West Indies chased 231 last year vs SA with a gayle special
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***Official*** England in South Africa 2015/16
- Thread starter GIMH
- Start date
kykweer.proteas
International Debutant
kykweer.proteas
International Debutant
I actually thought Amla deserved it over AB tbh
GIMH
Norwood's on Fire
Why do you think it is that it's always entertaining? Not like the personnel has remained consistent on either side in that time period, so what factors do you think make it happen?
StephenZA
Hall of Fame Member
The Aus tours to SA have also been pretty good. I think its is because of the pitches. SA has some of the hardest pitches in the world to play on along with decent variety. The ball swings, seams, bounces and spins throughout the tour, depending on ground and conditions. You play at altitude and coastal, with PE/ St Georges being low bounce to wanders being high bounce. The long tours that play at more grounds are particularly good. The worst pitch this year was CT, which turned into a road. Otherwise everything gave a result that was not totally based on the toss. All of this brings out the best in teams, even the recent India tour to SA was pretty exciting, bringing out the best in the Indian batsmen who were expected to struggle. Similarly, the ODI pitches varied, you did not see 300+ every time.
Aus used to have this but the pitches in Aus appear to have become very similar (roads!) overall...
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Jono
Virat Kohli (c)
The last two Indian tours have been great, and over the last few years a Pakistan tour there was also entertaining, and Lanka won a test.
Agree the pitches make for good cricket, but specifically England touring is always great because they've had the players to handle the conditions well.
Haven't given it much thought, but I think its a combination of the fact that England are suited to the pitches, but more also, and its not exactly an entertaining answer, I think tour has always come at a good time for England. I think if England toured SA after the Ashes loss in Aus it wouldn't have been as good as they'd be low on confidence and a bit confused on what is their best team and SA were at the top of their game.
Where in 04/05 Eng were flying, same with 09/10 to an extent, and this year Eng were coming off some good results. They've been in a good position everytime, which I think has helped make the series competitive and close.
OverratedSanity
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I nominate India-SA as the best of the head to head series of the last 10 years or so. Shame this last tour was a complete rout, since virtually every single series since about 2006 has produced quality, competitive cricket. So many classic tests in there.
This most recent tour was entertaining, albeit for very different reasons
Spark
Global Moderator
That Cape Town test in 2011 is still genuinely one of my favourite Tests ever.
vcs
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SA is generally the best cricketing venue TBH. It helps that they never seem to be that dominant at home, even though they've always had the personnel to do it, particularly against Australia and England. They also lost Tests here and there to SL and India in recent times. So you usually get a good contest. I wish they'd play 5 match series at home against Australia, it would be amazing.
Also as an Indian fan, there are some great memories of the 2003 WC and 2007 T20 WC.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
While the personnel has changed a lot, both teams are usually top-4 Test sides when they happen to meet, and I think English pitches and the South African pitches tend to reward very similar styles so there's not as much home advantage as there often is. In essence you usually get high quality teams playing against each other in conditions that suit both sides; it's a recipe for good tours.
Cabinet96
Global Moderator
Aus and SA up there too.
OverratedSanity
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Joburg 2014 was awesome too
kykweer.proteas
International Debutant
I genuinely did not miss a single delivery that last day, I still haven't gotten over how Duminy gave his wicket away (yet again) on the way to one of the greatest wins of all time... actually pisses me off all over again
Spark
Global Moderator
Rahane's run out, though. Genuinely match-saving.
vcs
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I did a massive scream and fist-pump when that happened.
But put any other team in world cricket in India's position on day 5 and they'd probably have won that game.
