Proteas tour to Zimbabwe: Aug-Sep 2014

[Creag]

Elgar to Mutumbami, FOUR, the sweep comes out yet again! It was pitched up outside off and Mutumbami brings up the 50 partnership with a sweep to the midwicket boundary in the gap

1. Good effort for the 8th wicket.
2. Is Piedt injured?

 

[ZCFOutkast]

Lol. You're deluded if you thought that Zim could get a draw from this match.

In ZIM's first innings the umpires gave Proteas 4 non-existent wickets - 1 to Piedt and 3 to Steyn. That's worth at least 80 runs and they'd have batted until lunch tomorrow at least. I don't think SA would've backed themselves to chase about 240 in two sessions.

The worst thing for the Proteas must surely be that 3 first team ZIM Test players - Chigumbura, Mawoyo, Utseya & Vitori are not playing due to injury/illness. Pick any four equivalent first team Proteas (e.g Morkel, Elgar, Philander&JP) and tell me if they would've been confident against a full strength ZIM side.

 

[Creag]

A little disappointed for the lad who must have been eyeing his half century.

Steyn to Mutumbami, OUT, he gets a wicket finally, but not with the short ball! It was outside off on length, Mutumbami chased it to run it down towards third man and a thin edge is taken safely by QDK. Fine and fighting innings from Mutumbami comes to an end

R Mutumbami c †de Kock b Steyn 43 (69b 6x4 0x6) SR: 62.31

 

[Creag]

Piedt to Nyumbu, OUT, gets a wicket straightaway! He tossed it up outside off, and Nyumbu chipped it back, trying to hit it over the bowler's head, but Piedt jumps and takes the catch

J Nyumbu c & b Piedt 13 (52b 0x4 1x6) SR: 25.00

178/9 and Piedt has his best figures in test cricket with 4/62.

 

[Creag]

Steyn to Panyangara, OUT, goes through! It was a short ball, but it kept low slightly heading towards the off stump and castled the stumps by the time the bat came down. All over for Zimbabwe

T Panyangara b Steyn 2 (6b 0x4 0x6) SR: 33.33

South Africa need 41 to win

 

[SaiyanZ]

Piedt finishes with 8 wickets for the match. Glad to finally see a new player taking wickets and that fact that this performance pretty much puts Tahir into retirement.

 

[MisterFortySomething]

South Africa need 41 to win

If they bat like they did in the first innings, this could be all over by lunch tomorrow.

 

[ABCpt]

If they bat like they did in the first innings, this could be all over by lunch tomorrow.

If we bat like we did in the first innings, Zim might just win.

 

[OGroteKoning]

South Africa need 41 to win

Not too difficult - we should get it with at least 5 wickets standing

 

[Badprop_za]

Not too difficult - we should get it with at least 5 wickets standing

Think 30-odd overs worth of batting to get the 41.

 

[ABCpt]

8 from the first over. Better start this.

 

[MickeyD]

Zimbabwe 256 & 181

South Africa 397 & 44/1 (10.4 ov)

South Africa won by 9 wickets

 

[Ocali]

Bravo, and well done.

 

[OGroteKoning]

Think 30-odd overs worth of batting to get the 41.

And then they rush it. They had the whole of tomorrow left.

 

[Badprop_za]

And then they rush it. They had the whole of tomorrow left.

Can you believe it? How dare they risk losing wickets.

 

[stefan9]

AB said he wanted to keep so he must stick to his decision bat at #5 and keep. That's why Thami never formed part of the XI when he deserved that o begin with. No double standards! Next series AB must be fit again and resume his duties.

Dropping Alviro will open up a can of worms. We know Elgar, Duminy, Faf&QdK won't be good for much long. You'll have a revolving door policy if you do that considering Van Zyl, Rossouw, Bavuma plus Thami himself are still waiting in the wings. Elgar,Faf&Duminy went so good not too long ago, almost dropped. Question is why Alviro and not them? remember rumours after Smith threatening to quit if Faf was duly dropped(following poor form) with Thami to come in and keep?

Thami was never good enough for international cricket...

 

[Devill]

AB said he wanted to keep so he must stick to his decision bat at #5 and keep. That's why Thami never formed part of the XI when he deserved that o begin with. No double standards! Next series AB must be fit again and resume his duties.

Dropping Alviro will open up a can of worms. We know Elgar, Duminy, Faf&QdK won't be good for much long. You'll have a revolving door policy if you do that considering Van Zyl, Rossouw, Bavuma plus Thami himself are still waiting in the wings. Elgar,Faf&Duminy went so good not too long ago, almost dropped. Question is why Alviro and not them? remember rumours after Smith threatening to quit if Faf was duly dropped(following poor form) with Thami to come in and keep?

1) Alviro: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...s=1;template=results;type=batting;view=series

Faf: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...s=1;template=results;type=batting;view=series

Duminy: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...s=1;template=results;type=batting;view=series

See the difference?

Also Thami is an ok glove man but not nearly good enough to bat at 6/7 for the no 1 test team in the world.

 

[ZCFOutkast]

Devil&Stefan you're comparing an opener to middle order players. Apples&oranges, doesn't work that way. I've always said and it's been proven many times. Top 3 Test batsmen can adapt to batting 4-7 and have even bigger averages from there, but the same cannot be said of those batting 4-7 moving up the order. Think AB&Mike Hussey.

Alviro has a better record than AB&Rudolph as an opener, so it stands to reason that he will have a better record than AB if he's batting at #5. That is why AB continues to hide down the order despite no longer having the weight of the gloves (Chanderpaul can at least argue that he's "senile"). As things stand due to his cowardice - allround ODI&T20 aside - AB is in the same class as Mathews,Smith&Root Testwise, and probably less than Ballance right now. Anyone can thrive from 5/6. I've said it before - why allow AB&Rudolph the chance to bat lower, but not do the same for Alviro? If AB&Faf think they are better batsmen, then they can open. Just don't bet your house on them having better records than Alviro from that position. Alviro should not be dropped!

=====

CI tend to delete my comments when some guys(probably a few from here) start hurling expletives in my direction due to my comments but in case they don't post it this is what I think about the ODI Series:

I thought Beuran was the best of the bunch. Marchant will fetch. Parnell will fetch. Shezi will fetch. Pitch won't assist Abbott so he won't be threatening.

About 2 years ago, albeit in a T20 triangular, Zimbabwe comfortably beat the Proteas twice. That Proteas squad contained Amla as leader, Faf, Duminy, Marchant&Parnell. Squad was strengthened after Faf had disappointed leading that side in the List A series before that but it clearly didn't help - http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe-tri-series-2012/engine/series/561548.html

In the List A Tri Series ZIM had left out Taylor, Masakadza, Sibanda, Price, Utseya plus Cremer(who like Tahir is rubbish at Tests, but gold dust in LOIs). While the Proteas won, they never convinced - http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/565849.html

With all of this in mind, plus looking at the Proteas squad, I think they weakened the department(bowling) that disappointed before. Unless Amla&AB are top form, these 3 games might be closer than the Test!

 

[ZCFOutkast]

What you have to say on the matter is irrelevant. Ray Jennings&Cullinan, along with many cricket journalists and commentators said Thami was good enough to keep, and score sufficient runs for the Proteas as the first choice wicketkeeper. While his overall FC record is poor, for 4-5 seasons his batting average was 45+ for the Lions. He deserved it on that basis and Boucher should've been dropped for him on that basis alone!

Both AB&QdK are nothing compared to Thami in terms of glovework. It's not like Boucher wasn't rubbish for a long time with the bat, while QdK didn't exactly impress with the bat minus the burden of the golves first up. In fact, in LOIs, QdK was persisted with for 19+ innings without ever producing anything notable. I doubt Bavuma would be shown that kind of patience! He clearly wouldn't get it from you guys certainly! At the end of the I don't get why Thami wasn't given the chance to prove himself for cricketing reasons, and no matter what you say you will never offer a valid argument to disprove that.

My take on it is that a wicketkeeper is an important position, one that is very hard to drop someone from and they pretty much become part of the furniture. The Smith-AB-Kallis maffia didn't want Thami for non-cricketing reasons, and spineless Hudson bowed to their wishes. Simple as that!

Richmond Mutumbami a black Zimbabwean batsman just showed a lot of class batting against Steyn, Morkel&Philander. I don't have to mention Tatenda Taibu before him! It's embarassing that SA with all these facilities and coaching have no confidence that a seasoned FC keeper-batsmen like Thami is good enough! I refuse to believe that Thami cannot do the same to a Pak/WI/NZ/IND/SL attack! He would've averaged 35+. For a long time we tolerated sub a 30 average from Boucher, who almost always failed against the big boys AUS. Reasons stated against Thami are baseless. Selectors, playing mafia&fans just don't want Thami period! But don't say cricket reasons have anything to do with it.

Case in point, Tahir has been rubbish and an embarrassment but was still given repeated chances. Phangiso might not have been bowling many 4/5 day games domestically, but he impressed in LOIs with his control, enough to be given a run in Tests. In any other Test playing nation Phangiso would've been given a chance to play Tests considering that the lead spinner was ****. Not here in SA! But I can bet everything I own to say Phangiso would've had a record twice as good as what Tahir produced, and a fifer against ZIM a possibility too, for less rpo than Piedt!

 

[Devill]

Devil&Stefan you're comparing an opener to middle order players. Apples&oranges, doesn't work that way. I've always said and it's been proven many times. Top 3 Test batsmen can adapt to batting 4-7 and have even bigger averages from there, but the same cannot be said of those batting 4-7 moving up the order. Think AB&Mike Hussey.

Alviro has a better record than AB&Rudolph as an opener, so it stands to reason that he will have a better record than AB if he's batting at #5. That is why AB continues to hide down the order despite no longer having the weight of the gloves (Chanderpaul can at least argue that he's "senile"). As things stand due to his cowardice - allround ODI&T20 aside - AB is in the same class as Mathews,Smith&Root Testwise, and probably less than Ballance right now. Anyone can thrive from 5/6. I've said it before - why allow AB&Rudolph the chance to bat lower, but not do the same for Alviro? If AB&Faf think they are better batsmen, then they can open. Just don't bet your house on them having better records than Alviro from that position. Alviro should not be dropped!

=====

CI tend to delete my comments when some guys(probably a few from here) start hurling expletives in my direction due to my comments but in case they don't post it this is what I think about the ODI Series:

So Smith would have averaged 80+ if he was moved to no 5? :erm:

I would be happy if Alviro was averaging 40. But 35-36 is not good enough. Simple.