Honestly any combination of Rabada,Nortje,Olivier,Ngidi,Jansen,Sipamla,Maharaj,Linde and Mulder would be a Test quality attack. But right now there is no one in this SA middle order who I believe you can look at and go "yep,he can get us a 150 if he gets in". So the solution is obviously decks with some juice where it is 200 vs 200
The problem is they can't drop Bavuma or Elgar for obvious reasons. Markram is being shoehorned as an opener, and having selected VDD must give him an opportunity! Similar with Verryenne getting next in line shot. While we have genuine quality batsmen in players like Breetzke and van Tonder (and whole load others) waiting their chance? And lets not forget to drop the batting allrounder because Olivier must get his shot!
Do they even have any alternatives? With Temba at least you know you would get those 30-50 sometimes very useful runs..
At worst you could call him a like for like Duminy replacement. Another pretty looking player who got out after getting starts.
Weirdly enough I dont think this particular game unlike the previous two has seen much bad batting. Bowling standard has been very high throughout the two days.
Yeah, they've won me over. Few if any of their failings can be attributed to a lack of application.
It does look like South Africa have sorted out the number 3 position. Now they've just got to sort out all the others...
I think Duminy had more of an ability to score you hundreds though. His batting was more rocks or diamonds. But he also could bowl so it helped his selection for a while.
Yeah been impressed with him and Jensen with the ball..
sorry scoring runs and taking sharp ones in the slips
He deserved his place for a few years after that 2009 Australian tour. Much like bavuma who also played a clutch innings or 2 in 2016. Agree though that the former had a higher ceiling.
Duminy was also a bit of a monster in domestic cricket, where I think he may have averaged over 50, but he just couldn't translate that into tests.
can't see that happening anytime soon
