Cricket......

[JGR]

I like the balance of this side, but the problem with above team in the long run is the <ahem> "administrative" requirements.

We should possibly look at Zondo, Phangiso and Hendricks in the upcoming Zim tour to give these youngsters some decent exposure with the likes of other young talent like QdK and Abbot. The future is looking bright at least

Lol

[Shebeen]

Fixed

 

I know you aren't a fan but if you look at the bigger picture im sure you will agree, the exposure he is getting is second to none. If they win it would only bode well to create a winning mindset in the young man. I don't see AP in the team beyond next year tbh - to many good players knocking on the door

I said the side I THINK they will go with - long term there are definitely two opener slots available.As bad as he looked in the first test, I'm almost positive that they will slot Alviro back in if he isn't injured.

 

First time i had seen QdK bat against a red ball, definitely not ready to be in the team as batsman alone. Give him time in whites, he will get there. I never said I wasn't a fan, but gambling with such a talented player in a deciding match sounds a little bit dicey. (it goes without saying that if they do play him, I will be the first to be hoping that he can hit the aussie attack all around the park...might even get it over the railway line)

[JGR]

I said the side I THINK they will go with - long term there are definitely two opener slots available.As bad as he looked in the first test, I'm almost positive that they will slot Alviro back in if he isn't injured.

 

First time i had seen QdK bat against a red ball, definitely not ready to be in the team as batsman alone. Give him time in whites, he will get there. I never said I wasn't a fan, but gambling with such a talented player in a deciding match sounds a little bit dicey. (it goes without saying that if they do play him, I will be the first to be hoping that he can hit the aussie attack all around the park...might even get it over the railway line)

Wasn't an attack on your opinion, just shared mine. Well the last game had as much pressure for SA as the 'decider'. In fact more so given the fact now that we know Mitch is not as unplayable as people inferred.

 

Regardless if QdK plays I think Elgar has played himself into that opening slot. Why move him? He has showed a lot more temperament than AP and I also like the fact that we are being bolder with team selection than we have in the past where players seldom got dropped for performing badly.

[Shebeen]

Wasn't an attack on your opinion, just shared mine. Well the last game had as much pressure for SA as the 'decider'. In fact more so given the fact now that we know Mitch is not as unplayable as people inferred.

 

Regardless if QdK plays I think Elgar has played himself into that opening slot. Why move him? He has showed a lot more temperament than AP and I also like the fact that we are being bolder with team selection than we have in the past where players seldom got dropped for performing badly.

I read you, but in the past they definitely have stuck with the 'established team' you just need to look at Kyle Abbot and Marchant de Lange's test career and wonder how they both got dropped after a single game.

 

could go either way - Alviro could be wondering if he's played his last test.

['Dale]

Faf's column on Supersport website

 

http://www.supersport.com/cricket/blogs/faf-du-plessis/Savouring_a_sweet_victory

[Vetseun]

Agreed but I think TT is an ok provincial player imo and I havent seem much of Rory lately to make him more deserving that KA or BH for the test squad.

Agreed

['Dale]

Amla's pedigree, statistically speaking, is now equal to Gary Kirsten, who also scored 21 hundreds for South Africa. Of his countrymen, only Jacques Kallis (45) and Graeme Smith (27) have more but like them, the numbers don't mean as much to Amla as much as the context in which they come up. "I play every game like it's my last. I'm just grateful for those 21 hundreds," he said. "It feels like just the other day I started playing international cricket. The best thing is to score runs in a winning cause."

 

cricinfo

['Dale]

"Think I'd rather face a starving lion while dressed as a lightly barbecued zebra thigh than Dale Steyn when it's reversing." - tweet from @pavilionopinion

['Dale]

Very acknowledging article from Mark Nicholas RE Steyn

 

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/723057.html

[Mr Winter]

I see Warner is claiming that AB was tampering with the ball in the last test.

['Dale]

"There was nothing in the St George's Park pitch, nothing. It was a pitch so dead that the air appeared to have been sucked from the ball. Exceptional cricket was required to transcend the damn thing, cricket glimpsed here and there through the mist of time and only ever in the Test match arena where the human drama is a greater spectacle than six hits and steepling catches...No other bowler in the world today could have won the match in Port Elizabeth so suddenly and with such effect. Mitchell Johnson's ineffectiveness is proof of that. "

Mark Nicholas, on Steyn

[GLuvsMtb]

I see Warner is claiming that AB was tampering with the ball in the last test.

Warner should rather go pub crawling looking for young English batsmen to beat up than open his trap.

[Mr Winter]

 

"There was nothing in the St George's Park pitch, nothing. It was a pitch so dead that the air appeared to have been sucked from the ball. Exceptional cricket was required to transcend the damn thing, cricket glimpsed here and there through the mist of time and only ever in the Test match arena where the human drama is a greater spectacle than six hits and steepling catches...No other bowler in the world today could have won the match in Port Elizabeth so suddenly and with such effect. Mitchell Johnson's ineffectiveness is proof of that. "

 

Mark Nicholas, on Steyn

 

My favorite was after Dale Steyn bowled Haddin out in the second innings and then ran up to the uprooted stumped and started celebrating over it.

[deanbean]

Arise Sir Curtley

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Roberts-Richardson-Ambrose-to-get-knighthoods-247168041.html

Roberts, Richardson, Ambrose to get knighthoods

 

Three West Indies cricket legends are to be knighted during the first One Day International (ODI) between England and West Indies at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds on Friday, according to media reports from Antigua.

Former fast bowlers Andy Roberts and Curtly Ambrose and former Windies captain and batsman Richie Richardson will be knighted, the Antigua Observer reported on Monday.

[JGR]

I read you, but in the past they definitely have stuck with the 'established team' you just need to look at Kyle Abbot and Marchant de Lange's test career and wonder how they both got dropped after a single game.

 

could go either way - Alviro could be wondering if he's played his last test.

I think De Lange got injured and hasn't quite returned to that form, don't know how KA was released from the squad after his one and only test and taking 9 wickets for 80 odd I think

[JGR]

Warner should rather go pub crawling looking for young English batsmen to beat up than open his trap.

Needless to say he got out to a part time spinner ....