*Official* South Africa Tour of Sri Lanka 2018

[StephenZA]

Phehlukwayo is such a waste of space

He has given some good performances as well..... not today.

But none of our potential 'allrounders' are giving me confidence. Mulder seems the most likely, but you need your 5th bowler to at least give 6 overs and that did not look like happening today. Morris, Mulder, Phehlukwayo you can't trust any of them to give with bat/ball in a crunch game based on their current performances. SA's problems are at 5/6/7 for the last 2/3 years we just don't know who our best combination is, and that is assuming that QDK and Amla come good in the ODI's....

 

[TT Boy]

Markram likes a duck.

 

[Dendarii]

But none of our potential 'allrounders' are giving me confidence. Mulder seems the most likely, but you need your 5th bowler to at least give 6 overs and that did not look like happening today. Morris, Mulder, Phehlukwayo you can't trust any of them to give with bat/ball in a crunch game based on their current performances.

What's Muthusamy like in the shorter format? I know he's a spinner, but is it worth trying him out as the 5th/6th bowler?

Or maybe they should take another look at Dwaine Pretorius. He never really managed to establish himself in the side, probably being too similar to Phehlukwayo, but I don't think he's produced any really disappointing performances. And the emergence of Ngidi means that a certain external factor that has influenced Phehlukwayo's selection is no longer as strong.

 

[Maximas]

Pretty gutted that Lakmal is not captain tbh

 

[Prince EWS]

What's Muthusamy like in the shorter format? I know he's a spinner, but is it worth trying him out as the 5th/6th bowler?

Or maybe they should take another look at Dwaine Pretorius. He never really managed to establish himself in the side, probably being too similar to Phehlukwayo, but I don't think he's produced any really disappointing performances. And the emergence of Ngidi means that a certain external factor that has influenced Phehlukwayo's selection is no longer as strong.

I try not to 'go there', but they tend to use JAMODIs and JAM20Is as a way to eat up the quotas so they don't have to do so in the Tests. Unless Pretorius is deemed to be clearly superior to Phehlukwayo - and I do think he's better, but only marginally, and even that is somewhat debatable - he's not going to get a game.

I don't like that there are quotas at all but I do kind of like that they try to use them up in limited overs games and dead rubber Tests given that the do exist to avoid them rearing their ugly head in important Test matches, so as much as I'm a Pretorius fan I can see why he's not picked. Maybe the ODIs in the World Cup will assume more importance and he'll find his way into the squad there.

 

[StephenZA]

What's Muthusamy like in the shorter format? I know he's a spinner, but is it worth trying him out as the 5th/6th bowler?

Or maybe they should take another look at Dwaine Pretorius. He never really managed to establish himself in the side, probably being too similar to Phehlukwayo, but I don't think he's produced any really disappointing performances. And the emergence of Ngidi means that a certain external factor that has influenced Phehlukwayo's selection is no longer as strong.

Muthusamy did really well last year, in both formats... see how he continues, in with a shot; but he is not really a big hitter which is what we are looking for. Dwaine has had a difficult time, did not perform well when given a few short chances; then think he was injured and lost out to Morris a bit. Still think Dwaine has an outside chance but he is more a new ball bowler and no real opportunity for him there. Been trying to turn Phehlukwayo into a middle and death over specialist, not really working. Do think that they have also been hard on Phehlukwayo, as he bats down at 8 and bowls as a 5th/6th bowler, so for all the games he has played has had little opportunity to really show his potential. Mulder is still my favourite for the #7 spot long term though.

 

[Dendarii]

I try not to 'go there', but they tend to use JAMODIS and JAM20Is as a way to eat up the quotas so they don't have to do so in the Tests. Unless Pretorius is deemed to be clearly superior to Phehlukwayo - and I do think he's better, but only marginally, and even that is somewhat debatable - he's not going to get a game.

I don't like that there are quotas at all but I do kind of like that they try to use them up in limited overs games in dead rubber Tests given that the do exist to avoid them rearing their ugly head in important Test matches, so as much as I'm a Pretorius fan I can see why he's not picked. Maybe the ODIs in the World Cup will assume more importance and he'll find his way into the squad there.

I agree with you on the way that they've gone about handling the quotas by using T20s and ODIs to get the numbers right. But what my comment related to was that they've Rabada and Phehlukwayo have been the ones to meet the criteria for black players in the ODI team - there's been the odd appearance by a few other players, but they're the two who were picked consistently.

However, now that Ngidi's there they have another way to make up the two black players, meaning that it's less important to pick Phehlukwayo, which brings Pretorius back into the reckoning. Of course, it would be a white player replacing a non-white player, so there's still that part of the quotas to consider.

 

[slippy888]

Lanka doing nothing in 50 over game again

 

[StephenZA]

You watch an innings like that from Duminy and you think all that talent not used.... need him to play that sort of innings when we chasing and under real pressure.

 

[Stefan9]

Mulder did fine in his main role of batting. He is a batting allrounder and does have days were the bowling goes a bit awry. Don't think it's that big of a deal. Duminy and markram can make it up.

The question is do we need another inconsistent all rounder in andile or should that spot go to a bowler? Not convinced by him, morris or pretorius.

 

[StephenZA]

Mulder did fine in his main role of batting. He is a batting allrounder and does have days were the bowling goes a bit awry. Don't think it's that big of a deal. Duminy and markram can make it up.

The question is do we need another inconsistent all rounder in andile or should that spot go to a bowler? Not convinced by him, morris or pretorius.

Thing is Mulder must be able to bowl 6 overs batting at 7, else he plays as a batsmen who can bowl a bit and then he has to be better than any other top 6 batsmen... which he is not for now. So he is vying for that #7 spot with Morris, Dwaine, Phehlukwayo. If you consider spot 8-11 as pure bowling spots, need to find 10 overs from Mulder (or whoever)/Markram/Duminy and that is dangerous in a tight game with the performance of all the current allrounder choices.

 

[Jarquis]

Have to feel SL's lower order left a lot of runs out there. Your number 11 getting stumped with 15 overs left - and plenty of them to be bowled by non front-liners - is a little dumb

 

[Starfighter]

I'd say that their top order left even more runs out there imo.

 

[Daemon]

Have to feel SL's lower order left a lot of runs out there. Your number 11 getting stumped with 15 overs left - and plenty of them to be bowled by non front-liners - is a little dumb

Dananjaya and Lakman didn't play rashly so it was only that last wicket which can be criticised.

When 10/11 are batting together it's justifiable to have a slog, especially when it's the only thing that worked all innings.

 

[Jarquis]

I'd say that their top order left even more runs out there imo.

Well, no ****.

However that's no excuse for 0 application from the lower order.

Top order bats are going to snick off against Rabada once in a while, your number 11 doesn't have to run past one when there almost a third of the overs remaining.

 

[Jarquis]

Dananjaya and Lakman didn't play rashly so it was only that last wicket which can be criticised.

When 10/11 are batting together it's justifiable to have a slog, especially when it's the only thing that worked all innings.

I might be being overly critical, I'm just going by the scorecard so didn't actually see any of the game. My biggest gripe is probably with Kusal. It's definitely his responsibility to be facing most of the balls and at least he could have ticked over until his ton and trying to build another partnership rather than chucking it away

 

[Heboric]

Have to feel SL's lower order left a lot of runs out there. Your number 11 getting stumped with 15 overs left - and plenty of them to be bowled by non front-liners - is a little dumb

Come on that a bit unfair on the SA bowlers. If Duminy, Mulder and Markram were getting wickets then maybe.

But it was Rabada and Shamsi getting wickets

 

[Starfighter]

Well, no ****.

However that's no excuse for 0 application from the lower order.

Top order bats are going to snick off against Rabada once in a while, your number 11 doesn't have to run past one when there almost a third of the overs remaining.

Hmm, I thought the top order's job was to score the runs. I find it very hard to criticise nos. 10 and 11 for not putting on much more than 10.

 

[Starfighter]

Impressive effort by Sandakan to concede 74 runs out of a total of 196. You'd think Kumara maybe would have been worth giving a bigger go.

 

[Bolo]

So he is vying for that #7 spot with Morris, Dwaine, Phehlukwayo. If you consider spot 8-11 as pure bowling spots, need to find 10 overs from Mulder (or whoever)/Markram/Duminy and that is dangerous in a tight game with the performance of all the current allrounder choices.

There's a balance problem no matter what. Too many bits and pieces options. 10 overs from these 3 is probably a better solution than weakening the batting to the extent playing someone like Morris does. With all the best bowlers being weak with the bat, it's probably better to take the hit on the batting side.