***Official*** Australia in South Africa + South Africa in Australia 2016/17

[Starfighter]

So Philander is MotS in a series where his bowling average got worse and two teammates out bowled him? Right.

 

[Shady Slim]

a series in which he defied all the pundits by taking poles at the WACA, closed off the series at hobart with vociferous swing and provided general starch from down the order?

 

[Starfighter]

Nope. On team Abbott here. He needs something to compensate for his face.

 

[Heboric]

Congrats to Australia for the win.

Congrats to Proteas for series win.

Great win for Aus, played far better and showed some #application. Starc bowled well this match. Definitely underdone at the beginning of the series. Hazelwood was excellent. Wish this was a 5 match series.

SA continue to have problems with their batting unsure of what the best top 6 are, some good performances but also no consistency. Very much a team contribution. Interesting to see who man of the series will be.

But isnt that a good thing as well, its a team game after all. One fails and another does well to help the team out.

We dont want to be like a certain team claiming to have 6 allrounders bats to eleven and have super duper stars from position 1 - 11 but still lose games

 

[StephenZA]

Congrats to Australia for the win.

Congrats to Proteas for series win.



But isnt that a good thing as well, its a team game after all. One fails and another does well to help the team out.

We dont want to be like a certain team claiming to have 6 allrounders bats to eleven and have super duper stars from position 1 - 11 but still lose games

Its nice to have the depth at the moment.... but some consistent, bankable performances would be good as well. That's what making choosing top 6 difficult. Do you drop Cook, Duminy, Faf or Bavuma for deVillers. Each has done something good, none have been truly consistent. Should Rillee be playing instead? Hence the dilemma.

 

[Crazy Sam]

Renshaw played as well as what the selectors could have hoped he played. In the century that he scored to get picked for this match, he was 8 off about 80 balls and finished on 108 off about 210 balls, with runs all around the ground. He also scored a 400-ball 170 last season so the way he batted in this match was typical of his Shield performances to date. It would be unreasonable to expect him to suddenly score runs at a faster click when he's only played a dozen first class games and is stepping up to a new level against one of the better pace attacks going around in difficult conditions (he was out injured for the pink ball Shield round a few weeks ago too).

I think they would do well to pick him for the Pakistan series and bring SMarsh into the middle order in place of Maddinson. Even if they don't pick Renshaw for the away tours next year, a series of 4 games now will give him enough to go back to Shield and work on for the second half of the season.

 

[Heboric]

Its nice to have the depth at the moment.... but some consistent, bankable performances would be good as well. That's what making choosing top 6 difficult. Do you drop Cook, Duminy, Faf or Bavuma for deVillers. Each has done something good, none have been truly consistent. Should Rillee be playing instead? Hence the dilemma.

Well i dont want to see batsmen out of position nor QDK opening the batting

 

[adub]

i need some help, my mum hasn't stopped banging on for the last couple days about the manner in which shamsi bowls when he comes around the wicket (starts to the right of the umpire and comes around to the left of the umpire) and i've done my best to explain to her that it's just a thing that some people do. i can't think of anyone else specifically off the top of my head who does it, anyone have any examples? doesn't matter if they're right/left arm off/leg spin

 

[social]

This test simply confirms that TPC is the greatest batsman and most inspirational captain of his generation.

By any definition, he is an uphill skier

 

[morgieb]

OK series ratings:

Australia

Warner 6 - one pretty good score, and a couple of decent starts. That dismissal at Hobart, though....
S Marsh 5 - was OK without doing anything particularly amazing at Perth. Would've been interesting to see how he would've gone for the rest of the series, but he got injured again....
Khawaja 8.5 - Australia's best batsman, and possibly a breakout series for him. While in 2015/16 he was mostly bashing some terrible bowling on very flat pitches, here he got on top of a very good bowling attack. When he did get out, it was generally to very good deliveries. Failing twice in first innings isn't a great look though.
Smith 5 - made starts in every innings apart from the duck at Perth, but failed to convert them to a score of significance. His captaincy didn't inspire confidence either, though in fairness he did look better at Adelaide when Australia actually had runs on the board.
Voges 1 - one start at Perth, but from there it was all downhill. Looked horribly unconvincing in his three failures before getting out, and his shot in the second innings wasn't one of a Test player. Had to go.
M Marsh 3 - made no contribution in the first innings, at least tried in the second. But it's clear he's a no-rounder at this level, at least right. Come back in 2 years with some time up the top order and a better idea of what your role at Test level is.
Nevill 4 - at least tried at Perth, and pushed South Africa later in the fifth day than what they would've wanted. But had a bit of a shocker at Perth. Probably was somewhat unlucky to get dropped off that but had hardly built up the sort of record that would make him feel hard done by.
Starc 6 - after a brilliant series in Sri Lanka he was a bit hit and miss here. He still managed some searing spells but lacked consistency on a spell by spell basis and didn't pick up a 5-fer all series. Hopefully this was more rust than a regression....
Siddle 5 - was reasonably solid at Perth without doing too much that was special. Probably would've outbowled Bird and Mennie in the second and third Tests if he was fit.
Hazlewood 8 - his best series with the ball so far in his career in my eyes. Was pretty consistently a threat and made the opposition captain his bunny.
Lyon 3 - one good spell at Adelaide to set up a Test win, but before that point he sorely lacked confidence and was cannon fodder for the South Africans. Not good.
Burns 0 - looked wretched in his only Test. Not a Test opener on a pitch doing anything.
Ferguson 1 - probably was unlucky to only get one Test, but it was a poor one for him so it wasn't unlike it was necessarily undeserved.
Mennie 2 - I suppose he wasn't awful, but he looked short of Test class. Just didn't add enough.
Renshaw 5 - I think his technique has some pretty severe question marks right now, but you can't fault his commitment and temperment. He's young to fix up his techincal flaws too. Looks like we have a genuine player on our hands.
Handscomb 6.5 - very nice 50 on debut. Showed some nice game.
Maddinson 1 - hard to judge off only one innings, where he got a peach. It is what it is, though, and he hardly looked convincing while out there anyway.
Wade 4 - kept reasonably well, but he was picked for his runs and he added little there. Was picking him the right move?
Bird 5 - not his best work. Got better as the game went on though after the horror show that was his first spell.

South Africa

Cook 6 - was never quite convincing, but fought hard and earned a last innings century for his efforts.
Elgar 5.5 - one match-winning partnership/innings, little else though.
Amla 3 - not his best work. Made a few starts but didn't convert any of them. Getting out to the same bowler 5 times is something he'd like to forget too..
Duminy 5.5 - see Elgar, after all their century came in the same innings.
du Plessis 6.5 - again one big century and not much else. At least he made some starts though, and his captaincy was excellent.
Bavuma 5.5 - made a couple of important innings, but no real big one. Bonus points for his fielding.
de Kock 8.5 - arguably the main difference between the two sides. Both top-orders misfired at times, the main difference between Australia's collapses to South Africa's collaspes were that the latter were halted by QdK. Was it that much of a concidence that the Test Australia kept him quiet they won?
Philander 8.5 - an excellent all-round performance. That first-innings spell at Hobart showed that he could exploit bowler friendly conditions better than anyone. Also managed a few handy blows with the bat.
Maharaj 6 - that first-innings spell at Perth was as good as any spell I've seen from a touring spinner in Australia. Without that there's little chance that South Africa wouldn't have shrugged off the loss of Steyn. Also showed some fight with the bat. Was unlucky to get dropped for Shamsi at Adelaide.
Steyn 3 - mixed bag. Was **** on Day 1, bowled a lot better on Day 2....but then his shoulder went. Hopefully this isn't the last we see of him, it's no way for one of the greatest bowlers of all-time to go.
Rabada 8 - bowled some absolutely ripping spells and never really let up. Was not as probing at Philander and Abbott but arguably was more of a threat. Terrific series. Has there been a better 21 year old fast bowler? (apart from Waqar )
Abbott 9 - wow. Great series from here. Always a probing threat, and never looked far away from wickets. Great series.
Shamsi 3 - there's something there, but he showed that he's more a OD bowler at this point in his career. Was too inconsistent.

 

[Top_Cat]

Who would ski uphill? Get the lift like a civilised person, ya monkey.

Renshaw tracking Hayden's career already.

[x] Big ****ing leftie

[x] Footwork of an elephant on Methodone

[x] Christmas for the cordon

[x] Booed at Adelaide Oval for scoring too slowly

[ ] Injury early which opens the door for a NSW player

[ ] Ignored for years

[ ] Dominates

Well on the way.

 

[Starfighter]

Can we skip the next two steps?

 

[Spark]

He's a petulant, arrogant **** who downhill skies to make his runs, while his fans bleat on about how great he is when he never seems to stand up when it matters for Australia.

Batting failed Australia this series and he was one of the main culprits, eat your crow. You don't see Kiwis getting upset at the bollocks Williamson gets for his failures.

This is just unhinged, frankly, to the point where I'm seriously wondering whether it's just straight trolling. Either way, the bolded in isolation and making a dig at Australian posters in this sort of underhanded way is definitely the sort of thing which has seen you get a general warning, so I'd cut it quick.

 

[stephen]

I'd like to see Renshaw and Handscombe get the Pakistan tests at least to prove themselves. I think Marsh should come in for Maddinson when he's fit.

Very happy with Renshaw's performance actually. In the absence of runs in the first innings he at least occupied the crease and faced 8 overs worth of deliveries, which meant that the middle order had a much easier job when he did get out. I would have liked to see what he could have done in the second innings but because 34* is so decidedly untelling as a score, it is hard to gage just how good he actually is. Still, 44 runs for the match is more than Ferguson, Burns, Maddinson and Wade managed when given their opportunities.

 

[Spark]

I'd like to see Renshaw and Handscombe get the Pakistan tests at least to prove themselves. I think Marsh should come in for Maddinson when he's fit.

Very happy with Renshaw's performance actually. In the absence of runs in the first innings he at least occupied the crease and faced 8 overs worth of deliveries, which meant that the middle order had a much easier job when he did get out. I would have liked to see what he could have done in the second innings but because 34* is so decidedly untelling as a score, it is hard to gage just how good he actually is. Still, 44 runs for the match is more than Ferguson, Burns, Maddinson and Wade managed when given their opportunities.

Yeah Renshaw is fine for mine. His technique needs work, but he's not going to face many more challenging bowling attacks in home conditions any time soon and he did face a lot of balls in the Test.

 

[Spark]

hey look smith edged one and he's out but he'll get full praise for his intent. renshaw isn't out (this isn't an attack on smith btw)

I wonder if Smith just relaxes mentally a little when he knows the match is basically sealed. He's done exactly the same thing in a small stack of ODI chases too, done all the hard work then thrown it away with like 5 to get or something.

 

[Shri]

to the point where I'm seriously wondering whether it's just straight trolling.

And this is the problem. You are still wondering.

 

[listento_me]

Well Australia weren't completed humiliated and showed great class in losing....

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

You don't see Kiwis getting upset at the bollocks Williamson gets for his failures.

You must read a different cricketweb.net/forum than I do.

 

[vcs]

A happy ending to a fairytale series | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Some pretty Grimm writing by Moonda here.