**Official** West Indies in South Africa Thread

[Neil Pickup]

First two tests I would wholeheartedly agree. Complete tripe.

 

[PY]

'Fraid to say that it was the worst I've seen England bowl in a few years. I went to work when South Africa (not sure which Test) were starting their innings, they were on about 75/0 and I thought we aren't going to take any wickets today, lo and behold we took one and SA got 398 in a day.

Absolute tripe, an excellent way of putting it.

At start of innings Smith is very very prone to LBW from pitching it up and swinging it back into him. However, he is also good at greasing the ball through mid-on so you will be bowling to one of his strengths as well as one of his weaknesses. If that makes any sense :ticking:

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Pitching it up ey? That sounds like Edwards or Collymore.

Frankly I'm more concerned about Jacques Kallis than Graeme Smith. I rate him much more highly (although most of what I've seen of Smith is highlights).

 

[Craig]

If you have the opinion that Hayden is a flat-track bully. Graeme Smith is the biggest exponent of this factor. Against good bowling he is crap!

Because Hayden has proved this over his career. Even my local newspaper described as that. Mind you Neil McKenzie is nothing more then a flat track bully.

 

[Craig]

If they were watching this summer, then they'll have worked him out.

Pity it took England 2 games to do that, but once they did, he was shown to not be as great as some people thought.

Although he had two tough batting wickets to bat on, he was unlucky in his 1st innings at Trent Bridge as getting out hit-wicket is a tad-unlucky and a bit stupid and ran himself out at The Oval.

 

[luckyeddie]

At start of innings Smith is very very prone to LBW from pitching it up and swinging it back into him. However, he is also good at greasing the ball through mid-on so you will be bowling to one of his strengths as well as one of his weaknesses. If that makes any sense :ticking:

Makes perfect sense - and it is the usual case with many batsmen.
Look at Trescothick - masses of runs square on the off side or down through third man - yet caught in the gulley time after time.

Smith has a tendency to be somewhat unbalanced early in the innings, his feet tend to linger and he then plays around his front pad. Couple this with a 'strong' grip and he is going to be working the ball between the bowler and midwicket even if it's just outside off stump.

Smith scores so well there because of brilliant hand-eye co-ordination and great power (excellent timing), but he always tends to look vulnerable.

The thing is, if he also has spotted this apparent and widely-publicised weakness, then he will have worked on it (or at least worked on moving his feet to react to the ball as opposed to just 'planting' them).

The 'playing back deep in the crease' thing is another matter altogether, but it is related. Still poor foot movement.

 

[garage flower]

I'm holding out hope that Rampaul gets a ticket home and Daren Powell or Ian Bradshaw gets a call (or maybe Dave Mohammed ) but I think that that is unlikely. The squad will very likely remain the same.

Still waiting for my call though.

If Rampaul is replaced, and surely he will be, I'd hope that a specialist spinner is called up. I've never seen Mohammed, but the consensus seems to be that he and Ramnarine are the best available. Can't Mohammed bat a bit as well?

 

[garage flower]

As a Windies fan, my major concerns for the series are South Africa's batting depth, the brittle West Indian batting and our openers in particular.

Over the last few years West Indies have really struggled to put teams away and if SA have the likes of Pollock and Hall at 8 and 9, I can envisage recurring nightmares of 200 for 6 turning into 500 all out (in a similar fashion to the Zim series).

On the batting side, Gayle and Hinds really need to be disciplined at the top of the order. Hinds, for instance, might consider hitting the ball along the ground occasionaly. We also desperately need Sarwan to recover his form and Shiv to show that he can make big runs away from home.

Really looking forward to it, but I'd agree with someone's earlier prediction of 3-1 to South Africa.

 

[Langeveldt]

Mind you Neil McKenzie is nothing more then a flat track bully.

Yet if my memory serves me correctly, he and Boucher were the only SA batsmen who could score runs on the Trent Bridge minefield??

 

[Neil Pickup]

Yet if my memory serves me correctly, he and Boucher were the only SA batsmen who could score runs on the Trent Bridge minefield??

ND McKenzie c Trescothick b Anderson 90 250 168 11 0

Pollock also made 62 in the first innings, and McKenzie a 73-ball 11 in support of Boucher second time round.

I don't think McKenzie's going to succeed at Test level, but not because he's merely a flat track bully.

 

[Langeveldt]

I agree, I dont think McKenzie is a bully at all, let alone a flat track one....

He is one of my favourite batsmen and I love watching him bat, but he doesnt appear to be ruthless enough.. Batsman who tend to dominate more like Kallis, Gibbs, Smith will be more of a success..

 

[marc71178]

Although he had two tough batting wickets to bat on, he was unlucky in his 1st innings at Trent Bridge as getting out hit-wicket is a tad-unlucky and a bit stupid and ran himself out at The Oval.

At TB the team still scored 362, so the wicket wasn't that bad at that stage.

342 and 365 at Leeds, so that wasn't that bad.

484 at the Oval (replied by Englands 604), so not tough there either!

So which 2 were tough, I'm at a loss.

I'll alos point out that since then he's played 2 Tests in Pakistan, and didn't do a great deal there either.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

If Rampaul is replaced, and surely he will be, I'd hope that a specialist spinner is called up. I've never seen Mohammed, but the consensus seems to be that he and Ramnarine are the best available. Can't Mohammed bat a bit as well?

That is correct. Mohammed is probably as good a lower oder bat as Nagamootoo.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

On the batting side, Gayle and Hinds really need to be disciplined at the top of the order. Hinds, for instance, might consider hitting the ball along the ground occasionaly. We also desperately need Sarwan to recover his form and Shiv to show that he can make big runs away from home.

It would help if Chanderpaul could get a couple of decisions going his way. I think Hinds would benefit from batting with Lara... or even Dillon or Drakes - someone who would not be afraid to lecture him into not giving away his wicket. I think Gayle is in pretty good form which is good, but he needs to convert that ODI form to Test runs.

 

[V Reddy]

Is Ramnarine a finished article now? I thought he was a good legspinner . Sad to see his career fade away so quickly

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

He had some unfortunate circumstances where he was mistreated by the selectors and then injured. When he returned from injury he didn't seem to be enjoying his cricket anymore. However when I saw him in this year's Red Stripe Bowl I was thrilled to see that he looked to be genuinely having fun bowling and fielding in general. I think he could well be back against England next year.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Upon consideration, I think that Kallis will be the most important South Africa bowler in the series. In my mind, he's the only bowler capable of consistently delivering that inswinging yorker to Lara and that could be troublesome to the West Indies.

 

[Langeveldt]

I dont think any of the SA bowlers will be potent against Lara... Maybe Hall who will get under his skin and skids the ball around a bit, he would be my bet...

But one man isnt going to win a series against South Africa, so fingers crossed the great man wont be changing the result i predicted

 

[V Reddy]

I think Sarwan and Chanderpaul will rise to the occasion and play an imp role along with Lara but the top-3 should chip in with some useful scores too. The WI bowling is still a worry for me.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Gayle is in superb form, but he still has to translate that v SA. Injuries are a worry for me. If Taylor and Drakes were fit, I'd be confident of us competing, but without them we may be forced to play Rampaul (God bless his soul).

To be fair Rampaul hasn't really bowled badly and definitely is very talented, but as previously stated, he's not ready. He has a nice smooth action and lovely seam position. Certainly one for the future.