3rd dead Test Match, Aust v SAf @ SCG

[redandblack]

Glad you agree it was dangerous, but I can't remember ever claiming it would yield wickets. Happy to be corrected if you show me where I said that.

The fact the match went into the last session was due to the state of the game and the evenness of the teams. In recent years Australia wrapped up games in 3 or 4 days, regardless of the pitch, due to its superiority.

Nothing to do with the pitch.

In this case, it was despite it. A shocking pitch.

[whufc]

My 20-20 team would be

1. Dave Warner
2. Brad Haddin
3. Ricky Ponting
4. Dave Hussey
5. Michael Clarke
6. Cameron White
7. Theo Doropolous
8. Mitchell Johnson
9. Ryan Harris
10. Peter Siddle
11. Ben Hilfenhaus

[rod_rooster]

the pitch was perfect, a result in the last 2 overs of the test match, and 14 wickets in the last 2 days, not sure what more RR and R&B wanted? As my mum always said, looks arent everything..


IMO Siddle, McDonals, Bollinger clearly showed they are not fit enough to play 5 day cricket yet, all of them really sturggled with their pace today....fair enough as Im guessing all three wouldnt have thought they would be playing test cricket this summer and probably didnt put the work in thats required.....2 of them will put the work in now, Bollinger wont have to bother!

A fit Smith and SA would have won, I really hope their aint much back slapping in the Aussie camp tonight

If you are referring to me i am not sure where i have ever mention the pitch condition either positively or negatively.

[Dutchy]

the pitch was perfect, a result in the last 2 overs of the test match, and 14 wickets in the last 2 days, not sure what more RR and R&B wanted? As my mum always said, looks arent everything..


IMO Siddle, McDonals, Bollinger clearly showed they are not fit enough to play 5 day cricket yet, all of them really sturggled with their pace today....fair enough as Im guessing all three wouldnt have thought they would be playing test cricket this summer and probably didnt put the work in thats required.....2 of them will put the work in now, Bollinger wont have to bother!

A fit Smith and SA would have won, I really hope their aint much back slapping in the Aussie camp tonight

If you are referring to me i am not sure where i have ever mention the pitch condition either positively or negatively.

Australia still on top here. A long long way to go for the South Africans. Dodgy pitch and they are already 2 down effectively.

[rod_rooster]

the pitch was perfect, a result in the last 2 overs of the test match, and 14 wickets in the last 2 days, not sure what more RR and R&B wanted? As my mum always said, looks arent everything..


IMO Siddle, McDonals, Bollinger clearly showed they are not fit enough to play 5 day cricket yet, all of them really sturggled with their pace today....fair enough as Im guessing all three wouldnt have thought they would be playing test cricket this summer and probably didnt put the work in thats required.....2 of them will put the work in now, Bollinger wont have to bother!

A fit Smith and SA would have won, I really hope their aint much back slapping in the Aussie camp tonight

If you are referring to me i am not sure where i have ever mention the pitch condition either positively or negatively.

Australia still on top here. A long long way to go for the South Africans. Dodgy pitch and they are already 2 down effectively.

Fair enough but it's not like i ever made mention of the pitch in a way suggesting it was unfair or bad for the game. Fact is that pitches change condition over time and it's up to both teams to adapt appropriately to that. I agree with you that there was nothing wrong with the pitch. It was a bit dodgy for batting but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. We agree on this one Dutchy

[spell_check]

While the pitch wasn't easy on the eye, I didn't mind it because those cracks were likely to assist in getting wickets in time before the finish of the match. And that's what happened, a fantastic delivery by Johnson to dismiss the brave Smith to round off the match.

[carey18]

Dutchy surely the Aussie,s can celebrate that win?, thought it was great to watch and didnt mind who won in the end

[Rik E Boy]

Dougy has bowled well at times in this match and has hurried the batsman and can swing it. Fair dinkum.

regards,

REB

Didnt swing 1 ball in the 2nd dig....wont play another test match IMO

While you wouldn't select Douggie ahead of Bing or Clarkey I reckon he will get further opportunities at some stage. He had the 'winning' catch dropped by Haydos and he was robbed blind by Billy Bowden more than once. I think today's reduced output is due to a lack of match bowling as was suggested earlier in this thread. Quite a few people have been prepared to write Bollinger off but I reckon he went OK, especially in the first dig even though he came up empty handed.

regards,

REB

[Rik E Boy]

My 20-20 team would be

1. Dave Warner
2. Brad Haddin
3. Ricky Ponting
4. Dave Hussey
5. Michael Clarke
6. Cameron White
7. Theo Doropolous
8. Mitchell Johnson
9. Ryan Harris
10. Peter Siddle
11. Ben Hilfenhaus

Here's mine

1-11. Who gives a shit. Kentucky Fried Cricket tries and fails to artificially create a situation that occured naturally at the SCG today. I'll spend the five minutes that the teeball is on playing backyard cricket with my sons, at least that doesn't pretend to be real cricket.

regards,

REB

[topsywaldron]

I'll spend the five minutes that the teeball is on playing backyard cricket with my sons, at least that doesn't pretend to be real cricket.

the problem here is that you're obviously not sledging them enough.

Some examples.

"John Wynne's arse was tougher than you", "You couldn't score against the Geelong defence of the mid nineties" and the old classic "are you sure you're not Rick Davies?"

[am Bays]

Reflections on the day after, what a great test series and you have to dip your lid to the South Africans. IMO they can rightly claim the #1 mantle of best team in the world - to win in our back yard gives you that claim. A win over there for them will merely confirm it.

Gee they played hard tough uncompromising cricket with out fuss and in the right spirit. The same with our boys but obvioulsy not to teh same degree as the jarpies. I stand up and applaud Sith on his leadership that he has displayed over the last three weeks. The doubts I had over him based on teh last two series have been erased.

Was great to see a hard test series played in the right spirit without one side running to their administrators when they were getting their arses kicked.

IMO the top four teams in teh world are:

1. South Africa
2. Australia
3. India
4. England

[stan]

Quite remarkable how the 3 tests went
first test we played 4 bowlers and an injured symonds [lose]
second test we played 4 bowlers and an injured symonds, down to 3 bowlers in the second innings when Lee was injured [lose]
third test we played 5 fit bowlers [win]

therefore the knockers of Mcdonald and the purists who demanded 6 batters a keeper and 4 bowlers can now rethink thier views on how test teams are selected in the future
Mcdonald did a job and showed up the previous crippled allrounders

as for selections for the 20-20 games, most of the battle weary test players need to be rested and we must pick younger domestic sloggers who are hardened 20-20 players from the bigbash comp, players like Warner and Blizzard must play before Hayden and Katich

I agree with what you have said about McDonald. He did his job, struggled with the bat in his only dig, but was reasonable with ball. If you have a look at the stats of our allrounders in this series and the one against NZ, I think you'll find McDonald has done alright.

[stan]

Dutchy surely the Aussie,s can celebrate that win?, thought it was great to watch and didnt mind who won in the end

No No No. there can be no positives from Dutchy

Come on down Dutchy, you know we love ya, you old grumpy bastbard

[stan]

Ok so I got a bit side tracked and got some stats from our allrounders:

Symmo:
NZ 1st test: 26,20 and 0/4 (1), 0/12 (4)
NZ 2nd test: 0, DNB and 1/17 (12), DNB

SAF 1st test: 57,37 and 0/10 (3), DNB
SAF 2nd test: 27,0 and 0/14 (11), DNB

Watto
NZ 1st test: 1,5 and 2/35 (10), 0/19(5)

McDonald
SAF 3rd test: 15, DNB and 1/41 (22), 2/32 (13)

So from this we can conclude that Symonds is probably the best batsmen out of the lot but his bowling isnt giving us enough really. Understand he was injured, but still if your in the team as an allrounder then thats what you are. Watto, had a couple of bad digs with the bat and was dropped even though his form in india (which I havent put up yet) was reasonable. And of course now hes injuried for 6 months and might struggle to come back again. And McDonald while being nothing special is a good honest cricketer that gives us something with the ball.

[wycbloods]

Lots of people bagged Ponting for declaring "so early" i think what happened today showed to us all that he got it spot on, well done Punter.

history will say his timing was perfect.
however, it nearly wasn't due to dropped catches...

I don't think there was anyone saying hurry up and declare it was more along the lines of don't declare yet. Although the dropped catches made it closer than it needed to be.

[Pumba]

its an excellent test wicket it has challenegd the batsmen but plenty of runs have been scored and all 3 rusulst possible on the last day. the game is also likely to go deep into the last day.

Excellent wicket? All 3 results possible?

Let's get real, mate.

aust win, 10 balls form a draw and SA only loose by 103 runs...all seems pretty close to me. that wicket gave everyone a chance and therefore was an excellent test match pitch

[MAY-Z]

its an excellent test wicket it has challenegd the batsmen but plenty of runs have been scored and all 3 rusulst possible on the last day. the game is also likely to go deep into the last day.

Excellent wicket? All 3 results possible?

Let's get real, mate.

aust win, 10 balls form a draw and SA only loose by 103 runs...all seems pretty close to me. that wicket gave everyone a chance and therefore was an excellent test match pitch

the pitch didnt give everyone a chance though becuse it deterioted so quickly that south africas first innings was compromised because of this
great to see a day 4 and 5 pitch deterioting for a change but it got to that point to quickly fior an even contest.

[redwhiteandblueblooded]

Marvellous, enthralling game of Test Match cricket.Absolutley fabulous. Bring on the return series and the Ashes.

As for the up-coming hit and giggle......pass!

[silicone skyline]

Give me 20/20 cricket over tennis any day.

[Psyber]

Give me 20/20 cricket over tennis any day.

Yeah true but I never watch either of them.
A one day match is as far as I compromise my Cricket.