Great to see the Saffers shove the Aussies arrogance down their throats with all that "best bowling attack in the world" bullshit.
Steyn, Morkel and Vern have been doing it for a lot longer and deserved more respect.
Bottom line, if you nullify Johnson then you nullify Australia! Their batting is still vulnerable against the moving ball so we need nice slow, dry decks for the Ashes at home.
Yep, agree. Just get the decks nice and slow, and that nullifies the only real threat that Oz have (until Pattinson,Cummins and Starc are match fit, of course). Somehow dont think it will be that simple next year, but certainly will be a start.
None of those bowlers are capable of anything like what Johnson just produced, the bloke has 50 wickets in his last 7 Tests at an average of 13 - that's unbelievable bowling and unprecedented in modern Test cricket.
Bottom line is that by taking the pace and bounce out of the pitches then you remove Johnson's biggest weapon: Generating fear in the batsman.
He doesn't swing the ball that much or seam it or have any subtlety (Harris does but is struggling) so once you take away his ability to really hurry the batsman off the pitch then he loses his biggest weapon.
You saw signs in this match that Johnson runs out of ideas once he can't bully the batsmen out.
All we need now is to find our own ABdV and Amla.....
Great to see the Saffers shove the Aussies arrogance down their throats with all that "best bowling attack in the world" bullshit.
Steyn, Morkel and Vern have been doing it for a lot longer and deserved more respect.
Bottom line, if you nullify Johnson then you nullify Australia! Their batting is still vulnerable against the moving ball so we need nice slow, dry decks for the Ashes at home.
Yep, agree. Just get the decks nice and slow, and that nullifies the only real threat that Oz have (until Pattinson,Cummins and Starc are match fit, of course). Somehow dont think it will be that simple next year, but certainly will be a start.
None of those bowlers are capable of anything like what Johnson just produced, the bloke has 50 wickets in his last 7 Tests at an average of 13 - that's unbelievable bowling and unprecedented in modern Test cricket.
Bottom line is that by taking the pace and bounce out of the pitches then you remove Johnson's biggest weapon: Generating fear in the batsman.
He doesn't swing the ball that much or seam it or have any subtlety (Harris does but is struggling) so once you take away his ability to really hurry the batsman off the pitch then he loses his biggest weapon.
You saw signs in this match that Johnson runs out of ideas once he can't bully the batsmen out.
All we need now is to find our own ABdV and Amla.....
Our Amla is surely Moeen Ali ;-)
Indeed, if he's only half as good a batsman it would be great!
Interesting that SA have more or less replaced Kallis, with JP Duminy who effectively is a top six batter that can get through 10-12 overs a day, with some more than reasonable off-spin.
This then enables them to play four front line quicks, with the balance provided by Philander who can certainly hold a bat at number eight.
Going back to the Moen Ali point, perhaps England can do something similar with him? Certainly our other spinning options (Kerrigan, Borthwick), look painfully thin, especially as Monty now appears to be 'Tufnelled' (ie banished from the test team, unless they are given an outrageous bunsen at home to play on, or are visiting the sub-continent).
Interesting that SA have more or less replaced Kallis, with JP Duminy who effectively is a top six batter that can get through 10-12 overs a day, with some more than reasonable off-spin.
This then enables them to play four front line quicks, with the balance provided by Philander who can certainly hold a bat at number eight.
Going back to the Moen Ali point, perhaps England can do something similar with him? Certainly our other spinning options (Kerrigan, Borthwick), look painfully thin, especially as Monty now appears to be 'Tufnelled' (ie banished from the test team, unless they are given an outrageous bunsen at home to play on, or are visiting the sub-continent).
I have not seen Ali bowl but apparently he bowled pretty much as a front-line bowler for Worcs last season and got a bag of wickets in a Championship game.
He could bat at six as the all-rounder which would let us bat the keeper at 7 and then have Stokes at 8 and Broad at 9 - that's a pretty decent lower order!
That just leaves the two other bowling slots - if Broad bats nine then you could have Finn and Anderson at 10-11.
Shame about Monty, he really needs a lot of domestic wickets to get back in now.
Without doubt, they need to get Finn right and back into the side as a 'Strike' bowler - similar to Johnson, in that he can be used in short spells to really shake things up.
That would leave the other seamers as Anderson, Broad and Stokes with Ali to bowl some off-spin in between.
I know that people have talked up Tymal Mills and Jamie Overton, but as the late career resurgence of the likes of Harris, Johnson and even Philander shows, youth is not always the answer to every problem.
I reckon that the above attack would be more than useful, we just need to work out where we are going to get some runs from as well!!!
England's ability to implode has spread to the U19s - misfield for two, dropped catch on boundary pushed over for 6 and a couple of byes. That's 10 runs and a wicket missed in the last couple of overs.
Anyone know what has happened to Marchant De Lange ? Thought he was a monumental bowler when he broke on the scene a couple of seasons ago - but doesnt seem to get a mention nowadays.
Anyone know what has happened to Marchant De Lange ? Thought he was a monumental bowler when he broke on the scene a couple of seasons ago - but doesnt seem to get a mention nowadays.
Suffered a couple of injuries and then Philander exploded into the team. Morkel, Steyn and Philander a very difficult combo to disrupt, plus some good back up from the likes of Abbot. De Lange is currently struggling to regain the form that saw him originally picked and seems to have dropped a fair way off the selectors radar, but he is still only 24.
Swan retired, Peterson retired (or thrown out), Smith retires, there's a pattern here somewhere
You forget the biggest of the lot - Tendulkar.
Oh, and, of course, Kallis. SA have lost some huge figures recently and what with the apparent decline of Steyn based on his stats from this series, their decline down the Test Table may be imminent.
Cyclical nature of test teams I guess. Australia, England, and now SA are suffering this. Australia had the infrastructure to pick themselves up... guess we'll be competing with the saffers for the next bunch of players!
We have a better infrastructure than Aus and SA combined, without any doubt. We just don't have the right people running the game. Also some of the objectives of the ECB where the national team are concerned are very questionable.
We have a better infrastructure than Aus and SA combined, without any doubt. We just don't have the right people running the game. Also some of the objectives of the ECB where the national team are concerned are very questionable.
Riv, having lived in both Oz and SA, i beg to differ. Having whatever people run the game doesnt make up for lack of talent - and i'm afraid that here we dont nurture the talent during the key years (8-14) in the same way that they do - and unfortunately the same old chestnut of most kids dont play cricket at school - whereas in SA and Oz virtually every kid plays cricket at school (having had boys that have gone through both Oz and SA education). As an example, you cannot compare grade cricket with anything here - to put a grade team from Sydney against a club side from say, Kent, would be like putting the Harlem Globe Trotters against the Herne Bay Planet Walkers.
To say that we have the better infrastructure is one of the blinkered, head in the sand reasons why we will have a shit cricket team for the foreseeable future.Just because we have the most money churning around in the system doesnt make a good infrastructure, i'm afraid.
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This then enables them to play four front line quicks, with the balance provided by Philander who can certainly hold a bat at number eight.
Going back to the Moen Ali point, perhaps England can do something similar with him? Certainly our other spinning options (Kerrigan, Borthwick), look painfully thin, especially as Monty now appears to be 'Tufnelled' (ie banished from the test team, unless they are given an outrageous bunsen at home to play on, or are visiting the sub-continent).
He could bat at six as the all-rounder which would let us bat the keeper at 7 and then have Stokes at 8 and Broad at 9 - that's a pretty decent lower order!
That just leaves the two other bowling slots - if Broad bats nine then you could have Finn and Anderson at 10-11.
Shame about Monty, he really needs a lot of domestic wickets to get back in now.
That would leave the other seamers as Anderson, Broad and Stokes with Ali to bowl some off-spin in between.
I know that people have talked up Tymal Mills and Jamie Overton, but as the late career resurgence of the likes of Harris, Johnson and even Philander shows, youth is not always the answer to every problem.
I reckon that the above attack would be more than useful, we just need to work out where we are going to get some runs from as well!!!
Beautiful day in Cape Town.
Thought he was a monumental bowler when he broke on the scene a couple of seasons ago - but doesnt seem to get a mention nowadays.
176-2 and Steyn hobbled off with a sore hammy
Australia didn't enforce the follow on and lead by 230+ after 3 days.
SA Captain has announced he will retire from international cricket at the conclusion of this match.
SA have lost some huge figures recently and what with the apparent decline of Steyn based on his stats from this series, their decline down the Test Table may be imminent.
Also some of the objectives of the ECB where the national team are concerned are very questionable.
Having whatever people run the game doesnt make up for lack of talent - and i'm afraid that here we dont nurture the talent during the key years (8-14) in the same way that they do - and unfortunately the same old chestnut of most kids dont play cricket at school - whereas in SA and Oz virtually every kid plays cricket at school (having had boys that have gone through both Oz and SA education).
As an example, you cannot compare grade cricket with anything here - to put a grade team from Sydney against a club side from say, Kent, would be like putting the Harlem Globe Trotters against the Herne Bay Planet Walkers.
To say that we have the better infrastructure is one of the blinkered, head in the sand reasons why we will have a shit cricket team for the foreseeable future.Just because we have the most money churning around in the system doesnt make a good infrastructure, i'm afraid.