williamjm Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Cricket in general has changed since the era of the all-rounder, and specifically, in South Africa. My opinion is that modern cricketers have so much pressure on them due to the multiple formats and the amount of cricket played, that they can't afford to do more than one thing. In SA, during isolation, there was not as much cricket played, it was an amateur sport for a long time, and thus the all-rounder flourished. That continued into the 90's, and has recently fallen away.I don't think the same seems to be true in other countries, England don't have any shortage of domestic cricket being played but there seems to be lots of all-rounders (albeit mostly of the variety where they're significantly better at one thing than the other) around at the moment. Just looking at the last handful of matches they've had Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Samit Patel, Adil Rashid and Chris Woakes all in the team with the result that their number 10 is someone with a huge Test century to their name. I wonder if there's something different about South African cricket, or if it's just a coincidence? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ants Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 True all-rounders are exceedingly rare. I think Australia has only really had Miller and Gilchrist. Guys who can get in on one element but aren't terrible at the other come and go with all teams. I don't think they're numbers have fallen off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 Was in Belize during the Boxing Day matches...staying at a place managed by a couple from South Africa. Oh dear. That shit was grim! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desire Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Did anyone else see that innings from Travis Head? 56 runs from 15 balls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Great counterattack from Stokes and Bairstow to put England in a pretty strong position after it was looking a little shaky losing the wickets around lunch. When Stokes clicks into gear he's great to watch, he seems to save his best innings for tough positions as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desire Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Players around globe in shock after Sussex confirm county cricketer Matthew Hobden has passed away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The BlackBear Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Players around globe in shock after Sussex confirm county cricketer Matthew Hobden has passed away22, fuck. In happier news cracking session from Stokes here. 150 off 135 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maltaran Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Fastest ever double hundred by an England player, and most runs scored before lunch in Tests by anyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Not a bad morning for England then.It wasn't fantastic bowling from South Africa but it was still incredible batting from Stokes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The BlackBear Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Nice one Bairstow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Good for Bairstow. Quietly a very good innings from him as well with Stokes going off at the other end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 What did I just watch?!Well done the Soulless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Well that was nuts. 399 off 350 odd balls for the sixth wicket is probably a little demoralising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 So it looks like it's going to peter out to a draw at Newlands. A bit of a shame after all the excitement yesterday we won't get a better finish.It might have been different if England had held on to their catches, honestly though batting conditions look so good that even if they'd lost de Villiers and Amla earlier so long as the South African batsmen didn't panic they probably would have been ok. AB de Villiers actually looked uncharacteristically ropey but he still managed to make 88. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 So it looks like it's going to peter out to a draw at Newlands. A bit of a shame after all the excitement yesterday we won't get a better finish.It might have been different if England had held on to their catches, honestly though batting conditions look so good that even if they'd lost de Villiers and Amla earlier so long as the South African batsmen didn't panic they probably would have been ok. AB de Villiers actually looked uncharacteristically ropey but he still managed to make 88.You may be right that a draw is the most likely outcome but iIf they could get Amla and du Plessis quickly tomorrow there might still be a chance of forcing a result since the rest of the SA batting order isn't too impressive and England do still have a big lead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 You may be right that a draw is the most likely outcome but iIf they could get Amla and du Plessis quickly tomorrow there might still be a chance of forcing a result since the rest of the SA batting order isn't too impressive and England do still have a big lead. It's possible I suppose but with four wickets falling in two days, two of them being run outs (Stokes should have been out to the catch before he was run out to be fair), and the pitch not significantly deteriorating it's hard to see England picking up 17 wickets. The wheels came off a bit for the South African bowlers on day 2 but England haven't actually bowled that badly, it's just if the batsmen don't do anything rash they don't look like getting out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 Yikes:http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/05/the-spin-pranav-dhanawade-1009(Yes, the game was a complete mismatch. Still impressive). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 Impressive I suppose but honestly my main take away from that is the KC Gandhi English school cricket team are apparently a bunch of dicks. Who bats till you reach 1,465 for 3 in reply to a score of 31 all out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 In a fairly unsurprising turn of events England managed to make hard work of what should have been a fairly simple draw. More surprisingly Amla has resigned as South African captain. It's probably the right decision, he doesn't look comfortable and it looked like it was having an impact on his batting before this test, but it's a bit surprising he's made the call mid series, especially off the back of good test personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 In a fairly unsurprising turn of events England managed to make hard work of what should have been a fairly simple draw. More surprisingly Amla has resigned as South African captain. It's probably the right decision, he doesn't look comfortable and it looked like it was having an impact on his batting before this test, but it's a bit surprising he's made the call mid series, especially off the back of good test personally.I agree the timing seems a little bit odd but maybe he wanted to go out on a high? When we were discussing the Test seemingly like it was inevitably heading for a draw, I don't think either of us considered the possibility that it might be England who could be on the losing side, although we should have known better than to discount that. This England team does continue to be a work-in-progress, at least the rest of the season should be interesting now that South Africa have got some of their confidence back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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