Cricket: England tour of South Africa 2009/10

[killadoob]

Well, I haven't seen anyone calling this series a "boring draw" yet.
So +1 to Test cricket.

Even killa enjoyed it.

Haha ya it was an awesome series. Very rare i sit and actually watch 5 day cricket but this series was to good not to.

I only dislike 5 day because some pitches are batting paradise's and you just end up with boring 5 day draws.

They should make all pitches bowler friendly.

 

[Vis1/0N]

Just butting in here - a draw if an achievement if you should be losing, a draw is a failure if you could have won.

I guess I appreciate the fight the batsmen put up - I don't mind fighting draws. It is a great part of the game.

We scrapped and achieved a draw at home against a weaker team (?) - I think there are cracks that the win ( and close wins ) have papered over. I felt Smith looked so silly celebrating, calling the guys over for the trophy.

 

[LancelotSA]

Yeah, it was an exceptional series. Brilliant planning by CSA to ask the SA team to throw that second match to make it look like England had a chance

 

[Ou grote]

Yeah, it was an exceptional series. Brilliant planning by CSA to ask the SA team to throw that second match to make it look like England had a chance

Remember that last time we were in England, we did win the trophy.

So although we drew the series, we have retained the trophy.

Same as a win to me.

 

[LancelotSA]

Just butting in here - a draw if an achievement if you should be losing, a draw is a failure if you could have won.

I guess I appreciate the fight the batsmen put up - I don't mind fighting draws. It is a great part of the game.

We scrapped and achieved a draw at home against a weaker team (?) - I think there are cracks that the win ( and close wins ) have papered over. I felt Smith looked so silly celebrating, calling the guys over for the trophy.

The thing is everyone also seems to be losing sight of the fact that England appeared to be cruising to a draw in both those matches. It was exceptional bowling in both matches that lead to England hanging on by their finger tips. South Africa declared and set England targets in three of the four matches.

You also need to remember that by drawing the series South Africa retained the trophy (I see Alf got mention of this in already ). And why not celebrate such an emphatic win?

 

[Smooth Criminal]

We scrapped and achieved a draw at home against a weaker team (?) - I think there are cracks that the win ( and close wins ) have papered over. I felt Smith looked so silly celebrating, calling the guys over for the trophy.

That was because they retained the trophy.

 

[Devill]

They should make all pitches bowler friendly.

+1 They pitches should be like the last one where SA showed you can score 400+ and on dy 4 there was still something in it for the bowlers.

But TV companies/sponsors want tests to last 5 days thus pitches are more bad friendly in general.

 

[Devill]

Just butting in here - a draw if an achievement if you should be losing, a draw is a failure if you could have won.

I guess I appreciate the fight the batsmen put up - I don't mind fighting draws. It is a great part of the game.

We scrapped and achieved a draw at home against a weaker team (?) - I think there are cracks that the win ( and close wins ) have papered over. I felt Smith looked so silly celebrating, calling the guys over for the trophy.

England are not a bad side... Look at how they beat Aus... Also remember that we had them with their backs to the wall in 3/4 tests.

We screwed up in one test and let them off the hook in 2 others.... We outplayed them every day barring two or three of the 19.

I'm happy with SA being the better team 16 or 17 days out of 19 and this shows we are the better team. But congrats to Eng for making the most of all their chances.

 

[LancelotSA]

Yip, Devill, that pretty much sums up how I feel too. A series win would have been great but a draw in which we showed ourselves to be a superior team more often than not does not leave me too disappointed (bearing in mind too that we weren't 100% initially and we "test drove" some new bowling options throughout). The worst result would obviously have been England getting an undeserved series win (and I know it sounds weird to say a series win is undeserved but I think everyone who watched this series will know what I mean).

 

[Vis1/0N]

Our 2008-2009 win in Australia against their weaking team was nearly great. Their 2009 series against us was a great win for them. England winning Ashes at home narrowly against a weakening Aus team was not that great.

SA drawing (and yes, having mostly great days) against England at home - not as good as we want to imagine. Going to India now - flat pitches for our 2 batsmen who are having a bad time - yay! , and flat pitches for our newbie bowlers, our toothless spinner.

The good news is that India's bowlers are not that good. The bad news for our bowlers is that India no longer collapse like a ton of bricks. Looking foward to Sehwag and the ball flying to the boundary on the flat pitches ;-)

 

[CHURCHILL]

England are not a bad side... Look at how they beat Aus... Also remember that we had them with their backs to the wall in 3/4 tests.

We screwed up in one test and let them off the hook in 2 others.... We outplayed them every day barring two or three of the 19.

I'm happy with SA being the better team 16 or 17 days out of 19 and this shows we are the better team. But congrats to Eng for making the most of all their chances.

Yip, Devill, that pretty much sums up how I feel too. A series win would have been great but a draw in which we showed ourselves to be a superior team more often than not does not leave me too disappointed (bearing in mind too that we weren't 100% initially and we "test drove" some new bowling options throughout). The worst result would obviously have been England getting an undeserved series win (and I know it sounds weird to say a series win is undeserved but I think everyone who watched this series will know what I mean).

Our 2008-2009 win in Australia against their weaking team was nearly great. Their 2009 series against us was a great win for them. England winning Ashes at home narrowly against a weakening Aus team was not that great.

SA drawing (and yes, having mostly great days) against England at home - not as good as we want to imagine. Going to India now - flat pitches for our 2 batsmen who are having a bad time - yay! , and flat pitches for our newbie bowlers, our toothless spinner.

The good news is that India's bowlers are not that good. The bad news for our bowlers is that India no longer collapse like a ton of bricks. Looking foward to Sehwag and the ball flying to the boundary on the flat pitches ;-)

Great posts, thank you.

SA just needed to have the killer blow to finish the England tailenders off, then this would have been a great series win for SA.

My opinion is , SA was by far the better batting side through out the series, and England was the better wicket taking side, not run rate, England gave away alot of runs though, but took alot of wickets.

 

[stefan9]

Our 2008-2009 win in Australia against their weaking team was nearly great. Their 2009 series against us was a great win for them. England winning Ashes at home narrowly against a weakening Aus team was not that great.

SA drawing (and yes, having mostly great days) against England at home - not as good as we want to imagine. Going to India now - flat pitches for our 2 batsmen who are having a bad time - yay! , and flat pitches for our newbie bowlers, our toothless spinner.

The good news is that India's bowlers are not that good. The bad news for our bowlers is that India no longer collapse like a ton of bricks. Looking foward to Sehwag and the ball flying to the boundary on the flat pitches ;-)

Must have missed their super batting vs bangladesh yesterday with the exception of sachin the others can still fall like a pack of cards.

 

[Ou grote]

Must have missed their super batting vs bangladesh yesterday with the exception of sachin the others can still fall like a pack of cards.

Dravis and Sachin are their only all purpose batters.
The other guys can only bat on flat pitches.

We're playing them soom, expect 2 more run fests.

 

[LancelotSA]

My opinion is , SA was by far the better batting side through out the series, and England was the better wicket taking side, not run rate, England gave away alot of runs though, but took alot of wickets.

...and yet South Africa took 67 wickets in the series while England only took 61

 

[CHURCHILL]

...and yet South Africa took 67 wickets in the series while England only took 61

How many innings did England bat in this last test, compared to SA?

 

[LancelotSA]

How many innings did England bat in this last test, compared to SA?

How many innings did SA bat in in the 2nd test compared to England? Damn, you poms are full of excuses!

 

[Smooth Criminal]

My opinion is , SA was by far the better batting side through out the series, and England was the better wicket taking side, not run rate, England gave away alot of runs though, but took alot of wickets.

SA took 67 wickets and gave away 2076 runs (average of 30.9)

England took 61 wickets and gave away 2356 runs (average of 38.6)

Please explain how you arrived at the conclusion that England bowled better and took more wickets?

 

[phoneJunky]

I feel we played better than England, but the fact remains that we drew the series and that that England did hold on to their draw twice. We did something wrong, either we took to long to declare or we have a bowling problem. I think it was the declaration.

 

[Nerfherder]

Also England should have got minus points for every time Broad moaned about something.

 

[CHURCHILL]

SA took 67 wickets and gave away 2076 runs (average of 30.9)

England took 61 wickets and gave away 2356 runs (average of 38.6)

Please explain how you arrived at the conclusion that England bowled better and took more wickets?

Sorry guy's let me explain what i meant, this last test match really changed the way the Stats look regarding total runs/wickets, SA went on the rampage, what i'm refering to is before this last test, it was SA's inability to take vital wickets that got them into a 1 down 1 to play situation, like you all say, if SA took those wickets, it would have been 3-1, but they did not/could not.