South African Tour

[Twodogs]

Re: South African Tour

Well done Australia!

[Bornadog]

Re: South African Tour

Great to see Harris getting the crucial wickets in the end.

How good has Lehman been for Australian Test Cricket.

[Murphy'sLore]

Re: South African Tour

Fantastic match, right down to the wire. And the real winner is… test match cricket. Fabulous stuff.

[Sedat]

Re: South African Tour

Tremendous result.
Can't comment on the Philander dismissal( haven't seen it)
Wonderful from Harris with a floating bone in his wonky knee.
The only down side for me was the ABC having the stump microphone turned up.
Gee some of our blokes have to work on their material, as the sledging wasn't remotely amusing.

Almost identical to the Kasprowicz dismissal at Edgebston in 2005. It clipped Philander's glove but his hand was not on the bat handle. Obviously Kaspa didn't have DRS to fall back on back then but it was a very smart referral by Philander.

Last night was mesmerising cricket. Australia played the pants off the Saffers for most of this test but there is no team that is better at digging in when their backs are to the wall than Sth Africa. They did it in Adelaide, they did it against India earlier in the summer (and almost chased down 459 runs in the process) and you just knew they would make us work incredibly hard for those 6 poles last night. They chewed up almost 135 overs after being 3 for 15 after 6 overs. And they gave us nothing easy last night - all the dismissals last night were top drawer planning and execution. Just a sensational day of tough, intense cricket.

[jeemak]

Re: South African Tour

Fantastic match, right down to the wire. And the real winner is… test match cricket. Fabulous stuff.

Funny that, I can see it being another nail in test match cricket's coffin in South Africa. Long term captain retires after numerous failures throughout the series, coupled with losing the mantle as the number one side........


Great effort and great summer to our guys. Let's hope they can continue to improve.

[Ozza]

Re: South African Tour

Funny that, I can see it being another nail in test match cricket's coffin in South Africa. Long term captain retires after numerous failures throughout the series, coupled with losing the mantle as the number one side........


Great effort and great summer to our guys. Let's hope they can continue to improve.

The South Africans have some of the very best players in the world, and aren't a particularly old side now. I suspect they'll be a very very strong side for years to come. They are just in a bit of a transition stage - losing Kallis and having to re-adjust, carrying a very out of form opener in Smith, and with an injury cloud over Steyn. They got within 27 balls of drawing a series against an Australian team in the best form its been for years. I'd say the future is very bright.

[LostDoggy]

Re: South African Tour

Great to see Harris getting the crucial wickets in the end.

How good has Lehman been for Australian Test Cricket.

Amazing test cricket, what a summer. Lehman sure has brought out the character and aggression of Australian cricket again.

The only thing we still cannot do is change gears and play for time(apologies C Rogers), South Africa yesterday were incredible in this respect.

Living and breathing cricket this summer.

[LostDoggy]

Re: South African Tour

I agree with your comments but I have concerns that too, the crowd at the start of the day was 800, we'd need that many bar staff at an international test here. I have not been to South Africa so assumed the were reasonably culturally aligned to our cricket loving way of life here.

[boydogs]

Re: South African Tour

I went to bed with 8 overs left thinking it was going to be a draw. Sensational work by Ryan Harris.

Really though we are lucky to have such elite pace bowlers compensating for a lack of venom in our spin options.

[Remi Moses]

Re: South African Tour

In fairness how many rock up here when we look like losing?
They get decent crowds when they playthe Aussies, England or India.
The big pay day is the Boxing Day test.
The right call was made on the philander decision

[Remi Moses]

Re: South African Tour

I went to bed with 8 overs left thinking it was going to be a draw. Sensational work by Ryan Harris.

Really though we are lucky to have such elite pace bowlers compensating for a lack of venom in our spin options.

Off spinners don't really come into play unless the wicket is doing something.
Duminy got wickets when we were forcing the pace.
We need a quality leggie, or someone who has a doosra

[jeemak]

Re: South African Tour

The South Africans have some of the very best players in the world, and aren't a particularly old side now. I suspect they'll be a very very strong side for years to come. They are just in a bit of a transition stage - losing Kallis and having to re-adjust, carrying a very out of form opener in Smith, and with an injury cloud over Steyn. They got within 27 balls of drawing a series against an Australian team in the best form its been for years. I'd say the future is very bright.

My comments were more from the perspective of worrying about the South African populations' thirst for test cricket.

Throughout their domination of test cricket they've drawn modest crowds. The ICC is taking executive powers away from them, executing plans that were made during this period of dominance.

It's a shame, because I love test cricket over all other forms and I think it's a better game when it's followed enthusiastically within countries that can produce good test cricket teams regularly.

[Twodogs]

Re: South African Tour

Jacqes Kallis going round one more time probably would have made the difference, what a shame he didnt play.

[azabob]

Re: South African Tour

Jacqes Kallis going round one more time probably would have made the difference, what a shame he didnt play.

We can't know that for sure. Who would've expected G.Smith to have a very poor series with the bat?

[Mantis]

Re: South African Tour

Crazy finish to the T7 game... We looked shot to pieces until old man Hodgey whacked a couple over the fence.