World Test Championship Final, South Africa v Australia - Lord's 11-16 June

[Bornadog]

Good start for SA currently 1 for 65. Need to break the partnership

[whythelongface]

Wow. SA have batted well. Markram and Bavuma look like they have won the game for them.

I didn’t think they would get close let alone potentially win. How wrong I was.

[lemmon]

Honestly, good on South Africa. Australia, England and India have squeezed the life out of the smaller Test playing nations in terms of scheduling and opportunity - this feels like a win for the little guy.

I think T20 has flipped the script on what chasing means across all forms of cricket in the last 5 years. The old adage of 'runs on the board' doesn't mean much any more if the wicket is true. Players relish knowing what their target looks like and a poor second innings left the door open.

If you're Aidan Makram and on the morning of day 3, Mitch Starc is playing Rabada with a pool cue on a very placid deck, I think you're feeling very good about yourself even if it means chasing an extra 60 odd runs.

[GVGjr]

Our batsman are disappointing, an extra 30 runs in both innings which isn't much to ask for might have tested SA.

[jeemak]

Our batsman are disappointing, an extra 30 runs in both innings which isn't much to ask for might have tested SA.

Our selectors are disappointing. Way way way too clever in how they selected such a toothless batting lineup.

Appreciate those selected didn't execute, but it smacked of disrespect for an extremely good bowling opponent.

[Bornadog]

Our selectors are disappointing. Way way way too clever in how they selected such a toothless batting lineup.

Appreciate those selected didn't execute, but it smacked of disrespect for an extremely good bowling opponent.

Anyone that should have played?

[jeemak]

Anyone that should have played?

I'd have opened with someone aggressive next to Ussie, and I definitely wouldn't have batted Green at three and I think we could have done that with the mix of players we had without selecting any others.

Honestly, I don't know what I'm talking about........just think that Head and Ussie opening, Marnus and Smith next and then maybe Green if you're so desperate to get him into the lineup looks way better than what we put out there.

I mean you put Head in first and he may go cheaply but he also may get the jump. If he does go cheaply then you've got Marnus and Smith to shore things up. Who honestly thought that once after opening with Marnus and Ussie we were less exposed, and any chance at all of shoring things up with Green who's never played at three before?

[GVGjr]

Our selectors are disappointing. Way way way too clever in how they selected such a toothless batting lineup.

Appreciate those selected didn't execute, but it smacked of disrespect for an extremely good bowling opponent.

I heard McDonald go through his selection thoughts a couple of weeks back and I took the sense that other than playing Konstas there wasn't a lot of options.
Perhaps we are about to embark on a rebuild.

[Bornadog]

I heard McDonald go through his selection thoughts a couple of weeks back and I took the sense that other than playing Konstas there wasn't a lot of options.
Perhaps we are about to embark on a rebuild.

We better hurry, the Ashes are not too fra away

[GVGjr]

We better hurry, the Ashes are not too fra away

Does playing 3 tests on the flat tracks of the West Indies just camouflage our batting concerns?
You can just see a couple of them peeling off a nice century which will give the selectors a chance to stick with them for the Ashes campaign.

I don't envy what's in front of the selectors because we don't seem to have enough cricketers pressuring the test players

This is the squad we have in England so we might add one more
Pat Cummins (capt), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

Could Konstas or Inglis come into the 11?

[lemmon]

I'd have opened with someone aggressive next to Ussie, and I definitely wouldn't have batted Green at three and I think we could have done that with the mix of players we had without selecting any others.

Honestly, I don't know what I'm talking about........just think that Head and Ussie opening, Marnus and Smith next and then maybe Green if you're so desperate to get him into the lineup looks way better than what we put out there.

I mean you put Head in first and he may go cheaply but he also may get the jump. If he does go cheaply then you've got Marnus and Smith to shore things up. Who honestly thought that once after opening with Marnus and Ussie we were less exposed, and any chance at all of shoring things up with Green who's never played at three before?

It would have been a strange move considering Head won us the last WTC final in the UK batting at five when he came in at 3/76 and peeled off 163.

If the call is for an aggressive opener, surely you'd just play Konstas and not one of Marnus or Green, who either don't have form behind them or haven't played at a requisite level for 12 months?

Or you'd bat Inglis up top so Head can stay at the middle order spot where he's made 8 of his 9 Test hundreds.

I think the selections have been fine, we just haven't executed, South Africa has outplayed us and... we're old.

This is also going to be the second-highest ever run chase at Lord's, so you can't point it all at the batting. The bowling was poor when Rickleton went and we had the chance to apply the screws.

[lemmon]

Does playing 3 tests on the flat tracks of the West Indies just camouflage our batting concerns?
You can just see a couple of them peeling off a nice century which will give the selectors a chance to stick with them for the Ashes campaign.

I don't envy what's in front of the selectors because we don't seem to have enough cricketers pressuring the test players

This is the squad we have in England so we might add one more
Pat Cummins (capt), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

Could Konstas or Inglis come into the 11?

I think they both might.

Konstas will come in to open with Usman as they need to work that partnership out.

Smith is likely to miss with his compound fixture, so either Marnus gets a reprieve with Green going to 4, or they'll bat Inglis at 3.

I'm a huge Inglis fan, but I don't think he helps at the moment considering he's a 5 or 6 at Shield level and we're trying to find an opener and a 3.

[jeemak]

It would have been a strange move considering Head won us the last WTC final in the UK batting at five when he came in at 3/76 and peeled off 163.

If the call is for an aggressive opener, surely you'd just play Konstas and not one of Marnus or Green, who either don't have form behind them or haven't played at a requisite level for 12 months?

Or you'd bat Inglis up top so Head can stay at the middle order spot where he's made 8 of his 9 Test hundreds.

I think the selections have been fine, we just haven't executed, South Africa has outplayed us and... we're old.

This is also going to be the second-highest ever run chase at Lord's, so you can't point it all at the batting. The bowling was poor when Rickleton went and we had the chance to apply the screws.

Yes, but that was when we had someone aggressive opening already, in Warner. It's all moot, I guess I just find having both Marnus and Green in unchartered waters a strange thing to do.

Agree re the bowling/ fielding. I'm still confused about how many singles were given to a limping Bavuma yesterday............

[mighty_west]

Does playing 3 tests on the flat tracks of the West Indies just camouflage our batting concerns?
You can just see a couple of them peeling off a nice century which will give the selectors a chance to stick with them for the Ashes campaign.

I don't envy what's in front of the selectors because we don't seem to have enough cricketers pressuring the test players

This is the squad we have in England so we might add one more
Pat Cummins (capt), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

Could Konstas or Inglis come into the 11?

I think it's time to make a few changes but not just for the sake of it which we have appeared to do at times, we really need to make calls right now for the Windies tour to set up our Ashes campaign later on, i think both Konstas and inglis need to come in, Uzzie as much as he has been great for many years, in recent times his form has deteriorated and time for the gold watch, Marnus needs a spell for a while.

Cam Green was in awesome form coming into the final but was horrid against the Sth Africans, he has to drop down the order to maybe number 5, Webster 6 and Carey 7, Smith should be right for the Ashes so he gets a fill in for the Windies (not Marnus as he needs to go back and find some form).

Now the difficult part, who opens? I'd really like to see Konstas play down the order for a while until his form warrants a promotion up top, so i'd be looking at 7. Carey, 6. Webster, 5. Green, 4. Konstas, 3. Head, Opening with Inglis and ?????

[GVGjr]

I'm a little more confident that there might be some changes given Pat Cummins has suggested it

Pat Cummins has flagged the potential for immediate changes to the Australian top order, admitting the World Test Championship Final has presented the chance to start a new era.
The Test captain declared Steve Smith was “unlikely” to be fit for the first Test in the West Indies in Barbados starting on June 25, but there may be other unforced personnel changes in the Caribbean after the top three failed to deliver against South Africa at Lord’s.
Cummins refused to rule out the prospect of adding new players to the existing squad, admitting all options were on the table with most doubt hanging over the futures of Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja.

“We always knew this was going to be a one off. It’s pretty specific conditions over here,” Cummins said about the questions surrounding the top order.
“Losing the toss on day one and being sent into bat it’s never going to be easy for the top three, but I think there’s probably quite a few people in the line-up who wish they could have done a bit more. And the top three was an obvious one in this game.
“Yeah I think in some ways you do (look for a reset at end of WTC cycle). I don’t particularly know why. But it does feel like a little bit of a fresh start.

“Fast forward a couple of years you start maybe thinking about who will hopefully make the final, who is going to be in that and do we want to maybe get some games into them?
“Do we feel like now is the right time to change or do you hold with the team that got us to the final?
“I think we’ve got a couple of weeks before the first Test in the Windies but we’ll sit down and have a bit of a think. A new WTC cycle in some ways does feel like a bit of a reset.”

Cummins said meetings would be held over the next 48 hours to determine whether extra top order artillery is called in for the Windies.
Smith’s finger injury has certainly opened the door for extra depth to be added.
“Not sure. Again no decisions at all have been made,” Cummins said.
“Give it 48 hours (for) everyone to digest and they’ll work out if we do, or we keep it the same squad. No one has made up their mind yet.
“It’s probably more for the selectors than me to sit down and map it ahead. I think say in white ball series, a lot of the time you build on four year cycles around World Cups for ODIs and I think maybe it’s an opportunity in the Test match to do something similar.
“It’s a little bit early to tell. Coming into this match you’ve got guys like Sam Konstas, Scotty Boland, Josh Inglis who are right on the fringes. After this Test match everyone gets thrown back into the conversation and it’s a bit of a reset for that first Test.”

Smith’s finger compound dislocated finger is not as bad as first thought but he is set to miss the first Test in the West Indies at least.
“Yeah I think it’s a little bit of a wait and see,” Cummins said.