Cricket Thread

[ABs2011]

Was a cool atmosphere down there today (not sure if that came across on TV??). A lot of nerves in the crowd and rounds of applause every time Brendon (and Jimmy for that matter) scored a run! Huge cheers when he hit the four to grab his triple century and knock up the NZ record in the process!! Fantastic to be down there...now sadly back to work!

 

[Darwin]

Day 1 of the 2nd SA vs Australia test was quite interesting. South Africa made a number of changes to their lineup with Elgar, de Kock, and Parnell all coming into the side. Elgar proved his worth with a fighting 83, but it has been slow going for South Africa reaching 214-5 at stumps (a run rate of only 2.57 per over). South Africa will be a bit disappointed at the soft dismissals of Elgar and de Kock late in the day after they had done well to fight back from 11-2. Interesting to see South Africa have gone in without a specialist spinner - Elgar and Duminy are handy part-timers, but they may be asked to do a lot of work if the pitch isn't overly responsive to pace....

 

[TRF_heineken]

Day 1 of the 2nd SA vs Australia test was quite interesting. South Africa made a number of changes to their lineup with Elgar, de Kock, and Parnell all coming into the side. Elgar proved his worth with a fighting 83, but it has been slow going for South Africa reaching 214-5 at stumps (a run rate of only 2.57 per over). South Africa will be a bit disappointed at the soft dismissals of Elgar and de Kock late in the day after they had done well to fight back from 11-2. Interesting to see South Africa have gone in without a specialist spinner - Elgar and Duminy are handy part-timers, but they may be asked to do a lot of work if the pitch isn't overly responsive to pace....

Cricket is a funny game.

Elgar's national contract was cancelled just in the beginning of the week. And now he got a chance, and become an unsung hero! I don't want to know what his body looks like after he got quite a few shots from Johnson. But basically he made a statement, saying "you can hit me all you want, but I will not get out".

Then Lyon got 2 wickets because of 2 poor shots from the batsmen. Silly!!

Hopefully AB can steer us today to around the 400 mark. And then let it rip. Parnell, on his home ground, and with the weather showing some wind on day 3, could become a good thing for the Proteas.

 

[Darwin]

South Africa in pretty dominant position in the 2nd test. It will be interesting to see how long they bat for on day 4. Ideally they only want to bat for another session (set a target of 450) and give them selves plenty of time to bowl Australian out. The only problem they have is the injury to Parnell, meaning they will likely be one bowler short in the final innings. Parnell was good in the 1st innings (before injury) - he was a lot quicker than I remember him!

 

[TRF_heineken]

South Africa in pretty dominant position in the 2nd test. It will be interesting to see how long they bat for on day 4. Ideally they only want to bat for another session (set a target of 450) and give them selves plenty of time to bowl Australian out. The only problem they have is the injury to Parnell, meaning they will likely be one bowler short in the final innings. Parnell was good in the 1st innings (before injury) - he was a lot quicker than I remember him!

What a test match!!

I was on the golf course yesterday. At the 16th hole, I checked the score and it was 141/1 for Australia. Then, 15 minutes later, as we sat down at the Clubhouse, we couldn't believe it was all of a sudden 168/5!! and then Dale Steyn bowled one of the best deliveries I have ever seen! Removing Haddin's middle stump, just like in the first innings!

I rushed home, and then it was 7 wickets down, and then the umpires granted the Proteas an extra half an hour to play and finished off the Aussie tail. What a performance, and we did it with just 3 front-line bowlers!!

 

[Darwin]

What a test match!!

I was on the golf course yesterday. At the 16th hole, I checked the score and it was 141/1 for Australia. Then, 15 minutes later, as we sat down at the Clubhouse, we couldn't believe it was all of a sudden 168/5!! and then Dale Steyn bowled one of the best deliveries I have ever seen! Removing Haddin's middle stump, just like in the first innings!

I rushed home, and then it was 7 wickets down, and then the umpires granted the Proteas an extra half an hour to play and finished off the Aussie tail. What a performance, and we did it with just 3 front-line bowlers!!

Certainly a form reversal from the 1st test! South Africa's batting lineup really stepped up this match, and it looked like Steyn fired up a bit in the 2nd innings. It will be interesting to see whether South Africa stick with 4 pace bowlers (and no specialist spinner) again given the success this match. I see Abbott has been called into the squad, so will compete with Kleinvelt and McLaren if they go for 4 pace bowlers. Australia are looking at bringing in Shane Watson ahead of Marsh & Doolan, and may consider bringing in Bird or Pattinson at the expense of Harris or Siddle (who look to be getting a bit tired...). Should be a cracking 3rd test!

 

[TRF_heineken]

Certainly a form reversal from the 1st test! South Africa's batting lineup really stepped up this match, and it looked like Steyn fired up a bit in the 2nd innings. It will be interesting to see whether South Africa stick with 4 pace bowlers (and no specialist spinner) again given the success this match. I see Abbott has been called into the squad, so will compete with Kleinvelt and McLaren if they go for 4 pace bowlers. Australia are looking at bringing in Shane Watson ahead of Marsh & Doolan, and may consider bringing in Bird or Pattinson at the expense of Harris or Siddle (who look to be getting a bit tired...). Should be a cracking 3rd test!

I think Abbott will be the replacement. It's Newlands, and it's always a pace bowler's type of pitch. Not that our part time spinners did a bad job at PE. Duminy broke the Warner/Rogers partnership in the second innings and basically started the collapse and Elgar got the final wicket.

Newlands is also happy hunting ground for Vernon Philander... I'm sure many Aussies will not forget the 45 all out scenario the previous time they played there...

 

[Darwin]

Test 3 starts today. Michael Clarke is in some desperate need of some runs - it has been 11 innings since his last half century (the longest period in his test career). I'm picking South Africa to continue their momentum and take the series, but Australia continue to surprise me at the moment....

 

[TRF_heineken]

Test 3 starts today. Michael Clarke is in some desperate need of some runs - it has been 11 innings since his last half century (the longest period in his test career). I'm picking South Africa to continue their momentum and take the series, but Australia continue to surprise me at the moment....

Very Good start by Australia. almost at the 500 mark with 3 wickets left.

Dale Steyn got injured, and will not bowl for the rest of the test.

According to the weather forecast, nobody might bowl for the rest of the test match. Rain predicted for Cape Town for the next couple of days...

 

[Amobokoboko]

Massive blast, Graeme Smith will retire at the end of the series. Such a great cricketer and captain.

Article here

 

[TRF_heineken]

Massive blast, Graeme Smith will retire at the end of the series. Such a great cricketer and captain.

Article here

I am devastated when I read it this morning. One of my favourite players to watch and such a great leader. His form has been down lately, and he hasn't made the ODI and T20 sides, so it's understandable as he probably feels he's the weakest link at the moment for the team.

First Kallis and now Smith, who's next?? Steyn??

 

[Darwin]

Very dominant display by Australia so far! They currently have a 250 run lead with all 10 2nd innings wickets in hand. Australia will want to give themselves as much time as possible to bowl South Africa out. The could bat for a couple more sessions and give themselves a 400+ run lead, but they will probably want more than 4 sessions to bowl South Africa out. David Warner is the key for Australia - if he gets going (and stays in) Australia could add 100-120 runs in the first session, and look to declare half-way through the 2nd session (or even early). Should be an interesting day...

I was a bit surprised to see Smith is retiring - he has had a poor series, but he remains a quality test batsman, and is a superb captain.

 

[Darwin]

Well done Australia! South Africa really fought that last day, but Australia finally managed to get the wickets they needed. I think I definitely under-estimated this Australian side. I assumed their demolition of England was largely down to a poor English side, but a series victory against the best test side in the world (away from home!) suggests they are pretty good! Warner & Johnson were again the key men for Australia, but they got good support from the likes of Smith, Clarke (in the 3rd test), and Harris.

South Africa started the series looking for a replacement for Kallis, but didn't really find any answers, and indeed probably finish the series with even more questions....

 

[Tony Manx]

Anyone got any comments on the actions of Eranga who has just had Bell out at Headingley? To me, it is very wonky indeed which is unusual for a Sri Lankan!!

 

[Larksea]

Black Caps in brink of another little bit of history. apparently this will be only the 2nd time NZ have won a test series in the West Indies?

WI are 236/9 with 18 overs to survive.

GO THE BLACK CAPS!

 

[Larksea]

NZ win, 13 overs to spare.

staggering run continues for the black caps.

interestingly when Craig got Chanderpaul it was the first time he has ever been dismissed by stumping in test cricket. 256 innings...

 

[Darwin]

Black Caps in brink of another little bit of history. apparently this will be only the 2nd time NZ have won a test series in the West Indies?

WI are 236/9 with 18 overs to survive.

GO THE BLACK CAPS!

Excellent series victory for New Zealand. We certainly had to fight for it though. This is currently the best test side NZ has had since I have been watching cricket. Our batsmen are regularly scoring centuries (a big thing for us!), and we have two geniune strike bowlers leading the attack. Until we develop a quality opening partnership (Latham has been pretty good so far) and discover/develop a quality 3rd seamer and a spinner we are unlikely to challenge the top sides on their own soil, but we have shown we are hard to beat at home, and can even win the odd series overseas....

 

[Larksea]

Williamson has a staggering test record for his age. Saw an interesting comparison against some of the best test batsmen in recent history at the same age and really Williamson was better than all of them and pretty much the equal of sachin tendulkar. And that was just before his 161 not out...

Southee, Boult and Williamson really seem to be the spearhead of this awesome form the black caps have. Lots of important contributions from others but these 3 are the guys doing the business almost every game.

would be good if we can somehow fit Neesham and Anderson in the side. Tough though because Wagner has a habit of coming in and taking critical wickets when Southee and Boult have dry patches. It was a great decision to bring Wagner in again for this third test.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

i'll add to this my indoor cricket teams FIRST VERY win last night....an equally impressive display

 

[goodNumber10]

i'll add to this my indoor cricket teams FIRST VERY win last night....an equally impressive display

The importance of which is not to be underestimated. Congrats!