**Official** South Africa in England 2012

[grecian]

I think it would be foolish to continue with ABDV as keeper. It seems to have affected his batting; he looked awfully high-strung and tentative in his last innings. And Rudolph is not doing much with the bat anyway; might as well get a keeper/batsman in.

Yeah, it was the right thing to do in this series, as throwing in a newbie with no notice would **** you up. Rudolph to make way, if I was a saffie selector.

 

[popepouri]

I think it would be foolish to continue with ABDV as keeper. It seems to have affected his batting; he looked awfully high-strung and tentative in his last innings. And Rudolph is not doing much with the bat anyway; might as well get a keeper/batsman in.

It's too early to suggest that it is affecting his batting.

He also averaged 40 which isn't that bad.

 

[Viscount Tom]

It's too early to suggest that it is affecting his batting.

He also averaged 40 which isn't that bad.

Well it isn't until you take into account that he got dropped a few times in the series.

He contributes a lot in the outfield too, personally I'm wouldn't totally be against him continuing but he needs practice at it and at 28 I don't see the point trying to make him into a Test quality keeper when there's clearly a number of Keeper-Batters hanging round of the SA domestic scene.

 

[NasserFan207]

Thing is, there are plenty of better keeper-batsmen than Thami in the domestic scene. I have a feeling that he is there for quota reasons tbh.

Also, AB may be fine keeping for now, but after a year it will be wearing on him and his batting. Add to that he's a gun fielder while just an average keeper and you are losing a bit.

 

[KungFu_Kallis]

Why does every captain look so happy to be handed the Cursed Mace o' Demotivation?

Changes hands nearly as often as ye Olympic torch.

 

[Valer]

It's too early to suggest that it is affecting his batting.

He also averaged 40 which isn't that bad.

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

10 innings 273 @ 30 52* hs
119 innings 5345@ 50 278* hs

 

[Cricketismylife]

So happy about Philander. Great bowler to watch and he hasnt been given enough credit for the start to his career. High time the Sky team start watching tests not involving England, I think it was disappointing how a guy who broke 100 year records, 50 wickets at 14, was not getting the hype he deserved, because they hadn't bothered to watch him. A bit unlucky in the first few tests, but here got his rewards and could have had 8 if Smith had caught Finn.

Also clears up this whole bowling attack debate. Steyn and Philander are in a different league to the whole English attack. Finn maybe has the potential to be really special, but Anderson and Broad aren't anywhere close to those 2.

England are still a very good team, it's just what I said before that caught them out. Even when they were deservedly the number 1 team, there were not enough great players, just a collection of 9-10 very decent cricketers, but to be a great team you need some players who are great.

 

[popepouri]

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

10 innings 273 @ 30 52* hs
119 innings 5345@ 50 278* hs

That's a bit misleading given he was poor in the early part of career both as a batsman or batsman/keeper.

 

[NasserFan207]

So happy about Philander. Great bowler to watch and he hasnt been given enough credit for the start to his career. High time the Sky team start watching tests not involving England, I think it was disappointing how a guy who broke 100 year records, 50 wickets at 14, was not getting the hype he deserved, because they hadn't bothered to watch him. A bit unlucky in the first few tests, but here got his rewards and could have had 8 if Smith had caught Finn.

Also clears up this whole bowling attack debate. Steyn and Philander are in a different league to the whole English attack. Finn maybe has the potential to be really special, but Anderson and Broad aren't anywhere close to those 2.

England are still a very good team, it's just what I said before that caught them out. Even when they were deservedly the number 1 team, there were not enough great players, just a collection of 9-10 very decent cricketers, but to be a great team you need some players who are great.

England still has a very good bowling attack, they appear worse than they actually are this series. There was one innings where they all collectively went missing.

 

[Cricketismylife]

Yeah, even when praising him I felt they were a little patronising though, as if they were always trying to explain why someone they deep down felt should be so utterly mediocre actually wasn't. Nasser kind of started from that position and ended up respecting him properly while Holding and Botham just bagged him early on and had to begrudgingly acknowledge his efforts as a "useful cricketer" towards the end.

What exactly did Botham and Holding say about him?

 

[popepouri]

Thing is, there are plenty of better keeper-batsmen than Thami in the domestic scene. I have a feeling that he is there for quota reasons tbh.

Also, AB may be fine keeping for now, but after a year it will be wearing on him and his batting. Add to that he's a gun fielder while just an average keeper and you are losing a bit.

TBF about Thami, he had a gun season with bat last year. I don't think he should be there though. If it's for quota reasons, those standards are met with Amla, Duminy, Philander and Virus.

It's time for Kuhn to get his chance.

 

[SeamUp]

Thing is, there are plenty of better keeper-batsmen than Thami in the domestic scene. I have a feeling that he is there for quota reasons tbh.

Also, AB may be fine keeping for now, but after a year it will be wearing on him and his batting. Add to that he's a gun fielder while just an average keeper and you are losing a bit.

Agree on both counts.

Re: Thami one, if they went for the gloveman who can bat then they should have gone for Daryn Smit. Better gloveman and better batsman than Thami but not a better batsman than Kuhn and Vilas.

 

[Cricketismylife]

England still has a very good bowling attack, they appear worse than they actually are this series. There was one innings where they all collectively went missing.

No doubt they are 2nd best bowling attack overall, but clearly inferior to SA. Saying that I did expect England to bowl better this series. Their bowlers have shown a lot of consistency over the years at getting good batsman out on unresponsive surfaces through building pressure up. The batting on the other hand never really demonstrated that to the same extent. This series the batting followed what I expected, while the bowling was less than what I expected from England.

 

[Jarquis]

Great Test but **** that was wrenching. Caught radio on the evening session today after work and when I thought we might do it, it was over soon after

Matty Prior though, what a ****ing guy. Downhill skier my ass.

 

[NasserFan207]

No doubt they are 2nd best bowling attack overall, but clearly inferior to SA. Saying that I did expect England to bowl better this series. Their bowlers have shown a lot of consistency over the years at getting good batsman out on unresponsive surfaces through building pressure up. The batting on the other hand never really demonstrated that to the same extent. This series the batting followed what I expected, while the bowling was less than what I expected from England.

Like I said, apart from one innings which was a total abberration (sp?), Eng bowled well.

 

[Stapel]

Thing is, there are plenty of better keeper-batsmen than Thami in the domestic scene. I have a feeling that he is there for quota reasons tbh.

Also, AB may be fine keeping for now, but after a year it will be wearing on him and his batting. Add to that he's a gun fielder while just an average keeper and you are losing a bit.

Maybe I'm wat too fast into this, but I've noticed, while having a look at the WC U19 results, that SA have a very very talented keeper in Quinton de Kock. He's only 19, has 12 FC matches, averaging 63, and has 54 catches + 4 stumpings.

 

[GIMH]

Great Test but **** that was wrenching. Caught radio on the evening session today after work and when I thought we might do it, it was over soon after

Matty Prior though, what a ****ing guy. Downhill skier my ass.

Who called him a downhill skier any time recently?

 

[NasserFan207]

Maybe I'm wat too fast into this, but I've noticed, while having a look at the WC U19 results, that SA have a very very talented keeper in Quinton de Kock. He's only 19, has 12 FC matches, averaging 63, and has 54 catches + 4 stumpings.

Too young, but a very good batsman for sure. Don't know much about his keeping. In any case there are already experienced and well qualified candidates in domestic who deserve their shot.

 

[Stapel]

Like I said, apart from one innings which was a total abberration (sp?), Eng bowled well.

IMHO, the difference between England this series and England that got to #1 is, apart from playing against the opposition possible, mostly their batting. When it comes to bowling, the big absentee was Swann. Probably it is all about his injury, but the Swann we've seen this series is nowhere like the Swann of a year ago.

 

[Jarquis]

Who called him a downhill skier any time recently?

Burgey in the winter.