Historically SA have struggled against spin yes, but have you watched any SA vs Ind, Pak or SL games recently? You won't find them "struggling" anymore. Warne and Murali are just great bowlers, so you'd expect them to have good numbers, irrespective of their bowling style. Steyn averages 19 against India, 19 against West Indies and 16 against NewZealand, does that mean that these countries can't play fast bowling? Absolutely not.
Stats do not always tell the story steyn might average 19 against india but
out of 19 wickets 12 were of tailenders,he struggles against quality batsman as he is not consistent enough as you saw in india.
south africa played on placid tracks in sub continent,but when in the last test
in india
they played on turning track they were getting out to part time spinners.
Cricket_god added 0 Minutes and 51 Seconds later...
Cant wait to see series get started
will be watching South Africa playing again after a break and good performance will make me happy this summer
Arunava added 3 Minutes and 45 Seconds later...
dude, they are warne and murli are world class spinners and you will find those kinda figures against every opponent. so those figures don't tell much.
anyway. .i would like to avoid stats and concentrate on the series . .
except india
Cricket_god added 33 Minutes and 47 Seconds later...
South Africa Strengths-
1-Pace Bowling Attack-The trio of fast bowlers are different and have variety
with steyn and morkel bowling at 90 mph and ntini doing a supporting role
bolwing around 85mph,steyn seams the ball away{not swings it},
morkel extracts great bounce from good length
2-Kallis the rock-even though he looked out of form in the last test series,
in seaming conditions he is sa best player
3-Fielding-slip cordon catching is safe withhuge hands of smith,ground fielding
is up a notch with a.b in the side
4-Lower middle order-Sa always have a good lower middle order expect
boucher,morkel to contribute
5-Smith's captaincy ,he is now a experienced captain so knows the tricks of the trade
South africa weakness-
1-Left handers-South africa in recent times have struggled against lefthanders,particularly dale steyn,england have two good lefthanded openers
but after that all are right handed,so england should look at aleft hand batsman in the middle order
2-Weakness agaisnt swing-amla,de villiers do not move their feet much
and prefer playing on the crease or the back foot,there weakness against swing may help england bowlers,also smith struggled against zaheerkhan,sidebottom better target him.
3-spinners-they do not have quality spinners and do not play spin well
so expect some monty magic
4-overconfidence-you smell overconfidence in the sa ranks
5-Opening-the opening pair might have done well on placid tracks on sub continent but it is going to be different challenge in england
6-speed thrils but kills also.
England Strengths-
1-Swing Bowling-England have a better blanced attack for the conditions than south africa with two swing bowlers in sidebottom and anderson and broad hitting the pitch and a good left arm spinner monty
2-K.P,M.V-expect K.p,M.v to play well against south africa
3-Winning-coming from back to back series win,no matter it was against
new zealand but winning is winning
4-opening pair-strauss is in good nick,cook is not in great form but expect them to give good starts as the are lefthanders.
5-Underdog tag-teams usually play well when their is no pressure
6-M.V Captaincy-What can i say?
England weakness-
1-Bell,collingwood are in woods-both are out of form and if early wickets
fall they will find it hard to score runs of south african attack
2-No genuine fast bowler-england after harmy is gone lack extra bit of pace
in the attack
3-lack of lefthanded batsman-there are only two and middle order contains
mostly right handers
4-Conditions-england bowlers mainly depend on swing so conditions are going to play a major factor
5-Real test-Playing after a long time against a good side so have to up their level
6-Home pressure-if team starts losing heads will start rolling
all in all i expect a close series with 2-1 result either side
