Australia tour of South Africa, 2008/09

[aussie1st]

Good bowling by McDonald, kept the pressure on and got De Villers to hit around his pads. If he could bat better he would be a handy 5th bowling option.

 

[Cricketdude]

The crowd's gone quiet
75.5 Siddle to Kallis, 1 run, that's a much slower ball and Kallis softly tucks it towards square leg and sets off

 

[piriyanth]

Looks like South Africa is seeking for a draw.

 

[aussie1st]

Kallis did get lucky earlier with the ball just outside the line of the stumps but his luck ran out with his drag on.

 

[King Pietersen]

Didn't ever really look like South Africa were playing for the win, Kallis was clearly resigned to trying to draw the game. It was only Amla that really tried to up the pace. Can only see South Africa drawing from here at best, and they'll need a brilliant innings from both Boucher and Duminy to get anything from it. The tail have proven they can stick around, but they'll need one of these 2 to bat through if South Africa are going to have a chance. Surely Duminy can't save South Africa every time?

 

[Jakester1288]

Johnson the legend. One more wicket before lunch and we have won it.

 

[sifter132]

Didn't ever really look like South Africa were playing for the win, Kallis was clearly resigned to trying to draw the game. It was only Amla that really tried to up the pace. Can only see South Africa drawing from here at best, and they'll need a brilliant innings from both Boucher and Duminy to get anything from it. The tail have proven they can stick around, but they'll need one of these 2 to bat through if South Africa are going to have a chance. Surely Duminy can't save South Africa every time?

Hmmm don't agree Kallis was playing for the draw. They only needed 2.8 RPO at the start of the day, if they went in thinking of getting a draw they are total idiots and I'll eat my desk.

And how often has Duminy saved SA? I count ONCE in Melbourne. He got WAY too much credit for his 50* in Perth. They needed only 100 when he came in to join De Villiers who was playing brilliantly, with 6 wickets in hand. That's hardly a crisis, it was De Villiers, Smith and Kallis who did all the hard yakka there. Aussie bowlers were tiring, yeah it was hardly an earthshatteringly brilliant knock.

Even Melbourne was overrated. Sure he played well, but he basically milked a lot of easy runs while Steyn was attacked. He probably deserved the 100 don't get me wrong, but it wasn't worth 166. Since then by the way he's made 13, 16 and 17.

 

[angryangy]

The Australian bowlers haven't given them much today and the fielding has been eye catching. The tight play of the Australians is more the issue than the South African mentality. If they wanted to be totally defensive, they should have played straighter and left more, but it was clear they were not quite playing freely and concerned about getting bogged down. They were looking to play some of the straight balls away to leg and also to hit the half volleys as they presented, normal play. After the first wicket fell, pressure increased tenfold, because there just were enough bad balls.

 

[stefan]

Aus should win from here. Don't think the tailenders can hang in there long enough for light or thunder storms to save us.

Aus have totally out played us in this test so well done to them.

Really need to solve this under performance in the first test of a home series. Happended vs india,pakistan,west indies and now australia. Hopefully the result of the series will still be the same as those series.

 

[aus_maestro]

Hilfy!

Pretty much over here. Good short bowling from mitch, can't see harris lasting very long

 

[Sman-21]

wooohooo way to go australia good bowling.
An you saved some selectors lives coz they were gonna be killed for selecting just 3 front line bowlers if we lost :P .

Now next test its either North or Macdonald NOT BOTH.

 

[Mars Maximus]

Yes a great victory woohooo!!!

 

[Mr.Cricket]

One of the BEST WINS EVER!!! Great effort from the boys against all odds. I dont think many people even gave us a chance before the start of the tour. I must say its awesome to beat the so called 'best team in the world' with a very young team in their own backyard. Well done boys.

Great effort from all the bowlers today. Unlike in Australia (first 2 tests) we had 4/5 bowlers consistently putting the pressure on batsmen all the time. No doubt Saffers will fight back in the next couple of tests but if we can stick to playing good hard cricket we can win this series.

PS - Mitchell Johnson is a LEGEND (96* and 8 wickets)

 

[stefan]

Albie Morkel has been called up. If kingsmead is a green seamer expect him to play in the place of harris. Polly played in the place of harris in his last test here vs the windies.

He got 5 fiver to help the titans win vs the dolphins this weekend and has a first class average of 41. With tsotsobe being injured he was probably the right choice for this particular game.

Morkel to replace Tsotsobe for remaining Tests
Cricinfo staff
March 2, 2009

Will Albie Morkel finally get his chance in the longer version? ? AFP

South African allrounder Albie Morkel will replace fast bowler Lonwabo Tsotobe in the squad for the remaining two Test matches against Australia. Tsotsobe, who has injured his right knee, will undergo surgery at the end of the week.

"Our medical team has established that Lonwabo Tsotsobe has suffered a torn cartilage injury to his right knee," Mike Procter, the South African convener of selectors, said. "The medical committee feels that he should have surgery as soon as possible and this will take place towards the end of this week. We certainly could not risk him in a Test match."

Morkel, 27, has played 35 ODIs for South Africa, scoring 432 runs at 24.00 as well as picking up 41 wickets at 30.53, but is yet to feature in a Test match.

It was Morkel's five-wicket haul on Monday in a Supersport Series match against the Dolphins that had earned him the call-up. "Albie showed good form for the Titans at the weekend and is an experienced international cricketer," Procter said. "He gives us an extra seam bowling option if we want to follow that route."

Morkel gets his chance ahead of Monde Zondeki, who was part of the Test squad which toured Australia recently. "Monde Zondeki, who was in our Test squad in Australia, has also undergone surgery and both players [Tsotsobe and Zondeki] will need about three months off to complete the rehabilitation process," Procter said.

The second Test begins on Friday in Durban, and the third will be played in Cape Town from February 19.

? Cricinfo

 

[aussie1st]

Good win there, had a feeling keeping the pressure on would strangle SA and they would fall after that. Key was the wickets of Alma he was playing his shots and bringing Kallis with him like he did in the previous day. Once he left Kallis went to stone walling but couldn't stay in.

Good bowling by Johnson and well supported by Siddle, Hilfy and McDonald.