australians. He had a great purple patch ( which coincided with the decline of the last great in Ponting ) but to me, he never seemed likely to continue it. I think we're seeing what Clarke will be for the rest of his career, a guy capable of some very good innings but largely a return to his inconsistent mid forties average, Steve Smith just doesn't strike me as a guy who will cut it long term as a bat for Australia. Watson is his inconsistent self, Marsh and Doolan are almost clones of Watson.

They're missing the steel they used to have through the order (think Ponting, Hussey, Katich) and they're relying heavily on Haddin, who simply won't perform his Ashes miracles in every match.

Yes I think Australia's batting issues were really emphasised by a superb demonstration of reverse swing bowling by the very best quick in the world and to rip out Clarke, Smith and Haddin really gave SA the chance to wrap up victory today and I'm pretty sure Steyn bowling like that would have gone through most countries' middle order in a very similar fashion.

I agree with you on Steve Smith, we have seen that he is capable of some big innings, and at times has really impressed but I don't think his technique lends itself to being able to sustain consistent runscoring in all conditions, I'm sure he himself will acknowledge that he still has a lot of work to do on his batting. I think Clarke's a better player than you're giving him credit for, if his back holds up I don't see any reason why he can't still score plenty of runs in Test cricket, while Shaun Marsh still has plenty to prove.

I thought Rogers was a great pick for the Ashes over here and I don't think he's done anything wrong to suggest he should be left out of the side. He's obviously a short-term fix but he showed today the fight he has and the ability to make ugly runs at times when needed. While the likes of Phil Hughes continue to develop I think he should be a certainty at the top of the order, England would love a player like him at the top alongside Cook while the likes of Sam Robson continue to work on their game before they get their chance.

Haven't seen enough of Doolan yet, watched scratch around today and looked a little shot-less but I don't know enough about him to form an opinion as to whether he can cut it at Test level.

There are weaknesses in the batting but I think Steyn today would have showed any weaknesses up in any side in the world.

 

[benchmark00]

In my view, Australia are almost doing what New Zealand had been stuck doing for the last decade, selecting inconsistent guys from first class who don't have a history of sustained consistent performance and somehow expecting them to develop consistency at the top level.

i.e selecting Marsh and Doolan with their inferior average and conversion ratio. What makes me laugh is you still have guys in your first class circuit who could at least offer something to the new crop of youngsters, Katich should have been partnering Warner at the top, David Hussey should probably have come in at 5, Clarke at 4.

Agree with this, especially considering how lorded they were for their performances against England but this was always likely once a side showed some fight. I'm surprised that Johnson has continued to have the impact he's had, kudos to him, I find himself starting to respect him more and more despite his prissy bitchy persona he seems to throw out there because he's gone away, worked hard on his action and mentality and thought about where best to attack. I just wish he had a bit more of Steyn's selective wording - Steyn kills you with intent, eyes and bowling. Johnson attempts to sledge the **** out of you and pick fights.

I think people laughed at me when I said that Australia have a very brittle batting line up and one of the huge issues is that the value of Clarke is probably over-estimated by most Australians. He had a great purple patch ( which coincided with the decline of the last great in Ponting ) but to me, he never seemed likely to continue it. I think we're seeing what Clarke will be for the rest of his career, a guy capable of some very good innings but largely a return to his inconsistent mid forties average, Steve Smith just doesn't strike me as a guy who will cut it long term as a bat for Australia. Watson is his inconsistent self, Marsh and Doolan are almost clones of Watson.

They're missing the steel they used to have through the order (think Ponting, Hussey, Katich) and they're relying heavily on Haddin, who simply won't perform his Ashes miracles in every match.

Errrrrrrrrghhhhhh. This is just so wrong it's not funny. You've just spat out (incorrect) cliches without having any research behind you i.e. followed Australian domestic cricket.

 

[Ruckus]

next test would drop Doolan and Marsh for Watson and Hughes. With the bowling reckon Harris does looked pretty cooked. I definitely don't think he's been at his best and he is probably struggling with his knee problems which were actually due for surgery after the Ashes. Siddle is a also a problem area though, so I think one of the two needs to be dropped for Pattinson.

 

[benchmark00]

The answer to one loss is not making wholesale changes, it's to play better.

Overhauling the team because they were outplayed by a team who are #1 in the world after giving them a touch up in the match previous will not do one iota of good.

You just need to play better.