3rd Test: Australia v South Africa at Perth Nov 30-Dec 4, 2012

[Red Bear]

Great series - better team won, although not sure they were better team through the series - at key moments they performed big time though - Adelaide Aussie held all the cards, especially because of Kallis and Philander's injuries - but they didn't have the killer blow - Smith, Amla and de Villiers certainly had the killer blow here, and the 3 quicks showed what quality they have...

Aussie selectors need to have a think too - Hilfenhaus, one series aside, has looked rubbish, and persevering with him and then changing the attack completely was weird, might have been ok against a lesser opposition but not one of thise quality - they weren't awful, but not threatening enough, and RSA were ruthless... and 1-4 for Aust were pretty lame, aside from one score each for Cowan and Warner - not sure Warner's ill discipline can be tolerated in a fragile lineup... felt a bit sorry for Ponting, not the way for an all-time great to go out, but the game moves on, I guess... in reality one of the Aust top 6 looks good - Hussy is 37 too, and despite his recent resurgence had been mediocre for some time, and has always been ordinary outside of Australia...

At the end of the day Pattinson injury cost us big time in Adelaide, combined with a pitch that didnt deteriorate.

3 and 4 is what cost us, 76 runs between 3 and 4 across the series is always hard to play around, espeically when Amla and Kallis hold those positions on the opposite side.

We dont deserve to be number one so im not too fussed on that, would have been nice to beat the jaarpies though.

Need some batsmen to come through though.

 

[Twizzle]

yeh I tend to agree, even if Pattinson was OK for Adelaide and Perth

if we got up I'd find it hard to accept that were would be no 1 in the world, been saying that all through the series

 

[Big Pete]

Overall, don't think the series was as good as it could have been. Saffas were below par right up until the third test where they steamrolled a second string bowling attack. Aussies relied way too heavily on Clarke, he was fantastic in the first two games, it was just too big an ask for him to do it again.

Then again, maybe I was spoilt by their last series?

 

[hineyrulz]

This is the loss we had to have, hopefully this has opened the selectors eyes to realise we aren't that good. Oozi and Hughes are the only options good enough to replace Ponting and the laughable decision to nearly replace the whole pace attack shows some questions need to be asked the clueless selectors.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

I like to compare both teams after a series.

Smith > Warner
Peterson < Cowan
Amla > Quiney/Watson
Kallis > Ponting
Elgar/Rudolph < Clarke
De puiss = Hussey
De villiers > Wade
Philander = Pattinson
Steyn > Hilfenhous/Hastings
Morkel > Vegieman/Starc
Tahir/Peterson < Lyon.





On head to head I score it 6-3 to the sef efricans with 2 cancelling each other out. For all of Veggieman's ticker Pattinson was our most dangerous bowler and the only one worth persevering with.

 

[Earl]

Faf Du Plesiss was far better than Hussey. Hussey cashed in twice when Ausrtalia was already on the front foot.

Faf dug the Saffas out of some big holes and his performances seriously weighted the outcome of the series.