England tour of South Africa 09/10

[Ollie_H]

I'm not looking forward to when Swann gets out of this major patch of form. He will be come down on like a ton of bricks

Ollie_H added 8 Minutes and 43 Seconds later...

Rishi wants to ruffle some feathers, and who am I to stop him, "To me, Swann is a better bowler than Harbhajan. Bajji's performance is solely dependent on the surface whereas, I find Swann more intelligent and is able to extract something out of even a flat surface." Ouch.

How about that for a comment! Slightly off topic, but Shakib Al Hassan was in my dream last night

 

[Shevchenko]

Look South Africa has a very solid team but you have to chose players who are performing, Duminy's performance over the last few months have been terrible and in all honesty Prince is a much more settled player, so perhaps dropping Duminy and allowing a guy called Stephen Cook to come in and open the batting with Smith would do South Africa better and allowing Prince to drop back in to his old spot where he's done quite good over the last few years.

Ntini's days are gone, it's time he started realizing it, call it a day, Friedel de Wet would have been the more logical choice.

If I had to chose the next test squad for the match at Cape Town:

1. Graeme Smith
2. Stephen Cook - Horses for courses! This guy's been rock solid at domestic level
3. Hashim Amla
4. Jacques Kallis
5. Ashwell Prince - Prince in at middle order is where he belongs, his stats will show you
6. AB De Villiers
7. Mark Boucher
8. Morne Morkel
9. Paul Harris
10. Dale Steyn
11. Friedel de Wet - is far more hungrier than Ntini is, and his tenacity can help lift the squad up around him, for me he is a momentum builder

South Africa's never been good at Durban but have been awesome at Cape Town but it's going to be interesting as to how quickly they recover from this loss in just three days time

 

[aussie1st]

Never would have thought JP would fall so quickly after how he went against us. Is he interested in opening the batting? Could turn out like a Watson story.

 

[madmusician]

I was intrigued by this stat so had a further look see.

I believe that Colin was actually talking about Bell, whose nine centuries look thus:

Eng v Ban, June 2005, Chester le Street: Trescothick got 161 before Bell's 162*

Eng v Pak, November 2005, Faisalabad: KP got his hundred first IIRC, and that's what the partnership stats appear to suggest too.

Eng v Pak, July 2006, Lords: both Cook and Collingwood got hundreds before Bell.

Eng v Pak, July 2006, Old Trafford: Cook got one first

Eng v Pak, Aug 2006, Headingley: KP got one first

Eng v WI, May 2007, Lords: Cook and Collingwood got one first

Eng v NZ, March 2008, Napier, Strauss got one first

Eng v SA, July 2008, Lords, KP got one first

Eng v SA, December 2009, Durban, Cook got one first

So, he really is a "cake icer".

 

[Sureshot]

But what's a cake with no icing?

 

[Highlander999]

Jamaica Ginger Cake?

 

[stefan]

Look South Africa has a very solid team but you have to chose players who are performing, Duminy's performance over the last few months have been terrible and in all honesty Prince is a much more settled player, so perhaps dropping Duminy and allowing a guy called Stephen Cook to come in and open the batting with Smith would do South Africa better and allowing Prince to drop back in to his old spot where he's done quite good over the last few years.

Ntini's days are gone, it's time he started realizing it, call it a day, Friedel de Wet would have been the more logical choice.

If I had to chose the next test squad for the match at Cape Town:

1. Graeme Smith
2. Stephen Cook - Horses for courses! This guy's been rock solid at domestic level
3. Hashim Amla
4. Jacques Kallis
5. Ashwell Prince - Prince in at middle order is where he belongs, his stats will show you
6. AB De Villiers
7. Mark Boucher
8. Morne Morkel
9. Paul Harris
10. Dale Steyn
11. Friedel de Wet - is far more hungrier than Ntini is, and his tenacity can help lift the squad up around him, for me he is a momentum builder

South Africa's never been good at Durban but have been awesome at Cape Town but it's going to be interesting as to how quickly they recover from this loss in just three days time

What has Cook done to get picked ahead of Dean Elgar?? Elgar averages 43 in first class cricket as opposed to Cook's 39. Elgar averages 69 this season with 4 100's and 4 50's. Cook averages 63 this season but only has one hundred and 6 50's. Cook's averages is greatly boosted by that 100 being a 390.

Elgar is the better player.

Also AB should stay at 5 with prince/duminy at 6.

 

[McLOVIN]

lol yestarday i thought they needed 150 runs to win with Boucher and Morkel in the middle, at the end of day 4.

apparently they lost by an innings. this is pretty bad from the team who suppose to be #1/2

 

[Sureshot]

Some good stats for Swann here (one for Owzat). In 14 tests, he's taken four 4-wicket hauls, and four 5-wicket hauls. Pretty good, huh?

 

[drainpipe32]

SA are such chokers

 

[TumTum]

SA are such chokers

It might have something to do with the SA conditions, especially at Durban.

Remember Durban when Australia toured there?

- Hughes and Katto got a 200 run partnership in the 1st day.
- And 14 wickets fell in the 2nd day.

Cricket is a funny game :laugh

 

[Ollie_H]

Some good stats for Swann here (one for Owzat). In 14 tests, he's taken four 4-wicket hauls, and four 5-wicket hauls. Pretty good, huh?

I saw that earlier as well, wasn't sure if it worked the same as the 50's/100's column.

 

[madmusician]

But what's a cake with no icing?

Yes, true, but sometimes you need a cake to be made. Indeed, a cake without icing is better than icing without a cake. Ideally Bell would be able to take on both roles: cake maker and cake icer.

 

[drainpipe32]

A cake with no icing, a butter cake? Sponge?

 

[Sureshot]

I saw that earlier as well, wasn't sure if it worked the same as the 50's/100's column.

It does. Not bad record, eh? Takes a 4 or 5 wicket haul in every 3 innings he bowls so far.

----

Mmm, cake.

Anyway, I do think that while Bell does need to score hundreds when we are in bad positions. Having someone who knocks in hundreds when others do is vital, why? Well look at this match, would we have won without Bell's 140? I highly doubt it.