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Cricket XIV


Xray the Enforcer

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Fucking hell, Pax must be in a joy coma right now.

Haha, mixed feelings from my end. On the one hand, it's great to see the WACA producing the most exciting test cricket of the summer, but on the other hand, I'm not around to watch it live! Good to see Steyn and co. firing, but I'd be surprised if SA end up with more than a 50 run lead. It's going to be up to the Aussie quicks again to get the home team back into the match.

Kudos to Matt Wade btw, that was a fantastic knock and he's more than justified his selection in front of Haddin, who was always more of a fair-weather player.

ETA: OK so I was wrong...lead of 60. Still think this one is wide open...

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Sad way for Ponting to go out - his career went on a couple of years too long, but he was still the best batsman in the world for a few years before that. But better he goes now in a decent home series, than be a walking wicket in the Ashes and a permanent weakness in the Australian batting lineup. He was the leading batsman for the whole time when he was in his prime, no mean feat considering some of the other Australians in that lineup - better than both Waughs, Langer, or Hayden.

Real match of it here, Peterson's out. I think the South African selection has worked out nicely - clearly their bowling attack worked out, and Peterson (the spinner) has been miles better than Tahir. Not only getting wickets but stiffening the tail. With Peterson at 8, Philander at 9 and Steyn at 10, it's a much more solid tail and the Aussies can't count on getting them out cheaply.

Still very early in the match though - it's likely a chase will start at the end of the 3rd day and go through the 4th, so the pitch should still hold up. Aussies might think they still have a chance at anything up to 300, although with the South African attack in good form now it's going to be tough.

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Smith and Amla are flaying Australia here. 100 partnership off 79 balls, the match is rapidly getting away from the Aussies.

Don't understand why we haven't bowled some bouncers to slow the scoring. The bowlers are just tamely putting the ball out there to be hit.

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Smith and Amla are flaying Australia here. 100 partnership off 79 balls, the match is rapidly getting away from the Aussies.

Don't understand why we haven't bowled some bouncers to slow the scoring. The bowlers are just tamely putting the ball out there to be hit.

We have very inexperienced or physically brittle or poorly controlled bowlers- they left Hilfy and Siddle out- so no wonder they are struggling.

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Seriously though, test cricket is awesome. I *hate* 20/20.

T20 is like a children's book - a good way to ease newcomers into an art form before they get to the really good stuff :thumbsup:.

Amla 99 overnight...even a man as calm as him must have some trouble getting to sleep tonight! Should be a fascinating last couple of days of the series.

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It's going to be a huge day today. SA have the capacity to bat Australia out of the series, but you can guarantee the Aussies will be desperate to recover after they fell in a heap yesterday. The interesting sidenote is that SA's own history of batting last at the WACA (the world record run-chase four years ago) might work against them; Australia will definitely look at that run-chase as a pro forma for how they could still win the game even if 400 is the target.

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On the positive side for the Aussies, it looks like the pitch will stay true, at least for the fourth day. However if they do last through tomorrow, they'll still have Day 5 and the Saffers do have a spinner in their lineup who could come into play as the pitch roughs up a little.

They may not win the match, but the best way is to play positively and at least force some defensive field placings. It's a mountain of runs to chase down and would comfortably beat the world record by almost 200 runs I think? Not sure what the most successful chase is (somewhere in the mid 400s I imagine) - although I think there probably have been some higher 4th innings scores that don't get counted because they still ended up losing. NZ made a heck of a dash with Astle getting 200+ in the fourth innings if I remember correctly.

Anyway, not really expecting anything other than a South African victory, and that one session by Amla and Smith last night (where they almost scored 200 in a session) was the pivotal one that turned the whole match. The best Australia can hope for is to lose only 3 wickets all day. Then they might have 300 more to chase with 7 wickets, which would at least give the South Africans something to think about.

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NZ made a heck of a dash with Astle getting 200+ in the fourth innings if I remember correctly.

IIRC, we were chasing 550. We went from 333/9 to 451 all out (Astle getting 222, with Chris Cairns injured but batting at the other end). England won the match, of course, but that's the last thing anyone actually remembers about the game.

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