Cricket......

[Cellar]

Ok, nevermind. Yuvraj and Dhawan are making mincemeat of this chase...

[Christie]

Some strange selections for the 2nd odi vs Pakistan. The batting let us down in the last game, yet only bowlers changed: Philander and Morkel dropped for Tsotsobe and McLaren.

 

Imo we had the combinations right during the odi series in UAE, the selectors made a mess when they put QdK at 3 so Smith can open. Squad should have stayed the same, with Kallis coming in at 3 for Faf. Smith can be 12th man.

[GLuvsMtb]

Some strange selections for the 2nd odi vs Pakistan. The batting let us down in the last game, yet only bowlers changed: Philander and Morkel dropped for Tsotsobe and McLaren.

 

Imo we had the combinations right during the odi series in UAE, the selectors made a mess when they put QdK at 3 so Smith can open. Squad should have stayed the same, with Kallis coming in at 3 for Faf. Smith can be 12th man.

Lets hope that they all recovered from their Babbelas on Sunday after Faf's wedding the night before. The fielding let us down and Philander was probably dropped because of that staring contest he and Smith had before that ball landed nicely inbetween them after what felt like for ever. Both Kallis and Smith looked reasonably good out in the middle before throwing their wickets away. Amla needs to get his head sorted after the birth of his second child and our middle order cannot afford to mess around like they did on Sunday.

[Shebeen]

good article on daily maverick today

 

Forging legacies, though, is clearly not on the ICC’s agenda. Despite a wealth of cricketing talent available in South Africa, despite their immense record and achievements, they have the short straw. The Proteas have not played a five Test series since touring England in 2004.

In contrast, England, by the end of their summer next year, will have played three five-Test series in just over 12 months. How on earth is a team who has achieved so much meant to carve a legacy with such an imbalance?

If the custodians of the game refuse to care about the players and the path they hope to pave for the future, and if the custodians of the game can’t be bothered about the players losing part of their livelihoods in terms of match fees thanks to truncated tours, it doesn’t really inspire much confidence.

[Shebeen]

 

 

 

Speaks volumes about us South Africans as a society. Sad really.

clyde rathbone story and amazing comeback comes to mind.

[DJ84]

Some strange selections for the 2nd odi vs Pakistan. The batting let us down in the last game, yet only bowlers changed: Philander and Morkel dropped for Tsotsobe and McLaren.

 

Imo we had the combinations right during the odi series in UAE, the selectors made a mess when they put QdK at 3 so Smith can open. Squad should have stayed the same, with Kallis coming in at 3 for Faf. Smith can be 12th man.

 

I like the team today,

A bit more well rounded but would prefer Smith to be 4/5 depending on the situation.

I think that Miller will be dropped when Faf is back.

We could also always use Quinton at number 6 to have an aggressive closer (something we have been sorely lacking).

[Cellar]

 

 

Kallis coming in at 3 for Faf. Smith can be 12th man.

 

I like. Except for kallis. We should be grooming someone to take his place. Faf isn't the guy. kallis will lumber along, and fail spectacularly at the world cup. We need to look to the future.

[Cellar]

I like the team today,

A bit more well rounded but would prefer Smith to be 4/5 depending on the situation.

I think that Miller will be dropped when Faf is back.

We could also always use Quinton at number 6 to have an aggressive closer (something we have been sorely lacking).

 

De Kock should be opening. A la Gilchrist style. Faf at 5/6 as the guy to keep some momentum, or the steady head to guide the tail-enders to the end.

Edited November 27, 2013 by Cellar

[Mackie]

Pakistan 115/2 (22.2/45 ov)

South Africa

South Africa won the toss and elected to field

• Pakistan RR 5.14
  
• Last 5 ovs 33/0 RR 6.60
  

Refresh scorecard Current time: 13:34 local, 11:34 GMT ODI career Batsmen Runs B 4s 6s SR This bowler Last 5 ovs Mat Runs HS Ave *Ahmed Shehzad (rhb) 62 67 8 0 92.53 16 (21b) 21 (16b) 34 969 115 30.28 Sohaib Maqsood (rhb) 31 46 3 0 67.39 0 (0b) 12 (14b) 4 162 56 54.00 Bowlers O M R W Econ 0s 4s 6s This spell Mat Wkts BBI Econ *Lonwabo Tsotsobe (lfm) 4.2 0 28 0 6.46 18 3 0 0.2-0-2-0 57 88 4/22 4.77 Jean-Paul Duminy (ob) 1.0 0 12 0 12.00 1 2 0 1-0-12-0 111 35 3/31 4.92

[DJ84]

De Kock should be opening. A la Gilchrist style. Faf at 5/6 as the guy to keep some momentum, or the steady head to guide the tail-enders to the end.

 

I agree that De Kock should open,

but unfortunately our selectors see things in a very narrow perspective and De Kock is not a No.3/4.

 

It will be a cold day in hell when someone realises that Smith doesn't have to open.

I rate him as a player and think that it is stupid to leave him out of any team,

I would drop Faf before I dropped Smith.

 

With Faf,

as I said earlier he should take Millers place when he returns.

Edited November 27, 2013 by DJ84

[Cellar]

100 up and 1000 runs in ODIs for Shehzad. Second brilliant century I got to see today. I love cricket.

Edited November 27, 2013 by Cellar

[Cellar]

Quote of the day so far:

 

Sohaib: "I think Hafeez should try to bat as left handed batsman against Steyn because he is not so lethal lo lefties "

[Cellar]

Steyn to Anwar Ali, OUT, another huge play and miss by Anwar, but they are able to run the bye. Steyn complains about Anwar running on the pitch, but on second glance it may just be that he was appealing for obstruction of the field, as de Kock's throw was blocked when Anwar had changed direction, with the ball hitting his left shoulder. Anwar must have seen it out of his peripheral vision as he changes direction slightly to get in the way. The umpire has deemed it to be out. Been a while since I saw a dismissal in this manner

[GLuvsMtb]

Steyn gets 6 for 39. He was a lone shining light in a sea of pakistani darkness today. If he was not on fire we would have been chasing 350 in 45 overs today.

If we win the game, guess who'll be my man of the match...

[Cellar]

As it is with our fragile top order, 263 is gonna be a tough ask.

[Christie]

Bowling did not work, with only Steyn and perhaps Tahir bowling well. That means that now the batting is under pressure. We need to score at a strike rate of 97 to win. Of our batsmen, only Amla, AB and Miller has strike rates above 90, and they are out of form. If these guys dont fire today, Pakistan can win their first odi series in SA. Smith strikes at 80 and Kallis at 72, they bat too slowly to get this score in 45 overs.