SA or India : The Real Challengers To Australia`s Throne.

[Cricketman]

Laxman is a far superior batsman then Prince, i'm surprised that people are even questioning it.

I think an India - SA series right now would be the best cricket that we've seen in a long long time.

 

[shravi]

Also South Africa is not famous for its spin bowling, like Asian teams are. That would be why Boucher allegedly can't keep to spinners :

Talk about a vendetta... That's not even a proper excuse. He can't keep as well as Dhoni to spinners means he can't keep as well as Dhoni to spinners. There's no two ways about it, or any excuses. Seeing as some members have claimed Boucher to be the better keeper then he should be better in all areas of keeping because we all know wicket keeping does not only comprise of keeping to fast bowlers.

 

[aditya123]

Talk about a vendetta... That's not even a proper excuse. He can't keep as well as Dhoni to spinners means he can't keep as well as Dhoni to spinners. There's no two ways about it, or any excuses. Seeing as some members have claimed Boucher to be the better keeper then he should be better in all areas of keeping because we all know wicket keeping does not only comprise of keeping to fast bowlers.

No one here seems ready to want to accept that India are on par with SA at the moment in terms of resources.They seem to suggest that Laxman v Prince is a no-brainer in Prince`s favor !

Griffo has not responded to my question yet. Why does he feel that the analysis is biased? Would a biased analysis towards India ever say Amla on is better than Dravid (based on current form of course).Comments like "Its so biased that its not even funny" without supporting it with reasons makes no sense.Does it mean that an Indian writing an article must never suggest that an Indian player is better than his South African counterpart even if it is supported by fact and performances.

 

[Dare]

a more fair compariosn of the bowlers would be.

Steyn/Khan
Ntini=Sharma
Morkel/Any other 3rd Indian pacer
Harbhajan/Harris


As for Laxman vs Prince in my eyes it could be 50/50, both are good batsman. Prince is underrated and the same can be said about Laxman I guess. Prince has 10 centuries and 8 half centuries.

 

[aditya123]

a more fair compariosn of the bowlers would be.

Steyn/Khan
Ntini=Sharma
Morkel/Any other 3rd Indian pacer
Harbhajan/Harris


As for Laxman vs Prince in my eyes it could be 50/50, both are good batsman. Prince is underrated and the same can be said about Laxman I guess. Prince has 10 centuries and 8 half centuries.

I went for Khan v Ntini because both are the most experienced members of their respective pace attacks.Steyn and Sharma are relatively inexperienced and do warrant a comparison.

 

[Dare]

I went for Khan v Ntini because both are the most experienced members of their respective pace attacks.Steyn and Sharma are relatively inexperienced and do warrant a comparison.

I went with the best bowlers on their respective teams.
Atm Steyn is ahead of Sharma by some margin.

 

[aditya123]

I went with the best bowlers on their respective teams.
Atm Steyn is ahead of Sharma by some margin.

Not that wide a margin.
Steyn has obviously played a lot more test cricket than Sharma but Sharma has not been poor either.He has also played mostly on flat decks in India and has always looked threatening.He also bowled exceptionally well in Australia.

aditya123 added 1 Minutes and 33 Seconds later...

And talking of wicketkeeping, it takes a lot more skill to keep to spinners than to fast bowling on true tracks.You very rarely see a keeper dropping catches while keeping to a fast bowler.

 

[Neo95]

Morkel, Ntini, Steyn are better than what India has to offer.
Laxman is not better than Prince on current form.

Lol looks like you dunno that Laxman has scored more runs than Prince this whole year.

 

[Highlander999]

Talk about a vendetta... That's not even a proper excuse. He can't keep as well as Dhoni to spinners means he can't keep as well as Dhoni to spinners. There's no two ways about it, or any excuses. Seeing as some members have claimed Boucher to be the better keeper then he should be better in all areas of keeping because we all know wicket keeping does not only comprise of keeping to fast bowlers.

Notice I said allegedly. I don't think it is true, I was responding to that bias idiot who was having a dig at Suren. I think Boucher is perfectly fine with spinners.

I really do think people need to start reading posts better, instead of straight away looking for a fight. But hey, that is what the majority of you guys seem to want to do these days

Highlander999 added 0 Minutes and 38 Seconds later...

Lol looks like you dunno that Laxman has scored more runs than Prince this whole year.

Hasn't Prince been having injury problems?

 

[Neo95]

Hasn't Prince been having injury problems?

i think he has been having injuries from this month only.:confused:

 

[Arunava]

South Africa is better than India even now. South Africa drew with India in India recently when India is at its best. South Africa didn't play Australia as much as India as recently home or away.

 

[Chetan0304]

Agree^^
it' South Africa at 1 and then India. the Kangaroos are grown old now

 

[WestIndian]

My humble opinion is that aditya, made a fair comparison in his writing, and I respect his views. I don't see JP getting in before Prince, not with one good inning. I also have seen Prince played spin and I believe that he handles it good enough. And of course India dominates the spin department.

 

[Valaskjalf]

@Arunava: Finally some Saffer responds! I just saw this tread and it seemed extremely one-sided, no South Africans to comment.

I do feel that its a very close call between the two sides and concur that player v player comparisons mean nothing. Cricket isnt a game of indivicuals its a game of partnerships and mental strength.

At the moment I think SA have the edge over India, simply because unlike Australia, South Africa never had any mental issues to counter when playing India. Especially after the win against the Aussies, South Africa are really going to dominate...we've gone unbeaten for the last 11 tests beating England in England for the first time, drawing with India in India and now delivering what is possibly the best 4th innings batting display of all time and that IN Australia. No matter how much the Australians declined, it is always a huge challenge for any side to win there.

I do think that the player v player comparisons are a bit superficial to some extent - 4 of SA's top 6 are ranked in the highest scorers for 2008, India are playing well against England but they're playing at home so it's safe to say England probably cant be as focussed as they would often be. Playing in India is one thing, but playing in such hostile, dangerous environments makes it even worse.

Player-wise Gambhir is looking very good. He scored big 100's against Australia and another 179 against England, yet Neil McKenzie averaged 85 this years against the Indians in India.

So comparing these players are a bit daft...teamwise and for future prospects Id go for SA. As someone said earlier, India have big shoes to fill when players like Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar call it quits. And when they do Im pretty sure it will all happen in quick succession. Suddenly their top order looks much less settled.

Whereas South Africa has young guys like Amla (25) and De Villiers (24) who are already settled in their roles and form part of an organised and well-oiled side. When the time comes for the 3 Indians to call it quits, it will cause a lot of disruption in their side. Players like Tendulkar is irreplaceable and sooner rather than later India will find out the hard way.

 

[venom2011]

Just some side info. In August 2009 Imran Tahir, the pakistani leg spinner, qualifies to play for SA so that will give SA some extra firepower when touring the sub-continent. He has been very successful in SA franchise cricket. Here's his career stats:

Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 4w 5w 10
First-class 77 94 14340 7507 297 8/76 25.27 3.14 48.2 18 4

http://content-rsa.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/player/40618.html