sunilz
International Regular
Definitely
-
Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.
***Official*** Australia in South Africa 2018
- Thread starter Spark
- Start date
StephenZA
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Hence the big discussion of whether he should have made his debut in England.... but water under the bridge now. SA still has class coming through, for all the problems and issues at FC level.
SeamUp
International Coach
I think we've had one of our greatest teams involving a lot of players in this team/squad ie Amla, AB, Philander, Steyn, Morkel
Of course Amla isn't peak anymore bu scored crucial 50s. AB and Faf still capable of scoring 100s and Philander/Steyn still capable of world #1 status.
What I wanted us to see is win 2 home series against two decent teams we've done that. That to me was the start of our road to achieving this teams potential.
Now we need to continue our success away in Sri Lanka and hopefully this culminates with an away series in India and a home series in England. The only series we won't be able to make up for is away to England where we were far from our best (personnel had a small reason) and deservedly lost.
If they can get through this well. Then I will hopefully be adding this new generation mixed in with the old with some of our best teams.
Last edited:
Daemon
Request Your Custom Title Now!
Cute
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Yeah I remember Spark asking me about Markram on Skype before this series started, and I said I wasn't necessarily expecting a big series from him because it might be a tad early in his career for that, but that it was possible in the way it wasn't from Alviro, Cook, Kuhn, van Zyl etc who at best could score a few fighting 70s at key moments. This I think was basically seen of as the "bullish on Markram" opinion at the time, but he exceeded even that by a fair margin. He's going to be an immense cricketer.
StephenZA
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
That Indian tour (forgivable) followed by that abysmal Eng series was a real low point. But going in right direction since. These 2 home series wins have been great.
Motorwada
Banned
Not necessarily. 50% of cricket is played in turning conditions for which you need two spinners and they only have Maharaj who's decent. Also considering that these matches were all at home you can't say they have sorted out their batting problems. These same batsmen were pretty poor in their last Ind/Eng tours. They also were pretty poor when India toured and were only marginally better than the Indian batsmen (21.98 avg vs 19.15 avg). Compare this to the 2015 series where Indian batsmen were miles better (25.27 vs 13.75). So across a variety of conditions etc the Indian batting lineup are prolly the best in the world. I'd say the Indian team is in the best place because of best batsmen, best spinners and really good pacers (Shami - 28.9, Bumrah - 25.21, Bhuvi - 26.09) and they are all relatively young. Only Murali Vijay is the one who is a bit older and even he has 2-3 years left.
Borges
International Regular
Yes. They are the number one test team, in my reckoning.
Marius
International Debutant
Yeah, but they could only play what was in front of them, and they flattened that Aussie side which was pretty good.
One of the great 'what ifs' is how that SA side would have done in the 1970s, especially against that great WI side that started emerging in the mid-1970s.
Slifer
International Captain
Where's the confusion??
SeamUp
International Coach
Yes, my personal lowest points for us in tests since re-admission along with the Stuart Clark home series against Australia.
I think we were caught cold in India. You get turners and then you get turners. For a while India weren't producing these types and with a batting line-up trying to adjust without Smith, Kallis , Boucher it was difficult but understandable. I hope when they go to India (and hopefully our seniors give it another shot) they go their with their eyes open now. It will be difficult no matter what though. But it's not like the pitches in SA aren't offering our spinners the chance to bowl overs or our batsmen to face spin anymore.
The less said about that England tour the better. No Steyn, Faf's baby first test, KG banned, Philander's fitness, no opening partner for Elgar. General SA quality. We showed no fight bar a few.
This summer's cricket has been enthralling. Sure we won but the battles were great no matter the result. Virat Kohli went up in my estimation and he made no excuses. India's best seam attack even if conditions helped (they were consistent).
Last edited:
Motorwada
Banned
Naah. Recency bias. India too have defeated SA and Aus at home during their last tours. And SA's win in Oz is cancelled out by their home loss against Eng (Ind have an away loss in Oz and a home win against Eng). Not to mention Ind's wins are often by bigger margins.
Last edited:
StephenZA
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Impressed with India overall... their seam attack is better than people realize. Kohli was brilliant, and his performance elevated him above Smith for me. But time will tell how true that is.
OverratedSanity
Request Your Custom Title Now!
India's pace attack thoroughly outperforming Australia's was a surprise but much of it was down to the pitches.
sunilz
International Regular
India will lose their no.1 ranking if we fail to draw series in England. So all this debate is meaningless imo. We will know this in England tour.
Motorwada
Banned
Yeah but right now India is no 1. And not like SA performed well on their last tour to Eng.
sunilz
International Regular
please don't compare our overseas record with SA. SA have as much claim to be no.1 as India. Difference in 4 ranking points is negligible.