3rd Test: Australia vs South Africa in Sydney

[Evolution]

Thats what Test match cricket is all about, 20/20 can go f**k itself. What do we do about McDonald, for me he didn't do anything to show that he deserves the keep a test spot.

Yep he did nothing.

Bowled better than Dougie who is suppose to be a full time bowler. Is able to control his ball placement and keep an end occupied while putting pressure on the batsmen to make a mistake.

Ok he did not get the runs but it was his first game and he only had innings. Hussey did little in his first innings as well.

I think he has definatly earnt the right to show what he can do in the one dayers and hopefuly keep his spot in teh tests to give him more of a chance to show what he can do with the bat as well as the ball.

 

[attila_the_gorilla]

Smith and his inferiority complex. I can`t handle listening to him and that other simpleton, Nisbo.

 

[Ridders]

Certainly was and it's a measure of the man who I thought was a brash young smart arse a few years ago to lead his country to it's first series win over here with such humility.

I think that's come with age. From what i remember he was made captain at the age of 22. Crazy to think he's only 27 atm. Got plenty of cricket ahead of him.

 

[Twizzle]

I thought Smith deserved MOS, closely followed by Steyne

 

[Rocky_Da_Rooster]

Johnson was good before the South Africans worked out that they could leave anything pitching on middle and off to the right hander. He took 17 wickets for the tour I think, maybe 18....11 of those were taken in Perth. After Perth he was average, and that's the issue people have with him.

People have issues because they have been spoilt rotten by great ex-players (McGrath and Warne) and expect perfection in their replacements. Mitchell and siddle are not greats but they are very solid players who don't deserve the crap they are getting.

18 wickets is a great effort regardless how he gets them.

 

[Ridders]

Yep he did nothing.

Bowled better than Dougie who is suppose to be a full time bowler. Is able to control his ball placement and keep an end occupied while putting pressure on the batsmen to make a mistake.

Ok he did not get the runs but it was his first game and he only had innings. Hussey did little in his first innings as well.

I think he has definatly earnt the right to show what he can do in the one dayers and hopefuly keep his spot in teh tests to give him more of a chance to show what he can do with the bat as well as the ball.

His bowling was ordinary, the tail-enders were playing him with ease. Harris was actually looking like a competent batsmen against him. I'd rather pick either a specialist batsmen or bowler, depending on the circumstances. He look out of his depth with the bat, although i'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[hineyrulz]

Have no problems with Smith getting MOS, he was well on his way to another big innings when he hurt his hand and today was his only failure for the series.

 

[shiznit]

It was Graeme Smith.

And Shiz, I have to agree with you there. Him and nisbo were really pissing me off about how SA were hard done by and their carry on.

its funny mate... i actually enjoy the English commentators because if theres been a rubbish bit of umpiring they dont dwell on it too much. they just get on with the game....

on C9 & Sky NZ they f**king show replay's of it for the next hour.... then they use hotspot, hawkeye, snicko and undie-cam to prove how ripped off one of the teams was...

 

[Fein]

Bowled better than Dougie

"Bowled" wise, I'd give my vote to Bollinger, especially given his bad luck with dropped catches and more so with McDonald's potentially crucial dropped C&B chance.

Considering their respective roles, Bollinger well on top for mine from a performance perspective.

I wouldn't say Ronald was legless but Bollinger will go to Sth Africa well before him, all things considered.

 

[hineyrulz]

Where did i say i was pleased with them lasting so long. I exposed crackrulz because of his constant bagging of Mitchell and Ponting. Mitchell was australia's best bowler all summer and Ponting is doing a good job considering the talent at his disposal.

Ponting's captaincy was woeful this afternoon, with 5 overs to go he had a deep fine leg for a guy that could barely hold his bat :crazy: But hey we won so Ponting is a genius and Johnson was just simply amazing today :roll:

 

[Twizzle]

our 20/20 team is being announced tonight

I expect most of these guys will be rested

 

[African Monkey]

its funny mate... i actually enjoy the English commentators because if theres been a rubbish bit of umpiring they dont dwell on it too much. they just get on with the game....

on C9 & Sky NZ they f**king show replay's of it for the next hour.... then they use hotspot, hawkeye, snicko and undie-cam to prove how ripped off one of the teams was...

And what about when they were complaining about Kallis' dismissal claiming as if the umpires were forced to give him out.

 

[Bazal]

People have issues because they have been spoilt rotten by great ex-players (McGrath and Warne) and expect perfection in their replacements. Mitchell and siddle are not greats but they are very solid players who don't deserve the crap they are getting.

18 wickets is a great effort regardless how he gets them.

It was a good effort, but the point is how long is it before the other Test sides work out that he never swings it back at the right handers and doesn't even try? Then how effective will he be if everything going across the right hander is an easy leave?

Look, I went into greater depth on this a few pages back in a pretty long post, but I'll skim over it again. It's a reflection not on the players as much as the coaching staff and selectors. Johnson could get in the nets himself, but without help he's not going to learn to swing it because his action is fairly horrible. Siddle is simply not experienced enough yet and has shown that. Even in this test, all he did was bang the ball into a crack and let that do the work for him. He has played 12 4 day games for Victoria ever, simply not enough experience when there are better bowlers who have played a lot more games and refined their trade much further

 

[yappy]

Great test, great series. We had our foot on the Sefricans throat in all three tests and they got up to win two of them and almost save the third. Class team. We probably could have done better at the selection table and may have lost our way a bit tactically at times, but we blooded some new players and had them mostly stand up. Well done to the yarpies, but we'll give a good account on their patch in Feb. More test cricket of this quality please.

 

[Rocky_Da_Rooster]

Ponting's captaincy was woeful this afternoon, with 5 overs to go he had a deep fine leg for a guy that could barely hold his bat :crazy: But hey we won so Ponting is a genius and Johnson was just simply amazing today :roll:

Thanks for confirming to all that you have NFI. Ponting tried everything and eventually came up the winner. Not one word of thanks for a perfectly timed declaration. His bowling choices were spot on as it was this time last year when he went for clarke to win the test vs India.

 

[Evolution]

"Bowled" wise, I'd give my vote to Bollinger, especially given his bad luck with dropped catches and more so with McDonald's potentially crucial dropped C&B chance.

Considering their respective roles, Bollinger well on top for mine from a performance perspective.

I wouldn't say Ronald was legless but Bollinger will go to Sth Africa well before him, all things considered.

Bollinger did not seem to trouble the batsmen at all. He struggled to get the ball in spots that forced the batsmen to play at it and while he was unlucky with his LBW's and dropped catches the wickets he ended up with were more from players throwing their bats around than his great bowling forcing it.

Yes Mcdonald did drop a c&b but he made up for it strait away. His other catch was one he had no right to get to at all.

I am not saying one will take the other spot as they are clearly not fighting for the same spot just that in the match McDonald did much better with the ball.

Bollinger was supposedly bought into the test because of his SCG record but did little to trouble the batsmen.

 

[mozza91]

Thanks for confirming to all that you have NFI. Ponting tried everything and eventually came up the winner. Not one word of thanks for a perfectly timed declaration. His bowling choices were spot on as it was this time last year when he went for clarke to win the test vs India.

AWTA
There is about 30 potential test captains on this forum just ask them

 

[El Diablo]

Bollinger did not seem to trouble the batsmen at all. He struggled to get the ball in spots that forced the batsmen to play at it and while he was unlucky with his LBW's and dropped catches the wickets he ended up with were more from players throwing their bats around than his great bowling forcing it.

Yes Mcdonald did drop a c&b but he made up for it strait away. His other catch was one he had no right to get to at all.

I am not saying one will take the other spot as they are clearly not fighting for the same spot just that in the match McDonald did much better with the ball.

Bollinger was supposedly bought into the test because of his SCG record but did little to trouble the batsmen.

spot the Victorian

Mcdonaldud should never be picked again

 

[Bazal]

Bollinger did not seem to trouble the batsmen at all. .

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Bloody hell...there's constructive criticism (his lack of swing, for eg) then there's plain old biased idiocy. Ask the three blokes he had LBW but for Bowden, or the guys edging him all over the shop (especially the two missed by Hayden) and the guys he actually got out if he "troubled" them :lol:

 

[Rocky_Da_Rooster]

It was a good effort, but the point is how long is it before the other Test sides work out that he never swings it back at the right handers and doesn't even try? Then how effective will he be if everything going across the right hander is an easy leave?

Look, I went into greater depth on this a few pages back in a pretty long post, but I'll skim over it again. It's a reflection not on the players as much as the coaching staff and selectors. Johnson could get in the nets himself, but without help he's not going to learn to swing it because his action is fairly horrible. Siddle is simply not experienced enough yet and has shown that. Even in this test, all he did was bang the ball into a crack and let that do the work for him. He has played 12 4 day games for Victoria ever, simply not enough experience when there are better bowlers who have played a lot more games and refined their trade much further

I'd rather listen to greats like Dennis Lillee who rate him rather than some Neville on here who thinks he know's better. If he can get 18 wicket in 3 tests without swing imagine how good he will be once he develops it. Mitchell is our future and will be around for many yrs to come so deal with it.

How is Siddle gonna get experience if you don't wanna play him. :crazy: