South Africa in Australia Dec 2008-Jan 2009

[srikarr12]

Im telling you once again why Australia is gonna lose. Its because Ponting didnt take his Swiss Ultivites when he was 99 not out. If he had taken them theyd be in a lead of 300 at least.

for those who dont know what im talking about. Refer to this YouTube - Swisse Vitamins & Ricky Ponting

They play that video every second over break. lol

 

[aditya123]

I`ll be up early to watch the first session and for the first time since the 2005 Ashes, I`ll be supporting the Aussies.Hoping for a wounded Lee to churn out a match-winning spell out of his reserves a la Marshall/Kapil/Botham`s heroics whilst being injured.

 

[stefan]

Man, I really love watching Dale Steyn bowl. He's got everything, fantastic pace, swing, bounce and he takes wickets. Anyone doubting his talents before this series must be surely taking it back now. He's really proven himself to the world, been a fantastic performance in this Test. His stats are fantastic, 140 Test wickets at an average of 23.18 and a strike rate of 38, they're magnificent stats. Wickets against everyone, awesome bowler.

Its actually 150, siddle was number 150. But I agree fantastic bowler. Reminds me a lot of Donald.

I wonder whether Hayden regrets his comments about steyn before the series started. The mind game seem to have totally failed this time round.

 

[Maxkarter]

I'm sure it's 150 wickets, heard something about being the fastest South African bowler to 150 test wickets, that or he's going to be the fastest to get there.

Time for McLovin to come in here and complain Steyn only takes the wickets of tailenders, I think today showed he can get any part of the batting line-up out :

Anyway, really good effort hopefully the boys can wrap it up rather easily tomorrow, especially after that monumental chase to win the last test. It's also nice to see Duminy come in with all the hype that surrounds him on the domestic circuit and do well. I just hope he can keep this up, hes got the making to be one of the best batsmen in the game.

Our bowling still isn't upto scratch though, Morne still isn't firing on all cylinders so if he keeps improving we should be well set for the final game of the series with Steyn and Ntini doing well. Harris isn't doing all that badly, he isn't a stand-out weak link really in the sense that batsmen are exploiting him. Oh well he'll do until Tshabalala is ready for test cricket.

I just hope we win this game and take the series, it'll put a rest to everyone saying 'This time it's ours' when we go over to play!

 

[aussie1st]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,24854220-23212,00.html

Lol Ponting again blaming the bowlers for us being on the verge of losing this test series. They are to blame partly but geez if the batters can't make 150 runs between them then there is no platform for the bowlers to defend. And if it wasn't for the batting of the bowlers we wouldn't have got the 1st inns total we did. But maybe they finally realised we need a swing and reverse swing bowler. How on earth we didn't learn this lesson from our last Ashes loss I'll never know but again it's coming to bite us in the ass.

 

[barmyarmy]

I always felt that Australia didn't learn the lessons from the 2005 Ashes but tried to paper over the cracks instead. Ponting as captain has always been a large crack for me too.
SA are obviously a great side atm but Australia are facing the real prospect of losing a home series 3-0.

 

[aussie_ben91]

I don't think Steyn is all that great. He still hasn't gotten Ponting out and he looked at sea whilst bowling at him. Steyn also looked to be struggling bowling to Hayden early on in the day before Hayden played a rash shot. Ironically, he also struggled against Kevin Pietersen in England earlier this year aswell. He looked allot better bowling to Clarke, Symonds, Haddin and the tail though.

Steyn has a bit've Glenn McGrath about him. He doesn't look like the most threatening bowler in the world but he always finishes with quality figures.

 

[barmyarmy]

I agree that Steyn still has a long way to go which I guess makes his potential frightening. For now though he's still good enough to bowl out Australia

 

[smssia0112]

Team management have to take the blame here, not Ponting. He does the best he can and he was magnificent this test. He showed why he is the captain. Obviously if we want a new skipper, that's up to the team management to decide. Most of all, the selectors have to be blamed for failing to make the changes when it was necessary. Why drop one mediocre for another and then declare the attack ready to improve on a pathetic first test performance? Why not change the batting lineup at all that performed so poorly and had at least one injured player?

What Australian needs is not to blame individual players, they all try their hardest and it's not their fault if they're not good enough, we need to blame those who pick them. Hayden and Symonds should definitely not have been picked, and the selectors should have dropped Lee because our pace attack wasn't good enough. If we'd played Rogers or Hughes opening, and Watson, North or Hussey in the middle order, who knows whether we'd have won, but we would have definitely performed better.

It's time to reward those in form and punish those out of it. Stop being so indifferent selectors. Cricket Australia should sack the selectors, do we really not have better ones out there? So many ex players and yet 2 of the selection panel are former jokers and larrikins of the team.

 

[stefan]

I'm sure it's 150 wickets, heard something about being the fastest South African bowler to 150 test wickets, that or he's going to be the fastest to get there.

Time for McLovin to come in here and complain Steyn only takes the wickets of tailenders, I think today showed he can get any part of the batting line-up out :

Anyway, really good effort hopefully the boys can wrap it up rather easily tomorrow, especially after that monumental chase to win the last test. It's also nice to see Duminy come in with all the hype that surrounds him on the domestic circuit and do well. I just hope he can keep this up, hes got the making to be one of the best batsmen in the game.

Our bowling still isn't upto scratch though, Morne still isn't firing on all cylinders so if he keeps improving we should be well set for the final game of the series with Steyn and Ntini doing well. Harris isn't doing all that badly, he isn't a stand-out weak link really in the sense that batsmen are exploiting him. Oh well he'll do until Tshabalala is ready for test cricket.

I just hope we win this game and take the series, it'll put a rest to everyone saying 'This time it's ours' when we go over to play!

I am pretty sure harris will have more worries of keeping his place from Tahir as opposed to Thandi. I believe the legspinner would be more dangerious to any batting attack.

 

[Themer]

I think the problems facing Australia are very similar to those that England are currently faced with, the team management and selectors simply refuse to pick anyone who isn't in the little "club", e.g. Bell and Symonds both terribly out of form yet they keep their places. The selectors of both really need to look at form alot more imo as repeatedly selecting people who are out of form means you can only go one way which is down. Not overly sure on who's knocking on the Test door in Australia but the England team have alot of people who could probably do better that those who are there such as Shah who is repeatedly ignored.

 

[ZexyZahid]

Of course Steyn isn't that great. He is only the current Test Player of Year and the second best Test bowler in the world and is only below Muralitharan at the moment.

South Africa will probably get the runs after lunch, so the Australian TV audience can view the Cricket Show.

 

[manee]

Superb stuff from Dale Steyn, really has a knack for picking up wickets, something quite useful as a bowler. His bowling is all so action packed, pretty much everything is to play at - truly exciting viewing. He has shown proficiency against left handers too, which is a massive step forward for him. I truly thought this exceptional form of his was coming to an end in England, but clearly he is still taking wickets at a superb strike rate.

 

[Leggie]

Just watched the highlights. Amazing stuff from Dale Steyn both wth the bat and ball. its not easy to dismantle the Aussie Batting line up, And that twice too. Hats off to him. JP Duminy is also having a dream start to his Test Career. I think its quite clear now that the Aussies are declining.

 

[Maxkarter]

I am pretty sure harris will have more worries of keeping his place from Tahir as opposed to Thandi. I believe the legspinner would be more dangerious to any batting attack.

I'll gladly admit Tahir is a good bowler, but why should we give him the chance to play for us when we could blood some new guys in? It's basically just another way of chasing our youngsters away like what happened with Pietersen, a good signal to send out to our youngsters who hope to represent their country one day isn't it? "Oh, I'll just go to England/Australia and try to play for them if thats what my country does to me". I don't like that.

After all that I've said above Tahirs stats don't lie and nor do his performances, but lets get real, the fact that he hasn't represented Pakistan yet, even though he has all that talent makes you wonder doesn't it? Call me biased or a 'fan-boy' but I really believe that with the correct guidance Thandi can become a really good bowler still, in spin bowling terms he's still a baby and after-all the current selection policy seems to be leaning more towards a consistant selection, so why have Tahir for four or so years when we can slowly develop Thandi more and have him as a real long term player.