***Official*** South Africa in Sri Lanka 2014

[Jono]

And importantly, what were people saying/thinking when he made the declaration (as opposed to now that SL are off to a good start)?

 

[viriya]

Well, if SL chase this it will be their highest chase ever.. I think it's an aggressive declaration but I don't think they expected SL to go at a fair clip after that.. definitely didn't expect just to have SL 1 down by the close of play.. As it is history is on SA's side, but I suspect that Steyn or Morkel has to deliver - Tahir/Duminy just seems too unreliable to run through an opposition.

Maybe Amla was slighly overaggressive but not by much.. he couldve pushed for 30-40 more runs and get the lead over 400 for the psychological advantage.. as it is SL is fancying their chances of chasing the total down..

 

[viriya]

When did ball tampering become something okish to do?
SA's tampering offences expose lenient laws | Cricket News | Sri Lanka v South Africa | ESPN Cricinfo

3 cases for SA within the last 9 months.. seems like they've realized the repercussions warrant doing it.. I don't buy that all teams are doing it like Domingo says..

 

[jan]

When did ball tampering become something okish to do?
SA's tampering offences expose lenient laws | Cricket News | Sri Lanka v South Africa | ESPN Cricinfo

3 cases for SA within the last 9 months.. seems like they've realized the repercussions warrant doing it.. I don't buy that all teams are doing it like Domingo says..

Commendable but naive belief imo. If they can then they are doing it.

Anybody heard of Cricket SA's punisment for Philander?

 

[hendrix]

Good move by Amla, we need such rist takers in international cricket, if tomorrow SA bowlers get reverse and run through the SL batting lineup, people will give him credit, if not, he will be criticized, but a good decision, Well Done Amla. Positive cricket from both sides.

And importantly, what were people saying/thinking when he made the declaration (as opposed to now that SL are off to a good start)?

I have never understood why it's supposed to be a good thing to take risk.

They could've easily batted 10 overs the final session, made the target beyond 400, and still had 110 overs to bowl SL out.

 

[karan316]

There's also an unwritten rule to make a lot of fuss about things if an Asian country/player is involved in any incident. If not, it can be dealt a bit sensibly.

 

[harsh.ag]

I have never understood why it's supposed to be a good thing to take risk.

They could've easily batted 10 overs the final session, made the target beyond 400, and still had 110 overs to bowl SL out.

This can pay off. Like if SL bats lose their wickets tomorrow trying to up the ante to reach the target.

 

[viriya]

I have never understood why it's supposed to be a good thing to take risk.

They could've easily batted 10 overs the final session, made the target beyond 400, and still had 110 overs to bowl SL out.

If SL do chase this down it would be historic.. either Amla is going by history or he got a little too trigger-happy.. for a neutral the next day is a mouth-watering prospect though. Don't remember a recent test where all three results were so evenly likely.

 

[viriya]

Commendable but naive belief imo. If they can then they are doing it.

Anybody heard of Cricket SA's punisment for Philander?

Why is it that only SA has gotten caught in the last 9 months.. and not once.. 3 times.

 

[grecian]

There's also an unwritten rule to make a lot of fuss about things if an Asian country/player is involved in any incident. If not, it can be dealt a bit sensibly.

Oh yeah that unwritten rule. I'm glad that still exists one of the best things in cricket obviously.

 

[hendrix]

If SL do chase this down it would be historic.. either Amla is going by history or he got a little too trigger-happy.. for a neutral the next day is a mouth-watering prospect though. Don't remember a recent test where all three results were so evenly likely.

I fell like people exaggerate history here:

"Noone's ever chased X amount"

yes, but that's a) not including the chases with plenty of wickets in hand that end in a draw b) People barely gave generous declarations in the past, which is so few people win chasing a declaration.

No team should lose having declared. The goal is not to give the other team a sniff; the goal is ti go for a win. Those two are not mutually exclusive, no, but you don't have to give the other team a sniff to go for a win.

 

[91Jmay]

There's also an unwritten rule to make a lot of fuss about things if an Asian country/player is involved in any incident. If not, it can be dealt a bit sensibly.

zzzzzzzzzzzz woe is me woe is me. India runs the game (and yes i blame CA and ECB just as much for reasons why) yet we still get conspiracy theory nonsense. Bore off.

 

[viriya]

I fell like people exaggerate history here:

"Noone's ever chased X amount"

yes, but that's a) not including the chases with plenty of wickets in hand that end in a draw b) People barely gave generous declarations in the past, which is so few people win chasing a declaration.

No team should lose having declared. The goal is not to give the other team a sniff; the goal is ti go for a win. Those two are not mutually exclusive, no, but you don't have to give the other team a sniff to go for a win.

Steve Waugh disagrees. Although he had one of the best bowling attacks of all-time to do his bidding.. Tahir doesn't inspire as much confidence even though SA's pace attack is probably the best in the world atm.. They won't have the benefit of exaggerated reverse swing this time around though

 

[morgieb]

For people watching, has Amla made a colossal ****-up here?

In fairness the target is pretty big, and the pitch was taking a lot of turn.

But it was still pretty aggressive. I suppose though that Sri Lanka would've gone uber-defensive with an extra 30-40 runs, so I dunno.

 

[Maximas]

The declaration doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me, particularly because it puts Tahir under pressure not to go for many runs

 

[Swingpanzee]

Can't excessively fault Amla's decision, yes it was a bit aggressive but 370 is always a tough target, and on this pitch one couldn't have expected Sri Lanka to be this comfortable.

Very well poised for a thrilling fifth day...SA still have a great chance, a good morning session is crucial though. As is Tahir not leaking runs.

 

[Briony]

They could have batted on for another half an hour or so, maybe passed 400 and still given themselves a reasonable number of overs last night. Amla certainly opened the door for Lanka.

 

[Maximas]

Dangling the carrot may prove to be a good ploy in the end, but I just thought it was a strange decision to put his bowlers under pressure, Amla is going to have to carefully consider his field placements and an attack/defense balance if we get off to a good start tomorrow morning

 

[Prince EWS]

I'm often one to rip into captains for declaring too early but I'm not sure that's really happened here. I often argue that in declaring early you give your team less time to win the match, creating a situation where the game will either be won or lost with still half a session to go, but even assuming we get a full 90 overs in tomorrow then Sri Lanka's innings run rate will need to be at > 3rpo for them to win. Given they scored at 2.78rpo in the first innings and still scored about 80 shy of what they need here, I don't really think you could say the declaration was particularly aggressive. It's about when I would have declared.

 

[hendrix]

yeah it's certainly not a massively aggressive declaration, I just think he didn't need to give his bowlers that much time and he could have put the loss completely out of frame.

I doubt it will matter in the end.