South Africa in Australia Dec 2008-Jan 2009

[aussie1st]

I didn't see this much rubbish dished out by Krejza in India. He was getting smashed off good balls but over here most of the smashing has been from rubbish short balls. And it's not like MacGill where hes bowling 5 good balls out of 6, been way too short.

If we lose from here I wonder if the selectors will drop Siddle, from what I've seen in the two test hes solid but nothing more and with our attack we need that swing bowler.

 

[sohum]

If South Africa want to lay claim to that 2nd Test rank, they have to win games like this, regardless of the opposition. They need to make sure they don't lose any wickets in the first hour and then I think they should be good to go.

 

[Mr.Cricket]

I didn't see this much rubbish dished out by Krejza in India. He was getting smashed off good balls but over here most of the smashing has been from rubbish short balls. And it's not like MacGill where hes bowling 5 good balls out of 6, been way too short.

If we lose from here I wonder if the selectors will drop Siddle, from what I've seen in the two test hes solid but nothing more and with our attack we need that swing bowler.

I think we should stick with Siddle. Hopefully Clark will be back soon so theres no point chopping and changing the bowlers. I don't think hes ready yet but he is a good prospect. So this is like an investment for the future......oh and remember Johnson took about 10 games to settle in to test cricket.

I am not sure about Krejza but I think hes the best option we got. Atleast hes willing to toss the ball up and try to get wickets . He can also turn and drift the ball , just what you need from an off-spinner. After his debut I think he should give few tests to prove his worth. Just look at Haddin and Johnson , they both had people doubting them after few tests but look at them now. I think its easy to underrate just how hard it is to jump from first class cricket to test cricket.

If theres any change to the side it should be Watson in for Symonds just to give that extra bowling option. Lee , Johnson , Siddle , Watson and Krejza sounds like a pretty good attack. I think Watson is good enough to do that Kallis role with the ball and Kallis did a very important job with the ball in this match. I don't rate his batting , maybe not good enough to bat at 6 but with Haddin and the tail making runs do we really need a specialist at 6 ?

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Tomorrow, we shall not give bowl to Krejza only Binga and Johny boy along with Pup and Roy. I think Katich will be also useful on 5th day

 

[aditya123]

The similarity to the Chennai test of last week is quite eerie.
Graeme Smith has played the Sehwag knock here.Now its time for Kallis to do a Sachin and AB Devilliers to do a Yuvraj.
And another thing which SA have going for them is that the wicket here at Perth is far better than that which India had at Chennai last week.The English attack, I dare say also looks better than the Aussie bowling attack.An historic win is there for the taking for SA.

Is anyone betting on a tie !

 

[venom2011]

I think the match will boil down to how much SA's tail can make. If they can at least contribute 40 runs together, that leaves Kallis, DeVilliers, Duminy, who could well be the big surprise tomorrow because he's such a talented player, and Boucher with 147 to make.

 

[aussie1st]

I think we should stick with Siddle. Hopefully Clark will be back soon so theres no point chopping and changing the bowlers. I don't think hes ready yet but he is a good prospect. So this is like an investment for the future......oh and remember Johnson took about 10 games to settle in to test cricket.

I am not sure about Krejza but I think hes the best option we got. Atleast hes willing to toss the ball up and try to get wickets . He can also turn and drift the ball , just what you need from an off-spinner. After his debut I think he should give few tests to prove his worth. Just look at Haddin and Johnson , they both had people doubting them after few tests but look at them now. I think its easy to underrate just how hard it is to jump from first class cricket to test cricket.

If theres any change to the side it should be Watson in for Symonds just to give that extra bowling option. Lee , Johnson , Siddle , Watson and Krejza sounds like a pretty good attack. I think Watson is good enough to do that Kallis role with the ball and Kallis did a very important job with the ball in this match. I don't rate his batting , maybe not good enough to bat at 6 but with Haddin and the tail making runs do we really need a specialist at 6 ?

Well I suspect the selectors will give Siddle a home test match. The question is how long do we stick with him and do we really see Clark, Lee, Johnson with Siddle winning the Ashes in England. Clark is a given, Johnson is looking good but I do wonder about Lee and Siddle. That attack is also missing the swing bowler.

At present I would say we need that specialist at 6, we are already carrying Hayden, Ponting and Hussey. Can't carry 4 batters. If they were in form Watson at 6 wouldn't look so bad, but atm our batting is too unstable.

 

[manee]

Well I suspect the selectors will give Siddle a home test match. The question is how long do we stick with him and do we really see Clark, Lee, Johnson with Siddle winning the Ashes in England. Clark is a given, Johnson is looking good but I do wonder about Lee and Siddle.

Lee bowled very well today, extremely encouraging signs, imo.

 

[Sman-21]

I think we really should give Bracken a go in the test team.
I cant stand the way he looks talks and the way he acts but i cant argue with his performance in the 1 day team.

Always swings the ball has a nice change of pace and very economical these days surely worth a try if theres no other state players performing too good not to be given a shot.

 

[Yogy]

The very thought that South Africa are chasing 414 might force one to say that Australia are in a very strong position right now. But look at it from this angle: South Africa need 187 runs to win with 7 wickets in hand on the last day. I may stick my neck out and say that it is South Africa who are really on top of things at the moment. They have a great chance of pulling this one off and the kind of shots Kallis seems to be playing, things might just get all the more difficult for Australia. No matter what, we are in for a cracking day of cricket tomorrow.

 

[Mr.Cricket]

Well I suspect the selectors will give Siddle a home test match. The question is how long do we stick with him and do we really see Clark, Lee, Johnson with Siddle winning the Ashes in England. Clark is a given, Johnson is looking good but I do wonder about Lee and Siddle. That attack is also missing the swing bowler.

At present I would say we need that specialist at 6, we are already carrying Hayden, Ponting and Hussey. Can't carry 4 batters. If they were in form Watson at 6 wouldn't look so bad, but atm our batting is too unstable.

I think we will only stick with Siddle till Clark is back. We can pretty much lock in Lee , Clark and Johnson in for the Ashes allready. I doubt we are going to use 4 pacemen in a game (unless there is an injury to one of the quicks). Ideally we want someone like Watson at 6 who could play that 4th /5th bowlers role.

I agree with your point about the swing bowler. But I guess we just have to cope with what we got. There is bit of pressure on Lee to step up , I think he will rise to the challenge.

At present I would say we need that specialist at 6, we are already carrying Hayden, Ponting and Hussey. Can't carry 4 batters. If they were in form Watson at 6 wouldn't look so bad, but atm our batting is too unstable.

I don't think we can carry Hayden , Ponting and Hussey with or without a specialist batsman at 6. They are all top class batmen and I doubt they will keep failing , if they do we got no chance anyway. But our bowling is significantly weaker than our batting atm so I don't mind sacrificing few runs to load up on bowling. End of the day we don't really look like taking 20 wickets and I doubt replacing Lee/Clark with a new quick (even if he can swing it) or playing a different spinner or playing 4 quicks will help the cause much (I think its important to have a spinner). Playing Watson at 6 sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

 

[aussie1st]

Lee bowled very well today, extremely encouraging signs, imo.

His opening spell was good but from what I'm use to with Lee he lacked that real weapon with the genuine out swinger. It does seem hes developing some cutters which could compensate for his drop in pace.

 

[Mr.Cricket]

The very thought that South Africa are chasing 414 might force one to say that Australia are in a very strong position right now. But look at it from this angle: South Africa need 187 runs to win with 7 wickets in hand on the last day. I may stick my neck out and say that it is South Africa who are really on top of things at the moment. They have a great chance of pulling this one off and the kind of shots Kallis seems to be playing, things might just get all the more difficult for Australia. No matter what, we are in for a cracking day of cricket tomorrow.

Nothing is impossible in cricket. If they can 430 in ODI match chasing 414 should be easy. But if we can get one or 2 quick wickets things will go downhill pretty quickly I reckon. Boucher is still a danger man though , he is just the sort of a guy who could pull something off like this. Even Duminy might surprise us. But if we bowl well enough we shouldn't lose the game from here , simple as that.

 

[aussie1st]

I don't think we can carry Hayden , Ponting and Hussey with or without a specialist batsman at 6. They are all top class batmen and I doubt they will keep failing , if they do we got no chance anyway. But our bowling is significantly weaker than our batting atm so I don't mind sacrificing few runs to load up on bowling. End of the day we don't really look like taking 20 wickets and I doubt replacing Lee/Clark with a new quick (even if he can swing it) or playing a different spinner or playing 4 quicks will help the cause much (I think its important to have a spinner). Playing Watson at 6 sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

I agree our batting is better than our bowling but having that extra batter always helps. For mind we have been lacking that lately and hence our average scores have been well below 400 which we usually got with specialist batters. Plus we did have Watson at 6 during India but we never looked like taking 20 wickets.

 

[Gibbsrules]

Wow,what a match this is turning out to be!Kallis is going to be key here,without Prince in the side I would say that Australia are still favourites but not buy much.I really think that Duminy could spring a surprise if he has to bat,I think that nerves got to him in the 1st innings but this guy has some real talent.Then Boucher is always up for a fight too,but after that not too much hope left.Morkel can hang around but thats about it.O and Mitchel Johnson:hpraise