South Africa in Australia Dec 2008-Jan 2009

[mattfb]

Lucky old Australia.

Lol, considering Steyn and Ntini played and missed at about 30+ balls I wouldn't call us the lucky ones

Amazing stuff by Smith, really heroic. Great game, just awesome.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Great series... now is Macdonald > Symonds? Certainly a better bowler. Bollinger was ok in patches. I wonder if SA should've given one of their pacemen a break. I like the look of Zondeki.

MCdonald got few wickets due to the cracks. Roy is a better batsman and a bowler compare to Mcdonald. He would have bowl better than Hauritz in this pitch. I hope before going South Africa we should arrange a better spinner, thi Hauritz will not work.

 

[Mr.Cricket]

You're joking, right? McDonald is useless. We'd be better off playing Symonds, North or Dave Hussey or using a real allrounder like Shane Watson who is a much better batsman and bowler then McDonald. How McDonald even got a gig in the first place is beyhond me - I thought he was a OD specialist.

He is not a test player yet but I thought he did a good job. He bowled something like 35 overs and got 3 important wickets. Thats what you need from your all rounder (5th bowler). You can just see how tired Siddle and Johnson were during that last session. Imagine if they had to bowl even more overs , not an ideal situation with back to back to back test matches these days. The only problem I have is his batting. If hes batting at #6 he HAS to make runs. I haven't seen him bat too much so I am ready to give him couple of matches to show what he got. I heard he can swing the ball as well , he could be useful in South African and English conditions.

How good is North with the ball? I know he is good enough to bat at #6. If he can do a job with the ball maybe we can play him at 6 and play 4 specialist seamers. Hauritz is not really a wicket taker so its not like we are losing anything.

Hayden/Jaques
Katich
Ponting
Hussey
Clarke
North/Symonds
Haddin
Johnson
Siddle
Johnson
Bollinger

 

[aussie_ben91]

Allot of people underestimated how good Symond's actually was with the bat before he got the boot from the Australian team. He got his average to touch 45 after averaging under 20 with the bat after about 10-15 games.

 

[angryangy]

I doubt even Symonds takes his bowling as seriously as you guys do.

 

[aussie_ben91]

My 1st Test XI in South Africa

Phil Jaques
Simon Katich
Ricky Ponting (c)
Michael Hussey
Michael Clarke
David Hussey
Brad Haddin (wk)
Mitchell Johnson
Peter Siddle
Stuart Clark
Ben Hilfenhaus

Drop Bollinger, McDonald, Hauritz and Hayden, bring in Clark, Dave Hussey, Hilfenhaus and Jaques.

 

[stefan]

Gutsy performance from the boys. We will get the number 1 position at home.

Difference this series from past series is we played the big moments better. Also didn't dropped anywere near the amount of catches. I still remember us dropping those 13 catches at adelaide in 1997 and the amount we dropped on the last tour.

Selection problem for the boys at home. Which 2 of duminy,prince and mckenzie should play. Would be easy if one of prince or duminy was an opener.

I reckon SA will win the home series easier than we did this one. Even if clarke comes back with our home pitches we will be very hard to beat. Only the great aussie side and the english side of 2005 has beaten us in a home series since readmission.

Great series... now is Macdonald > Symonds? Certainly a better bowler. Bollinger was ok in patches. I wonder if SA should've given one of their pacemen a break. I like the look of Zondeki.

You don't rest bowlers in tests. Besides Zondeki wouln't have been picked, he was lucky to make the tour. Tsotsobe would have been the one to get the chance.

Zondeki has form has been poor for the last 8 months.

 

[srikarr12]

lol I read a article recently in which the author has a theory that all the Australian players that played in the IPL have been doing poorly while those who havent are playing like legends. GO figure i guess:

 

[angryangy]

Who were the people who were writing off Steyn after his first bowling spell in the series? Fess up!

Smith still batted superbly. If was a tough choice between him and Steyn. I support Smith getting it.

Steyn did dominate Melbourne, but his performances at Perth and Sydney were poor.

Smith's fast hundred in Perth lead the way to a massive run chase, while in Melbourne he scored 50s and again ensured that the chase was never in doubt. Ever the talisman, when he was injured, South Africa lost and in some sense he was the man of the series just because his lack of presence greatly changed the look of South Africa. Even injured, he returned to put up a fight, stealing the thunder from a gloomy Sydney sky. Smith was the man of the series by a long way.

 

[Big Man]

Lucky old Australia.

Yep.

Thanks for you congratulations.

 

[IloveGilly]

I'm still curious to why McDonald got chosen. He barely gets any more than 3 wickets a game and hasn't even made a century in First Class.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Lucky old Australia.

Yes, all the time we are lucky :o

 

[aussie1st]

McDonald did keep it tight which is all we need from the 5th bowler. That's pretty much what Watson did and in turn it lead to Krejza getting his wickets. If he can pick up the odd wickets great. He just needs to perform with the bat.

 

[Mr.Cricket]

I'm still curious to why McDonald got chosen. He barely gets any more than 3 wickets a game and hasn't even made a century in First Class.

Got 2 first class tons . Highest score 150*and best bowling 6/34.

Cricinfo - Players and Officials - Andrew McDonald

McDonald in 2006-07, when he became only the fifth player in Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup history to make 750 runs and take 25 wickets in a season.

He has been a pretty good player for the Vics doing well with both bat and the ball. We just need to show some faith and stick with him.

 

[mattfb]

Jaques
Katich
Ponting
Hussey
Clarke
Hussey
Haddin
Johnson
Hauritz
Clark
Hily/Dougie/Siddle

Thats my line-up for the first test.

Feelin Blue? added 0 Minutes and 38 Seconds later...

I'm still curious to why McDonald got chosen. He barely gets any more than 3 wickets a game and hasn't even made a century in First Class.

More like 2 or 3 wickets an innings.