First ever series win for RSA in Australia (first time in 16 years that the Aussies have lost a series at home).
Aussie bowling in disarray. Only 1 decent quicky to pair up with Brett Lee, who is knackered and about to go under the knife. Spinners about as good as ours. All rounder Shane Watson out for 6 months. Symonds injured. Roll on the Ashes.
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Shame.
A fair summing up...
The Aussie batting looks strong from 3-7 with Ponting, Hussey, Michael Clarke, Symonds, Haddin and Lee, even if there are doubts about the openers. Michell Johnson looks a good bowler but Siddle, Lee and whoever they select as spinner look ordinary compared to both similar English players and those like McGrath, Warne etc who they've replaced.
As BFR says, their top-order batting of Katich, Ponting, Clarke and Hussey is very decent and way better than our own batting where only Strauss and KP inspire any confidence. Haddin is also very handy with the bat, not as good as Gilchrist but much better than Healy was.
As for the bowling, in English conditions Lee (if he is fit), Johnson, Siddle (a very decent prospect) and newcomers like Hilfenhaus will be a real handful although England's biggest advantage is that there is no longer Mr. Shane Keith Warne to worry about.
Thank feck for that!!!
One other thing to add is that if they are getting grief about losing to RSA they can times that by 1000 if they get done in the ashes again, as such they will be well up for it.
If they lose the next test this weekend I can see Ponting getting the old heave ho, as several people have said their media are absolute killers in this situation, and regardless of how up for it they will be next summer I do not feel it will be enough.
According to one of their selectors they want Hayden to carry on, and this is not the time for revolution! lets see what a defeat and media hounding do for that opinion. I will be at Lords and the Oval and frankly cannot wait!
Yes, that's all very well, but they are playing SA at the moment who have five very good batters, Smith, Amla, Kallis, De Villiers and Prince/Duminy and three top-class bowlers in Steyn, Ntini and Kallis with Morkel also a real handful.
By contrast, what do we have? KP is class but Strauss is the only other high-class batter, Bell is a joke, Collingwood is a scrapper but not world-class, Cook is still young and Fred is hit and miss.
As for the bowling, the only class act we have is Fred and he never gets the wickets he deserves for some strange reason. Harmison is pathetic, Anderson and Sidebottom are only useful when it swings, Broad is promising but unproven at Test level and Monty appears to be going backwards.
I will watch the odds with interest as the Aussies could lose 3-0 TWICE against SA and really push them to longish odds for The Ashes and they might still be worth a bet for a narrow 2-1 win against us.
BTW, the press over here are nowhere near as bad as the UK, not even comparable. The biggest difference is that there is only one "national" paper, The Australian, and then each state has one or two regional papers like the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age in Melbourne or The Courier-Mail in Brisbane, which are all either owned by Murdoch or Fairfax.
As a result the coverage tends to be very positive and fawning and not overly critical because the journalists are absolutely terrified of offending the players or Cricket Australia and losing "access" to the players and giving their rival paper a free run.
The only really controversial journalist here is Peter Roebuck, once of Somerset, who writes for Fairfax and absolutely serves it up to Ponting on a regular basis.
The players here are always amazed at how vicious the UK press are to all of our sporting teams.
Mitchell Johnson was second only to Steyn in test wickets taken in 2008....
Yes, but I don't think Johnson is in the same class as Steyn. The pitches here have been as flat as a tack but Steyn just keeps steaming in and getting people out with his pace and late swing. This bloke is the real deal and will only get better.
Johnson bowls in very straight lines and has hardly swung the ball all summer, the SA's are starting to play him much better since his magic burst in the 1st innings in Perth. He is still a very decent bowler though.
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I'm happy with that - he only averages 34 in England and clearly is in the last chance saloon as a player, but I don't think the Aussies will drop Ponting as captain, he does have a good record and is one of the best batsmen in the world (and more importantly the best in the world at number three) and who would the Aussies replace him with? I can't see any outstanding candidates - perhaps Hussey, but he's 33, and Michael Clarke is too young/not sure of his place.
For England KP is obviously our main run-scorer, but I don't rate Bell at #3, at that position you have to impose yourself and set a total for your team. Bell has never scored a Test hundred at number and bats better down the order at five/six where you have to react to events - rescue a situation or pile on more runs. Cook I have faith in and Colly will score runs when he gets his eye in, but looks ropey until then.
What was notable about the two Australia-SA Tests was that Australia were twice in winning situations - and should have wrapped up the first Test comfortably before letting SA score the second highest fourth innings total. Then at the MCG they ahs SA at something 150/7 before they recovered to take a first innings lead. The conclusion I'd draw from that is that Australia lack some quality in depth and if England hang in there next season when things don't work out we may spring a similar surprise.
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Having read some of his journalism he pretty much serves it up to anyone and everyone. At Somerset he was instrumental in the ending of the Ian Botham/Viv Richards/Joel Garner era. Somerset who were then a decent side have never recovered.