3rd Test: Australia v South Africa at Adelaide on Nov 24-28, 2016

[lockyno1]

Nevill was hopeless, should have been batting at 11.

Wish they picked Whiteman though

 

[tomdl]

Wade?! Smfh. Even Chris f**kin' Hartley is batting better than that merkin at the moment

 

[Twizzle]

Ferguson's FC form was pretty terrible, he is not in good form.'5 single figure innings on the trot.

Some of the batting changes are not too bad, however I would have gone with Kurt Patterson instead of Maddinson, averages 55 in FC this season where as Maddinson is about 10 less but been part of the Aussie A team for years. I'm not sure Maddinson is what we need, very weak outside off stump and most of his runs are on the on side, more an ODI slogger than a test player, I think he will get found out at international level if they focus just outside his off stump.

Wade is just, Im speechless, Tried and failed and gets another gig with no FC form, I think they wanted a keeper who can make some runs but the problem is this guy cant keep and very rarely made runs so why go back to him ? Words fail me.

Chad Sayers is worth a run, at least he is an opening bowler not a 2nd or 3rd change bowler. Still cant believe Mennie was selected based on a statics (bowling aggregate), the important statistic being he is only a 3rd or 4th change bowler for SA, the spinners generally get a run before he does and he normally only bowls at the tail, terrible selection considering he was expected to bowl first change for Australia.

 

[Twizzle]

forgot to mention Lyon being a huge mistake but I heard SOK has injured himself again

 

[hineyrulz]

But who will sing the team song if the GOAT isn't picked???

 

[JJ]

Wade, duh

 

[Timbo]

this for a lot of them, mentally we just weren't ready for this series. We seem to be when we go over there, but this series we played like we HAD to be aggressive

no way is Elgar, Duminy and Bavuma better players than Warner, Khawaja, Smith. But during this series, in most part, they were easily better. Out shot selection has been woefull without earning the right to go the tonk, this notion to his every wide ball for 4 has bit us on the ass yet again, plus some stupid run outs cost us big time. On top of all this some quality bowling, then we deserve the spanking we are getting

Most of our guys played on FC match since Sri Lanka, and we wonder why they weren't ready?

England usually has their players with the counties for four or five games prior to the first test of the summer. But we decided that a mickey-mouse ODI series in South Africa and the Matador Cup was the appropriate warm up for our guys. And then most of them were rested from that!

This rest and rotation bullshit has to go. If you break down you break down, but our guys need to be playing cricket.

Oh and on that, how must Joe Mennie must be feeling? Is forced to rest from this round of the shield by the national selectors and then isn't even in the 12 for Adelaide!

 

[Meapro Ham]

At least they are trying some younger players. It's the right thing to do. Whether they are the right ones we'll have to wait and see. I think we have to accept we're going to have an ordinary test side for a while until a few younger players establish themselves.

Going back to Wade is disappointing. Missed opportunities by the keeper will kill ya, surely that lesson should have been learnt by now.

 

[Valheru]

Very harsh to drop Mennie and Ferguson after one game. Either stick with them for a few games or don't pick them in the first place.

 

[Iafeta]

What's every other merkin above Nevill averaging? blokes that are supposed to be batsmen...

Let's see.
Warner 49
Smith 58
Khawaja 42
Voges was what 66

I'm not sure where you are going with this? The basic underlying fact is Nevill performed poorly with the bat.

 

[JJ]

Think he means in this series, or in the series of losses - but it's a given if a team is getting beaten then the batsmen aren't performing, and the bowlers aren't either.

Nevill is a plod, no mistake, but not sure what he's done to be dropped for Wade who's just rubbish... Surely the vaunted Australian domestic scene can produce a good keeper bat? Even Ronchi's better than those two nuffies

 

[Incorrect]

Think he means in this series, or in the series of losses - but it's a given if a team is getting beaten then the batsmen aren't performing, and the bowlers aren't either.

Nevill is a plod, no mistake, but not sure what he's done to be dropped for Wade who's just rubbish... Surely the vaunted Australian domestic scene can produce a good keeper bat? Even Ronchi's better than those two nuffies

Yep, of course.

Nevill averaging 34 this series...

3 blokes have batted ahead of him at 5 and 6 in the middle order, Voges, Marsh and Ferguson, whose averages are 7.5, 13 and 2 respectively.

Yeah Nevill ain't peeling off Gilchrist or De Kock like numbers but when a team is being pasted in the fist 2 Tests of a series and your keeper is averagining 34, and one of the innings in said Tests the entire team is rolled for 85, your keeper isn't your problem. At least not to be replaced by the likes of Mattehw Wade anyway.

On a side note - I would love to see the smile wiped off Wade's face if they went with Handscombe as keeper in Adelaide and made Wade 12th man... LOL

 

[JJ]

Yep, Nevill's a pretty ordinary test cricketer, but not the problem here - and If Wade's the solution I'd really like someone to explain what the problem was

 

[lockyno1]

Yep, Nevill's a pretty ordinary test cricketer, but not the problem here - and If Wade's the solution I'd really like someone to explain what the problem was

Nevill can't bat would be the biggest issue. Yeah he tries but come on he's woeful. Even that 60 odd...we were flogged by 200+ where was he in the first in innings?

 

[JJ]

Nevill can't bat would be the biggest issue. Yeah he tries but come on he's woeful. Even that 60 odd...we were flogged by 200+ where was he in the first in innings?

Two questions I guess, the most pertinent one is where was your top 6? Not really sure why the #7 would be dropped because the batting lineup was repeatedly violated

The other one is, do you really believe the team is better for Wade's inclusion - seems batting wise there's not really much difference, an with the gloves there certainly is

 

[BestHookerFarrah]

Nevill dropped because our batsmen have been shit. He copped the short end of it here.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Very harsh to drop Mennie and Ferguson after one game. Either stick with them for a few games or don't pick them in the first place.

Just on those changes, I feel for Mennie and Ferguson being dropped

Mennie, I don’t think he should’ve been picked for the last test anyway, Bird was the bowler should've been picked, but at least give him another shot.

Ferguson was robbed of another opportunity, he would've loved playing in front of his home crowd. If they base his test and shield form then why did Maddison get picked?

 

[Twizzle]

Agree to an extent, but truth be told, neither of them should have been picked in the first place

 

[Iafeta]

Yep, of course.

Nevill averaging 34 this series...

3 blokes have batted ahead of him at 5 and 6 in the middle order, Voges, Marsh and Ferguson, whose averages are 7.5, 13 and 2 respectively.

Yeah Nevill ain't peeling off Gilchrist or De Kock like numbers but when a team is being pasted in the fist 2 Tests of a series and your keeper is averagining 34, and one of the innings in said Tests the entire team is rolled for 85, your keeper isn't your problem. At least not to be replaced by the likes of Mattehw Wade anyway.

On a side note - I would love to see the smile wiped off Wade's face if they went with Handscombe as keeper in Adelaide and made Wade 12th man... LOL

I've lost count of the amount of times a decent keeper-bat has come in in a bad situation and made runs. BJ Watling averages 38 and aside from Williamson has consistently batted behind a flaky top order. Adam Gilchrist was a very good counter attacker. De Kock has done it in this series.

Wade is a poor selection. But it doesn't change the fact that Nevill didn't handle the pressure of batting in a key position and because of his lack of performance put himself in a very vulnerable position.

 

[Pete Cash]

I was reading that this year has been the best years for 6 and 7 in ages.

Australia's top order has got some stick but really where we are a lot worse than other countries is the middle order. 5,6 and 7 in particular. Voges averages sub 30 against anyone but the West Indies or New Zealand, Mitch Marsh is statistically the worst batsman in the top 6 in the world right now and nevill does try hard but he is pretty easy to tie down.

Like as a comparison Englands 5,6, 7 from the most recent test match for 2016

Ali 815 runs @ 50 with 3 centuries
Stokes 786 runs @ 60 with 2 centuries
Bairstow 1217 runs @ 64 with 3 centuries (leading run scorer for the calendar year at the moment)

Like Iafeta mentions Watling well he is on par with Warner this year for runs.

We have one batsman averaging over 40 for the calendar year in Smith (620 runs at 57)

The difference between Australia and the RSA can really be summed up by their middle order having some starch in it. They were 4/f**k all at Perth and dragged themselves to 250. We were 1/150 and collapsed to 250.

At Tasmania we did collapse a lot more embarrassingly but they had their wobbles but Bavuma dug in (averaging nearly 60 for the year at 6) which allowed the innings to rebuild and QDK (averaging 80 from 7 in 2016) could counter attack. We had Smith watching in horror as the middle order said nah this is too hard.