Mntboy

Win percentage is in the favour of the Aussies. Stokes doing his best to alter it but he needs Woakes to just stick around and not lose his wicket.

Just some stats regarding chasing in test matches. https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/25742181/why-do-think-test-match-chases-300-all-tough

Hard to see England winning this one albeit that the two guys who are currently at the crease can get them in a position for Buttler, Bairstow and the tail to possibly get them across the line. However history strongly favours the Aussies.

My apologies. Seems I got the two confused with each other. Still a good effort though.

Josh Hazelwood, that's how. 5/30 in 12.3 overs or so. He is definitely deserving of his number 1 ranking.

It is going to be a tough tour indeed. And while I may feel that Nkwe is getting set up for failure I find his attitude commendable. See the article I linked below. I really hope he can pull off a miracle but it is rather unlikely given the circumstances. That said his track record until now is actually quite good. Definitely has the potential to succeed at international level even if his elevation is currently a bit left field. Wondering what your thoughts are concerning him? Failure in India won’t be ‘the end of the world' for Enoch Nkwe https://es.pn/2KKlK0g via ESPNCricinfo app http://es.pn/ciapp

The Test and ODI squads for India.

But it's also never been a barrier to performing well at the World Cup. The worst performance came back in 2007 when the AB's got knocked out at the quarters by France. In general the Tri Nations/RC champions have made into the semifinals and in 2015 Australia were the runners up. If anything the results of this year's RC indicates that if a team has an off day any other could well beat them. I think this hopefully means we will have an entertaining and exciting World Cup that'll be hard to predict. Also, and you are welcome to disagree with this, I think the RC win by the Boks shows that they've grown and that last year's November tour results need to be viewed in the context of the players getting familiar with the roles that they are playing within the Bok team and the instilling of a strong, positive and determined team culture.

Hard to compete if your a man down. Yes the Aussies were very motivated today and played unbelievably well but it would've been a lot lot closer had they not suffered the red card.

Some more Mighty # stats! https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27353613/all-format-all-weather-force

Also second fastest to 8000 ODI runs, and this during a lean period. The man was class. When he and JK batted together it was almost always match defining. They complimented each other nicely. It is going to be so hard to replace Hash and what he brought to the Protea batting unit.

Just a wee bit of proof that the Mighty # was a once in a generation player.

And in Pascal's defense he has a realistic shot at doing well, if the course suits him that is. I am also now of the opinion that we've seen the best of the Manx Missile.

Squidge's take on last weekend's match. https://youtu.be/tZWx6Rv9b-Y

Perfectly set up for them to try and get a 200 to 250 run lead. Enough batting to come to make that a possibility. And they will most likely need as big a lead as they can get as there is still a question mark over the fitness of Anderson and whether he'll be able to bowl in the Aussie second innings. Been a good test match so far.

His highest in an Ashes test but his fourth highest overall. His other scores in ascending order is a 49 against New Zealand and a pair of fifties (51 in the first dig and 50 in the second) against India in India. Handy with the bat is Siddle. He will have a big role to play with the ball today though.

I think that with the numbers on the back it'll help casual fans recognise individual players easier and make it easier for them to know is batting and bowling. In general I'd say it's aimed at getting the casual fan who watches T20/ODI cricket into Test fans as well.

And with the numbers comes a Test Championship. Because who needs innovation and context especially for the longest format. Ps I am joking of course!

Well Jake White's RWC winning team managed to effectively implement it. [emoji41] It is definitely tricky thing to implement but I suspect that Rassie will have a plan to cover the weaknesses of the rush defense. IIRC Jake's team would only fan out in the tramlines but push in in the middle third but only from the outer edges. In the middle they kept a straight line and marked man for man, pod for pod. I suspect that Rassie might do something similar. That said the communication on the field seems good and clear and that is the most essential part of any defensive plan.

Here's another article worth reading regarding last Saturday's match and our defensive effort. https://www.rugbypass.com/news/analysis-how-the-springboks-shut-down-the-all-blacks-attack-and-delivered-a-historical-defensive-performance?fbclid=IwAR0Izki4j456QbJy8rzenzbbZZOyhEuAgvn13PRG8sDj70wcBhwj4c8Mev8

For me it was a game of two halfs. In the first we dominated but couldn't turn into points only to concede a try against the run of play towards the end of the half. The AB's turned it around in the second half but similarly to us couldn't really translate it into a big lead or score more tries. And then we had the Kolbe chip and Jantjies score that made it a two point game at 78 minutes. Pollard handled the pressure well and slotted an important goal. At the end of the day the only statistic that matters is the final scoreline. And I reckon the scoreline was a fair reflection of the match. Not the most free flowing game ever but it was an entertaining one nonetheless.

James Dalton's thoughts on our match against the All Blacks. Worth a read. https://www.sarugbymag.co.za/fortune-favoured-brave-boks/

Agreed. The proper races should be in the 160km to 200km in length. Anything else is just wasting time if the aim is getting pro's good enough to race at WT level. Also we need a few Conti tour level events to take place here as well. Something like the old Rapport Tour or the Giro del Capo (if I am recalling the name correctly).

Fantastic match. What a good decision by the TMO at the end to award Herschel his try. Really fair call seeing how biased the Aussie ref seemed to be.

I'd say a DNF is inevitable for Cav, but I guess we do have to wait and see what will happen.