***Official*** Australia in South Africa 2018

[Redbacks]

Great comeback by South Africa this test. Shaping up as an awesome series.

Smith needs to find some runs.

 

[Redbacks]

The problem is we have such few genuine custodians of the game. I hate to put it into so many words but seeing a young black South African fast bowler run roughshod over the Australians would do wonders for the game's health in the country. Unfortunately, when bureaucrats run the game, they can't look past their noses at the greater picture.

That's just nonsensical. Emotion getting in the way of sound reasoning.

 

[Redbacks]

Just saw the smith shoulder incident and that's so minimal and incidental a charge is a ****ing joke. The send offs after being warned is dumb but this is a non incident. They both don't change line and there's barely a brush. Icc, Crowe and the umpires being stupid.

Smiths reaction is disappointing tbh.

The batsmen is out, so starts to walk off. There's no chance of a run-out so no excuse as to jostling for position and holding your line. The bowler should change their line (or even put hands up to minimise an unavoidable collision), that's common sense, and he's been pulled up for it.

 

[quincywagstaff]

No Australian currently averaging 40 with the bat this series; Josh Hazlewood narrowly off being at the top!

 

[Gnske]

The batsmen is out, so starts to walk off. There's no chance of a run-out so no excuse as to jostling for position and holding your line. The bowler should change their line (or even put hands up to minimise an unavoidable collision), that's common sense, and he's been pulled up for it.

I don't think anyone would even have cared had Smith not turned around.

And on Kagiso's part, when you're that close to a ban. When you do something like that even accidentally, wouldn't you instantly turn to Smith and give the old "sozza mate" to him? Does not the threat of immediately missing on some great cricket force you to be extra careful and force some concessions of your personality on field? The Australians learned their lesson, they were clearly seething under the surface but they managed.

At the end of the day, we spectators are the real victims here. I just hope in future when he inevitably does rack up more points, that he doesn't choose to then double down. I'm all for expressing yourself as a cricketer and not being neutered by the ICC and cricketing boards in every way imaginable. We're in a time where Glenn Maxwell can't even speak his mind on his own aspirations and frustrations without getting spanked for it. But unfortunately, the rules are the way they are.

 

[Victor Ian]

Not good. Having just seen footage it seems the bar is very high. Wrong to think Smith reacted on purpose though. He is a twitch machine and that reaction was as small as you'd expect from an unexpected brushing.
Rabada can be seriously awesome. Sad that will be all we get to see.

 

[Tangles]

The batsmen is out, so starts to walk off. There's no chance of a run-out so no excuse as to jostling for position and holding your line. The bowler should change their line (or even put hands up to minimise an unavoidable collision), that's common sense, and he's been pulled up for it.

The Aussies said preseries they wanted to wind him up. That's why Smith didn't change his line and why he reacted. I have been out and changed my line as a bat without drama. So drama was wanted. Now Rabada played right into it so he's dumb.

 

[GotSpin]

No Australian currently averaging 40 with the bat this series; Josh Hazlewood narrowly off being at the top!

Steve struggling is basically a nail in the coffin for our batting line up

 

[quincywagstaff]

Also on the behaviour punishment front, what were the odds pre-series that Nathan Lyon and Mitch Marsh would've both had points docked against them this series? They seemed to be amongst the mildest players in the Oz team (probably Usman Khawaja top of that list) until now.

 

[Adders]

Dunno about Lyon, for so long such a quiet unassuming bloke but he does seem to be turning into a **** in a real hurry.

 

[cnerd123]

I don't think anyone would even have cared had Smith not turned around.

And on Kagiso's part, when you're that close to a ban. When you do something like that even accidentally, wouldn't you instantly turn to Smith and give the old "sozza mate" to him? Does not the threat of immediately missing on some great cricket force you to be extra careful and force some concessions of your personality on field? The Australians learned their lesson, they were clearly seething under the surface but they managed.

At the end of the day, we spectators are the real victims here. I just hope in future when he inevitably does rack up more points, that he doesn't choose to then double down. I'm all for expressing yourself as a cricketer and not being neutered by the ICC and cricketing boards in every way imaginable. We're in a time where Glenn Maxwell can't even speak his mind on his own aspirations and frustrations without getting spanked for it. But unfortunately, the rules are the way they are.

Honestly I don't think Rabada even felt his shoulder bump into Smith's. It was so minimal.

The Warner send off was pretty dumb given he knew he was on thin ice.

 

[EggsOnToast]

The Aussies said preseries they wanted to wind him up. That's why Smith didn't change his line and why he reacted. I have been out and changed my line as a bat without drama. So drama was wanted. Now Rabada played right into it so he's dumb.

If it was intentional then he made it really easy for them. He literally had to just move a couple of inches to the right of Smith and he would be playing in the next game. People blaming the rules/Smith/ICC are crazy.

 

[Spark]

He can be dumb for not following the rules when repeatedly warned and the rules can be badly designed as well. It's not either/or.

 

[stephen]

He is dumb for not following the dumb rules and cricket suffers because of his stupidity and the stupidity of the rules.

I'm sure the Aussie players are celebrating though.

 

[EggsOnToast]

He can be dumb for not following the rules when repeatedly warned and the rules can be badly designed as well. It's not either/or.

I guess. I'm just not sure how they could adjust the wording in the Code of Conduct to make it less ambiguous, 'Inappropriate and deliberate physical contact' seems pretty clear to me, don't touch an opposition player and you're good to go.

 

[Spark]

I guess. I'm just not sure how they could adjust the wording in the Code of Conduct to make it less ambiguous, 'Inappropriate and deliberate physical contact' seems pretty clear to me, don't touch an opposition player and you're good to go.

They should scrap the entire demerits system and start over.

 

[GotSpin]

Yeah it's just garbage

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Dunno about Lyon, for so long such a quiet unassuming bloke but he does seem to be turning into a **** in a real hurry.

What complete and utter garbage, especially from the country that gave the world Swann. Absolutely not a thing wrong with the AB runout, no malicious intent from Garry whatsoever

 

[Victor Ian]

from the other thread

..... Instead of discussing the quality of cricket on display, we've spent the whole time arguing over sledging and send offs. What a complete waste of time

What we need is for that list of 100 best bowling efforts to be updated. Does this one get a gig?

 

[Arachnodouche]

What complete and utter garbage, especially from the country that gave the world Swann. Absolutely not a thing wrong with the AB runout, no malicious intent from Garry whatsoever

Great cricket team. Passionate fans. Zero ****ing introspection.