• Help Support The Rugby Forum :

Cricket Thread

Think this should bring the high flying England back to ground a bit
 
It's all gone wrong!!

First I'll say congrats to Amla, he has now got the highest ever score by a SA batsmen ever. So well done.

However I'm at a loss to how Amla, Kallis, Smith have made this pitch look so docile and yet our batsmen have been so troubled by bowlers who are as good as ours. KP played the worse defensive shot I've seen, Strauss is out playing the sweep to the spinning ball which is exactly how we got smashed in the UAE and Abu D in the winter. At this rate its not a case of if but when this game ends in a SA win and deservedly so, we've been poor. We will be better next match, it's hard to be worse.
 
Third day in a row of complete dominance by South Africa - I think England's best hope now is to be saved by they weather (and judging by the summer they have apparently had a storm is probably due!). Only watched the first session again, but South Africa looked effortless in adding 100+ runs.
 
I was slightly surprised that Smith did not allow Amla to have a go at besting Lara's 400. I believe that South Africa's attack could bowl England out within a day.
 
TRF_Cymro said:
I was slightly surprised that Smith did not allow Amla to have a go at besting Lara's 400. I believe that South Africa's attack could bowl England out within a day.
Click to expand...

I don't think it would have been worth the risk. While it is possible (and perhaps even probable) that the South African attack could have bowled England out in less than a day, I don't think this was at all guaranteed. If Cook or Trott had managed to get in (as they did on day 1) I think the South African bowlers would have had a hard time removing them on this pitch. I'm not a big fan of going for personal milestones if there is any chance that it may affect the teams chance of winning the test....
 
TRF_Darwin said:
I don't think it would have been worth the risk. While it is possible (and perhaps even probable) that the South African attack could have bowled England out in less than a day, I don't think this was at all guaranteed. If Cook or Trott had managed to get in (as they did on day 1) I think the South African bowlers would have had a hard time removing them on this pitch. I'm not a big fan of going for personal milestones if there is any chance that it may affect the teams chance of winning the test....
Click to expand...

422213_10151131387618385_1679978268_n.jpg

Hashim Amla's speech afterwards yesterday's play pointed exactly this out. He said that the TEAM is now in a good position to win the test and that he's just glad to have been part of the solution to get them where they are in the test.

Amla, Smith and Kallis made batting look easy because the english bowlers bowled to their strengths, simple as that!

Why Strauss let Swann bowl so many overs to Amla is a dumb move as Amla is a master in playing spin. Look at his previous high score of 253 vs India, IN India... he batted for 3 days in a row facing 4 different spinners...

England are 4 wickets down with one day left with Cook, Strauss, Trott and Pietersen (man it's awesome when we bowl that A-hole) all back in the hut. Leaving Bopara and Bell at the crease with only Prior to come in and try to save the test. Day 5, on a decaying pitch, with Tahir already getting some spin, spells out big trouble for the Poms.

But Morkel, Philander and Steyn will most definitely steam in and work the batsmen over.

I liked Clive Lloyd's third man comments just before Pietersen got out. He said that SA knows how to work the english batsmen over, and the bouncers worked great!
 
Last edited:
Brilliant test win for South Africa. Winning away from home against the number 1 ranked side is impressive enough, but to do it by an Innings is phenomenal! I thought England may have had a chance to somehow sneak a draw when Prior and Bell batted for a few hours, but once they lost Prior it was basically all over. England have a lot of work to do before the next test - first and foremost they need to work out how to take 20 South African wickets, as they only managed one-tenth of that this match!
 
TRF_Darwin said:
Brilliant test win for South Africa. Winning away from home against the number 1 ranked side is impressive enough, but to do it by an Innings is phenomenal! I thought England may have had a chance to somehow sneak a draw when Prior and Bell batted for a few hours, but once they lost Prior it was basically all over. England have a lot of work to do before the next test - first and foremost they need to work out how to take 20 South African wickets, as they only managed one-tenth of that this match!
Click to expand...

What a win!!

our first victory at the Oval!!

After the match, Greame Smith celebrated with the team for about 2 hours then jumped on a plane back to SA because his daughter is being born today.

10 days before the next test at Headingley, with a 2-day county match for the Proteas, where I expect guys like Steyn, Morkel, Kallis, Amla and Smith will have a rest and give some of the guys who didn't play this match a game, because I really can't see any changes to the Proteas team.

The pressure is on England going into the second test and they have a lot of thinking to do...

Interesting stat, Greame Smith has been to England twice before this series and each time after the tests, the captain of England resigned...
 
Now that match is over we have the match everyone has been waiting for: West Indies vs New Zealand! ;)

Despite being poor in the ODI's/T20's and in our sole warm up game, I am quietly confident of New Zealand's chances. We have almost a completely different side than the one that was easily beaten in the ODI series - Taylor and Brendon McCullum are back (are after missing all but the final 2 ODI's), Flynn and Brownlie are far better test players than ODI players, I've got a lot of time of Van Wyk as a keeper (yep, we stole him from South Africa), and we have basically a completely new bowling lineup, with Vettori (our only good spinner), Chris Martin, Doug Bracewell (who too is much better in tests), and probably Neil Wagner (another South African we stole....). It will be very interesting to see how Wagner goes - he is a quick left armer who has been dominating first-class cricket (he got 5 wickets in one over in a match last season!), and there is a lot of hope that he will be a quality strike bowler at test level. I feel a lot will depend on how New Zealand handles Narine. We are traditionally hopeless against spin, and he completely dominated us in the ODI series - we need to find some way to neutralize him if we want a chance of winning this test.....
 
TRF_Cymro said:
I was slightly surprised that Smith did not allow Amla to have a go at besting Lara's 400. I believe that South Africa's attack could bowl England out within a day.
Click to expand...

I'd have loved that but I suppose they made the right decision as England could just as easily have held out for a draw even if it turned out not to materialize.

The one thing I almost hate more than losing to England at anything is drawing with England (man that 3rd test in PE still irks me). Ernie Els taking the British open along with this rather dominant 1st win at the Oval just about makes up for it though :)
 
TRF_Darwin said:
Now that match is over we have the match everyone has been waiting for: West Indies vs New Zealand! ;)

Despite being poor in the ODI's/T20's and in our sole warm up game, I am quietly confident of New Zealand's chances. We have almost a completely different side than the one that was easily beaten in the ODI series - Taylor and Brendon McCullum are back (are after missing all but the final 2 ODI's), Flynn and Brownlie are far better test players than ODI players, I've got a lot of time of Van Wyk as a keeper (yep, we stole him from South Africa), and we have basically a completely new bowling lineup, with Vettori (our only good spinner), Chris Martin, Doug Bracewell (who too is much better in tests), and probably Neil Wagner (another South African we stole....). It will be very interesting to see how Wagner goes - he is a quick left armer who has been dominating first-class cricket (he got 5 wickets in one over in a match last season!), and there is a lot of hope that he will be a quality strike bowler at test level. I feel a lot will depend on how New Zealand handles Narine. We are traditionally hopeless against spin, and he completely dominated us in the ODI series - we need to find some way to neutralize him if we want a chance of winning this test.....
Click to expand...

Best of luck and I hope your SA imports do the business for you and keep our sporting name high albeit indirectly.
 
Hmmmm. The New Zealand vs West Indies test is looking very much like the England vs South Africa test. Unfortunately we are looking like England!

New Zealand had a reasonable first day, ending 232-4. It could have been much better if we hadn't lost two late wickets. We collapsed somewhat on day 2 to be all out for 351, with West Indies 145-0 at stumps. Debutant (and South African) Neil Wagner has probably been the pick of out bowlers. 8-0-35 doesn't look like the best figures, but he had a couple of catches dropped off his bowling, which could prove very costly...
 
After watching NZ get hammered by the West Indies I'm quite looking forwards to watching the 2nd England vs South Africa test, as at least we can't lose that match!

The second test in both series start in a couple of days, with both England and New Zealand looking to recover from pretty embarrassing defeats. Bopara is out for England, with young James Taylor replacing him, while Vettori is out injured for New Zealand, which will probably mean a test debut for leg-spinner Tarun Nethula.
 
England vs SA 2nd test almost starting.

England won the toss and chose to field. No Graeme Swann, even though there's plenty of cracks on the pitch and James Taylor makes his debut for England as the no. 6 Batsmen and Finn in the place of Swann.
 
Strange decision by England not to pick Swann. If they wanted to pick Finn (which I think is a good idea) I would have dropped Bresnan. I'm sure Bresnan is now going to go and take 5 wickets now just to spite me ;)
 
TRF_Darwin said:
Strange decision by England not to pick Swann. If they wanted to pick Finn (which I think is a good idea) I would have dropped Bresnan. I'm sure Bresnan is now going to go and take 5 wickets now just to spite me ;)
Click to expand...

I'd kick Broad out rather than Bresnan, Broad just hasn't done a lot lately. However Headingley is traditionally no fun for spinners so it might not be an awful decision.
 
TRF_Darwin said:
Strange decision by England not to pick Swann. If they wanted to pick Finn (which I think is a good idea) I would have dropped Bresnan. I'm sure Bresnan is now going to go and take 5 wickets now just to spite me ;)
Click to expand...

Lol! not gonna happen!

South Africa unchanged from the first test...

Pietersen off to a good start... How demoralising would it be for England if he goes on to score a 100 after being the only batsmen not to get a century for SA when they batted in the 1st test.
 
Don't even go there :lol: I think I'll lose the will to live.
 
SelimNiai said:
I'd kick Broad out rather than Bresnan, Broad just hasn't done a lot lately. However Headingley is traditionally no fun for spinners so it might not be an awful decision.
Click to expand...

Didn't Broad get 10 wickets against the West Indies recently? I don't follow English cricket that closely, but I would have though he has been the pick of the England bowlers at test level bowlers over the last year or so (though he was poor in the last test - like every other England bowler!). Broad isn't bowling very well at the moment though, which is possibly an indication I don't really know what I'm talking about ;)
 

Similar threads

S
  • Poll
Should Wales have it's own national cricket team?
Replies
8
Views
260
stevenp
S
Bada-Bing!
Athletics - Track and field thread
2 3 4
Replies
72
Views
5K
Which Tyler
Which Tyler
Leonormous Boozer
GAA Thread
2 3 4
Replies
68
Views
8K
Leonormous Boozer
Leonormous Boozer
Leinster Fan
GAA Thread
Replies
0
Views
2K
Leinster Fan
Leinster Fan
Leonormous Boozer
  • Sticky
NBA Thread
4 5 6
Replies
109
Views
14K
The Seeker
The Seeker

Latest posts

Top