The English disease

[Ruckus]

Personally think this Saffa team will become number 1 and their position won't oscillate as much as it has for England and India. Won't be like the Australia of old, but I think they'll get closer to the status of 'dominating' that the other teams have failed to do.

 

[uvelocity]

I reckon smith and kallis won't hang around that long. petersen isn't amazing and nor is their spinner. They are the best right now, but can't see anything resembling a dynasty materialising.

 

[marc71178]

Personally think this Saffa team will become number 1 and their position won't oscillate as much as it has for England and India. Won't be like the Australia of old, but I think they'll get closer to the status of 'dominating' that the other teams have failed to do.

What evidence from their recent results makes you say that though? If they were as good as people like to make out they'd have been number 1 for for a long time to date.

 

[Jacknife]

Definitely. India were, and England now, are still a deserved number 1 team (and if SA become number 1, same with them too). But that doesn't mean they were much superior when they were ranked number 1, they just had a period of playing very very well and beating (or not losing) to teams for a while. When they've been number 1 they've dropped games to good teams, and also just snuck over the line or just prevented a loss as well.

It was stressed on this forum ad nauseam that they weren't dominant teams. Nothing has changed.

Agree, most fans hoped we could sustain our run of form but it was always on the cards that if batsmen lost touch or the bowers had a dip, they would come to the pack. Like you say we thoroughly deserved to get to the top, we played some blinding cricket in that journey and I reckon they have it in them to get back there if they DO lose it.

Even now the No.1 spot is gong to be about where teams are playing and who's playing who. For how well SA played at the Oval they have the same faults as a few of the top sides which is inconsistency.

 

[smash84]

Two good series against Aus (away) and India (home) give the English fans a false sense of security that they are much ahead of the pack but the happenings of the last 6-8 months shows it clearly not the case. I do find the current period fascinating for test cricket where there are atleast 6 teams ranging from good to reasonable with no one side clearly being far ahead of the pack and the teams fortunes keep on changing due to form, fitness or conditions.

awta

 

[vic_orthdox]

What evidence from their recent results makes you say that though? If they were as good as people like to make out they'd have been number 1 for for a long time to date.

I think it'd be fair to argue that it's more likely to see South Africa improving their home record than India and England improving their away record.

 

[Furball]

He's really not. If anything, he's very predictable.

Haha, this. He's probably one of the most consistent batsmen in the world - his average has rarely fluctuated too far away from the 50 mark for 4 or 5 years now.

 

[Uppercut]

It's a pretty senseless criticism anyway. All batsmen are inconsistent.

 

[Prince EWS]

It's a pretty senseless criticism anyway. All batsmen are inconsistent.

Chris Martin is pretty consistent.

 

[Michaelf7777777]

Chris Martin is pretty consistent.

With Chris Martin though what you see is not him being a consistent batsman but rather he (Martin) being rather consistent at the art of attempting to be a batsman and failing horribly