Cricket......

['Dale]

First five-wicket haul for Morne Morkel in over 5 years and in 37 Tests.

 

His last 5-for was v Aus at Adelaide in Nov 2012 and the last at home was in Dec 2010 v India.

 

#SAvZim

['Dale]

36/5 ????

['Dale]

9 down

Merry Merry ⭐️

['Dale]

Pity for the sport

Really wanna see Zim rising up ????

[Vetseun]

Pity for the sport

Really wanna see Zim rising up

Ja. Not good. Feel sorry for them. But we need to be ruthless. Like the Baggy Greens.

['Dale]

Cook’s unbeaten double hundred

What a knock

A few weeks to late he says

 

Steadily climbing up the top 10 scorers in Test history

Wow

#longevity

['Dale]

Ja. Not good. Feel sorry for them. But we need to be ruthless. Like the Baggy Greens.

The Indian series is gonna be very interesting

Looking forward to some lekka cricket ????

[City Cycling Athletic Club]

i just hope that all our players (i hate the way our skipper(s) always refer to

'the guys') attend the party and give India a 3.0 hiding.

[GLuvsMtb]

i just hope that all our players (i hate the way our skipper(s) always refer to

'the guys') attend the party and give India a 3.0 hiding.

India has been traveling much better recently and have a very professional support team looking after their players. They have no obvious weaknesses, they can bowl sides out twice and have batsmen that score big and score quickly. I think we’ll do well if we can win this series. I’m looking forward to two sides who can push each other to the limit.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Baldrick]

I like to know how the selectors will accommodate Steyn and du Plessis in the team if they are both fit.

I assume Phehlukwayo will make way for one of them.

[Capricorn]

I like to know how the selectors will accommodate Steyn and du Plessis in the team if they are both fit.

I assume Phehlukwayo will make way for one of them.

 

Du Plessis is in, but steyn is a questionable inclusion, or that's what Gibson was alluding to.  How many matches has Steyn played before today?

['Dale]

Du Plessis is in, but steyn is a questionable inclusion, or that's what Gibson was alluding to. How many matches has Steyn played before today?

Steyn is fit.

They’ll ease him in gently though as he’s not match fit, never mind Test match fit.

May only be for the final Test.

He’s a national treasure after all, the Steyn Remover.

[Shebeen]

So excited for this! While it is #1 and#2 against each other, it will sober you up to remember that 6 months ago England gave us a real snotklap. We will need to play well.

 

 

 

An excellent read:, as always

 

http://mobi.supersport.com/cricket/south-africa-v-india-201718/news/180102/Neils_Diary_SA_home_season_week_2

 

Thursday, 4 January

Although the Proteas were never going to attempt to match the intensity of their training session on Wednesday, they did practise and train together for a little longer than is usual on the day before a test match.

 

Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj and Dale Steyn have all been conspicuous by the amount of time they have spent batting over the last two days. Rabada, in particular, has been working closely with batting coach Dale Benkenstein.

 

KG has always taken his batting seriously but it may also be an indication that South Africa may be contemplating selecting a five-man attack with Maharaj joining all four frontline seamers. Faf du Plessis suggested it was simply an acknowledgement of the importance of lower order runs: “whenever you are playing big series against strong teams, your numbers seven to 11 has a lot of importance and value. You need the 50-80 extra runs from the tail, which in South African conditions adds a lot of pressure to the opposition,” the captain said.

 

He also said that it was “always possible” to read too much into the pitch and over-analyse it but that he was grateful to the excellent head curator, Evan Flynt, for preparing when at least looked like exactly what he wanted.

 

A decent but not excessive amount of green grass on hard surface which will provide “plenty of bounce with a bit of nip for the seamers.”

 

 

 

India opted for a voluntary training session which is not in itself unusual. The Proteas have done the same before test matches in the past.

 

What was extremely unusual, however, was that not a single player pitched up. Not one from a squad of 17. Not only that, but Virat Kohli skipped the standard captain’s pre-match press conference.

 

Such has been the compelling nature of Steyn’s bowling over the last two days I find it hard to imagine him being left on the sidelines. Another clue that he might be making his long-awaited comeback came with Faf’s willing admission that, for him, he was “still the best bowler in the world and his skills have not gone away.”

[Shebeen]

South Africa: (probable) 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Faf du Plessis (capt), 5 AB de Villiers/Temba Bavuma 6 Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Andile Phehlukwayo/Chris Morris, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Dale Steyn/Morne Morkel, 11 Keshav Maharaj

 

There's transformation talk in this selection, which is rubbish. Pick your best XI,damnit!

 

I'd go with both Steyn and morkel, drop the all rounder. And bavuma sits this one out

['Dale]

South Africa: (probable) 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Faf du Plessis (capt), 5 AB de Villiers/Temba Bavuma 6 Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Andile Phehlukwayo/Chris Morris, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Dale Steyn/Morne Morkel, 11 Keshav Maharaj

 

There's transformation talk in this selection, which is rubbish. Pick your best XI,damnit!

 

I'd go with both Steyn and morkel, drop the all rounder. And bavuma sits this one out

 

There are transformation targets which are important to make professional sport relevant to the South African context.

Socio-politics and sport do go together if we talk about being an ambassador for one's country.

 

And, yeah, so cool that the Proteas squad are made up of a bunch of solid cricketers, black, brown and white. Well done CSA.

[babse]

Also cant see who these "transformation players" might be as this squad is made up of players that have delivered (deserve to be there) and promising players (also deserve to be in the mix).

 

Cant wait to see how this unfolds. Damned i never got myself a ticket to Newlands this weekend