Third Test. SA v England. Jo'burg, Jan 14-18

[budgetmeansbudget]

150=94. So not as superfast as I thought, but fast. i think 160 is the kph equal of 100mph.

Yep - 5/8.

Suddenly remembered one thing I learnt at school.

Celsius to Fahrenheit is a bit trickier and vice versa.

[Dr Cricket]

Fidel edward might have taken a hatrick.
I know he has some special record like that.

No, I believe he is the only player ever to have taken 5 wickets in his first home and away test, ODI and T20....

dahm remember one WI guy taking 3 wickets with his 3 ball, assumed it was him.

I checked on this one, you are thinking of Jermaine Lawson.

In 2003 on debut he took 6 wickets for 3 runs (no hattrick), but then took a hat-trick against Australia a test or two after.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64018.html

Has there ever been a bigger batting collapse.... 80-3 becomes 87 all out.... 5 ducks

It was bangladesh their were not ready for international cricket in those days, between 2000-2005 their were quite poor, even had a shocking world cup in 2003.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Really all your stats says is that runs can be scored in all innings, same with wickets.

Not really trying to say anything else. Most (almost all?) grounds will show a tailing off in the last innings. Not so much here. Not to say it well get really flat. Maybe the pace won't last for four days, but there will be movement.

Wasn't it here that SA nearly chased down about 450 against India a couple of years ago?

yeah it was but that pitch was totally different pace/bounce was not normal.
basically you can argue it was a CEO wicket.
the ball did more in the first 2 days and then batting got easier but was hard to say if it was great batting by Kohli and Pujara or india not having the bowlers taking 20 wickets for that results.

Plus this ground hardly get a draw, it is a result wicket barring that game haven't seen any sign of team scoring loads in the last 2 innings.

Cheers. Not expecting a draw, just tough batting throughout, without signs of really harmful deterioration, like shooters.

It's an interesting Test. Sadly I offered to my gf to go to the pictures this afternoon.

[sussexpob]

It was bangladesh their were not ready for international cricket in those days, between 2000-2005 their were quite poor, even had a shocking world cup in 2003.

He took 7 or 8 wickets against a very good Australia team also in an innings (as well as the hat-trick), but didnt get far into his career before he was called for throwing, not sure he ever returned after that. It was a shame, as the Windies thought they unearthed someone of real potential.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Think the England batters need to launch a counter attack this afternoon, because you feel sure they'll lose wickets regularly.

Job for Compo.

[backfootpunch]

not a very good start

hales gets out to the only half volley south africa bowled and cook gets caught down the leg side

the only runs compton scored came off overthrows

[Dr Cricket]

Arthur agree with that assessment, but even then you expect 20-50 runs to drop off every 2-3 days.
In other words this pitch is a beauty since only the best bowlers and wickets will take wicket or runs.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Dunno. I suspect many who could hit the right length should be dangerous on this. On a broader point, I like this pitch, but I don't agree with the commentators wanting all wickets to be like this. It's good to have this kind of test of the players within the whole series, but a constant diet of this kind of wicket would be dull. You want some pitches to be a bit better for batters early on and to become spinner's pitches as they deteriorate. I don't see the 250v250 pitch as an absolute paragon.

Why isn't Botham complaining about the Kookaburra?

[sussexpob]

Dunno. I suspect many who could hit the right length should be dangerous on this. On a broader point, I like this pitch, but I don't agree with the commentators wanting all wickets to be like this. It's good to have this kind of test of the players within the whole series, but a constant diet of this kind of wicket would be dull. You want some pitches to be a bit better for batters early on and to become spinner's pitches as they deteriorate. I don't see the 250v250 pitch as an absolute paragon.

Why isn't Botham complaining about the Kookaburra?

The problem is, you dont want wickets that provide 650 dec v 650 dec like last time. Even if, like in Pakistan, a wicket like that produces a result with a last day collapse, no one really notices because they have long past caring or watching.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Fair point. The last game would have moved forward with better catching, but I agree. Like the Abu Dhabi Test, the conclusion doesn't really justify what has gone before. Like the last five pages of a whodoneit, with everyone assembled in the library, won't necessarily justify the badly written formulaic crap that went before.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wickets with first ball. No Bracewell. Must have been first over.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/conten ... 83520.html

[sussexpob]

Fair point. The last game would have moved forward with better catching, but I agree. Like the Abu Dhabi Test, the conclusion doesn't really justify what has gone before. Like the last five pages of a whodoneit, with everyone assembled in the library, won't necessarily justify the badly written formulaic crap that went before.

The main one for me is pitches that are so slow, bowlers kill themselves on it, and batsman cant time the ball to score quickly from them.... Im open to a range of pitches, but they have to conform to a certain pace ratio. You sometimes see tests where teams are getting about 300-350 in each innings, but over 150 odd overs... these are the pitches that are terrible.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I think a minimum is that catches should carry. But that wouldn't pass on some Indian pitches. In the series England won in India, there was no point having slips in Nagpur and Ahmedabad because the ball wouldn't carry. It's justifiable in that it asks different skills of the players (though a whole series of it would be monotonous) but it's bad in that it doesn't punish the batters' mistakes.

[sussexpob]

I think a minimum is that catches should carry. But that wouldn't pass on some Indian pitches. In the series England won in India, there was no point having slips in Nagpur and Ahmedabad because the ball wouldn't carry. It's justifiable in that it asks different skills of the players (though a whole series of it would be monotonous) but it's bad in that it doesn't punish the batters' mistakes.

Well the pitch you mentioned in Nagpur is actually the one I was referencing with the point about scores just above 300 hundred taking nearly 2 days to amass. I remember watching Kohli and Dhoni bat for hours not going anywhere, even though both knew they needed to set a score and bowl England out not to lose the series. The pitch was utterly terrible, a pitch you would back most teams could block out a whole 5 days on should they not worry about getting runs.

I would not hesitate to say that was the worst test match pitch I ever witnessed. Or certainly remember... even Sabina Park 1997 gave me 3 overs of entertainment, even though England were 9/3 and there was serious concerns that someone would be killed.

[sussexpob]

Compton has to make the second life count now