***Official*** South Africa in Australia 2012

[vic_orthdox]

Was smart cricket from South Africa too, they barely bowled a ball at Wade's stumps, kept it wide on a decent length. Eventually he had enough and went at it, but you could see his early intention was to try and drop and run anything near him to get Clarke on strike.

 

[Scaly piscine]

we did accelerate, we did declare. we didn't have as many runs as you dreamt we'd have, but how many would we have needed after



clarke and lyon for, lol wait for it, 50-60 overs. close of play: sa 2/200

Australia took a wicket with the new ball and Lyon took two with the old ball in 13 overs. So yea add in more overs from Lyon and Clarke and that makes 2 wickets in total does it? Did Hilf, Siddle and Quiney do particularly well? Pattinson was an obvious option for short bursts.

Scoring at 3-4 an over when you in a declaration chase (Aus managed this before a late 3 over flurry pushed the run-rate up, which begs the question why didn't they do that earlier or at least try to) is something you'd expect 20-30 years ago. The game has moved on. Teams go to incredibly lengths to analyse everything and find every extra 0.01% they can find. Then they piss about when they're 30-35 runs from a declaration with Wade on 2* off 20 balls or whatever it was. It's not massively important in itself but it all matters.

 

[Ruckus]

Pattinson isn't a quick scorer at all...

EDIT: And given that he spent the last three overs of the innings literally trying to hit every ball for four, I think it was pretty obvious what the thinking was - "take a few overs to get the measure of a pitch, then go for it" rather than try a wild slog with the field up and slips in place

How do you know that? He hasn't ever been in a situation where he is asked to hit out.

And yeh, that's what happened with the Wade situation, but there was obviously some miscommunication and/or stupidity on Wade's behalf because Clarke declared just as he was about to get going. The end result - a SR of 54.

 

[TNT]

The only problem I had with the rate we were going at was when Wade came in. The early declaration obviously didn't help his cause, but the fact is he ended up with a SR of 54 which just isn't good enough in that situation. Should really have been trying to go t20 style with a SR of 100 or more. I don't know why in those situations a competent tail-ender like Pattinson isn't promoted and told literally to hit out to quickly try and get 20 or so runs.

I imagine the fast bowlers would have been getting teady to bowl, not ideal to ask Patto to go out and scamper up and down the wickets chasing runs before going out to bowl.

 

[uvelocity]

I wonder if they'd have busted out the segway to get him there and had duminy drop anchor if required

 

[Ruckus]

They'd be out there for like 10 minutes, it wouldn't effect them at all. Were talking about a potential quick 20-30 here anyway, so ideally most of those would come in boundaries. Obviously it would just be better if Wade was told to hit out from ball 1, because he is more likely to get quick runs anyway, but for some reason he didn't do that so...

 

[Garson007]

Scaly is still butthurt England lost to South Africa.

 

[AlanJLegend]

I'm a bit surprised about all this criticism of Wade. I have to admit I was yelling at my TV when he blocked out an entire over, but I think he had the right idea. Perhaps he didn't realise Clarke was going to declare so soon (seems unlikely), but if somebody is going to come out to hit out I have no problem with them taking a couple of overs to get their eye in before going all guns blazing. Seems a lot better than coming out and getting out for 5 off 5, especially when Clarke was scoring quickly anyway.

 

[Ruckus]

Yeah it would have been fine, but only if the declaration was after he started to get his SR higher. Otherwise it was pretty pointless.

As Scaly said anyway, in the bigger picture it isn't that important, but the little things, even if just 3 or 4 overs saved, do add up.

 

[GotSpin]

What the hell is SP on about?

 

[Spikey]

he's got some positive intent that's for sure

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Scaly is still butthurt England lost to South Africa.

Yep, wait till India beat us as well. Be some fun posts after that.

Can't see what he is moaning about, a day was lost and Australia were denied any chance of a victory more by that than anything else. As for SA they may have had more intensity in the field if they weren't almost going through the motions knowing it was a draw waiting to happen. On we go to the next test, lets hope the weather doesn't intervene again.

 

[Daemon]

Is Robbie P still an option for SA? No idea whether he's been performing of late, but I think he's a a pretty decent bowler and a handy bat. Anything to not let Tahir play really..

What his ability with that bat means is also that Tsolekile could come in for Duminy without weakening the overall batting of the South Africans.

 

[MrPrez]

Is Robbie P still an option for SA? No idea whether he's been performing of late, but I think he's a a pretty decent bowler and a handy bat. Anything to not let Tahir play really..

What his ability with that bat means is also that Tsolekile could come in for Duminy without weakening the overall batting of the South Africans.

We've been trying to move away from containing, Giles/Boje-like trundlers. Would much rather Tahir played.

Would rather see Harmer or Botha in than Peterson tbh.

 

[vic_orthdox]

We've been trying to move away from containing, Giles/Boje-like trundlers. Would much rather Tahir played.

Would rather see Harmer or Botha in than Peterson tbh.

Exactly, they have four bowlers anyway, take the spinner who will get you a pole.

Old school attitudes to leg-spin ftw.

 

[Cabinet96]

Bit hard to tell you're bowling a couple of no balls every over if they only bother checking when you take a wicket though. If he'd been called three times in his first over he might've adjusted a bit.

I could be way off the mark here, but aren't the 3rd umpires checking for no balls live from now on? I.e. they say something to the umpire and they call no ball, even if it's not a wicket? Would explain the number of no balls in this game.

 

[Cabinet96]

"Performing with the ball", please.

Is Robbie P still an option for SA? No idea whether he's been performing of late, but I think he's a a pretty decent bowler and a handy bat. Anything to not let Tahir play really..

What his ability with that bat means is also that Tsolekile could come in for Duminy without weakening the overall batting of the South Africans.

Yeah, this is what I would go far. I'd like to think Robbie would at least keep it reasonably tight.

 

[KungFu_Kallis]

Lillee backs Johnson for Adelaide Test - The West Australian

Just when everything was looking so good..

 

[Top_Cat]

Surely not. Lillee, you're a ****ing tool.

 

[howardj]

I can understand the clamour to get rid of Hilfenhaus, but surely not for Starc?

I think Cutting who averages 24 with the ball in FC compared to Starc's underwhelming 32, is a more likely type

Starc's white ball form is clouding judgements of him

Cutting is also a decent bat, with a FC century in the bank