yes the latter seems more of a root cause to me; new players having a good start can help, but established bats like Elgar & FDP should be the ones they bat around and they're struggling as much as anyoneThe replacements that have come in after those established players have... not exactly set the world on fire. And their more established names have actually fallen away a lot too, even Rabada has declined in output notably since about 2017 (I believe his last 5w haul was actually in that series against Australia)
Sipamla was going at 10 runs an over with the new ball yesterday. Be a brave man to give him the ball again first up.so basically SA decided to donate 50-odd runs for absolutely no reason this morning.
Oh I mean more the way they bowled rather than the identity of the bowlersSipamla was going at 10 runs an over with the new ball yesterday. Be a brave man to give him the ball again first up.
Abbott, Olivier, de Lange big losses to kolpak, quotas have killed SA cricketAs I said yesterday , Lutho has talent but I don't think he was ready. Saying that, if they going to back young players to try move forward I can understand opportunity.
For example I think the pecking order is.
1. Rabada
2. Nortje
3. Ngidi
4. Hendricks
5. Stuurman
6. Dupavillon
7. M.Pretorius
8. Sipamla
So it felt a little unfair Pretorius didn't play but balance of the team probably played a role.
I think those will be the 8 to work with immediately with Coetzee, Jansen, Ntanzi, Ntini the future and all have talent but it is just about the path to get there.
How many seamers did we lose to Kolpak/T20/retirement in the last few years ? Steyn,Morkel,Philander, Abbott, Olivier, Viljoen, de Lange ?
No excuses though. A poor bowling performance there. Some good batting in between from Sri Lanka.