Smith's Crew in SA

[flyboy77]

Test 1, Aussies battling, 4-170 at Tea.

Marsh brothes in, Warner and Smith made 50s, Bancroft and Khawaja failed.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Test 1, Aussies battling, 4-170 at Tea.

Marsh brothes in, Warner and Smith made 50s, Bancroft and Khawaja failed.

5-225...even game but I think the Saffie batting is weaker with a few random unknowns in their lineup, you dont want to hit anything near AB DeVilliers he is about as safe a fielder as I have
seen and drops nothing...
Starc was great in the lead up game and I think he can run through the Saffies and we can win this game, they have some big name batters but the rest are no names IMO...bit of a test for Lyon as well, wasnt great vs the Saffie 2nd eleven and needs to adjust to the smaller grounds....

[LP]

Cannot understand why they have Starc listed to bat above Cummins, I suspect this game is on a knife edge after just one day. Aussies need to get 350 and then I think they'll be unlucky to lose, if they get knocked over cheaply tomorrow they'll be in trouble.

I expect if the Aussies get 350 SA will try and bat two days for not much, to kill the result and keep the Aussies in the field. Excluding Markram who has only played six tests their whole batting line averages an SR=50 or below. They seem to take the position that the first step is to not lose, then if the opportunity arises try to win.

[Professer E]

Might be a hard pitch to score runs on.

[LP]

Might be a hard pitch to score runs on.

SA bat like snails on even the very best pitch, they take little or no stock of the ICC's desire for teams to play attractive test cricket!

[flyboy77]

Cummins will come in next.

The pitch is slow, no question. Rabada - who had had big wraps on him almost since debut - was only barely, sometimes cracking 140kmhr.

Warner reckons the spinners will come into play. The pitch is already variable with not a great deal of bounce....i think Starc's yorker will be a real threat. our lads seemed to have trouble picking up the line - whether that was the light or movement (defintely a bit there but variable), the SAffers won't like it when it's their turn.

Need Marsh to make a big half century or more.

Without Steyn, I think our pace attack is vastly better than theirs and their batting line up is not what it was....

If we can get 300+ *(ideally 350+) they'll be thinking twice!

[ElwoodBlues1]

SA bat like snails on even the very best pitch, they take little or no stock of the ICC's desire for teams to play attractive test cricket!

Strange they bat slow as DeVilliers and DeKock are two of the best slayers of bowling going around....Elgar is a very slow batsman.
I remember when they came back into test cricket and they had such a strong lineup with players like S.Pollock at eight , Kluesner batting at nine who were real goers.....think they started this go slow stuff when Kallis was at his prime and while his figures in the game were great he was accused of being a very selfish player who looked after No 1 first and didnt worry about results.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Cummins will come in next.

The pitch is slow, no question. Rabada - who had had big wraps on him almost since debut - was only barely, sometimes cracking 140kmhr.

Warner reckons the spinners will come into play. The pitch is already variable with not a great deal of bounce....i think Starc's yorker will be a real threat. our lads seemed to have trouble picking up the line - whether that was the light or movement (defintely a bit there but variable), the SAffers won't like it when it's their turn.

Need Marsh to make a big half century or more.

Without Steyn, I think our pace attack is vastly better than theirs and their batting line up is not what it was....

If we can get 300+ *(ideally 350+) they'll be thinking twice!

Surprised they didnt play Hendricks the left arm quick who swings the ball who played in the A game.....Morkel is on his last legs IMO.
A few more to retire in the SA team, politics and quota's have reared their ugly heads again and there is unrest off the field
which has also led Morkel to retire.
Our batting has more depth, they rely on their big 4 to make the runs.......ie Amla, Faf, DeVilliers and DeKock.....dont think that will be enough...

[LP]

Strange they bat slow as DeVilliers and DeKock are two of the best slayers of bowling going around....Elgar is a very slow batsman.

Not saying they aren't good batsmen EB1, plenty of big scores, just happens at relatively low Strike Rates. Both of the two you list go at well below 50 runs per hundred balls. That is Boycott territory, in recorded averaged about 40 runs per hundred!

If I recall correctly there are a few innings played on postage stamps that biased some of the results, in the SA batsmen favour! :o

Smith is one of our slowest, but still goes at 55 runs per hundred balls, Shaun Marsh is our worst current batsmen at 44. Warner goes at 74!

I know it doesn't sound like much, but with that 20% difference SA can bat for a day without losing too many wickets and fail to get 250 runs regularly, Australia would make about 320. If you are watching that comes across as a world of difference. They've been lambasted in the media about it but they tell the world to get stuffed and keep crawling along, while countries trying to play attractive test cricket get knocked over by them!

[Bear]

Some of those SA pitches mean that the batsmen are genuinely just trying to survive rather than score.

But I do think our bowlers are going to put the wind up them - Amla & ABDV are getting old.

Morkel announced his retirement also, Stein also old - they are a team in transition.