Cricket......

[Vetplant]

still not convinced we are getting the most out of q de kock with him coming in at 7

Yep, feels like such a waste that he is our keeper. But if you give the gloves to someone else you would probably lose 40 odd runs an innings.

 

Can't really bat him earlier with the workload of a keeper in a normally test match. Our 6 specialist batsmen just needs to come to the party.

['Dale]

The Steyn Remover in the top 10 wicket takers of all time

With stunning digits

 

What an athlete ????

[Stretch]

The Steyn Remover in the top 10 wicket takers of all time

With stunning digits

 

What an athlete [emoji91]

2 more and he's outright number 7

[Vetplant]

2 more and he's outright number 7

Still plenty of wickets available to him tomorrow, he could get there in this test. He was really unlucky in the first innings, he created the edges but the guys couldn't hang on.

 

Love the guy, hope he plays until the 500 wicket mark

[Shebeen]

dhoni doing what dhoni does.

 

measuring the chase

[Shebeen]

dhoni doing what dhoni does.

 

measuring the chase

MS the MASTER finisher.

 

well over 37 years old now, doesn't play a game for 10 weeks.

comes to Australia and scores 51, 55*, 87*

 

India become only the 3rd country to win a Test and ODI series in aus (along with WI and Proteas)

['Dale]

Maxwell dropped a sizzler at point

Was a good chance to topple Dhoni, first ball

 

Catches win matches, Baby ????

[Shebeen]

WORLD CUP YEAR!!!!

 

looking ahead, we have 4 months to go, and 8 games to rejig the squad.

From what I can see, you can take 16 players to the tournament (in England).

 

Some are automatically on the list

QDK

 

Amla

Faf

Miller

 

JPD (if fit)

 

Tahir

Rabada

Steyn

Phelhlukwayo

 

That's 9 players, and probably close to our starting lineup

 

The other 7 players would come from

 

HKlaasen - backup keeper/bat

 

2/3 batsmen from

vd dussen/reeza/markram/

 

3/4 bowlers from

ngidi/shamzi/olivier/pretorius/mulder

 

it seems behardien and morris are totally out of the reckoning

i don't see vern/junior dala/peterson coming in either.

 

Whatcha think?

 

 

Can we avenge this?

this match ended in a tie.

Australia went through to final as they had finished higher in the super six table, which had this  rule of carrying points through form the group rounds. It all came down to us actually losing to Zim in the opening round, Pakistan who finished top of the log, won 2 of their last 5 games and were no match in the final.

 

http://www.espncricinfo.com/25/content/story/1138313.html

[Capricorn]

van Dussen is a f'ing terminator. Strolls to wicket: plunders runs. goes back for harddrive defrag and then into sleep state. Haven't seen such poise and confidence from a newb in yonks!

[bertusras]

Yeah, seriously impressed by the bloke. Didn't get to watch the start of our innings but listened to it on radio and it certainly didn't sound very good.

I'm really concerned about our batters, especially against spin-strong teams, for this world up.

[Mntboy]

van Dussen is a f'ing terminator. Strolls to wicket: plunders runs. goes back for harddrive defrag and then into sleep state. Haven't seen such poise and confidence from a newb in yonks!

Not exactly new to professional cricket though, so a newb to international cricket. Averages 43 in both white ball and red ball cricket, domestically. His technique appears to very organised as well. Moves with ease and is light on his feet for a tall guy. But ja he certainly appears to have handled the transition quite well and can also play as Opening Batsman should the selection committee feel that Amla needs to bat first drop in England during the World Cup.

[Shebeen]

TopDeck is back in the squad.

seems like the bowling slots are far from decided

 

 

 

[Shebeen]

Had another think about this world cup squad, and I think we're probably f#$%ed.

 

Here's the issue, we just don't have enough batting.

Having a look at the current squad, and who has been in Ottis' plans for the past 12 months.

Here is who he is going to pick for his side/squad

 

Q de Kock [H Klaasen] HE van der Dussen [RR Hendricks] HM Amla   F du Plessis   DA Miller   JP Duminy   AL Phehlukwayo   K Rabada   DW Steyn [D Pretorius] Imran Tahir [T Shamzi] L Ngidi [D Olivier]  

 

That is your squad of 16 players for the tournament, with the likely strongest 11 starting in column 1.

Olivier is a backup seam bowler and could be replaced by any of Beuran Hendricks, Dane Paterson or even Anrich Nortje. 

Dwayne Pretorius is the only thing close to an allrounder after JPD, but is not getting game time now. 

Shamzi is there as a second spinner

 

Both JPD and Ngidi are currently injured, with Wian Mulder also injured or off the radar.

 

In terms of batting, the only other guys who have played in the past 12 months are, Markram (15 games, average 22, top score 44). K Zondo, C Jonker and D Elgar. none of them are currently in the squad so must be out of the running. It seems Chris morris has also been discarded.

 

In terms of bowlers who can bat, our tail is really long. We would be looking at Rabada at 8, Steyn at 9. The days of someone like pollock coming in at 10 are a distant memory. This makes Andile Pehlukwayo an almost definite starter - while he has taken 25 wickets @ 23 and scored 200+ runs @ 32, I just don't see him as a classic #7 (he is just 22 years old, so is still probably improving).

This tail, from 8-11 averages 16+9+8+?? (lungi ngidi's odi batting average is 34, he's batted 6 times with 5 not outs - I'd expect 5-10 from him) - 38 runs

Let's compare this with England tail from the ODI series in England v India last July

Lilley,Plunkett, Rashid, Wood - 18,20,20,8 - 64 runs

 

So it's obvious the top order batsmen need to get runs. I don't really see Klaasen and QdK both playing in the same lineup. What would it look like if we played an extra batsman and had him at 7, with Phehlukwayo at 8 and steyn/ngidi being dropped. We would then need JPD to bowl all 10 overs then. Our ODI strength has always been decent allrounders, and I really wonder why Dwaine Pretorius has not been backed along with Phehlukwayo - he has a domestic record of 33 with the bat and 24 with the ball - that is comparable with anything pollock, klusener, kallis did and way better than Phehl 22/28 with the bat/ball. Yet he's been given just 3 games in the past 12 months and faced just 33 balls.

 

The other big and related issue, the batsmen we have can't bowl. Amla, Faf, Miller, VdDussen never bowl. Reeza Hendricks might have taken a wicket the other night, but in 149 domestic 50over games he's bowled a grand total of 192 balls. You don't give a guy like that the ball in a world cup. We learnt that obvious lesson in 2015 when ABDv decided he was a bowler all of a sudden and chose to bowl death overs in a world cup semi. People will remember that loss for the Behardien dropped catch, the Philander/Abbot selection issue but him bowling pies at the end was just as bad.

 

So to be honest, it doesn't look good. we need:

 

*Top order to fire, there's probably very few runs coming from the tail

*JPD to get fit and regain form with bat and ball

*Bowlers all to pitch in, there's no overs coming from bits and pieces players.

 

Looking at the ICC rankings we have

Faf and QdK in 7th and 10th

Rabada in 4th, Tahir 11th, Phehl 33

no one in the top 10 allrounders

 

We're ranked 4th in the world,

The betting has England 3/1, India 4/1, Aus 6/1 and us 8/1.

 

It would be a nice surprise if we could not dominate the league part of the world cup for once, scrape into the semis and then play 2 decent games to win it. It's possible.

Edited January 24, 2019 by juan pelota

[Maximis]

Markram will definitely come in - he is too good a player not to make that side. I would take Morris over Pretorious. Dont be surprised to see philander in the mix - all rounders are going to be key buy Ottis seems set on specialist positions.

 

I also think they may play with idea of have shamsi and Tahirin the same team with Morris, and two other quicks in the mix. My starting 11 would be:

 

De kock

Markram

Amla

Faf

Miller

Duminy

Morris

Phehlekwayo

Tahir

Rabada

Steyn/ngidi whoever is fit

 

Vd dussen in the mid somewhere there as well bud we need another all rounder

Edited January 24, 2019 by Maximis

[Shebeen]

Markram will definitely come in - he is too good a player not to make that side. I would take Morris over Pretorious. Dont be surprised to see philander in the mix - all rounders are going to be key buy Ottis seems set on specialist positions.

 

I also think they may play with idea of have shamsi and Tahirin the same team with Morris, and two other quicks in the mix. My starting 11 would be:

 

De kock

Markram

Amla

Faf

Miller

Duminy

Morris

Phehlekwayo

Tahir

Rabada

Steyn/ngidi whoever is fit

 

Vd dussen in the mid somewhere there as well bud we need another all rounder

 

 

If Markram was in the plans, he would be in the squad now.

Same with Morris.

I just don't see them doing anything to get back in the mix.

 

 

Interestingly, there's not much change in the batting lineup from the 2017 Champions trophy squad. 

http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-champions-trophy-2017/content/squad/1093338.html

We tanked there, (well beat sri lanka and lost to the two teams that made the final)

[Mntboy]

Had another think about this world cup squad, and I think we're probably f#$%ed.

 

Here's the issue, we just don't have enough batting.

Having a look at the current squad, and who has been in Ottis' plans for the past 12 months.

Here is who he is going to pick for his side/squad

 

Q de Kock [H Klaasen] HE van der Dussen [RR Hendricks] HM Amla F du Plessis DA Miller JP Duminy AL Phehlukwayo K Rabada DW Steyn [D Pretorius] Imran Tahir [T Shamzi] L Ngidi [D Olivier]

 

That is your squad of 16 players for the tournament, with the likely strongest 11 starting in column 1.

Olivier is a backup seam bowler and could be replaced by any of Beuran Hendricks, Dane Paterson or even Anrich Nortje.

Dwayne Pretorius is the only thing close to an allrounder after JPD, but is not getting game time now.

Shamzi is there as a second spinner

 

Both JPD and Ngidi are currently injured, with Wian Mulder also injured or off the radar.

 

In terms of batting, the only other guys who have played in the past 12 months are, Markram (15 games, average 22, top score 44). K Zondo, C Jonker and D Elgar. none of them are currently in the squad so must be out of the running. It seems Chris morris has also been discarded.

 

In terms of bowlers who can bat, our tail is really long. We would be looking at Rabada at 8, Steyn at 9. The days of someone like pollock coming in at 10 are a distant memory. This makes Andile Pehlukwayo an almost definite starter - while he has taken 25 wickets @ 23 and scored 200+ runs @ 32, I just don't see him as a classic #7 (he is just 22 years old, so is still probably improving).

This tail, from 8-11 averages 16+9+8+?? (lungi ngidi's odi batting average is 34, he's batted 6 times with 5 not outs - I'd expect 5-10 from him) - 38 runs

Let's compare this with England tail from the ODI series in England v India last July

Lilley,Plunkett, Rashid, Wood - 18,20,20,8 - 64 runs

 

So it's obvious the top order batsmen need to get runs. I don't really see Klaasen and QdK both playing in the same lineup. What would it look like if we played an extra batsman and had him at 7, with Phehlukwayo at 8 and steyn/ngidi being dropped. We would then need JPD to bowl all 10 overs then. Our ODI strength has always been decent allrounders, and I really wonder why Dwaine Pretorius has not been backed along with Phehlukwayo - he has a domestic record of 33 with the bat and 24 with the ball - that is comparable with anything pollock, klusener, kallis did and way better than Phehl 22/28 with the bat/ball. Yet he's been given just 3 games in the past 12 months and faced just 33 balls.

 

The other big and related issue, the batsmen we have can't bowl. Amla, Faf, Miller, VdDussen never bowl. Reeza Hendricks might have taken a wicket the other night, but in 149 domestic 50over games he's bowled a grand total of 192 balls. You don't give a guy like that the ball in a world cup. We learnt that obvious lesson in 2015 when ABDv decided he was a bowler all of a sudden and chose to bowl death overs in a world cup semi. People will remember that loss for the Behardien dropped catch, the Philander/Abbot selection issue but him bowling pies at the end was just as bad.

 

So to be honest, it doesn't look good. we need:

 

*Top order to fire, there's probably very few runs coming from the tail

*JPD to get fit and regain form with bat and ball

*Bowlers all to pitch in, there's no overs coming from bits and pieces players.

 

Looking at the ICC rankings we have

Faf and QdK in 7th and 10th

Rabada in 4th, Tahir 11th, Phehl 33

no one in the top 10 allrounders

 

We're ranked 4th in the world,

The betting has England 3/1, India 4/1, Aus 6/1 and us 8/1.

 

It would be a nice surprise if we could not dominate the league part of the world cup for once, scrape into the semis and then play 2 decent games to win it. It's possible.

Wiaan Mulder was injured but is back playing in the Supersport Series or whatever it's called now. Made a decent hundred (146) and took 2 wickets in the Lions win against the Knights. Might get another chance against Sri Lanka later in the season.