South Africa in Australia Nov-Dec 2012/13

[Umair7]

Bring back Craig McDermott

 

[Akul]

One question keeps revolving around my mind "Why doesn't Pollock play T20 premier leagues" ?

 

[aussie1st]

Quite the mess our top 3 is in, unless someone starts putting their hand up we could be going around in circles by bringing players in and out.

 

[Umair7]

No 50 for Cowan tonight doesn't matter thanks GOD he survived.

 

[midgetwars]

^ You mean Clarke. He seem to get out on the last ball a lot

 

[Epic]

Just managed to catch the last bit of the day and all I really saw was Cowan(and Clarke to a certain extent) carting Kleinveldt all over the park on what was his Test debut, feel for him though, better luck tomorrow.

 

[sifter132]

^God bless Rory Kleinveldt...you could just see Graeme Smith at first slip thinking 'we're playing with 9 here, should have picked Tahir...'

Why is it that the top 3 ALWAYS FAIL? It's always a 2 for something low or 3 for something low. Ponting, Clarke and Hussey cannot be the saviours all the time...

Quiney needs patients lessons from Amla...

EVERYONE in the Aussie team needs patience lessons from Amla. I HATE their current approach. Even Cowan who is a generally more circumspect wasn't leaving balls today. Every man and his dog knows the first 20 balls are the most dangerous in your innings, yet Aussie batsmen seemingly try and hit as many of those 20 as they can - stuff the danger, lets impose ourselves!! Ponting's dismissal was an egregious lunge at the ball. Nothing we haven't seen before though...he's always been a nervous lunger, Clarke too. Hard to fault guys like that who've been great players. But that doesn't mean everyone has to do it... Dave Warner also badly needs to find some front foot play, you can pitch it up a long way to him and he still won't get to the pitch of it. BIG hole in his game. His dismissal wasn't really exploiting that weakness so much, but there'll be plenty of time for that as the series goes on.

So yes, really obvious difference in batting philosophies between the two teams. Just looking at the scorecard: the boundary rate is roughly double ie. Australia has hit 14 boundaries already in just 26 overs, SA hit 43 in their 151.4 overs, and quite a few of those some slogs off Lyon at the end of their innings.

 

[midgetwars]

^ Interesting boundary stats. I guess Australia went into the inning actually wanting to score runs quick and try win the game. That's a positive, a stupid positive but one, nonetheless.

 

[Umair7]

^ You mean Clarke. He seem to get out on the last ball a lot

No i meant Cowan.He survived thanks to a NO BALL

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Warner has the power to hit the ball but he has no foot work just like Afridi

 

[midgetwars]

Sounds like Sehwag, but the nien commentators see that Warner does have footwork but it takes time for him to get comfy which is why he has two 100s and a lot of low scores. He's the North of openers.

 

[mrtwisties]

Bring back Craig McDermott

Have to agree. I'm more worried about the regression in our bowling attack than the performance of our top three. After last summer it looked like we might be about to put together an attack to rival any in the world. I think that's still on the cards, and I like the heart they showed during South Africa's innings - but they're down on pace and the discipline that McDermott instilled appears to have gone... could just be a bad couple of days, of course.

 

[Mzwa]

Im happy with how the boys played also happy that we were all out 450 then wasting overs going for 500 what i learnt about the aussies today top 3 are there for the taking esp. coz they are all lefties also learnt clarke is a class player i know he scored 30 odd but thats all i needed to see to know that he is the prize wicket esp. coz australia look like they will lose 3 quick wickets the whole of this series We will miss Duminy just for holding an end up real shame............. what i hope for tomorrow is 3 wickets 1st session it will set us up nicely also we cant make them follow on if we are lucky enough to be in that position we have to bat again and give them bait maybe 400 to win off 100overs that would be fun anyway getting ahead of myself love test cricket #team protea

 

[angryangy]

So yes, really obvious difference in batting philosophies between the two teams. Just looking at the scorecard: the boundary rate is roughly double ie. Australia has hit 14 boundaries already in just 26 overs, SA hit 43 in their 151.4 overs, and quite a few of those some slogs off Lyon at the end of their innings.

I'm not sure how great a difference in philosophy; most of those boundaries were just the short ball being punished. Cowan was very proactive about claiming his scoring zones off the back foot, much as he'd promised, but they also bowled short and wide at Clarke and it got the treatment.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

in a wider context, Kallis is putting quite a noticeable difference between his stats and ponting's. averages like 5 more than him and is pulling away on number of 100s.

which sort of shows why you can't always trust stats as ponting, career wise, is the infinitely better batsman.

 

[aussie1st]

Well if you believe our coach he is way past Ponting, only second to Bradman!

There is talk Langer could take up the coaching role of WA which will finally mean we can see what a different batting coach can do. I think we have already seen what a good bowling coach can do.