Christie

Im happy WI won, they needed this more than any other of the bigger teams. Strange game, WI were struggling, except Samuels, although 2 or 3 of their batsmen got poor descisions from Simon Taufel. (imo one review per side should be given) Also would have been nice if SL won in front of their home crowd, but it looks as if they just folded under the pressure.

A very fast path to selection would be for a bowler to be able to bowl 4 or 5 toe crunchers in an over. Too bad Alfonso Thomas emigrated.

Some speculating/ranting/whatever about or t20 side: 1. There is no need to smash from ball 1, but you have to put bad balls away from the first over. From over nr 3, at least 2 boundaries per over must be hit during the powerplay overs. On turning wickets, the players who can do this may be different from seaming decks of England. 2. Im not sure if an anchor batsmen is needed. I tend to think it is needed, but he has to bat faster than a run per ball. Between Faf, Amla and Kallis, I think we have the right players, and against India it was the best order, imo. Duminy is a similar player to Amla, and can be used as alternative. 3. For the middle order, batsmen who can score quickly after using no more than 6 balls to get their eye in, is needed. De Villiers can do this, but he needs to be fresh and focussed. It is time for him to give up the gloves in some forms of the game, perhaps tests and odis, but still keep in t20. Duminy and Behardien batted too slowly at the start of their innings to be ideal in the middle order. Albie Morkel, plus another like him, should be 5 and 6. Im thinking De Villiers, Morkel, Levi. Behardien could shape on non turning pitches, and if we can find a big hitting keeper, he could bat at 6. 4. Next would be Peterson. Our best player of the tournament. Against Pakistan, SL kept losing wickets, but a lot of their tail scored 15 or so quick rns each. Philander may be able to do this, as well. 5. For the bowlers, Steyn is a must. For the rest, Morne Morkel, Tsotsobe, Philander and Tahir should be considered. I think they missed a trick by not playing Philander in the limited version in England. Also, on the dryer wicket we played on during the super8, Tahir could have worked with his variations. He was not so effective on English wickets, where his stock leg-spinner did not turn much, but he got enormous turn and bounce if he hit the foot marks. One problem he has is not being able to hit the foot marks 4 or 5 times in a row. However, on a dry pitch, he could be awesome, or at least worth a try.

Aus were favourites. They were the dominant team in the tournament, heading the list of players with most sixes, wickets, runs etc, as their commentators reminded everyone. They beat the Windies in the group phase, when they were chasing a big score. Losing does not mean choking, but 45/6 looked like a choke to me.

Aus vs. WI: Now that is what a choke looks like!

Re Aksiums: I dont like training wheels with streight-pull bladed spokes. Round butted spokes are best, and j-bends are easier to replace. Also, despite the bladed spokes, the air through the wheels are too noisy if there is the slightest cross-wind. I have done no measurements, but more wind noise could mean more drag. The wheels are also too heavy imo. Sure, training wheels does not need to be weight weenies, but these weigh more than my mtb wheels. I dont belive heavy wheels make you stronger, Imo you just train a bit slower. Thirdly, a lot of Mavics Ive ridden develop a squealing free-body. My Aksiums are starting to show early signs. Easy to fix, but I put more than 20000km on a set of Campy wheels without needing free-body or bearing maintenance.

Not the Aksiums. Ive got a set, wont recommend them. DT hubs are not so easy to service, I hear, if you are planning to do lots and lots of kms, perhaps go for something else. Perhaps look at something from Shimano or Campy, too? Both make superb wheels.

Imo they did not choke even once, to choke you have to lose from a good position. They were just piss poor mostly, except for a bright moment here or there. Some things that I think went wrong: *loooong tour of England, then heading to SL without a break. *The batting is not sorted, by a long way. Levi, Kallis, Amla and De Villiers were off their best. Albie Morkel must play, but as a batsman. He needs to go in ahead of Behardien. Levi could work, down the order if the ball is older. *Imo they should have given Tahir a try. He was deadly in India during the last WC. With all his variation, a turning pitch and pressure on the batsmen to score, he could be much more dangerous than in tests. On faster pitches, with less turn, the team may have done better, but for this tournament, they were simply not good enough.

I hope they try Faf at opener instead of Levi - he cant do worse. I would also like to see Albie Morkel in as batsmen for Behardien to bat at 4 or 5, and Tahir in for Parnell, who is a waste of time imo. (dont know if Tahir is there, though)

England out as well, after getting beaten by Sri Lanka

If India beats Pakistan, we may still have a chance to go to the knock out phase if we beat India. I still dont think we have the right combination of players to win this, and our best players (except Steyn) is not on form.

I don't think this loss was a choke. I do think there were some nerves, but a good t20 team must have either very economical bowlers or big hitters in the top 4. We dont have enough of either. Levi and Faf du Plessis was supposed to provide power hitting, but both struggled against seam in England, and Levi is very very poor when it turns. Parnell was brought in to bowl yorkers, but that did not happen, either. Also, the squad have been on tour for a long, long time - they left SA at the end of June, so perhaps being on tour for a long long time also led to a lack of form. AB, Amla, Kallis, Morkels kan play better. Despite this, we have not played so badly. We were ok against Sri Lanka, and we would have beaten Pakistan if AB were a better captain. Against Oz our top order were too tentative, and the game could have been closer had the chance of Watson been taken. That drop may have been a choke, or just because Parnell is useless. He should have no place in the national set-up imo.

They did not choke. I suppose the parrots will always shout chokers-chokers-chokers whenever they lose a tight game. A look at history will show that teams lose close matches all the time in t20. Imo they lost because of lack of death bowlers and bad captaincy. It was AB's call who should bowl when, he had spinners with overs left, should have bowled them out in the middle game - they got us back into the game in the first place. Morne Morkel bowled superbly in the ipl, but he has lost his mojo since then. Kallis does not have enough control to bowl at the end. I dont think we can do well in this tournament without a bowler that can bowl toe-crunchers.

The pitch did not turn much, the England batsmen were missing streight ones and got bowled out for 80. It was as if somebody flipped a switch and they changed from the nr. 1 t20 side into a bunch of amateurs. Crazy!

I watched the H/L of the England, vs India game yesterday. Very funny! (for everybody except England fans)

I have not seen the race, but I would give them the benefit of the doubt and think that the DNFs are directly or indirectly due to the crash. 128km is not that different from races in SA. I would say that our local races are better preperation for our ladies than men distance wise. This route was also flattish like our home races, with 2 climbs that are steep, short power climbs. (Ive ridden them both). I also think racing a whole season in Europe would take them to the next level. But that is tough, the weather, racing and money in SA is much nicer, I think it would not be so easy to keep them there for a season.

Lots of DNFs, half the SA team among them. 12th is a good result!

Sky was pretty useless in grand tours when they started, and now they completely dominated the TDF with the same riders. Something must have happened, and its not a miracle......

If you are soft, you are soft, regardless of components, or if you ride a road or mountain bike.

I still think the biggest problem is players being forced into a game plan that does not suit them. The Bulls scored lots of tries in s15, but they ran the ball much more with the fwds and backs. The boks are not playing to their strengths, but to a dictated plan that is one - dimensional. For example, Hougardt is by nature a very dangerous and attacking nr9 with ball in hand, but I think he was told to play the plan, or sit on the bench. I have never seen him kick so much when playing 9 as now. Same story with Frans Steyn. Goosen will also be dissapointing if he gets a start, but is not allowed freedom to play like he wants to play. Today, the goal kicking and tacktical kicking was an embarrasment. Also, whats the point of bringing on Lambie with 5 mins to play? Did he even touch the ball? Why did HM sub Beast and Strauss? Strauss was being an impact player. The line outs were a bit messy at times, we missed Etsebeth, but Bekker fixed those problems when he came on. I thought the fwds had a very good game in general, big improvements with retention at the rucks. Loose combo of Vermeulen, Alberts and Louw best we used imo, and Vermeulen is perhaps still not 100% in form. The back line does not fire, though. Pienaar and Steyn is not the right half-backs, I would rather see Hougardt at 9, Goosen at 10. Jean de Villiers is also invisible at 13, I think he has to go to get back some wow factor in the back line. Also, Kirchner just does not have the skill to play top level rugby. He stuffed up that early try opportunity htoday. Lambie could have played the whole match, and could not possibly have played worse. Another alternative option here would be Jaco Taute, he was the best 15 in last year's currie cup imo. I don't think HM will give him a go, he seems to be too biased.

Poor showing by SA yesterday. The difference between the 2 sides came to that one Parnel over, in the end, but AB had a terrible game behind the stumps imo, he mised that stumping, and taking some edge catches off the spinners. He also failed to stop some deliveries that turned and some went over middle stump - those should have been dot balls, insted several were 3 or 4 extras. Tactical mistake by AB to bowl the fast men at the end, Kallis, Parnel and Morkel, when the wicket had a lot of turn. I would have liked to see Ontong and Du Plessis at least bowl one over each. A major problem for SA throughout was that none of the big hitters came off or did well in any inning - Levi, AB, Du Plessis or Morkel. If that does not change for the T20 WC, I don't think we will do well.

Positive news. I still wonder how we are going to develop and encourage grand tour contenders, none of the races have got mountain finishes. Also, a GC contender must be able to time trial.......

Imo they all took a pint of blood on the rest day, but Rodriguez unfortunately got a bad bag. It has happened before, for example like Basso in the 2004 Giro. Katusha's medical staff stuffed up and cost JR the race. But credit to Saxo, they set it up perfectly, and Conto executed their plan well. d (if my theory is correct, JR should be completely well by stage 20, which is the last mountain stage, and would be attacking like crazy, and probably win the stage, with Conto on the defensive) Sorry if Im not overwelmed by awe, I cant help but be sceptical of two ex?drug cheats riding away from a world class field after a rest day, in the third week of a grand tour.

Odi team not working if Amla or AB does not get a big score. AB is more likely to make a mistake while batting, now that he is both captain and keeper. I've said it before, but Smith's weakness outside the off stump gets exposed in limited overs format - he can't just leave them, especially when opening. Please tell me he is not going to go to the next WC, in which case we might as well get a different opener. I think Amla should open, he is the best odi opening batsmen in history, and have played well in every odi innings on this tour. The problem is who to open with him? Imo it should be Faf or Levi. On this tour, they could fail because 2 new balls in English conditions mean that openers are likely to get unplayable deliveries every now and then. You need to be flexible at 3, depending on how the game is going. If an opener falls, you need a batsmen without technical flaws, esp. in England, to be 3. Duminy should be able to do this, but so far he has failed. If the openers have a big stand, you can send in a more aggressive player. Up to now, the new guys could not cope with the seam, swing and spin, which is the reason we were short on runs the last 2 games. Secondly, our bowlers look very flat. I don't know what Morkel of Tsotsobe's problems are, but to have both these guys off form is a disaster for us. Tsotsobe was the nr 1 ranked odi bowler in the world after te NZ tour, so he can do a lot better. Except for Steyn, and perhaps Petersen at times, they have all been poor. The second string bowlers like Parnell and mcLaren have not come to the party. For the last odi, I would suggest: Amla - best odi opener in cricket currently. Smith puts a lot of indirect pressure on him too - he could play even better with a good guy on the other end. Du Plessis - a risk yes, but he cant be worse than Smith, plus we need to develop either him or Levi as opener for the wc. Elgar - when an opener gets out, else could swap with a hitter. Kallis will fill this slot if he plays, but can still be swapped with a hitter. De Villiers - captain but not keeper. Duminy - better suited to no 5 than 3. Levi/Albie Morkel/Miller. If there is seam and swing, Morkel would be best. Levi needs to sort his game against spin, and would be better down the order against older balls. Petersen - allrounder Tsolikile - keeper, need to take the weigt off AB's shoulders. If Tsolikile cant bat, he should not be in the squad. Philander - has not got a good record in odi, but in England he may run rampant with the new ball. Bowl out his 10 up front, or early in the game. Usefull with the bat, too. Steyn - no words needed. Either Morkel ot Tsotsobe, both have been bad so far, but they must ern their pay some time. Biggest weakness is bowlers for the last 5 overs. Morne Morkel is sopposed to do this well, and also Tsotsobe. With both off form, I dont know who can bowl at the end.

Imo Lance is now getting treated in the same way he treated others - funny how that works. He would stop at nothing to destroy the careers of people who spoke against him (Bassons, Andreu, Simeoni, to name a few), and now it looks as if the same is happening to him. I don't feel he deserves any sympathy. But he should not be the only one to go down. Through all this, the biggest question that remains for me is: Why are we only talking about his blood profile, and not others? Ok, the federal investigators got Lance's data from the uci, but I wonder how Contador's profile looks for the year they were on the same team? In the interest of cleaning up cycling, all blood profile info should be in the public domain, and wada should have the right to take action when they see something funny, independantly of the uci. How about Sky - they were up there but not quite good enough for 3 years, and now they dominate in the fourth. If they are clean, like they set out to be, it should not be a problem to have their profiles reviewed by experts before any knigth hoods are handed out. I like watching the races, but given the history of the sport, I don't trust its integrity yet, given history of the last 30 years. Can fat Pat and the sports' administrators not see that pro cycling needs that inegrity more than other sports? Match fixers in cricket got sent to jail, I like the message that sends on where the administrators of that sport stand. But perhaps fat Pat also had his hand in the cookie jar......