Dang, one would swear England are playing against themselves here, why is there so little contribution from South Africans on this topic?
Well here goes...Long post coming up!
General feedback
After what had been a disastrous first 3 days for us I think we showed a lot of balls and determination to not hand the game to the poms. We could have so easily (as we usually do) completely balls it up and have lost by an innings but i think the top 3 did very well in the second innings. I think its understandable that SA didnt perform up to par at the start of the match, because when u think about it England have just come off a series against NZ and are match fit - our guys look overweight and sluggish and you can see they havent played any tests for some time. Good recovery though and funny enough, I think that eventhough the majority of the test was very on-sided towards England, they are probably worse off than SA with the amount of fatigue their bowlers would be experiencing.
SA bowling
Ok I understand that its fine to be cocky before a test and the whole "my dad can beat up your dad" crap that always go on before a series, but when you cant back it up youre left looking like a complete idiot - and worse, you make your fans at hom (i.e ME) feel embarrased. What Im getting at is Micky Arthur and Greame Smith perpetually pimping this whole "EXTREME PACE" element of the SA attack. I cant stand it because none of our bowlers are extreme pace!! When will they start thinking of what they say, because they look like a bunch of idiots.
Seriously, none of our bowlers are of Brett Lee / Shoaib Akhtar pace and according to me if you cant consistently bowl around the 150kph (94mph?) then you are NOT express pace. Sure...the pitch was slow but our bowlers are not that much faster than the English bowlers, so whats the point?? James Anderson was right up there with Dale Steyn's pace at times and Morne Morkel bowled a 94mph delivery ONCE during the first day. On average we probably bowl around 3mph fasters per bowler, but that doesnt really qualify as being express OR fast enough to cause major problems to another side. Fair enough....it was a slow pitch but thats not the point.
Seriously....stop throwing these stupid terms around to try and make our side sound like something they are not - its embarrasing for all of us.
OK finally on to the bowling...Took us way too long to figure out the length to bowl on Lord's and seriously - how can it possibly take our entire team 2 days to understand that you have to adjust your length and bowl fuller in the UK. Im really worried about Ntini, he seems even more one dimensional than before and unlucky for him Stresscothic doesnt play anymore so thats one less caught-behind per test in his pocket. We really need Pollock and it shows...Ntini isnt a fantastic leader or someone to give the young guys advice i dont think hes got the cricket brain of Pollock - someone who didnt only help the bowlers but also the captain who desperately needed Pollock's input during some of the field placements.
Dale Steyn looked a little shell shocked at time, bowled an absolute trophy of a delivery to Vaughn. I feel a bit sorry for the English captain its not the first time hes been on the receiving end of one of Steyn's unplayable balls. Not sure what to say about Steyn, we all know hes far better against right handers than lefties and perhaps its a good idea to make him first-change for the next test. Morkel is much better against left-handers, removed both openers and can cause a lot of problems for Cook since he looks quite weak against short deliveries. If Morkel and Ntini can remove one of the openers Im sure Steyn would be in his element to have another go at Vaughn - having said that, he doenst look like much of a threat and Ian Bell and the Durbanite are a much bigger handfull...strange though because ive never rated Bell as much of a player.
Ok now onto what has always been a tender spot for me...spin bowling. And I really honestly want to ask other SA fans out there to explain this to me. How the hell is Paul Harris the best spinner we have??? It does not make sense to me...everytime i watch him play I think back to highschool 10 years ago and wondered what happened to some of the spinners i had faced back in 11th grade who could spin a ball around a corner. How on earth was the consensus made when they said "Paul...youre the man". I cant figure it out, hes not a wicket taker, yet he also cant tie up one end to create pressure. Hes gone for over 100 runs once again and I swear sometimes he thinks he should back with the long sticker-side facing the bowler. WHAT is he doing there? Who else do we have even? What about Con de Lange? Hes a clever bowler, mixes up his pace and lengths AND he can bat. What are your thoughts?
Overall regarding the bowling I hope we can hit our straps early on in the next test. They cant use the excuse of "flat pitch" everytime and I hope we see more variation from the bowlers. England have showed much more deception and thought behind their bowling - if we can add some of that in the mix in the next test I doubt guys like Bell will get a huge score. KP is always a problem, perhaps a few more short balls early on to knock him over a few times - hopefully next time he falls on the stumps haha.
SA Batting
Well apart from about 3 desmissals in the first innings, I think in general our batsmen really had only themselves to blame. England bowled better than us but thats what you expect from the home side in the first innings of the first test of a series, but we really got it all wrong. Smith looked iffy while McKenzie got a really good one and Amla is a bit not-so-good against the short ones now and then. At least they all made us proud in the 2nd innings, I dont care if the pitch is flat you still have to go out there and do it. (Just an interesting bit of trivia....I love how the English media praises their team when scoring a HUGE total on a flat pitch but says nothing about the pitch. But when we played equally well, they say "no the pitch was too flat, it has no life"..hmmm)
Ok...Kallis should be DROPPED. He sucks and I dont like him. Might sound childish but honestly. Hes in terrible form, averages like 6 at Lord's with the bat, bowling is uninspired and hes fat. Im not even sure what our squad looks like or who can replace him....eventho I know they wont ever drop him I just think hes in terrible form in all departments of the game.
Overall very happy for Smith, after the disastrous decision of putting England in, to go so far in helping us to draw a test we probably should not have, I think its fantastic and theres few things better for us than an in-form Greame Smith.
McKenzie is looking awesome, never liked his batting style and he has no followthrough when he plays a shot and holds the bat too high on the grip which annoys me....BUT i regardless of all those things hes looking very good and shows exactly why hes there and not Herchelle Gibbs...because he can knuckle down, concentrate and produce the Gary Kirsten innings we needed form him.
Amla....terrific. Awesome how wristy he is and how he can manipulate the ball effortlessly into gapes. Great temperament and timing. Bit iffy on the shortball as I said but wasnt troubled by it in the second innings.
Overall
I would really love them to reconsider playing Harris. So what if the whole crcketing world sledges us for being one-paced? Why include a mediocre spinner in the team just for the sake of shutting people up or to add something different when hes just bad? Rather add someone like Albie Morkel (if hes there) who can add something to the batting as well or Monde Zondeki who apparently has been bowling with a bit of pace of late with good results...
Kallis wont be dropped, so I just hope he starts producing runs because for someone who considers himself so important for the team he seriously needs to at least get a score.
Thats it from me...looking forward to SA building on their impressive 2nd inns performance, and leave the poms out in the field again at Headingly to work on their shinsplints. hehe
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