**Official** South Africa in New Zealand

[straw man]

Hopefully Mills is reported after this game

...for being too good. Lovely drift in that ball to get Amla

 

[BeeGee]

Neesh is the specialist death bowler.

 

[BeeGee]

I'd have reviewed that.

 

[Dick Rockett]

I just came back to give kudos to Simon Doull for criticising the new NZ playing strip: "I don't like it when sponsors dictate the colour of the uniform."

Go that man.

 

[_Ed_]

Strongly agree. Wouldn't be surprised if the guy from The Mentalist appeared somewhere on the shirt during the season.

 

[straw man]

We look like we're wearing blue training vests

 

[Mike5181]

Preferred this one:

 

[_Ed_]

Surprised to see the odds so strongly in SA's favour at this point. Might just be my bias, but I feel like it's a lot closer than that. Another wicket brings us right into it.

 

[Athlai]

Surprised to see the odds so strongly in SA's favour at this point. Might just be my bias, but I feel like it's a lot closer than that. Another wicket brings us right into it.

I'd say we're 1 wicket away in the 2-3 overs from being fairly even. McLaren and Philander can bat but in a pressure situation that tail is a lot longer than ours.

 

[hendrix]

power play coming up. Will need a wicket.

 

[Athlai]

AB is such a class act. I'd say thats about it.

 

[_Ed_]

Unfortunately yeah, we're drifting off the pace now. Barring a miracle double strike in the very near future I think this game is gone.

 

[hendrix]

Unfortunately yeah, we're drifting off the pace now. Barring a miracle double strike in the very near future I think this game is gone.

IMO it's a good thing that we remove the idea of playing 3 economy type bowlers. It's not going to work against good teams. Nathan McCullum, Daniel Vettori and to a lesser extent Kyle Mills have not been good enough.

Similarly, if Guptill is going to continue to have no scoring options against good bowlers and if Brownlie continues to struggle against spin it's good for that to be proven comprehensively before the world cup. Obviously the other batsmen failed too but at least Neesham, Latham and McCullum looked like they could cope.

 

[kykweer.proteas]

bloody hell. I woke up to another downhill batting performance from AB

 

[DriveClub]

Without Ronchi would've been embarrassing for kiwis, you can never go wrong with an Aussie

 

[Bahnz]

IMO it's a good thing that we remove the idea of playing 3 economy type bowlers. It's not going to work against good teams. Nathan McCullum, Daniel Vettori and to a lesser extent Kyle Mills have not been good enough.

Similarly, if Guptill is going to continue to have no scoring options against good bowlers and if Brownlie continues to struggle against spin it's good for that to be proven comprehensively before the world cup. Obviously the other batsmen failed too but at least Neesham, Latham and McCullum looked like they could cope.

From a casual look at cricinfo, it seemed like Vettori bowled bloody well until he got hit a bit in his last two overs - which isn't hugely surprising given the batsmen were set and the pitch was true. McCullum seemed to be pretty average though.

BTW, maybe it's due to just not seeing him bowl for a couple of year, but does anyone else think Vettori's action looks completely different?

 

[Bahnz]

Without Ronchi would've been embarrassing for kiwis, you can never go wrong with an Aussie

Then why didn't Dean Brownlie ton up?

 

[Bahnz]

AB de Villiers is a class act. A pleasure to listen to him during that interview.

 

[Athlai]

Well I'm overall pleased with how that went, we showed the fight we can provide despite all that horrible rust. If we improve from here and get a few of those key players back in, this may be a golden summer.

 

[DriveClub]

Then why didn't Dean Brownlie ton up?

He's a good batsman too by NZ standards, he'll do well in the future, if you're ever in doubt always pick an Aussie