***Official*** VB Series 2006

[LongHopCassidy]

MacGill must play - but he won't. Thanks, Trevor.

 

[Burpey]

MacGill must play - but he won't. Thanks, Trevor.

Imagine how useful Warne or MacGill would have been today, seeing that wickets were crucial for Australia.

 

[Jono]

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,17831234-23212,00.html

Could not agree more with this article. Fantastic pitch which produced a terrific one day cricket match. Hopefully they occur more often, and variable types too. Ones which favour spinners and are slower and harder to score off, ones which are quicker like this Gabba wicket and the WACA wicket Australia played India on back in the 2003/04 VB Series, ones which have a tint of green and offer a lot of assistance to the seam bowlers, and of course the odd track which is flat and favours the batsman. ODI cricket could use this, more than silly changes of the rules such as the super-sub one.

 

[honestbharani]

wow, what an upset. When I last checked this match, RSA were in deep trouble at around 30 odd for 3 in 12 overs or so. Well done, RSA. I hope they can keep up this form throughout the series.

 

[aussie]

I think that was against England in the 2nd VB Series final back in 2002/03. Bowled well then. Generally though, his brain falls out of his head and he bowls pretty dumb.

this has only been a problem last year though he used to be pretty good at the death, dont know whats going on with him in that area.

 

[aussie]

MacGill must play - but he won't. Thanks, Trevor.

really i dont think the OD team needs MacGill that badly.

 

[Pratters]

Bravo South Africa on the win! Havent heard any thing on the match yet except the result but good stuff.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Australia never made enough runs in the first place. South Africa's first 20 overs with the ball were too good. Pollock with a well deserved MOTM.

 

[Pratters]

This is a great, entertaining one-day pitch. I wish we'd see this more often.

Yep those are just the kind of pitches I love to watch one dayers on too.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

wow, what an upset.

It wasn't really an upset, just a nervy run chase... It's always difficult chasing a target against the Australians, even moreso when the target is low -- just look at Australia's fielding -- but, really, it would've been a poor effort if they hadn't made 229, especially after their bowling performance. The South Africans bowled well, even when Hussey and Lee made their record stand. Personally, I still think South Africa are a fairly average side, but one day cricket has so much to do with momentum and self-belief & South Africa were able to win without fielding their best side possible, so I hope they continue to win and prove me wrong.

 

[Tim]

It wasn't convincing enough for me to think that South Africa will now dominate Australia in this series, but they could do a NZ and just keep surprising.
Australia will be alot better next time around and I feel the South African bowling attack is on the brittle side..so they will need to be on guard.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Since the Twenty20 game, Martyn hasn't been playing with the passiveness that is usually associated with him. Usually he's turning the strike over, and waiting till late in his innings to hit out. Now he seems to be relying on boundaries moreso than singles and doubles.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

South Africa have bowled pretty well this tour. The Aussies seemed to be in the mindset that they'd blitz them, perhaps a 4th consecutive score of 300+, but they were undone... IMO, Australia have more adjustments to make before Friday, although South Africa desperately need some fielding practice.

 

[Langeveldt]

It was a New Zealand like "more than the sum of your parts" performance that we used to see from SA in the early nineties and was a joy to watch, more of the same please!

 

[Blaze]

It was a New Zealand like "more than the sum of your parts" performance that we used to see from SA in the early nineties and was a joy to watch, more of the same please!

Yeah the bowlers really punched abvoe their weight (other than Pollock who is class).

I thought Boucher's innings was superb. He was only on 1 run after 19 balls. It takes a lot of guts to wait that long to get your eye in because if you get out soon after you have wasted a whole lot of balls for your team. Instead he started to open up and brought the gap back into South Africa's favour. 63 runs off 62 balls. His last 62 runs came off 43 balls. Imagine the crisicism he would have got had he been out for 1 off 20 balls.

 

[andyc]

really i dont think the OD team needs MacGill that badly.

I disagree. The whole time I was watching it, I was thinking how badly we needed a Warne or MacGill to come on and take wickets.

 

[andyc]

Since the Twenty20 game, Martyn hasn't been playing with the passiveness that is usually associated with him. Usually he's turning the strike over, and waiting till late in his innings to hit out. Now he seems to be relying on boundaries moreso than singles and doubles.

Yeah I know it's weird. Perhaps he's just trying to catch the selectors eye and get back into the test side, but it does seem weird. His knock against Sri Lanka was very uncharacteristic, as was his dismissal against South Afirca. While I liked his knock against Sri Lanka, I do hope he tones it down a little as what he did against South Africa was just stupid given the circumstances.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Yeah I know it's weird. Perhaps he's just trying to catch the selectors eye and get back into the test side, but it does seem weird. His knock against Sri Lanka was very uncharacteristic, as was his dismissal against South Afirca. While I liked his knock against Sri Lanka, I do hope he tones it down a little as what he did against South Africa was just stupid given the circumstances.

Remember that Martyn was caught on 6 off a no-ball playing a stupid shot (backing away and hitting in the air through an area with three fielders) vs Sri Lanka, and I think might have been dropped soonafter.

 

[andyc]

Remember that Martyn was caught on 6 off a no-ball playing a stupid shot (backing away and hitting in the air through an area with three fielders) vs Sri Lanka, and I think might have been dropped soonafter.

Yeah, I was thinking that as I was posting. Then again, maybe this kind of hitting out will be happening more frequently in ODI's now that Twenty20 is on the rise. I fully expect 400 to be passsed sometime soon.

 

[Tim]

Didn't NZ reach 350 off around 45 overs recently against Zimbabwe? I can't quite remember, but at the time I remember a number of people saying that if it had gone 50 overs they probably would have scored 400.

I think its very possible that a team will reach 400 soon, particularly if Zimbabwe continue to tour.