South Africa in Australia Dec 2008-Jan 2009

[stefan]

Really poor day for SA. Again the inability to knock over the tail on good wickets is causing major issues. Hopefully it can be solved once Tahir qualifies to play for us in April.

On Sa pitches with green grass the bowlers have no major issues but on these good batting strips we are struggling.

And batting just like in perth didn't perform in the first innings.

Aus are major favourites for this.

 

[angryangy]

The outfield turns 4s into 3s and at times it seems difficult to hit the ball off the square, but the 11 wickets falling on day 2 seem unheralded. Although Lee struggled again, it was Siddle and Hauritz, who amidst questions over their inclusion, showed prime examples of the basics. Hauritz made scoring difficult and bowled a huge spell through the middle of the day. Siddle bowled up to 150 kph, jagging the ball into the stumps of the right handers McKenzie and de Villiers. Johnson also took two useful wickets, but his battles late in the day with Harris and Morkel suggest he wasn't quite on song. Just like Perth, Australia are looking to go into the 3rd innings with a huge lead, but they will want to make amends and leave South Africa out in the cold.

 

[aussie1st]

Syl, Johnson has been getting a bit of swing, notably the one that swung in late to Smith and nearly bowled him.

I don't even know how he swings it with the way he releases the ball.

The bowling lineup should be;
Hilfy
Sid(opening bowler)
Mitch(opening bowler)
Natz

Good in theory but Clark will walk back in. But if we are going that then Hilfy will be opening, Mitch is better as first change anyway.

 

[ZexyZahid]

And again South Africa couldn't contain the tail. They should have get Australia out before the 300 runs. But South Africa only scored the half of what Australia and at 198-7 I believe the deficit is too much for South Africa to overcome.

 

[Mr.Cricket]

Great day for Australia and Peter Siddle. He didn't even look like taking a wicket in Perth but today he was just brilliant. He looked every bit a test cricketer today. Pretty happy with Hauritz as well. I guess this is what you get from him. Hes not going to rip though teams but he can keep one end tight and get couple of wickets. I am not sure if he can be our long-term spinner but atleast he can do a job for the team. The big concern with our bowling is the form of Brett Lee , he was trying very hard today again with not much luck. I am sure things will turn around for him soon.

Hopefully we can get the next 3 wickets under 50 runs and bat them out of the game tomorrow. Go AUssies!!!

 

[mattfb]

I don't even know how he swings it with the way he releases the ball.

Good in theory but Clark will walk back in. But if we are going that then Hilfy will be opening, Mitch is better as first change anyway.

Yeah, Clark will deservedly walk back into the team. Mitch needs to develop swing better because then we can afford to play Clark for Hilfy.

 

[Mr.Cricket]

I don't even know how he swings it with the way he releases the ball.

lol fair point. But he can reverse swing the old ball pretty well. At the start of his career he had the ability to swing the ball both ways. I wouldn't think that you can lose the ability to swing the ball completely , or can you ? I think he would be working pretty hard in the nets to get that swing back. Maybe its only a matter of time.....

 

[aussie1st]

I think Johnson problem when he was swinging it was it didn't feel natural or something like that. This meant he couldn't bowl at the pace he wanted and he had no control. It probably is only a matter of time, hopefully before the Ashes

I also don't know how he gets reverse swing since the ball is going down scrambled. But you will notice his reverse swing isn't anywhere near as dangerous as guys like Flintoff, Jones, Akram and co.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

I think Johnson problem when he was swinging it was it didn't feel natural or something like that. This meant he couldn't bowl at the pace he wanted and he had no control. It probably is only a matter of time, hopefully before the Ashes

I also don't know how he gets reverse swing since the ball is going down scrambled. But you will notice his reverse swing isn't anywhere near as dangerous as guys like Flintoff, Jones, Akram and co.

Only a matter of time he will be like one of these, even better

 

[Mr.Cricket]

I think Johnson problem when he was swinging it was it didn't feel natural or something like that. This meant he couldn't bowl at the pace he wanted and he had no control. It probably is only a matter of time, hopefully before the Ashes

I also don't know how he gets reverse swing since the ball is going down scrambled. But you will notice his reverse swing isn't anywhere near as dangerous as guys like Flintoff, Jones, Akram and co.

Whatever that works for him I guess. It would be nice if he can get his swing back but Im happy if he can just bowl in good areas like he has been doing lately. He got enough weapons to some damage like the bouncer ,good pace, off cutter and his natural angle ,he just needs to bowl in good areas.

Maybe he needs to use some mints , that will help the reverse swing

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Smith should call Kirsten, to seek help

 

[Gilly Fan]

I enjoyed enjoyed today's cricket. Sitting in the GSS right next to the sight screen, it was great to see the bowlers run in and see the ball instead of being side on from the pitch. We did very well in that first session to add a few runs. I still think to this hour that that ball bounced to Graham Smith. Even before the replay I thought it bounced.

Binga was batting well, but sadly we can't say that about his bowling. His 1st two overs were of great pace and accuracy, but after that he was fairly poor.

Siiiiddle Peter Siddle! Bay 13 were going absolutely nuts when he was taking wickets. The appealing after he bowled De Villiers was priceless (And the fact that my mate said just before he bowled the ball "Bowled Him". Far out he was bowling quick. 150s consistenly and he looked it from where I was sitting. The batsman were really struggling to play him and it seemed to come on to the bat far quicker than all of them expected.

Mates complained that it was boring (So we had to leave at 5:20pm ), but I thought it was fascinating test cricket and we did well to get the upper hand. I really thought Smith and Amla were going to put together another big partnership, then Smith and Kallis were in.

So at 7/198, hopefully we can clean up the tail quickly tomorrow and get on to set them a big 4th innings total (Hopefully around 500. You can never be too safe these days).

 

[.Mob]

You should have just stared at the guy who said it was boring for 10 seconds without blinking, no way was it boring! Eventful all the way through.

Here's hoping JP can salvage something (a ton would be nice ) and bring that lead down to realistically about 100. Harris could hang about, but other than that, he has to go for it.

 

[smssia0112]

Got in a full day of cricket today, lots of fun and great to see Siddle prove the critics wrong. As I've been saying over and over, Siddle will be a superstar, he's clearly got the talent and just needs a vote of confidence and a chance. He can bat too

Which of these shall I quote in my signature?

1. Pretty dumb decision to pick Siddle in the first place.

2. But now they have picked him, it would be bad selection dropping him after 1 bad performance, so they'll play him.

3. But if we play him he'll struggle again and as a result we'll lose.

In conclusion, the selection of Peter Siddle has cost us the series.

With Siddle in team, we will loose this test match too Good decission :

 

[aussie1st]

If they do get it to under 100 then I got a bad felling of de ja vu from Perth. We bat crap again and SA show us how it's down and take a 2-0 lead.