-
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***
- Thread starter howardj
- Start date
and raise you one 
Y'know, I have a feeling that if every team in world cricket were to play a match on this pitch in these conditions, the average team score would be well over 350, and there'd be a few more 400s at least.
Either that, or we have just seen two teams put out the two greatest batting performances in ODI history in the same game, with pretty much every batsman in top form, striking the ball beautifully, finding the gaps and hitting sixes at will... and also having put out possibly the two worst bowling performances ever, in the same game.
Now I think this was an awesome game, certainly one of the best ODIs I've seen, but in my opinion, these 400+ scores should be taken with a bit of salt, as it were. Because I have a hard time believing that we have seen the two best/worst batting/bowling performances of all time in the same game, and that other teams wouldn't have got pretty close to 400.
I dunno what the opinion here is, but I've said this to some other guys and their response has been "no, no, best batting ever" etc.
Either that, or we have just seen two teams put out the two greatest batting performances in ODI history in the same game, with pretty much every batsman in top form, striking the ball beautifully, finding the gaps and hitting sixes at will... and also having put out possibly the two worst bowling performances ever, in the same game.
Now I think this was an awesome game, certainly one of the best ODIs I've seen, but in my opinion, these 400+ scores should be taken with a bit of salt, as it were. Because I have a hard time believing that we have seen the two best/worst batting/bowling performances of all time in the same game, and that other teams wouldn't have got pretty close to 400.
I dunno what the opinion here is, but I've said this to some other guys and their response has been "no, no, best batting ever" etc.
Last edited:
Jono
Virat Kohli (c)
No doubt the pitch, size of the ground and outfield had a lot to do with why this game had so many runs, but you have to also have a long hard look at the bowling line-ups both teams put out.Isolator said:
Three world class ODI bowlers among them (Ntini, Lee and Bracken), and two of those are very unpredictable and one-dimensional (Ntini and Lee), whilst the other can be taken to the cleaners if the batsman get on top of them.
The rest are mediocre to garbage.
Contrast that with two absolutely brilliant batting teams, with both teams having ridiculous depth. Runs were always going to flow, obviously not to this extent, but I reckon add Nel, Pollock, McGrath and an in-form Gillespie or Kaspa in the teams and the runs will be around 200 less.
Its not the best batting ever, becaus the best batting ever is seen in tough conditions with the pressure on, but it is pretty damn close to the worst bowling ever. This is why its not the best ODI ever (Still goes to Aus vs. SA WC 99 Semi-Final), because the bowling was so utterly crap. Whereas that game had great batting, bowling and fielding.Isolator said:
Last edited:
FaaipDeOiad
Hall of Fame Member
It's a bit of both. It was a very flat deck, but I've seen flatter pitches and no team has ever scored 400. Ponting and Gibbs were so brilliant it was surreal to watch at times. There were periods in the innings of each where they simply threw everything at every single ball they faced and if the over went for less than a dozen runs it was like a victory for the bowler.Isolator said:
The bowling was decidedly ordinary, but when the batsmen are playing like that, what can you do? I thought both teams severely lacked for a spinner at times where a nicely flighted ball to induce a wicket could have majorly set back the run rate. With just seamers and no movement about, all you can really do is try and bowl yorkers. Anything on a length was going for six, and bowlers simply couldn't risk trying to bowl in an aggressive fashion.
Mr Mxyzptlk
Request Your Custom Title Now!
Then lose them to England immediately after.Xuhaib said:
Tom Halsey
International Coach
Mr Mxyzptlk said:
As an Englishman, I loved that comment.
Yeah, but it wasn't just Ponting and Gibbs. Smith and Hussey played pretty flawlessly, too. And pretty much everyone who got in was finding the boundaries - or clearing them - pretty effortlessly. I have a hard time believing that so many batsman could all be in such phenomenal form in the same match, at the same time.FaaipDeOiad said:
open365
International Vice-Captain
howardj
International Coach
It was that - for both teams - their sights were set higher than ever. Australia got off to a flyer, and just rolled with it. While, for South Africa, they'd never been confronted with such an outrageous total, so they had to - in an unprecendented manner - chance their arm. That's a major reason why there was an absolute avalanche, because never before have the sights been set so high.Isolator said:
Well, you're taking pretty much the opposite position as I am, so it's difficult to argue. All I can say is that I find it highly unlikely. How far does this "sights set higher" business go? You make it sound like they could have chased a thousand runs if they wanted to. I think a lot of teams would have got at least 350+ in these conditions.howardj said:
Jono
Virat Kohli (c)
Whilst I agree with your article's contention that undoubtedly the game is far too skewed towards batsman nowadays, I think you need to just sit back and think about it for a second.open365 said:
There were 5 games in this series. This was the only match a team scored over 300 runs (they both happened to score over 400, but that was crazy). All other matches were sub 300, and there were a lot of sub 250 scores, and Australia were even bowled out for less than 100 once. This series was an even battle between bat and ball.
Its not all gloom and doom yet. A lot of it (I mean a hell of a lot) had to do with the crap quality of bowlers in today's match. No Pollock, Nel, McGrath, Gillespie, Kaspa. It was just rubbish.
howardj
International Coach
Yeah man, Im saying it was a major factor. Particularly for South Africa, I doubt they've ever been so ambitious/audacious. In saying it was a factor, that is not - in any way - to ignore other things such as the flat pitch; the lack of sideways movement in the bowling. As with all freak occurances, it's a combination of factors that go into it.Isolator said:
Jono
Virat Kohli (c)
Yeah I agree. Firstly and most obviously the pitch was flat. On top of that the ground was small, the outfield was amazingly fast, the bowling quality was garbage, the conditions were batsman friendly with no cloud cover, it was a day match etc. etc.howardj said:
It just all combined, along with some awesome batting displays, to equate to an amazing high scoring match.