2009 AUS tour to SA - Tests, T20s and ODIs

[JK8]

Nice going . Too bad you jinxed your favourite player as well.


Amla lost his wicket to a bouncy wicket, it was truly a bowlers day yesterday, Mackenzie went out because his useless!!


Think we should drop everyone who got a duck?

Amla has history, one bad innings considering the conditions doesnt mean he should be dropped, Mackenzies international stats alone show he cannot play on international level...


Well, he was still there at end of play, and he's got more than half the runs on the board.

Yes I did say he should attack the ball and not stand there jumping and blocking the short balls, he found a way to "keep them down" and hook a few... Luckily!!
Hes a short guy and he looks like he hates the short deliveries.
But ye atleast hes there...

I watched a lot of the cricket yesterday and today, and the difference in batting between us and the Aussies can be clearly seen - when it comes to tight bowling , the Aussies still get the ones and twos and keep the scoreboard ticking and rotating strike, while we tend to let maiden after maiden go by.

I think the difference is the Aussie never give up on the field, 3 wickets down for 6 runs is not enough for them, they want more.... SA on the other take 3 wickets and think they in the driving seat, thats where they lose the game.

 

[JK8]

There is a big difference between Amla's duck and McKenzie. The latter played just like he did in Aus, and misjudges balls outside his offstump. That wasn't a great ball.
Amla got a huge inswinger from Johnson...a rare feat for Johnson, perhaps the weather had something to do with swing yesterday- guys at ground?Durban may wish to comment- but given that his balls normally pitch off and go towards 1st slip, it was a pearler that swung in pitched middle and straightened...all at 150km or thereabouts.
Which is why they referred, because they thought it was 'normal' Johnson ball.
Don't think many righthanders would have got bat to it, whereas McKenzie has a technique issue.
Duminy now probably is making a case for moving up order...since that is when he is playing well anyway (coming in early)...move everyone up(or AB to opener) and Prince can stonewall behind Duminy.

Pray for floods Normal rain's not going to help.

cheers

Yip I agree, Mackezys duck was a result of his poor batting and standard Aus opening bowling to him... He fell for it.
Amlas was a good ball and on his homeground, he probably didnt expect that.

Also the momentum carried with the Aussies after losing Mac and Smith was in their favour... everything was going right.... Toyotaaaaa!

 

[JK8]

JP SAs loneranger 73* SA out for 138!!
Lol is Smithers going to pull one of those hero stand at the end??

 

[killadoob]

I think we need gibbs to open again, get the runs flowing, it is not in his nature to block

Alright i think 3-0 has become the bookies favourite now.

 

[sand_man]

game over...

 

[OzzieCapie]

What's the go with playing genuine short pitched balls with the handle of the bat?

What good can come of that? I disagree with commentators that its bad luck. its bad luck when a good length ball rears up off a crack.

Just to add weight to it, the referral for Hughes is a good contrast (not sure why it was referred anyway it was so far away, thats another issue).

The technique is clearly to get the hands as far away from the ball as possible and sway or rock back away from ball.

Can't believe that a 20yo with poor technique and good eye can do it but experienced guys can't...or maybe that's the reason...they have 'unlearned' a technique due to facing poor fast bowling on flat pitches.

just a thought.

cheers

...well I say cheers ...but doesn't look like much to cheer about now.

 

[Zyzzyva]

Yeah this test series is turning into a shocker. I think we have been soundly out thought, out played, and out gunned.

If we could find something to be happy about, is that these losses have highlighted what we still need to do too become the de facto powerhouse in world cricket. While our aussie wins were impressive, we relied almost exclusively on record comebacks to secure wins(tests). This has been our style for some time now. Think back to england and biffs "personal best innings" score to win the test series against england. It does prove we are incredible fighters, but it is concerning that we can't fight throughtout the game, rather than always deciding to fight our way back into the game. I'm not sure why this is.

Its seems we don't really play as a "team" of fighters, and rely to much on the hoped hero who generally stands up to win us the game. The consistency with which the hero stands up is incredible, but why do we always need a hero to win us our tests for us?

In saying all that, our record of test series wins is impressive, and we are "a" powerhouse, but with some changes we can be "the" powerhouse.

Sadly, the aussies are still the best team in the world. (eish)

 

[Good Life]

Nothing like getting beaten in your own backyard by the best team in the world.

 

[OzzieCapie]

...and why do they persist in bowling wide to a guy who cuts at everything. If so why not have a short third man.

They are making this 'laaitie' look good...he must be loving the 'break' from Sheffield shield.

I thought mickey said that they 'worked him out' ......

My Labrador just nodded agreement...and he friggin eats cat poo.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Kingsmead matches should be replaced by Centurion. I don't see the point in killing our home advantage by persisting with a ground where we don't do well and where the crowd numbers are k@k low.

Compare sh|tty the atmosphere of this match to the Wanderers last weekend, and at least last weekend we were still in the match at the end of the 4th day - SA cocked up in the final day by going for the draw instead of the win.

 

[stefan9]

We have played like a bunch of girls. Worst performance I have ever seen from an SA side at home. Even last time when the great aussie side beat us 3-0 at least we put up more of a fight than this side has done.

If Smith doesn't perform or gets hurt the rest fall like a pack of cards. Not good enough at this level.

We have undone all the great work we did in australia.

 

[feo]

Body language was not good at all from the Proteas today. I actually switched over to the NZ ODI because I couldn't take watchin' them just go through the motions with ZERO fight.

Ah well, let's try to finish the series 2-1 instead of 3-0.

 

[stefan9]

Body language was not good at all from the Proteas today. I actually switched over to the NZ ODI because I couldn't take watchin' them just go through the motions with ZERO fight.

Ah well, let's try to finish the series 2-1 instead of 3-0.

Only good thing from cricket today was watching Sachin's masterfull 100. I recorded the india innings and decided to rather watched that after seeing how poor our boys were going and especially see there was zero fight in them.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Yep it's unacceptable that we only perform when Smith does. Our performance was shocking - can't blame the pitch deteriorating because Oz batted well on a worse off pitch. The batsmen need to stop being such pansies by relying on Smith all the time. And there's no excuse why our bowlers can't put in the same effort as the Aussie bowlers - they're certainly not worse or less experienced.

And I just don't see how they could leave out somebody like Prince, and keep Mckenzie who's obviously struggled the entire summer. He's certainly not adding anything to the team so there's nothing to lose and Prince is a better fielder anyway.

 

[krycor]

I don't think its that they can't hook.. Its just the way pointing uses his fielders well, there is always someone out there for the hook shot.

What annoys me about the Sa bowlers this series is that they seem really really lame compared to the aussies. If you look at both tests you see the aussies basically attack the batsmen as aggressively as they could possibly can yet our bowlers don't even come close to doing the same.

Mckensie.. gah, if he continues for another test or ODI/twenty20 then someone needs slap the selectors hard. To me it seems like a wasted spot. Maybe bring in Gibbs and Prince.. problem is Kallis is no Pointing.

I was lmao at how the commentators kept saying the two were similar. They not!

 

[feo]

Where is Gibbs anyway?

 

[AirWolf]

3 painful days of cricket for SA. Can it get any worse?

Mickey's "winning" team needs an overhaul.

The team I'd like to see:
Gibbs
Amla
Kallis
Duminy
Prince
De Villiers
Boucher
Morkel
Steyn
Harris
Botha

I know people will complain about two spinners in the team, but when the going gets tough decent spinners from both ends will dry up the runs.

 

[killadoob]

We will never be the number 1 test team purely because we to worried about losing and do not try and bat positive and win, the net result we still end of losing.

Nothing like us being bowled out for 138 while block and leaving every delivery , Test cricket also requires a good run rate to win tests.

Blocking with a run rate of 2 and losing wickets all the time is pointless, i would rather see us bowled out for 138 having played shots.

Airwolf i like that alot man , 2 spinners FTW.

 

[PokerKing]

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't Duminy the most inexperiened player in the team?
And if I am correct can someone let me know why he is scoring the most runs ?

 

[killadoob]

Yes because duminy does not look to block every delivery he is faced, he actually wants to score runs and not block for an entire day.

He is positive like AB,gibbs and possibly amla. The rest its all out block