**Official** Zimbabwe in South Africa Thread

[Chubb]

I think Dion Ebrahim has adjusted really well to being the older statesman in the side. His performances since the rebellion have been far more consistent than before it. At present he has 37, the highest score of the innings. (I've probably just given him the kiss of death)

 

[shaka]

115/6

 

[Chubb]

Thought Ebrahim would get after I praised him!
Streak and Blignaut have to pull off something special now (again)

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Again nobody can stop Kallis doing his favourite pastime - bullying crap teams to bloat his averages. At the moment he has clocked up the most overs of any bowler in this series. Compare this to against England where he'd bowled less than half as many overs as Pollock or Ntini, even Steyn had bowled more overs in his 3 matches.

IIRC, Kallis was injured at the time.

 

[Chubb]

Blignaut's gone crazy with the bat again.
37 from 31. He's picking on Boje and Smith.

 

[twctopcat]

I hate the way Blignaut uses these sunday league spinners to inflate his average .

 

[Scaly piscine]

IIRC, Kallis was injured at the time.

Na he bowled 25 overs in England's 2nd innings in the 2nd Test. Perhaps he had one of those Shoaib Akthar 'injuries'.

 

[Swervy]

are nel and langvedt injured..why is smith bowling the part timers?

Hope it ends up biting him in the ****

edit: just read that they are crocked..i will let smith off this time

 

[twctopcat]

Streak gone, the scorecards are all too repetitive now, nothing, ebrahim, then a couple of fifties down the bottom, shame really.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Did Kallis actually bowl well or what? I read that he was swinging the ball to a significant degree, something I haven't seen him do in a long while. Perhaps he's returning to some sort of worth as a test bowler?

 

[Chubb]

Well done Heath and the Blig man!

 

[Richard]

Did Kallis actually bowl well or what? I read that he was swinging the ball to a significant degree, something I haven't seen him do in a long while. Perhaps he's returning to some sort of worth as a test bowler?

I hope so - of course it doesn't mean a thing against Zimbabwe, but he's bowling one hell of a lot better than I've seen him bowl for 2 or 3 years.
This proves as much as domestic-cricket would do, but he's definately bowling well, and if he can repeat it in a meaningful match he'll have a rebirth as a Test-bowler.

 

[Richard]

Zim weren't so bad back in 1999....What a difference aye.

In 99 they had...

G Flower
A Flower
Streak
Strang
Goodwin
Campbell

all more than useful players.

You've missed the top man - Neil Johnson!
In 1999 and 2000 they had a really good team:
Especially in ODIs:
Johnson
G. Flower
Wishart
Campbell
Goodwin
A. Flower
Carlisle
G. Whittall
Streak
Brent
Olonga
And to back-up they had J. Rennie, G. Rennie, A. Whittall, P. Strang, B. Strang, Mbangwa, Murphy, and a few others...
And most of them would still be playing now but for Mad Bob...

 

[Richard]

Again nobody can stop Kallis doing his favourite pastime - bullying crap teams to bloat his averages.

Yeah, he really did well bullying that crap England attack a while back.

 

[marc71178]

At the moment he has clocked up the most overs of any bowler in this series. Compare this to against England where he'd bowled less than half as many overs as Pollock or Ntini, even Steyn had bowled more overs in his 3 matches.

Hmm, very convenient that...

 

[marc71178]

Yeah, he really did well bullying that crap England attack a while back.

The games against Zim and Ban (835 runs @ 278.33 and 22 wickets @ 15.95) actually increase his batting average from 50.01 to 55.54 and reduce his bowling from 33.32 to 31.14.

 

[jot1]

Did Kallis actually bowl well or what? I read that he was swinging the ball to a significant degree, something I haven't seen him do in a long while. Perhaps he's returning to some sort of worth as a test bowler?

No matter who he was bowling to today, he would have taken wickets. He was swinging the ball very sweetly. With two of his wickets not even the commentators could believe the ball could swing back so sharply at the last moment. Streak and Blignaut hit some lovely shots and Ebrahim looked like he could become someone to reckon with if he plays some of the shots he played today. Poor DeVilliers had to play at being a bowler (seamer, no less! ) and even the fitness coach was called on to field to field at one stage. Serves him right! The guys can't be that fit if they injure so easily, so he didn't do his job to very well.

 

[Langeveldt]

Wow, and for the first time ever I am not disappointed about totally missing a days play involving SA..

Well done Mr Mani, for fuelling my passion for test cricket so effectively..

 

[Somerset]

Did Kallis actually bowl well or what? I read that he was swinging the ball to a significant degree, something I haven't seen him do in a long while. Perhaps he's returning to some sort of worth as a test bowler?

Seems as though Kallis bowled alright, a change from recent times. Good comeback from Zimbabwe to recover from 7/115 and post a competitive total, even if the majority of those runs were scored off part-timers.

 

[Richard]

The games against Zim and Ban (835 runs @ 278.33 and 22 wickets @ 15.95) actually increase his batting average from 50.01 to 55.54 and reduce his bowling from 33.32 to 31.14.

Yep - they make a difference (as the will to all decent players - all good players cash-in against them).
Kallis' batting-average is still very, very good without them and with them his bowling-average still isn't very good.
Not to mention Kallis has only batted once against the substandard Zimbabwe.