England tour of South Africa 09/10

[CaptainOZ]

I hope Swann continues to flourish in Test cricket. They say that once batters learn how to play them after the first year, bowlers can fade away. But Swann looks the goods.

 

[Ollie_H]

Here's another one,

Fielders to the left of me, Joker right in front of me,
Stuck here not sure what to do.
Ball spinning to the right of me, spinning just away from me.
Stuck here not sure what to do.
Glove it to the right of me, knick it just behind o' me
And now I'm walking back to the zoo.

To the tune of stuck in the middle with you.

 

[stefan]

Great performance from Morne and Dale. Good job from Kallis and De Wet keeping the pressure on and not letting england get away like ntini did in the last few tests.

If we can play swan well we can get a good total. Need to get to 300-350 to be confident.

 

[Owzat]

I firmly believe your being too harsh on onions, it's like flintof stat that he only took 2/3 5 wicket hauls in his test career. IMO Onions gas bowled much better than Broad, but Onions is doing it the 'Mcgrath' way and building pressure from one end whilst the other bowlers take wickets.

If you're referring to what I said, don't assume I don't like Onions as a bowler because I do. But with a four bowler attack you do need all the bowlers to be carrying their weight and we need him to put in a 3-4 wicket haul here to save the situation. 56/1 isn't too clever, we really needed 2-3 wickets by lunch. If we want to be chasing maybe as little as 200 we need to have them out by 181 and need to get key batsmen out. Last thing we need is the current pair at the crease getting in, they'll take the Test away from us in a flash.

This is one pitch where we can't afford bowlers having an "off day", on a high scoring batting pitch you can afford them to be below par, but on a pitch where there is something in it for the bowlers then they need to make most of it. It's why I feel a low scoring Test pitch is more of a "Test" than high scorers. Runs have to be earned, hundreds are truly earned, and bowlers might have it slightly easier but still have to put the ball in the right place. Last thing you can afford is wide half-volleys, long-hops and pitching short all the time. These days too many pitches are batting belters, it would be a real shame if England finally get a good pitch and have done their best to throw it away by letting the saffers off the hook at 127/5, letting them off it again by tossing wickets away to be 73/4 and now when Bell, Cook and Prior fought to get them back in it, let the saffers rebuild their advantage. How peeved would Liverpool fans have been if they'd got back to 3-3 in Istanbul and then conceded another? Hard work done and undone in an instant. Momentum theories go out the window, England should have been the happier with the situation having clawed back 73/4 to 273 all out.

So after lunch is crucial, Onions to knock a couple over quickly, Broad to take out the middle order and Swann to polish off the rest. Having escaped going 0-1 down, having spectacularly gone 1-0 up, I'm sure England would rather be 2-0 up than 1-1 away from home. Set the target as having them 3-4 down by the time they get to 100, seven down by 150 and go from there. Both sides were around 50/3 1st innings so it isn't like it can't be done



re the Flintoff stat. That PERFECTLY highlights why he was massively over-rated, that and ZERO 10wi in 77 Tests for England (taking out the ICC non-event and the abandoned Test where only seven runs were scored). He could be a destructive bowler yet rarely actually destroyed any batting line-ups. He was such a waste of a talent, consider how much more ability he had than the likes of Swann, Onions etc and how little he made of it (in relative terms) I could quote you lots of telling stats that show how Flintoff was good but never great, but you can go look for yourself at his series stats and see how often he took significants numbers of wickets or scored lots of runs in series. Only three times did he score more than 270 runs in a series for England (in 24 series) and only TWICE did he take 15+ wickets in a series. You may say some series were only three Tests, but for someone averaging over 30 then 180 in six innings would be par and 270 only 45 average per innings over six innings

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerSeries.asp?PlayerID=2148

Anyway, the bowling

Flintoff Test Wickets - by innings

DNB : 19
0 wkt : 28
1 wkt : 42
2 wkts : 34
3 wkts : 18
4 wkts : 10
5 wkts : 3

Flintoff Test Wickets - by Test

0 wkts : 9
1 wkt : 12
2 wkts : 15
3 wkts : 13
4 wkts : 15
5 wkts : 4
6 wkts : 6
7 wkts : 2
8 wkts : 1
9+ wkts : 0

So bog standardly taking 1-4 wickets in a match in 71.4% of his Tests for England, that's nothing special as records go, never taking a 10wi puts him nowhere near the world class status some consider(ed) him. He's comfortably been England's best all-rounder since Botham, but Botham was a much more devastating bowler with the stats to back him up. Plenty dismiss stats, funny how to make Flintoff look "world class" you have to dismiss his stats when every other world class player ever has stats to prove it............................

 

[CaptainOZ]

Swann's gonna get Smith here soon, I can feel it

 

[CaptainOZ]

Though I must admit, Smith looks like he's in the right mood today for a biggish score.

 

[CaptainOZ]

South Africa in complete command now.

 

[stefan]

Great effort by Amla and Smith. Smith might have been a bit lucky vs Swan but that happens. Great position now. If we can bat till lunch tomorrow we should win, england need wickets and fast.

Btw. Thoughts on broad's tampering with the ball?? Looked like clear stamping on the ball for me.

 

[Ollie_H]

did he actually? :o What did the umps do? I missed that whole incident!

 

[cooks1st100]

Owzat, that's a great post, I think you have hit the nail on the head on many points. The most interesting read for a while to be frank.... anyway, back to 2 and a Half Men, Charlie's doing stuff.....

 

[CaptainOZ]

Nice to see Smith's Test average go beyond 50. Hope he gets a century here

 

[King Pietersen]

Great effort by Amla and Smith. Smith might have been a bit lucky vs Swan but that happens. Great position now. If we can bat till lunch tomorrow we should win, england need wickets and fast.

Btw. Thoughts on broad's tampering with the ball?? Looked like clear stamping on the ball for me.

How the hell would stamping on what was a fairly new ball be of any assistance to England? Thought it was quite clear that he was not doing that in order to tamper with the condition of the ball, as randomly stamping on the ball is not going to assist swing or reverse swing at all. Mountain being made of a molehill.

 

[Simbazz]

Trying to change the shape of the ball maybe Dan? I've not watched it, but if he's stamped on the ball, then it could change the shape of it, or rough up a side.

 

[Ollie_H]

if eating mints causes an outcry I can imagine stamping on the ball will do.

 

[mattfb]

Now that's confidence from Smith on 96! If only Watson had that kind of confidence in the 90's! Haha