South Africa in Australia Dec 2008-Jan 2009

[shravi]

Why would you open with Morkel. DeVilliers has opened before quite a lot at test level. He should have done it, if not Amla who has ended up doing it now anyhow.

Didn't want to disrupt the order as everyone was happy with their position. Another reason might've been to get a quick start with a player whose wicket is worth far less so there's not too much to cry over if he loses his wicket quickly.

 

[Big Man]

Little nervous heading into tomorrow.

Really wanted another wicket.

 

[Yogy]

South Africa have done well to not lose any more wickets after Morkel perished early. Tomorrow should be an interesting day. If South Africa don't lose too many wickets they will be looking to chase it down but if they lose a couple of quick wickets they will be on the backfoot. The pitch is not the easiest to bat on so the Proteas have their task cut out.

 

[aussie1st]

SA will be happy with that start. This is Siddle pitch so you would expect him to step up tomorrow. I wonder if Johnson luck with the wide one is starting to die down, needs to get more of those cutters in there.

Bollinger needs to pitch the ball up hes bowling too short to get any swing.

 

[angryangy]

McDonald is the smokey. He was beating the batsmen with length balls on the stumps. Do that enough and surely one is going to be plumb.

 

[mattfb]

Why on earth did Morkel open? One of the South Africa batsmen should have hardened up and bit the bullet and opened.

 

[aussie1st]

If McDonald was slightly quicker he would be a real handful. But as it is the SA batters are able to get forward to make it harder to get out LBW.

 

[Big Man]

Why on earth did Morkel open? One of the South Africa batsmen should have hardened up and bit the bullet and opened.

Apparently the middle order did not want to be reshuffled.

 

[nikhil_99]

Game is well posied,SA need another 314 and have 9 wickets with them,Req RR is 3.488,possible if they play well...

 

[jordox]

Why on earth did Morkel open? One of the South Africa batsmen should have hardened up and bit the bullet and opened.

It was the right move to open with Morkel. He's kind of useful with the bat, and if he gets out early at the top (like he did) it didn't really matter. Remember, they are down a batsman.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

I was simply not happy when Punter declared. i feel 400+ would have been more safe. Now all depends on 5th pitch. If Hamlo scored a ton now i will simply thrash Haddin

 

[jordox]

I am concerned what will happen if South Africa come back and win this. Ponting will cop it bad in the media and that always annoys me when that happens, because I like the guy and I think his captancy is quite good, it's just that idiot journalists who want a story don't really understand the choices he makes and jumps on his back.

 

[stefan]

Pitch seems to be playing better than it did on the third day.

Key is the first session if we can at most lose 1 wicket than we get a draw or if everything goes well a win. Still lots of hard work to do.

The decision to open with morkel was the correct, we couldn't afford to lose any of our other batsmen already being down 1 batsmen. Had this been the old SA side with the likes of pollock,klusener,boje at 8 and 9 then fine to promote a batsmen to a position he doesn't like but with this team we don't have the batting depth to risk upsetting the order.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

I am concerned what will happen if South Africa come back and win this. Ponting will cop it bad in the media and that always annoys me when that happens, because I like the guy and I think his captancy is quite good, it's just that idiot journalists who want a story don't really understand the choices he makes and jumps on his back.

I will not be surprise. I don't trust this pitch and run chasing stories. If you have a good team then you should not care about the previous targets and its chances. I really felt 376 is not enough despite of considering the pitch. Today was 4th day and the pitch doesnt look to me as any threat at all. Ponting was playing so well as well as Hussey and Pup. Now all depends on the 5th day pitch and on our bolwers. Speaking of bolwers, Siddle was very impressive along with Bollinger. Siddle provided the chnace and Haddin dropped it :o I really hope the pitch detoriate so that our part time bolwers can also be helpful.

 

[IloveGilly]

It won't be all easy for them. 314 runs with 90 overs. Thats almost 3.5 RPO. The only problem is the inexperience is going to leave a lot of dry spells and possibly give away some quite expensive overs. The extremely hot weather today didn't help, wasn't a lot of moisture, the pitch is still solid and the outfield is still lightning fast.

Also starting to have doubts over Haddin. He's missed a lot and gave a way of lot of runs. I'd like to say the next new ball will make a difference, but besides the first ball of this 4th innings, not a lot of swing.