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***Official*** India in South Africa

Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Jono said:
True. I'd like to see at least two of Smith, AB and Gibbs back in the shed early so to ensure they won't be able to get quick runs.

I hardly think Prince or Boucher are going to take the game away from India if they are in for a while. Pollock may, but they'd need a platform for him to come in and score.

Amla looks cool when he wears a helmet at short leg thanks to his beard, that's about the only thing he adds to the team.
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Yeah, sometimes I really think South Africa could do with Justin Kemp in their side - just for his ability to up the anti. Usually I am very much against picking a player in a test match based on their scoring rate as it really goes against everything i believe in... but if there was ever a case of it being a good idea, I think Kemp would be it.

He can actually bat in a very orthodox manner when he needs to as was shown in that drawn test against Australia where he made 60 odd - and he can give some imeptus to the South African middle order. I really love players like Kallis, Prince, McKenzie and Rudolph who just look so solid in defence and don't play rash strokes - in fact most of my favourite batsmen are in this mould - but you can't have a whole team full of them unless you have an amazingly brilliant bowling attack or play on bowler-friendly pitches more often than not.

With Kallis out and Kemp's ability to bowl a few overs as well, he really would have been a good choice for this match IMO - could have batted 6 and I'm sure he could have bowled as many overs as Hall. I like Hall quite a lot as a player but I'm not of what role he is even supposed to be playing in this match... he is batting at #8 and he is the 5th seamer in the team. That's an even stranger role than Saj Mahmood got in Perth - at least he was 4th seamer. And what Amla is doing in the side I'll never know - as you said, they've picked him in the "looking cool at short leg" role.
 
A

Achtung Baby

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Well i personally find Ian Chappell very unbiased and very much interesting to hear. I have heard him criticizing the Aussies also.Its just that he criticizes whatever he thinks is not correct and quiet often then when Aussie play others its the other team that seems to make mistake.
 
TT Boy

TT Boy

Hall of Fame Member
PhoenixFire said:
Ball Tampering?
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Must be the fourth time or more that the ball has lost its shape in this game, India might not be happy with it but South Africa got a soft orange as a replacement of a ball yesterday so the Indians could be better advised just to grin and bare it.
 
Jono

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Probably about as ashamed as he felt when he was jeered by his own fans for laying bat on ball :p
 
TT Boy

TT Boy

Hall of Fame Member
Prince EWS said:
Yeah, sometimes I really think South Africa could do with Justin Kemp in their side - just for his ability to up the anti. Usually I am very much against picking a player in a test match based on their scoring rate as it really goes against everything i believe in... but if there was ever a case of it being a good idea, I think Kemp would be it.

He can actually bat in a very orthodox manner when he needs to as was shown in that drawn test against Australia where he made 60 odd - and he can give some imeptus to the South African middle order. I really love players like Kallis, Prince, McKenzie and Rudolph who just look so solid in defence and don't play rash strokes - in fact most of my favourite batsmen are in this mould - but you can't have a whole team full of them unless you have an amazingly brilliant bowling attack or play on bowler-friendly pitches more often than not.

With Kallis out and Kemp's ability to bowl a few overs as well, he really would have been a good choice for this match IMO - could have batted 6 and I'm sure he could have bowled as many overs as Hall. I like Hall quite a lot as a player but I'm not of what role he is even supposed to be playing in this match... he is batting at #8 and he is the 5th seamer in the team. That's an even stranger role than Saj Mahmood got in Perth - at least he was 4th seamer. And what Amla is doing in the side I'll never know - as you said, they've picked him in the "looking cool at short leg" role.
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Kemp’s bowling has gone completely off the radar, serves up nothing but half volleys, AB could do the same job if he liked. Also Kemp's batting, yeah he may counter attack county championship attacks or franchise bowlers but he can’t play spin (in good company), struggles against the short pitch delivery and genuine pace. He would only face one of his quandaries against India that being spin but I think he needs to be more consistent and in a team which has no real stability at the moment and plethora of superfluous cricketers his someone South Africa could do with out. They don’t struggle with run rates per say, Gibbs, Smith, AB are very attacking players, its only now a problem that Gibbs, Smith and AB are struggling for runs.
 
Slow Love™

Slow Love™

International Captain
Prince EWS said:
Yeah, however they still heavily focus on the South African side of the game. They aren't always biased in terms of which players they praise or criticise, but they tend to focus their commentary on the South African view. For example, Amla deservedly cops a bit of crap from the commentators - but if he got out to a great ball from Zaheer, they'd still be bagging him rather than praising Zaheer. You wouldn't really take this as South African bias on the surface as they are actually laying into a South African, but they are still actually focusing on South Africa rather than acknowledging the good ball that Zaheer has bowled from an Indian perspective.

Australian commentators are often the opposite - harping on about what the opposition are doing wrong over and over - particularly Ian Chappell.
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Spot on in both respects, IMO. The South African commentators have cheesed me off in the instances I've been able to watch this series, as their obvious opinion is that it should be a walkover for the Saffies, so anything that conflicts with that assumption is going to be a result of carelessness or lack of effort/application on the part of the South African players, rather than the Indian players actually mounting a real challenge.

Of course it's all pretty restrained compared to what gets said in some of the cricket journalism in print by ex-players like Pat Symcox and Fanie de Villiers.

On the other hand, guys like Ian Chappell seem to have a fantasy that other teams have just as much talent as the Aussies do, so visiting teams constantly get excoriated for not taking it up to them or beating them at their own game.
 
Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
TT Boy said:
Also Kemp's batting, yeah he may counter attack county championship attacks or franchise bowlers but he can’t play spin (in good company), struggles against the short pitch delivery and genuine pace
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I used to have the same opinion of Kemp's batting until I saw this match. I was really quite impressed with his second innings dig and it convinced me that he had really improved as a batsman. After that match, he got injured - and he hasn't been seen since.

TT Boy said:
Kemp’s bowling has gone completely off the radar
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Perhaps, but I'm sure he could do the job of fifth seamer in a side. Andrew Hall bowled 7 overs out of 78 in the first innings... and given that I really thought Kemp bowled quite decently in the one day series, I'm sure he could.

TT Boy said:
They don’t struggle with run rates per say, Gibbs, Smith, AB are very attacking players, its only now a problem that Gibbs, Smith and AB are struggling for runs.
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As much as I hate to admit it... I think you may be wrong there. I hate it when people bag teams for scoring slowly, but I think South Africa might just be erring on this side of late. The tour of Australia was a good example IMO... Kallis and Prince are going to be your prime run-scorers and they aren't ones to up the tempo - Gibbs is capable but even when in good form I don't really regard AB or Smith are quick scoring players, especially when they open. I think the middle order needs some punch in it, as much as I hate the thought of a player being picked on this basis.
 
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