Christie

I think CSA got a bit arrogant with selection, having had several super star players in the squad (AB, Amla, Dale, Kallis, Philander in right conditions). This meant that they could stuff around with quotas and players out of position, with little risk if it does not work out. Amla as captain is not working. This is the guy who resigned as vice captain of the odi squad some time ago to focus on his batting. Imo he is a batsmen who bats in a bubble of concentration, much like Kallis used to. I cant help feeling that he got the captaincy for the sake of race, rather than being the best man for the job. The captaincy distracts him. AB as keeper: dumb idea to overload the only super star still performing with keeping duties. As I understood, they could not play QdK at Kingsmead because that would mean dropping Bavuma or JP, which would not make the quota. One of them will probably go if Rabada plays. With Dale and Vern injured, that left no super stars free to focus on their speciality. Together with the above, we have some more selection experiments running at the same time: e Non specialist openers: Elgar is settling in, Van Zyl not. When will they try a specialist? Bavuma as quota player: Why play him as opener? Very risky and not fair. Lastly, is Abbot the best pace bowler we have after the big 3? The selectors seem to be defaulting to him because he has been selected as back upto Philander for so long. Im glad Viljoen go called up, I hope he gets a game. Rabada only has 2 test wickets at an average of 55, which is not good, but he could do much better on a helpful pitch. A lot will depend on Morkel if he does not perform. The selection of the 3d pace bowler will be key - imo they must go for the best man for the job, perhaps Viljoen over Abbot and Morris ( but Morris is the better batsmen, and given our weak batting he may get the nod based on batting) All of the above resulted in a lot of risk (perhaps arrogance?) at the same time which failed spectacularly in Durban. Perhaps they can turn the ship around?

Windies won the t20 WC not so long ago. Politics are killing their game, same as SA. Gale, Pollard, Bravo, Sammy all not playing.

AB is talking about reduced load/retirement (rumoured that he is still ****** off because of the quota change to the selection for the WC semi final, and Dale getting injured a couple of times - how long will they play?

I guess we will se Rilee and Rabada at the Wanderers. How the selectors juggle the batting order remains to be seen. Some comments: Opener options: Puttic, Kuhn, Cook - but think we wont see them at the Wanderers. Not QdK, he is not a test opener. Captaincy options: AB and Faf. Faf is out of form and AB over worked. Things I wonder about: Will Chris Morris ever be considered? He is not on the test list, but he could become a bowling all-rounder. Also, David Miller could bat in the middle order. He has been labled as a finisher, but he has the talent to play a longer innings.

Stir stir .... I roll both ways, had several Campy 10s bikes, then Di2, all superb, I am now building a Campy bike again. I am a big Colnago fan, I hope some Italy still remain in Colnago when Ernesto retires. I need to get me one of those Masters while they are still Italian.... the price at current exchange rate makes my eyes water, though.

Ah yes, the old made in Japan vs. Taiwan debate. I assume tradition dictates that Italian frames should have Taiwanese components? http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag294/dilbertZA/20150707_125114_zpss4lnhext.jpg

Elgar and Van Zyl will still open, Bavuma will bat in the middle order, as I understand. I dont know where the policy started to select talented young players as openers, but that is a difficult spot to start in. Why not select openers to open? JP should be dropped imo, he has had enough opportunities, but cannot hold his place with either bat or ball. QdK have done enough to be re selected, more so than Elgar, Van Zyl, JP or Rilee. It is also time to change the captaincy. It has put Amla in the biggest slump of his career, clearly it does not suit him (it even affects his fielding). We need Amla the batsmen more than Amla the captain, it is time for him to step down - I favour Faf to captain the side, he is the best of the 3 in the leadership role. The above would probably wreck the quotas, I guess. Lastly, AB should not keep. Why mess with the only senior player in form, adding more load to his already heavy burden?

Perhaps we saw the end of an era watching this series Our opening combo is weak - Elgar could grow into it, but who to partner him with? Amla has been out of form since the WC, but he will be back. Faf too will be back. JP has the talent, but he needs to step up, too. Leaving QdK looks like a big big mistake. Bowling looks better, Tahir will be out for Steyn, or Rabada

Stuff like that is bad for cricket imo, the umpire effectively decided the series with a wrong descision.

# for a 50, AB to get 100, 30 each in support frm, Elgar, Faf and JPD. Wishful thinking, but I hope we could get a 100 run lead and rub India's faces in their own dry pitch. To win the game, we need to bat and bowl better than them - both teams have to play on the pitch, imo we got psyched out by the Mohali pitc, we could have contested if not for some softish dismissals.

I see some comments on the interwebs are saying our batsmen are suffering from "spin phobia"

Most of our test wins in the last years were built on a combo of performances from Amla, AB, Dale and Vern. Amla is in the worst slump of his career and Dake and Vern is out. AB cant win tests on his own, some of the other batsmen will have to put their hands up, and we need Tahir or Morkel to step up if we want to come back in this series. That first pitch seems to have messed up our batsmen's heads, so much so that on a decent pitch they are getting out to streight ones from the spinners. They need to get their heads screwed on right, especially the senior guys like Faf and JPD. If they can steady the ship, the younger guys can play around them. I remember a tour in Aus 2005/6 where we got beaten in the tests and the limited overs stuff. That team was in a rebuilding phase, and after that they got the mix right to go to Aus and give them a proper hiding in test and odis. I hope we can turn this series around and not have to wait years to go back later for some test wins.

Disappointing result. We gave India a good measure of their own medicine, but we could have won this one, with a bit of effort. We probably lost the game in the last session of the second day, when they had that partnership that gave them the 100 runs that they ended up beating us with. The batting in our 2nd inning was below par. I was so hoping that we could give them another hiding, on their own sandpit. It looks as if they will keep preparing big turning wickets, and hoping that they win the toss. That gives them a 50% chance, where a fair wicket prabably leaves them with less tha 50%.

I went browsing today and ended up ordering a Jura ENA Micro 9 bean to cup machine to compliment the Nespressos. It is arriving on Tuesday, I will post some comments once it is up and running.

^^ Too much goldness imo.

Our pace attack looks ineffective all whe wickets so far to the slow bowlers. I wonder why JPD doesnt bowl.

13 overs bowled with the new ball, no wickets for our big 3. Harmer on for some spin....

It looks like a typical day 1 performance after a long time off by SA. We lost the first test against Pakistan when we last toured the UAE, by being rusty. It looks like the pressure will be on the bowlers to bowl wel. I hope Steyn is sharp, Morne is on target, and Philander gets movement. ( At least we got more runs on the board than in the odis.)

Thanks for posting :-)

How much lighter will xt 1x11 be compared to xt 2x10? I wonder because it looks like you save the weight of the fd and the front shifter. (One chainring moves from the crank to the casette.)

Lets see how SA goes in tests this year. The potential is there to dominate. But if Dale Steyn bowls like he did at the wc and ipl, and matches are played on pitches that does not have something for Vern, our attack would lack some sting. Imo our selectors should look enlarge the pool of players they choose the test squad from, particularly bowlers. Morris and Wiese could be developed into bowling and batting all-rounders. Abbott has been a bit hot and cold lately. Rabada is a good prospect, but I think he should be given another 2 years to mature.

The Aussies were given a proper hiding. Imo it almost looks as if Aus only wants to play on fast bouncy pitches - on any other type of surface they look below par. I wonder if they thought that Johnson would run through England every time they played - Siddle would have been a better option. The Starc injury will not help their cause.

It should be calle the Asses imo, contest between the teams I like least.

Nice meeting you jcza :-)My wife is insulin resistant and starded on LCHF recently.

Damn, Stormers scrum getting shoved off the ball by 7, conceding a try when the Brumbies were down to 13 men.... Scary stuff.