Proteas... :(

Mannoroth

After beating SL by an inns in Pta we managed to slide back to an embarrassing 200-odd run loss on day 4 in Durbs. :'( It hurts sooooo bad!

Our batting in particular was disappointing and I found it hard to believe we managed to collapse twice on a fairly flat wicket on home soil against a mediocre bowling attack.

I'd like to hear what our panel of experts has to say!? What went wong? 8)

For me the senior guys like Graeme and "Jakalas" are a concern - apart from his ton against the ausies in the 1st test Graeme has been very inconsistent.. Jacques is a great player but he has been struggling with the bat and he no longer seems potent enough as a frontline bowler (Not just the pair of ducks he got in this test, he hasn't scored runs for a while). Is he getting too old / past his best or will he bounce back? He has done often in the past!

Tough decisions for the selectors going to CT - Rudolph has not reached 50 in 6 inns', Ashy has been struggling for form, so has Boucher. Morky not hitting the right areas consistently enough, Tahir still new but bowling A LOT of full tosses ey?

This is sport and these things happen - just the way in which our guys went down...

chris77

Cricket is a funny old game and I don't believe in making rash emotional selections is the way to go. BUT, I think a few youngsters like Elgar, Duminy, Rossouw and du Plessis can add a bit of sparkle to a very tired looking line-up. We are getting to the stage where stallwarts like Smith, Kallis, Prince and even Boucher are letting their side and themselves down more often than not. Question is who among them will quit with reputations intact, and who will take the John Smit walk of shame approach.

aubs1

Ja Boet ........ ☹

1. I hate Test cricket. The only thing more boring is watching paint dry ..... now that's just me ...... :?

2. I love One day (50 overs), and 20/20 games ........ :woohoo:

chris77 wrote We are getting to the stage where stallwarts like Smith, Kallis, Prince and even Boucher are letting their side and themselves down more often than not.

+1 I think we have passed the stage ..... ☹

Sean

Aubs1 wrote 1. I hate Test cricket. The only thing more boring is watching paint dry ..... now that's just me ...... :?

??? I shall overlook this flaw ? I don't watch 20/20 at all

Mannoroth

Aubs1 wrote
1. I hate Test cricket. The only thing more boring is watching paint dry ..... now that's just me ...... :?

No ways man! Test Cricket is awesome - Ive followed the game for many years and some of the most exciting matches have been tests. There's usually a lot more going on than people realize... I find that for as long as both sides are in with a chance the game remains exciting. Of course if you only wanna see people smash fours and sixes all the time its maybe not your thing ?

As for the old timers, likes of Smith, Kallis, Prince, Boucher - they have been great servants to the game and people are very quick to forget that, but at the same time I think some of them are past their best. I think they need to get Duminy back into the side for Prince, he can bowl some offy's as well...

guidothepimmp

yah i must admit, i dont watch cricket...

i just cant get into it. >☹

doc-phil

1. Prince
2. Smith
3. Rudolph
4. Morkel
5. Boucher

The above players need to leave; in that order. Promote Steyn a spot or two up the batting order. De Villiers as keeper. Philander and Steyn as the main strike bowlers. Give De Lange a chance - he looks promising. Hang on to Tahir, he's the best spinner we've had in years - even if he does bowl the odd full toss.

This, I believe will solve all our problems.

Mannoroth

doc-phil wrote 1. Prince
2. Smith
3. Rudolph
4. Morkel
5. Boucher

The above players need to leave; in that order. Promote Steyn a spot or two up the batting order. De Villiers as keeper. Philander and Steyn as the main strike bowlers. Give De Lange a chance - he looks promising. Hang on to Tahir, he's the best spinner we've had in years - even if he does bowl the odd full toss.

This, I believe will solve all our problems.

Agree with most of this, however De Villiers as keeper could be a risky move.. He is our best bat along with Hashim and the workload a keeper takes in test Cricket is likely to impact on their batting...

I think Morky could be top 2-3 fast bowlers in the world, but needs to go back to domestic to get some form and confidence. Needs to sort out those no balls and his batting, coz he can bat a bit.

Here's my 11 for CT! ?

1) Smith
2) Alviro Petersen
3) Amla
4) Kallis
5) De Villiers
6) Duminy
7) New Keeper / bat
8 ) Steyn
9) Philander
10) Tahir
11) De Lange

Bob-Dubery

Cricket is a cruel game, and we need to take a looooong perspective on the consistency of batsmen. If you score a ton every third time you bat then
1) You are (arguably) failing 2/3 of the time
2) Your name is Don Bradman.

If you score a ton every 5th time you bat then your name is Sachin Tendulkar.
That's in test cricket, the least contrived, most challenging format of the game.

Mannoroth

I guess the mental make-up of the team is still a big problem. These batting collapses occur VERY frequently? >☹

DaFiz

I'm no cricketer so I stick to playing the guitar and singing.
I get it wrong from time to time but I still keep on keepin' on anyway.
Rather get a rotten tomato in the face than a 140kmh cricket ball. ???

psyx

In my opinion they really need to boot Smith off the captain post. Im not really sure who would be best suited for the job though! Maybe they should make de Villiers captain for tests as well, since he is already captain for ODI's. Smith is a decent batsman, albeit inconsistent, so he can stick around.
on a positive note: atleast we won the first test by a big margin. Some people say the pitch served to our advantage due to its inconsistent hardness... but whatever , we still won! So lets wait and see what happens in CT

Bob-Dubery

There's often an impulse to change a losing side. Likewise there's an opposite impulse to not change a winning side.

Both are false.

The question the selectors must ask is "is this the best possible side?" If the answer is "yes" then you don't change. So it's tempting to want players axed, but there has to be an alternative who has a reasonable chance of doing better. You may experiment a little when the series is no longer alive, though in this day and age of 2 and 3 match series that doesn't happen very often.

Ray

Some years back there was a bit of confusion about the way Australia selected their side. I remember in particular that people were wondering about David Boone. He plays a test and scores ton in each innings (I think that is accurate but I'm just going on sort of vague recollection), and then the next test he isnt selected. And people say what the heck is going on here. And the selectors say they select for the team and not the player. And they do this by studying the players rhythms and cycles amongst other things. Maybe a bit too scientific but I dont think they were gettin gtoo much wrong at the time as far as results were concerned.

So, I dont like all the selections that are made. For me the only thing Smith has got going for him is that he went to School. But I decided way back that I dont think I should be a sofa selector because I really dont know much about doing it and I'm not employed in that line anyway.

Hey listen, I'm just happy as heck that Australia won.

Bob-Dubery

I'd recommend Mike Brearley's book The Art of Captaincy to anybody wanting to get some insights into selecting & leading cricket teams.

The book was updated a couple of years ago with some extra input from Nasser Hussein, who laid the foundations for Englands successes of the last few years.

Brearley is one of the best reads in cricket writing, and The Art of Captaincy is his best work as an author.