1st Test: South Africa v Australia at Centurion Feb 12-16, 2014

[Jason Maher]

Warner's chanceless innings comes to an end.

115 runs in the book is all that matters.

 

[jargan83]

Doolan goes for 89

Unlucky to miss out on a 100

 

[Brutus]

I had a feeling South Africa would fall in a heap.

Weak as piss.

 

[no name]

Aussies have not only put themselves in such a string position for this game, they are grinding them into the dirt and setting up a strong position in the series.

Aussies have bowled 61 over, SA are coming up to 200 overs bowled.
Smith will be delighted with his decision to bowl first.

 

[unbreaK]

The question is.. if Watson is fit, does he come back in?

I know the selectors seem to have an enormous hard on for him, but I mean seriously, Doolan and Marsh have showed more promise with the bat in the last 3 days than Watson has in the last 3 years. f**k his bowling.

 

[hineyrulz]

Unlucky for Doolan he looks a real good player, much better than his FC average suggests

Interesting to see who misses out next test???

And still can't believe the lack of talk by the commentators about Smith's woeful decision to send us in which will cost them the first test and may hurt them throughout the series with already bowled over 200 overs.

Typical Saffa's talk tough but can never back it up against an aggressive,attacking and well drilled side.

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

Geeze this habit that Warner seems to have picked up of converting in the second innings makes him a handy cricketer to have in your team. To have him coming out blasting hundreds when the game is in the balance and conditions are supposed to be tricky, is a real plus for Australia.

 

[Twizzle]

How the f**k did Philander ever get an average of 18 ?

Geez he's been average, at least Shit Steyne has an excuse

Nice to see RSA have hired Tuffers as their fielding coach

This just doesn't get any better for us.

 

[JJ]

Vernon's a good bowler, 18 is flattering, but he's seriously good.

Johnson though, putting in Hadlee like performances (different method, same result) - shit, if he keeps this up you'll be #1 or close pretty soon - solid supporting group, and if he's getting 4-8 wickets every innings anything can happen

 

[Twizzle]

1 for 97 so far in this test, yeah he's a gun

 

[hineyrulz]

Philander has feasted against some pretty poor batting line ups on some favourable decks. But besides his first spell on day 1 has looked like a poor mans Adam Dale.

An average of 18 is just laughable, Warners crack about him not wanting to play on a flat deck in Adelaide looks like another bullseye. It was great to see that fat wanker Smith get quieter and quieter throughout the day :lol: The commentators haven't said boo about his terrible decision still wanting to lick his Gooch.

 

[El Diablo]

he wasn't that great when he toured here either

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...n=2;template=results;type=allround;view=match

 

[TheParraboy]

479 ahead, 7 wickets left, 2 full days to go
Marsh 44, Clarke 17

what do we do? bat for 45mins id say and get to 550 (71 runs in 10 overs)
send in haddin and notch to bat next

Soon as we hit 550 we declare. I wouldn't give these bastards (I say that respectfully) anything less or give them any whiff of doing what they nearly did to India

 

[Twizzle]

we've probably got enough runs but I would think over 500, maybe 550

also may depend on time, we need to give ourselves time to bowl them out, 5 sessions maybe

 

[TheParraboy]

Philander hasn't played in india nor SL yett, and averages 49.65 in Australia (heading for that average at home well). That aside...

Does well vs SL, Pakistan, NZ and the poms, so overall he is an impressive bowler. You don't average 18 being a nuffy playing over 20 tests. Though like Brett Lee who had a similar average after 10-12 tests, you can easily blow out the average the more tests you play, sides figure you out better

 

[TheParraboy]

we've probably got enough runs but I would think over 500, maybe 550

also may depend on time, we need to give ourselves time to bowl them out, 5 sessions maybe

Couple of their guys can bat dull and bat long, that's the only concern we have. 5 1/2 sessions is around 160 overs, they only need to score 3 an over to be in it if they don't lose wickets

 

[JJ]

he's played 2 tests in Aust, hardly a big sample...

overall his record against you is solid... but sweet, base your conclusions on a small sample... overall his record is better than it will end, but he won't suddenly be averaging 35 over his career

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

You need to give them a faint sniff of being able to score a win. Otherwise they will just stone wall for two days. If you give them an excuse to be a little positive, you maximize your chances of some early wickets.

 

[Twizzle]

I doubt Faf could repeat his Adelaide effort on this pitch but yeh, I expected so much more from these guys

 

[JJ]

You need to give them a faint sniff of being able to score a win. Otherwise they will just stone wall for two days. If you give them an excuse to be a little positive, you maximize your chances of some early wickets.

They are a quality lineup, but people also need to consider they've just lost Kallis, which is huge, and it already looks like Johnson is in some heads...

de Villers, with Sangakarra is the best there is atm, and Amla not far behind... you'd imagine they've learned a bit from the first innings, but at the moment Johnson is just hard to handle, and the rest are doing a great job, so the Jaapies will have to work hard to avoid defeat here... if they do though, it will be huge for them