***Official*** England in South Africa 2015/16

[Pratters]

Why is Harmer not playing this match?

 

[wowitspink]

Hello everyone,

New to the forums. Really excited to discuss cricket & stuff with all of you. Want to watch the SA vs Eng match, but don't have the channel on my TV. ?Could someone please send me a link or app for android on which I can watch the match live.
Thanks

 

[Stefan9]

Why is Harmer not playing this match?

Because piedt is preferred to both harmer and tahir. He was the preferred spinner before he hurt his shoulder and Amla & the management prefers him.

Think Piedt is better then harmer personally & tahir is too lose for the way SA wants their spinner to operate so its the right choice.

 

[theegyptian]

So happy for Compton.. Guy should never have been dropped.. F you Andy Flower.

Today imo actually illustrated why they dropped Compton. Today showed all that was good and bad with Compton's game.

The good is crease occupation and playing in toughish conditions.

The bad is that once the conditions and bowling eased he couldn't take advantage because he simply doesn't have the strokeplay (or maybe the inclination). And his is a style that puts a lot of pressure on the batsman at the other end to do the runscoring - and never puts the pressure on the opposition.


It's a trade off but one that illustrates that Compton was/is never going to be anything other than an average international batsman.


Last time he was batting between Cook and Trott who both had similar styles but were much better than Compton. Cook and Trott are one paced but they were much more clinical and had a range of shots that brought them a lot of runs. England wanted a contrast of styles and Root who had opened his whole county career was thought of as a better option. It didn't quite work out (although Root averaged more as an opener than Compton did) but I still think they made the correct decision.

 

[weldone]

Because piedt is preferred to both harmer and tahir. He was the preferred spinner before he hurt his shoulder and Amla & the management prefers him.

Think Piedt is better then harmer personally & tahir is too lose for the way SA wants their spinner to operate so its the right choice.

Yes I too think Piedt is better than both.

 

[Niall]

Because piedt is preferred to both harmer and tahir. He was the preferred spinner before he hurt his shoulder and Amla & the management prefers him.

Think Piedt is better then harmer personally & tahir is too lose for the way SA wants their spinner to operate so its the right choice.

Agree with all that, and of course the rule is they have to play four players of colour in the side. I genuinely do not know how they do that if Harmer was to play as you could not pick him ahead of one of the white fast bowlers, and if you were to pick him instead of Piedt, it would get very messy filling the required quota.

 

[Spark]

Today imo actually illustrated why they dropped Compton. Today showed all that was good and bad with Compton's game.

The good is crease occupation and playing in toughish conditions.

The bad is that once the conditions and bowling eased he couldn't take advantage because he simply doesn't have the strokeplay (or maybe the inclination). And his is a style that puts a lot of pressure on the batsman at the other end to do the runscoring - and never puts the pressure on the opposition.


It's a trade off but one that illustrates that Compton was/is never going to be anything other than an average international batsman.


Last time he was batting between Cook and Trott who both had similar styles but were much better than Compton. Cook and Trott are one paced but they were much more clinical and had a range of shots that brought them a lot of runs. England wanted a contrast of styles and Root who had opened his whole county career was thought of as a better option. It didn't quite work out (although Root averaged more as an opener than Compton did) but I still think they made the correct decision.

Given how often this England lineup tends to collapse in a heap, maybe range of strokeplay shouldn't be the priority when selecting an incoming batsman.

 

[African Monkey]

So happy for Compton.. Guy should never have been dropped.. F you Andy Flower.

Agree with you there. People say he was too slow but he was still better than the other options they tried after dropping him.

 

[Furball]

Yeah I think it's good to have another solid batsman who sticks around. Particularly given the make up of the lower middle order.

 

[theegyptian]

Given how often this England lineup tends to collapse in a heap, maybe range of strokeplay shouldn't be the priority when selecting an incoming batsman.

And I was referring to why they dropped him in the first place when that was far less of an issue as the team was built around world class players in Cook, Trott, KP and Prior

I had no problem with Compton's selection on this tour or in this match, in fact once they dropped Bell, Compton was always going to be the likeliest callup for the top order.

 

[marc71178]

Steyn bowling beautifuly here, one wonders how different the india tour might have been had steyn been fit for most of it, particularly as india seemed to struggle with the reversing ball and steyn is one of the best exponents of reverse swing

He wouldn't have helped ease the incompetence against spin which was the real problem.

 

[91Jmay]

Compton has the frustrating habit of nailing drives straight to fielders which is annoying. Thought Morkel/Abbott bowled poorly. There is assistance in pitch if it is pitched up but they were far to short of a length.

 

[Niall]

He wouldn't have helped ease the incompetence against spin which was the real problem.

Would have scored more runs than Faf and Vilas did though.

 

[Burner]

Yeah, it's Steyn the batsman they missed

 

[Flem274*]

You're still wrong because he said that Steyn looks like he's bowling quicker than 133. And he does.

South African radars are often on the slow side. Steyn, Philander and Morkel always seem to clock faster away from home and touring bowlers often clock slower than you'd expect.

 

[Jarquis]

Caught up with the thread - two things I took from it

Was a good day of cricket and it's nicely poised for the next day.

The other is that weldone is just a horrendous poster. Go away.

 

[watson]

Today imo actually illustrated why they dropped Compton. Today showed all that was good and bad with Compton's game.

The good is crease occupation and playing in toughish conditions.

The bad is that once the conditions and bowling eased he couldn't take advantage because he simply doesn't have the strokeplay (or maybe the inclination). And his is a style that puts a lot of pressure on the batsman at the other end to do the runscoring - and never puts the pressure on the opposition.


It's a trade off but one that illustrates that Compton was/is never going to be anything other than an average international batsman.


Last time he was batting between Cook and Trott who both had similar styles but were much better than Compton. Cook and Trott are one paced but they were much more clinical and had a range of shots that brought them a lot of runs. England wanted a contrast of styles and Root who had opened his whole county career was thought of as a better option. It didn't quite work out (although Root averaged more as an opener than Compton did) but I still think they made the correct decision.

Compton's SR in FC cricket is 47. This isn't that far removed from Root who strikes 55. I think that his low Test match SR has more to do with England losing early wickets and that he is also trying to cement his place in the team after only 9 Tests.

Nice to see Taylor make a decent score under pressure.

 

[Spark]

Compton's SR in FC cricket is 47. This isn't that far removed from Root who strikes 55. I think that his low Test match SR has more to do with England losing early wickets and that he is also trying to cement his place in the team after only 9 Tests.

Nice to see Taylor make a decent score under pressure.

It's not really about strike rate. It's about strike rotation (which obviously contributes) and having enough scoring areas that you make life hard for the captain + bowler to contain you, rather than knowing they can just bowl in one spot and get a clamp on. See early Khawaja, Usman.

 

[Daemon]

Great to see Taylor in such good form, always thought he looked like he'd make it in international cricket. Ballance is another one who'll be more established soon enough.

 

[Gnske]

Think one of the more prolific English posters here said he would get trashed here and was bad against pace.

Hope they're tasting it hard right now.