Cricket Thread

[TRF_heineken]

Congrats New Zealand! first series win against a top nation in 12 years!!

South Africa has arrived in Sri Lanka for their upcoming tour. The first ODI is on the 6th of July.

This is the only place where SA hasn't won a test series, and I hope we will be able to pull it off. It's going to be tough though especially after Sri Lanka's performance against England recently.

Keep an eye out for the new kid in the Proteas team: Dane Piedt, he's a young spinner that has been coached by Shane Warne. I hope he gets a chance to play!!

 

[TRF_heineken]

So the first test has started this morning between Sri Lanka and South Africa.

SA are now 174/1 after 48 overs, with Dean Elgar and Faf Du Plessis at the crease.

Pretty Good start for SA.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Any of you guys watched the historic win yesterday of Zimbabwe beating Australia only for the 2nd time in history??

It was pretty Epic!

 

[Rugga-lad]

Yes Heineken. It was pretty epic
Test cricket as well as rugby are my two favourite sports

 

[TRF_heineken]

So South Africa has wrapped up another ODI-series win this morning in NZ, with 1 more game to play.

AB de Villiers got 2 wickets in the match!

 

[squirrel]

Think Jesse Ryder will solve a few issues at the top of the order if they would select him, other than that the team is good shape. Not sure about SAF though they rely heavily on Amla and De Villiers so if either of those two have a bad run at the world cup then I see them crashing early.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Think Jesse Ryder will solve a few issues at the top of the order if they would select him, other than that the team is good shape. Not sure about SAF though they rely heavily on Amla and De Villiers so if either of those two have a bad run at the world cup then I see them crashing early.

Really??

This was the first time in a while Amla got runs. During the Zimbabwe/Australia Tri-series, our top scorer was Faf Du Plessis and JP Duminy. And during the Sri Lanka series, Quinton De Kock and David Miller got runs...

nah I think our batting line-up is okay, if one falls, we have another one who can grab the bull by the horns...

 

[squirrel]

Faf is a solid player but I feel the class is in AB and Amla. Q De Kock is going to be a great player one day but opening the batting and wicket keeping at a young age is going to hamper his progress and he seems quite poor vs spin from what ive seen.

 

[Darwin]

Really??

This was the first time in a while Amla got runs. During the Zimbabwe/Australia Tri-series, our top scorer was Faf Du Plessis and JP Duminy. And during the Sri Lanka series, Quinton De Kock and David Miller got runs...

nah I think our batting line-up is okay, if one falls, we have another one who can grab the bull by the horns...

I agree - South Africa has plenty of batting depth at ODI level. Obviously Amla and de Villiers are the best two batsmen, but even without them they have a huge amount of quality in the top order.

Hard to read too much into the NZ vs SA ODI series with NZ missing our two (perhaps 3 if you include Ryder) best ODI batsmen (Williamson and Taylor), Guptill so woefully out of form, and the experimentation with the bowling lineup. South Africa have won the first two matches incredibly comfortably. Probably the biggest positive from a NZ perspective is the return of Vettori (who has been accurate - if not threatening).

 

[squirrel]

Good to see Pakistan thrash AUS, they have some scary talent in their bowling depth even without Ajmal, Asif & Aamer who were rare talents(also current bowlers Junaid Khan, Mohammed Irfan, Umar Gul and Abdul Rehamn) they still had better bowlers than India and Sri Lanka. Just looking at the way their young batsmen played I cant help but feel not playing IPL has done Pakistan a huge favour, test cricket stills seems like the ultimate goal for them. @Darwin Vettori has not looked threatening since his back injury 14 years ago.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I'm not a 20/20 fan but I'm liking the way Rossouw and De Kock are seemingly hurting Aussie here when I scan the developments. Not that Aus havn't had chances to take them out it seems.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Of course both go out withiin balls of me saying that but a comfortable win in the end despite the speed bump there. That'll do Rossouw's confidence no end of good on 20/20 debut.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Of course both go out withiin balls of me saying that but a comfortable win in the end despite the speed bump there. That'll do Rossouw's confidence no end of good on 20/20 debut.

Well, it could've been a whole different match if Aus caught 7 of the dropped catches...

That said, I'm very pleased at our depth currently, with both bat and ball. Yesterday was Rabada's debut, he's the kid who took the most wickets during last year's ICC Junior World Cup.

I've always liked Rossouw, and I was amazed he wasn't picked earlier, but he had a very shaky start to his international career, and yesterday's performance should do him a world of good.

 

[squirrel]

I think NZ have a decent chance vs the Pakis, I certainly think they have a stronger test team than Australia for those conditions with Sodhi being a potential match winner if he has enough runs to play with. Looking at the NZ lineup I would back them too beat Aus in a 3 test series, will have to wait a year to see though.

 

[Darwin]

As expected New Zealand are getting hammered by Pakistan. It was good to see Tom Latham get a century in the 1st innings - he's got a massive future ahead of him.

If our test players could catch as well as this spectator (who I happen to know very well) we may have got a few more Pakistan wickets

 

[SelimNiai]

Well held that man.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Marvellous effort that ...

 

[squirrel]

Another double ton scored in another pointless one dayer by albeit a classy indian batsmen.

 

[Darwin]

Scoring 264 in an ODI game. Wow. That didn't just break the old record, that completely blitzed it. I remember being amazed when Tendulker scored 200* in an ODI match (only 4 years ago), but since then there have been another 3 double hundreds. Getting 300 in an ODI match now seems a possibility given the roads they play on these days....

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Classy innings against a dire bowling side on a flat track. To be expected. Starting to fulfil his potential.