*Official* Australia vs South Africa -2022/3

[Gob]

Because India is a much better opposition. These Tests series - WI and SA against Australia are meaningless....they are just stats galore feasts for the Aussie batters and bowlers. The real test for Australia will be when they tour India and England.

Australia are a good side but they have been made to look like millionaires due to the weak opposition.

Lol they almost played their coach

 

[The_CricketUmpire]

Lol they almost played their coach

Luckily it never got to that stage

 

[The_CricketUmpire]

I for one miss the homogeneity of pitches around the world in the 00s, along with the boards and broadcasters ensuring matches lasted 5 days.

What we really need is more test pitches like 2000s Perth, Napier and Colombo.

Exactly and the same applied to the 1990s too. Much more competitive world Test cricket.

 

[Spark]

There is no Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram' Curtly Ambrose, Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock type bowlers around is there. Plus that's just the fast bowlers. Now for the spinners....any Shane Warne, Murali, Vettori, MacGill, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed type bowlers around????

Sure the bowlers are good but not up to those levels in terms of the players around.

The fact is COLLECTIVELY in the past 10 or so years world Test cricket has been no where as good in terms of bowlers. Same applies to batsman too.

But of course you are so caught up in this era that anyone with a different point of view and you'll disagree.

You just throw names out like you're trying to invoke some spiritual deity. You grew up with those players therefore you put them on a pedestal. The current crop of fast bowlers on merit, which is the only fair way to judge them, have done everything asked of them to be considered in the same light, unless you want to start engaging in the "the batsmen suck, so any good results the bowlers get are because the batsmen suck, so the bowlers suck, so any good results the batsmen get are because the bowlers suck, so the batsmen suck etc etc" game of circular logic.

By any objective metric the last five years have been the strongest for fast bowling in particular in a generation, and arguably one of the strongest ever when you consider that India in particular have never had anything like this level of depth in fast bowling before.

 

[Burgey]

The fact is - it is far too easy and basically lazy to say "cricket is better now. How one dimensional is that? Sounds more like a "get out of jail free card" in the Monopoly board game.

No more than your approach, which is simply “it was better 15-20 years ago” despite decks being flatter and most countries having junk attacks in that period of time.

You keep saying “it’s far too basic and lazy to say…” to a website full of people who follow cricket more closely than probably anywhere else and who look harder and more critically at the game than virtually any other group of people, anywhere.

You always saying words to the effect of “it’s simple and lazy” when people literally give you their detailed reasons as to why they are of the view cricket in the current era is tough and the decks spicier than two decades ago is itself really lazy, junk posting

 

[Gob]

Luckily it never got to that stage

You do realise India being a significantly better team on that tour is stupid right?

They basically played their C team. Great achievement from an extremely weaken side

 

[Spark]

Exactly and the same applied to the 1990s too. Much more competitive world Test cricket.

You missed his massive sarcasm. Those three pitches, on top of decks like Lord's in the 2000s, were some of the most notoriously unwatchably flat pitches ever seen.

 

[Shady Slim]

If your point is about the whole team, or the batting specifically, then fair enough. But to say that the bowlers are weak is complete nonsense and just demonstrates a complete disregard for any cricket outside of Australia.

tbf obviously you’re right but once you get to test three and your batsmen have given you absolutely nothing to bowl to four digs in a row it’s nigh on impossible to keep that mental edge

 

[duffer]

such a firm pillow these days

 

[Darwin Award]

... Since the 80's Smith has just been taking singles from this point onwards on the cusp of his century... taking no risks.

Good to see.

 

[The_CricketUmpire]

Its amazing how people get easily

You do realise India being a significantly better team on that tour is stupid right?

They basically played their C team. Great achievement from an extremely weaken side

Says more about Australia - couldn't beat a weakened Indian team in the comforts of home in Australia

 

[Spark]

tbf obviously you’re right but once you get to test three and your batsmen have given you absolutely nothing to bowl to four digs in a row it’s nigh on impossible to keep that mental edge

Oh they've been garbage here and that's disappointing but there's cricket that happens outside Australia too and they've skittled many a side over the last 24 months since this attack was put together.

 

[Burgey]

such a firm pillow these days

Still not up to it on fast, spicy decks but terrific slow wicket player. Lucky we’ve got India and England coming up where you barely need a thigh pad, let alone a chest guard.

 

[Jarquis]

No more than your approach, which is simply “it was better 15-20 years ago” despite decks being flatter and most countries having junk attacks in that period of time.

You keep saying “it’s far too basic and lazy to say…” to a website full of people who follow cricket more closely than probably anywhere else and who look harder and more critically at the game than virtually any other group of people, anywhere.

You always saying saying words to the effect of “it’s simple and lazy” when people literally give you their detailed reasons as to why they are of the view cricket in the current era is tough and the decks spicier than two decades ago is itself really lazy, junk posting

Yeah, all well and good but he's an umpire....

 

[Spark]

Seriously, it's hard to believe we're entertaining the idea that the 2000s (2nd highest recorded) were this golden era in which every side fielded these world class bowlers and had no problems taking 20 wickets and the last three or four years (lower than the 1990s) are these fill-your-boot batting paradises.

 

[Burgey]

Tbf so is CNerd and he’s completely clueless too

 

[Gob]

Its amazing how people get easily


Says more about Australia - couldn't beat a weakened Indian team in the comforts of home in Australia

What are you even arguing on about? You said India were a significantly stronger team than what we see here which Is blatantly false and I pointed that out.

 

[Spark]

Bit more than a single AB

 

[Burgey]

Deadset Maharaj bowling at my standard here. Just ****ing junk

 

[Gnske]

Usman - Spanks it to the boundary

Allan Border: Uh that is the uh single there.

Senile old fool needs to be put in a home. He's going to ruin the Smith ton call