South Africa in England July-Sept 2012

[Owzat]

Since Bairstow came in I think England have made a valiant effort. If only our top order had bothered to value their wicket.

Too many wickets gifted, but Bairstow made a fifty in both innings which may be enough to secure him a touring place.

Imran Tahir is so over-rated. He's awful. Is he really better than having Paul Harris in the side?

Don't they have another alternative to Harris and Tahir? Struggling to think what his name is, or if I'm on completely the wrong team. *trots off to look*

Johan Botha (off spin)

5 Tests, 83 runs @ 20.75 & 17 wkts @ 33.71
78 ODIs, 609 runs @ 19.03 & 72 wkts @ 40.50
32 T20s, 193 runs @ 19.30 & 32 wkts @ 21.22

Pretty shocking ODI record with the ball, pretty ordinary World Cup last time. Apart from taking 1/31 on debut his ODI average has rarely dipped below 38. Still his T20 and Test record are ok, can he be worse than the other two..............?

Time for England to learn. Strauss out, Cook's time in the Test arena is now.

It won't happen though, we'll continue to carry Strauss until the end of the Ashes down under next year, then he'll retire.

Problem is we have enough matches against weak sides that it hides his vulnerability if people don't analyse performances closely enough.

 

[Sulaiman7]

Dream on....

Yeah , every Pakistani wants Pakistan @ #1 , Indian wants India @ #1, African Africa @ #1 , everyone likes to see his team @ #1 but the best gets it .

 

[Dennis Mennis]

Phew, that was intense, was sure we were gonna get stuck with choker label again when Prior and Swann were smacking it.
That's gotta go down as the best test match I ever watched, well done England, especially to the middle and low order.
But............in the green corner, and new heavyweight champion of the world.........

 

[badvintage]

Congrats to South Africa getting #1 ranking now...I thought they were done when Prior kept smashing. But they did it.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Congrats to South Africa getting #1 ranking now...I thought they were done when Prior kept smashing. But they did it.

Just goes to show - all we needed was one or two of our top order to string together 20 or 30 and that would've been it!

 

[Haarithan]

+1 on Imran Tahir classified as "overrated". Average at best and pretty much South Africa's only weak link in their playing XI.

 

[War]

Ignoring what the faulty ranking system says, which incorrectly prompted India and England to # 1 in the last few years.

S Africa on the basis of performances based on an in-depth series by series analysis since the decline of Australia after the 2006/07 ashes, are the first proper # 1 on merit. Shall expand on this in another thread.

Proud of England however, they still have a good team (although the Pietersen situation threatens to curtail the teams potential progress in the future).

This team is still good enough to win in India this winter. The Aura of winning in India is not as daunting as before to be brutally frank with the retirements of certain batsmen and their spinners not being as lethal on home surfaces since Kumble retired.

The Ashes next year is still very much in England's reach, since Australia are still working on solidifying its batting.

Strauss has to go now as many have said. Its funny how the last two South African tours in 2008 and 2003 have seen the end of two England captain's (Vaughan and Hussain).

But Strauss has been carried long enough under the premise of what his captaincy brings, but he seems incapable now of scoring against quality attacks which is key for him.

One thing England need to seriously consider going forward is having 5 bowlers. Chris Woakes and Bresnan being that option. But if KP never plays plays again i won't risk it.

 

[Epic]

Phillander - Man of the Match. His 5-fa was the difference makes.

Amla and Prior - Man of the Series. 2 players who were consistent through out the series, these guys made this series a special one. Marvelous.

 

[Haarithan]

Would love this XI to play India:

Cook
Trott
Bell
Pietersen
Taylor
Bairstow
Prior
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Finn/Panesar

 

[vorgaphe]

Would love this XI to play India:

Cook
Trott
Bell
Pietersen
Taylor
Bairstow
Prior
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Finn/Panesar

Perfect team as far as I'm concerned!

 

[War]

+1 on Imran Tahir classified as "overrated". Average at best and pretty much South Africa's only weak link in their playing XI.

Well i don't know, i think he is rated fairly accurately. I have watched him in all of his tests since last year and he really has yet to bowl on a real turner or last day/5th day turning track. Their quicks have done the job more often than not in bowler friendly conditions.

 

[puddleduck]

I think Finn has yet again shown that he is by far the most dangerous bowler we have on good batting decks, certainly a more likely wicket taking option than Bresnan. So considering Swann shouldn't have been dropped for the second test and KP missing from the 3rd, there have to be questions of the management and the captain that at no point during a massive home series did we ever manage to field our best XI? Of course we may well still have lost by the same margin, but it's disappointing that their thinking is so clearly out.

 

[badvintage]

Just goes to show - all we needed was one or two of our top order to string together 20 or 30 and that would've been it!

Captain is always going out early. He hasn't been on form.

 

[angryangy]

+1 on Imran Tahir classified as "overrated". Average at best and pretty much South Africa's only weak link in their playing XI.

Did you know Jacques Rudolph played every match in this series?

 

[Dennis Mennis]

Thanks to War for a positive comment re SA. What thread will this be on please?