Pakistan Tour of South Africa 2018/19

[OverratedSanity]

Yeah, terrible post. Was a great test and objectively th most important test of the bunch because Steyn.

 

[Prince EWS]

Missed today due to the w word. The few times I looked at cricinfo it sounded like Pak were bowling hand grenades. How on earth did we survive that comfortably?

The cricinfo commentator for today really seemed to want to stand out for whatever reason. Every so often you get one who thinks scores people are sitting there glued to the ball-by-ball commentary expecting an elaborate picture to be painted for them. It was hard to bat out there but the carry on from the writer as if every third ball had descended from heaven was pretty ridiculous.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah, terrible post. Was a great test and objectively th most important test of the bunch because Steyn.

Imagine thinking a Test at the MCG in 2018, or a Test involving Sri Lanka, could be more important than this one.

 

[Bolo]

Missed today due to the w word. The few times I looked at cricinfo it sounded like Pak were bowling hand grenades. How on earth did we survive that comfortably?

Tough at the start. Getting through the new ball took a bit of luck. But the last 100 runs there was hardly any lateral movement and not enough raw pace to cause issues. Accurate, but not much else, with plenty of value whenever they got it a bit wrong.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Lovely. I guess I can't be too harsh. The time zone made it perfect for night time viewing of those other two matches.

Something I always look forward to every year, regardless of who's playing.

 

[trundler]

Can't wait for Abbas vs Philander

 

[trundler]

The match awaited battle would be at Newlands though. Hardly fair on any bowler not named Vernon Philander.

 

[SeamUp]

They breed them tough in Welkom. Brian McMillan and now Dean Elgar.

'They should triple my salary' - Dean Elgar - ESPNcricinfo

 

[SeamUp]

The match awaited battle would be at Newlands though. Hardly fair on any bowler not named Vernon Philander.

Normally around this time of year its over 30 every day but its been warm but more mid to high 20s and we've got late night rain 2/3 times in December. So pitch prep won't be a major issue like last year when we were experiencing a drought for India. That test was over very quickly even with rain in that test.

 

[Heboric]

 

[Bolo]

Silly stat- Steyn now has the worst bowling average of the 6 active quicks who have played for RSA recently.

It always feels risky going in without a spinner, but if the pitches offer juice there might be a strong case, especially against Pakistan

 

[Niall]

Shafiq and Yasir out for Abbas and Sohail seem the obvious calls for Pakistan.

I wanted Ashraf in the side, but unsure how to get him into the side as Afridi did enough to keep his spot. I don't think they should move the batting order around that much, Zaman deserves another few tests opening while Masood at three is fine.

 

[nzfan]

Watched fair bit of Pakistan South Africa, I think this series is going to be a lot closer than people think. Pakistan has a decent team and should make a come back likely. Babar Azam, Bavuma and Masood put on awesome show with that bat. Amla came to party but not all that convincing. Where was Shan Masood al these years? The kid Afridi looks million dollars. If Ali, Shafiq and Imam can do their bit South Africa can be tested. Olivier bowled great areas, another 140+ ticks bowler unearthed. South Africa keeps on producing good fast bowlers.

 

[Daemon]

Silly stat- Steyn now has the worst bowling average of the 6 active quicks who have played for RSA recently.

It always feels risky going in without a spinner, but if the pitches offer juice there might be a strong case, especially against Pakistan

It's crazy to think that Steyn would almost certainly have done even better than his career mean if he didn't get injured, given the standard of batting these days.

 

[OverratedSanity]

It's crazy to think that Steyn would almost certainly have done even better than his career mean if he didn't get injured, given the standard of batting these days.

He's missed out on some weak lineup bashing for sure.

 

[Dendarii]

It always feels risky going in without a spinner, but if the pitches offer juice there might be a strong case, especially against Pakistan

Maharaj doesn't have a great record at Newlands - 5 wickets in 3 matches at an average of 39. Even though I'm generally not a fan of not playing a spinner, there might be a case for leaving him out of the next test as if Philander's fit then it's a very difficult decision which of the quicks to exclude. It seems ludicrous to drop someone after a man of the match eleven wicket haul, but Philander averages 16.5 at Newlands, so you can't not play him there, and how do you leave out either Steyn or Rabada?

 

[TT Boy]

Hope the talk of de Bruyn making way for Philander is just talk. South Africa don’t need four quicks who average sub-25 for this Pakistan side on these surfaces and they certainly don’t need their batting to get any weaker. de Bruyn’s dismissal yesterday was very ordinary but the 29 in the first innings was a decent knock considering the circumstances and ideally you play him all series and the Sri Lanka series as well, and if he still averages sub-25, you then bin him for good.

 

[SeamUp]

If we had AB and Amla closer to his best I would consider 6-5 split. I am extremely hesitant due to our batting woes but then again our pitches are testing at the best of times.

But I think it could be the flattest wicket of the series but I would have safely said that a few years ago but now I can't fully commit to that and I can't fully commit to you have to play a spinner at Newlands anymore either.

There is a round of 4-day cricket starting the 4th. I hope Hamza is released to play but its Bloemfontein which makes me worry if he will make it if they can only release him on 3rd and not 2nd.

 

[Dendarii]

Hope the talk of de Bruyn making way for Philander is just talk. South Africa don’t need four quicks who average sub-25 for this Pakistan side on these surfaces and they certainly don’t need their batting to get any weaker. de Bruyn’s dismissal yesterday was very ordinary but the 29 in the first innings was a decent knock considering the circumstances and ideally you play him all series and the Sri Lanka series as well, and if he still averages sub-25, you then bin him for good.

Agreed. There's absolutely no need to pick a fifth frontline bowler. Given the bowling stocks at the moment, four bowlers (be it three seamers and Maharaj or four seamers) is more than enough to do the job - if we were picking Morris and Parnell then another seamer might be justified, but those days thankfully are past us.

Philander does average 33 with the bat at Newlands, which isn't too shabby, but that's courtesy of nearly half his innings being not out and isn't enough to justify his selection over a specialist batsman. And if it's felt that De Bruyn's not up to the job then that's what Hamza is in the squad for.

Philander coming in for De Bruyn isn't a solution to the problem of which fast bowler to leave out. Rather, it's way to avoid addressing the problem while creating a bigger problem by weakening the batting.

 

[StephenZA]

No need to drop de Bruyn, it is either play Maharaj or Olivier.

In honesty my bigger issue is the proverbial elephant in the room when Ngidi comes back; it is unfair on both players, neither of which have done anything wrong. Potential Abbott situation all over again.