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

[The Mad Hatter]

Steyn has 350 test wickets. You'd have thought been the premier bowler in the world, he'd have blasted out Australia's brittle batting order.

 

[Twizzle]

Gee you know everything is going your way when you get 2 catches as short square leg.

Brilliant captaincy together with a little bit if luck.

Freaky

 

[Bigfella]

Amazing catches though. Not just arse

 

[typicalfan]

You make your own luck. Wasn't Warner dropped 3 times?

Those catches at short leg were genuine.

 

[Sphagnum]

They've responded by saying the pitch made him look better than he is and he mainly gets tail-enders.

Pull the other one smiffy. I think you'll find the stats from the ashes say that Johnson had a team full of pea hearted South Africans shitting themselves for five tests much like we've seen over the last 4 days.

 

[jargan83]

Take out the number 1 ranked Test side on their own patch inside 4 days at a ground where theyve had a pretty outstanding record. How good is that.

Mitchell Johnson is terrorizing batsman for fun and it's brilliant to watch. Solid contributions from the other bowlers is letting Notch run riot though so their efforts cannot be ignored either.

Graeme Smith is a whinger. Had no idea he considered himself a tail end batsman these days

 

[Joely01]

M.Johnson

 

[chigurh]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/south-africa-v-australia-2013-14/content/story/719381.html

- Johnson's match haul of 12 for 127 is the best by a fast bowler against South Africa since their readmission into Test cricket.

- Among all bowlers during this period, only Muttiah Muralitharan has better figures - 13 for 171 in Galle in 2000. Shane Warne took 12 for 128 in Sydney in 1994.

- Johnson's 12-wicket match haul is the first by a fast bowler in a Test in more than eight years

He is just phenomenal at the moment. I hate to think of the damage that ball to Amla would have done without a helmet.

 

[madunit]

Its still hard to believe that such an erratic bowler is being heralded as great now because he's finally (in how many years?) found some form.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

How can smith say South Africa have put Johnson under pressure in the past when he's the one team he's consistently destroyed :lol: that's his second 10 wicket haul against those choke artists

 

[lockyno1]

Smith with the excuses- funny I thought it was SA that sent us in lol

 

[jargan83]

He is just phenomenal at the moment. I hate to think of the damage that ball to Amla would have done without a helmet.

How about the ball that he hit Ryan Mclaren with?

Brutal bowling

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Its still hard to believe that such an erratic bowler is being heralded as great now because he's finally (in how many years?) found some form.

Still took 200 wickets as an erratic bowler. He's not been all shite, probably mismanaged.

 

[madunit]

Still took 200 wickets as an erratic bowler. He's not been all shite, probably mismanaged.

I'd say definitely mismanaged. There's no doubting he has great natural talent and ability. I see no reason why he couldn't be an even better bowler and he could have been for a lot longer in his career.

The media will wank endlessly over his wickets, but if weren't for Harris and to a lesser extent Siddle and Lyon, Johnson would've struggled to take even half of what he has since the last Ashes series.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

C'mon that last quote is a bit of a stretch. Siddle, Harris and Lyon bowling at the other end have nothing to do with Johnson getting his line right consistently for the first time in his career.

He's put together 6 phenomenal tests in a row where before that he wouldn't have had 6 tests in his career of similar bowling performances.

Either Craig McDermott is Midas or Johnson has gone from the submissive to the master at home.

 

[Red Bear]

I think there's truth to it but so what, that's how a good bowling attack works, the efforts of the bowlers help each other.

McDermott as bowling coach just sees our attack dominate it seems

 

[madunit]

C'mon that last quote is a bit of a stretch. Siddle, Harris and Lyon bowling at the other end have nothing to do with Johnson getting his line right consistently for the first time in his career.

He's put together 6 phenomenal tests in a row where before that he wouldn't have had 6 tests in his career of similar bowling performances.

Either Craig McDermott is Midas or Johnson has gone from the submissive to the master at home.

Fast bowlers take wickets on the back of tight bowling and shutting down runs for the batsmen.

Both Harris and Siddle were more economical than Johnson in the series against England.

And in the first test against South Africa the same happened again.

It's no coincidence.

Johnson has been tagged as the spearhead to take the wickets and the other bowlers jobs is to help him get those wickets via tight bowling, thus forcing the batsmen to try and take runs off the more erratic (when compared to Harris and Siddle) Johnson.

That's how he gets his wickets.

It's smart coaching and captaincy is all it is. They know they can't make Johnson accurate as much as they like, so they take the shackles off and let him bowl as fast as he can.

Same thing we did in the past with Brett Lee.

It's just odd that we went away from that plan and understandably, lost a shitload of tests.

 

[JJ]

Siddle's your Ewen Chatfield...

Harris is disappointing me a little - he is a wonderful bowler, but I imagine his body is troubling him, just doesn't seem quite as good as he should be at the moment

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

There's an element of truth to it no doubt and I'm not dismissing it but most of it comes with for once in his life he's consistently bowling at 150km/h at the right line and length. No matter how good or bad the bowling at the other end is when that is happening he's going to be a handful and have batsman caught in between two minds.

His stock wicket of bowling 1 metre across the right hander being caught at third slip has been replaced by 150km/h bouncers being aimed at the head caught behind the wicket or square.

The fact that the others (Lyon the most impressive IMO) have bowled so well has allowed him to be used in aggressive burst spells. But it's also clear he's not the mentally fragile basket case he had been in the past when things didn't go his way.

There is also the aura that has now emerged about him. In the past he's been put in his place after a good test but midway through the Ashes it was evident the poms were shitting themselves and now the South Africans clearly were rattled. If he rolls through them in the next 2 tests it'll take a brave batsman to stand up to him. I've never seen a bowler transform themselves like he has recently.

 

[Red Bear]

Siddle's your Ewen Chatfield...

Harris is disappointing me a little - he is a wonderful bowler, but I imagine his body is troubling him, just doesn't seem quite as good as he should be at the moment

It's one poor test after 46 wickets in his last nine, it's acceptable for now