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

[viriya]

Just wait.. he will clean-up the tail-enders and prove you all wrong!

 

[Maximas]

Even if he does, it won't really prove us wrong, has been toothless against the actual batsmen, I think the fact that Herath and Perera have shouldered the spin burden ably while Lakmal has struggled to fulfill the role of sole pacer has shown Mendis is surplus to requirements as far as this attack goes too.

Would love to see Matthews have a go with the ball, see if he can get a bit of variable bounce out of it and change things up a bit.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah Mathews is a bit over-rated as a Test bowling option by the general public IMO but he definitely should've had more of a bowl here. I'm tempted to suggest he's resolutely digging his heels in and doubling down on the idea that more than one seamer would be surplus to requirements in this game.

I could've got behind the selection policy to an extent if he'd opened the bowling himself, or at least had an early bowl, as it would've signalled his ratione as "I'm backing myself to do the role of a second seamer here as I don't think I'd bowl one for more than a few overs up front anyway". Instead he's almost tried to justify the amount of spinners he selected by refusing to bowl.

 

[viriya]

Yea it's not that Mathews is overrated as a Test bowler, I think the problem is more that he underrates himself - he is good enough to bowl a solid 10 overs a day but there's no one to ask him to do so..

 

[Riggins]

First I've heard of it.

Quiet beefy boi.

Nice sig.

 

[Maximas]

Glad that's over, nice piece of bowling too

 

[viriya]

Well.. Duminy didn't look like he was gonna do much. Is it better to play out 10 overs for 3 or get a quick 20 possibly and get out? I guess the former considering SA don't think they can win this.

 

[YorksLanka]

well done boys..Dumini always looked under pressure there. quick hands from the debutant behind the stumps too. well done to the Dick and Herath. keep turning that screw fellas...

 

[Swingpanzee]

Yeah SA are done here folks.

Shame this ain't a three test series, a finisher at Pallakele would have been amazing.

 

[Swingpanzee]

Instead we have a rubbish series between SL and Pakistan.

 

[viriya]

If Amla gets a 100 here will it not count because it's on the SSC flat-track?

Dropping Amla twice.. sigh.

 

[Swingpanzee]

Amla dropped for the second time.

 

[Swingpanzee]

If Amla gets a 100 here will it not count because it's on the SSC flat-track?

Dropping Amla twice.. sigh.

No that applies only to Mahela

 

[Maximas]

Good over from Lakmal here, good thing he ditched that short ball rubbish, oh, and a reminder that you can't afford to drop catches off players like Amla, even now

 

[YorksLanka]

Instead we have a rubbish series between SL and Pakistan.

Pakistan supported us when we needed their help,we shouldnt forget that so we must also reciprocate- having said that 2 test series are pants so we should have started their tour a bit later and played 3 against SA

 

[viriya]

Amla with >50% of SA's total.. if he ends up saving them the match it will rank up there..

 

[Swingpanzee]

Philander might as well have a hit and get us to 220.

 

[Swingpanzee]

Amla with >50% of SA's total.. if he ends up saving them the match it will rank up there..

Someone's gotta stay with him to do that. Philander has the ability to do so and in the last match Morne showed he could do it to a fair extent as well, but I think it'd be better if Philander just tries to hoick a bit rather than let the spinners get to him.

 

[Swingpanzee]

Well played mate, something good amongst the defeat looming ahead.

 

[Maximas]

We probably want to be batting by the final hour before stumps, so getting one or two more wickets here before tea is pretty crucial, SA can bat long to save matches on flat decks as we've seen and this pitch probably won't fall to pieces like Galle did so we need to give ourselves a lot of time to bowl them out again