SA v SL, 3rd Test debate

First topic message reminder :

Just noticed there is no thread started on the 3rd test between SA and SL although the match has already started.
Lanka won the toss and are bowling.
Lahiru Thirimanne in for Tharanga Paranavitana, and Damika Prasad in for Dilhara Fernando.
For South Africa, Alviro Petersen returns to the top in place of Ashwell Prince, and Jacque Rudolph is moved down the order. Vernon Philander comes back in for Marchant De Lange.

Very true.

Have Sri Lanka been skittled yet, by the way?

Ayrton Senna- when he died I lost interest in formula 1
Steffie Graff - loved to watch her play
Pete sampras -
Bjorn Borg -
Christian Cullen

Stella wrote:I'd like to mention Steve Redgrave.

A local hero to me and a man with balls of steel.

Agreed, I thought of him too, unbelievable achievements, but not globally known.

One more wicket needed.

Who's Christian Cullen?

Sorry to continue the offstreaming but apologies for not mentioning Pele in my first list. If you're gonna mention Jordan you should use the name Katie Price (only joking). Some rather quick running by Mr Bolt in London this summer should do it for him.

I've never held an interest in formula 1, and it drives me mad when cricket and F1 are on at the same time but the BBC put the F1 as their main headline...why!! It is repetitive garbage and should never be given priority ahead of a true English sport!

Sorry, rant over.

I loved/love watching Kournikova, Sharapova play

Stella wrote:Who's Christian Cullen?

The best ever fullback to play the game of rugby.

The BBC may not have such high regard now it's on Sky?

biltongbek wrote:

Stella wrote:Who's Christian Cullen?

The best ever fullback to play the game of rugby.

Cheers.

Talking of Rugby.

Jonathan Davies was according to some (not me, as I have no idea) the best Rugby player ever.

According to most Welsh fans, the best ever player in most positions will be filled by welsh players.

Fists of Fury wrote:I've never held an interest in formula 1, and it drives me mad when cricket and F1 are on at the same time but the BBC put the F1 as their main headline...why!! It is repetitive garbage and should never be given priority ahead of a true English sport!

Sorry, rant over.

I loved/love watching Kournikova, Sharapova play

I wonder why

Morkel gets the last wicket, Sri Lanka out for 239. Pretty sure smith will let them bat again.

Stella wrote:Who's Christian Cullen?

All Blacks fullback in the late '90s. Also the name of a pretty handy NZ racehorse around the same time.

For me (in rough-ish order)

Bradman (statisically he's so far above anyone else)
Ali
Pele
Borg
Nicklaus
Woods (in spite of his fall from grace)
Juan Fangio (honourable mentions to Senna and Schumacher)
Jordan
Navratilova
Bolt.

Carl Lewis for me is tainted by those positive dope tests, while Armstrong also has a big "?" that just pushes him outside the top 10

What a disastrous collapse that is from last nights position, very poor. I hate to say this, and Pakistan may prove me wrong against England, but it seems to be a bit of a recurring theme with sub-continent sides that they give their neck and maybe aren't as strong mentally as others when things are going against them.

Thanks for the update, Biltong.

A good allround bowling performance by SA this morning.

Steyn 3/56
Philander 3/46
Morkel 2/74
Tahir 2/54

Morkel was expensive though.

Dilshan out, bowled Philander edged to Boucher 12/1

Boucher drops his second easy catch of the day.

So there we go, Philander is better than Morkel and Steyn

Only saw a little of the first innings , biltong

How did Tahir bowl , did you think? I reckon this is a bit of a challenge for him , in that although there isn't much pressure in a match sense , he would be expected to take wickets now if ever...

So there we go, Philander is better than Morkel and Steyn

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He does lack the WOW factor though

Stella wrote:So there we go, Philander is better than Morkel and Steyn

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He does lack the WOW factor though

Have you not once said "Wow, that was a great delivery " when Philander bowls.

Some talk on cricinfo about the follow on and enforcing it. The reason it does NOT get enforced so much as it did in the old days is the lack of a rest day in Tests.
The old scenario was - get 500 plus on the first two days and then bowl the other lot out for, say, 220-250, on the third day and then put your feet up on the rest day/Sunday.
With the 24 hours off in the middle, teams were far more likely to get the other side batting again. Now everyone is wary of the Drav/Lax miracle in '01 when the Aussies fried in the sun and ended up losing.
Captains now look at the state of their bowlers and look at JUST HOW FAR behind the other lot are. England, in my view and a view not shared by some, were quite right not to enforce the follow on at Lord's v the Aussies in 09 as they had struggled to get the tail out and the lead was not all that huge.
Remember how England had to battle to get across the line at Nottingham in 05 after enforcing the f-on? I would have batted again there as well.

Fred,

Theres also less sides with two spinners in and more demands on the fragile fast bowlers now. Plus fielders are expected to actaully make the effort to try and stop the ball making three staright days in the field incredibly demanding. Also with less time getting rained off (better drainage and covers) theres less panic to get the game wrapped up ASAP to avoid the draw as there perhaps used to be.

sri lanka are having another awful day, and it could have been worse had boucher not dropped a sitter off morkel a couple of overs ago

Right about the rest day Sir Fred.

Also of course you often have another Test scheduled a couple of days later , and the combined two innings workload can really take it out of a bowling team if the second innings proves hard work...

Think Vaughan at Trent Bridge was not willing to take any chance of weather interfering with England's winning chance , after the Aussies had escaped at Old Trafford , so he went for the quick kill. Had Jones not broken down , of course , he may have got it.

(Wouldn't have been so exciting though...)

Alfie - Tell me about the excitement at Trent Bridge in 05. I was on a cricket tour of Herefordshire and we were batting. I was umpiring (out second ball for nought earlier !) and great roars were coming up from the guys following the Test in the pavilion. Pure theatre.

M Taylor and his Aussies use to refrain from enforcing the follow on, preferring to get a massive lead and asking the opposition to chase 500 in the last two days.

Tahir has bowled extremely well today, he seems to have some confidence, and he did keep things tight in the first innings.

Again missed all the Test thus far, but watching the highlights great knocks by King Kallis, AB, Petersen and an overdue 50 from Rudolph. I think the selectors where correct to keep Rudolph in the mix.

I have to say I was very disappointed that Marchant de Lange was dropped and Morne Morkel was retained. Some of you may have guessed that I'm Morne's biggest fan, but he's all out of sorts and needs to go back to F/C to get his rhythm back. de Lange was mighty impressive on debut and deserved to retain his spot. What a difference the Pro has made, he was the key difference at Durban. His control is excellent.

graeme smith coming into the attack.

Demon Racer wrote:Again missed all the Test thus far, but watching the highlights great knocks by King Kallis, AB, Petersen and an overdue 50 from Rudolph. I think the selectors where correct to keep Rudolph in the mix.

I have to say I was very disappointed that Marchant de Lange was dropped and Morne Morkel was retained. Some of you may have guessed that I'm Morne's biggest fan, but he's all out of sorts and needs to go back to F/C to get his rhythm back. de Lange was mighty impressive on debut and deserved to retain his spot. What a difference the Pro has made, he was the key difference at Durban. His control is excellent.

Demon, Morne doesn't deserve to be dropped yet. He isn't bowling badly, he just doesn't have much luck at the moment.

To drop him now for Merchant de Lange is premature and irresponsible, he and Steyn has been our bowlers we relied upon over the past 2 years, you woould not do his confidence any good just because de Lange had a good debut.

thriammne gone for 30, kallis gets him.

Magnificent catch by Amla at short leg to catch the fainted of edges deflected of the thigh pad, bowled by Kallis

Thirrimane out for 30.

Sri Lanka 79/2

biltongbek wrote:

Demon, Morne doesn't deserve to be dropped yet. He isn't bowling badly, he just doesn't have much luck at the moment.

I think because of the length he bowls he'll always be an unlucky bowler (similar to Sharma or Flintoff for example) but an invaluable one who complements Steyn and Philander very well, and probably better than De Lange at the moment.

I like this move by Smith to bowl himself, he's hoping to bring the batsmen out of their shell a bit (Strauss did the same against Sri Lanka by bringing Trott on in one game, when Herath was night-wachman and dead-batting, he got him playing shots and a couple of overs later Swann had him LBW attempting a swoosh). It could have worked had Sanga dragged that on from Kallis. And now a review!

And out! Clearly your guys streams are a bit ahead of mine. Brilliant from hotspot, fantastic catch, but also great captaincy from Smith! Pretty sure the change of mindset he induced in the batsmen by bringing himself on played a part in that wicket.

Unsurprisingly Tahir back into the attack, I think he's bowled pretty well today, could easily pick up a few wickets later on.

biltongbek wrote:

Demon Racer wrote:Again missed all the Test thus far, but watching the highlights great knocks by King Kallis, AB, Petersen and an overdue 50 from Rudolph. I think the selectors where correct to keep Rudolph in the mix.

I have to say I was very disappointed that Marchant de Lange was dropped and Morne Morkel was retained. Some of you may have guessed that I'm Morne's biggest fan, but he's all out of sorts and needs to go back to F/C to get his rhythm back. de Lange was mighty impressive on debut and deserved to retain his spot. What a difference the Pro has made, he was the key difference at Durban. His control is excellent.

Demon, Morne doesn't deserve to be dropped yet. He isn't bowling badly, he just doesn't have much luck at the moment.

To drop him now for Merchant de Lange is premature and irresponsible, he and Steyn has been our bowlers we relied upon over the past 2 years, you woould not do his confidence any good just because de Lange had a good debut.

I agree that Morne just needs a little bit of luck, as he showed against India last year, he was unplayable. He seems a little to inconsistant for someone I feel could be better than Steyn!!!

Regarding de Lange, I think we could've fitted him in if Duminy was still in the side, as JP seems a very capable off spinner and therefore we could fielded Steyn, the Pro, Morne and de Lange.

Anyway it probably won't matter as we are marching to a home series victory!!!

Without a shadow of a doubt Amla is one of the greatest close in fielders I've ever seen.

Kallis drops a catch. Shame for Tahir, that is the second dropped catch off his bowling today.

Yes demon, Superspoort showed a little montage of his infielding earlier, he certainly does have some awsome reflexes and hands.

Amla and Bell between them make two amazing close fielders, imagine being a batsman with Amla at short leg and Bell at silly point, with Shane Warne bowling...no thanks!

it was pad first therefore it would have been not out.

......And imagine your name is Darryl cullinan.

Fists of Fury wrote:Amla and Bell between them make two amazing close fielders, imagine being a batsman with Amla at short leg and Bell at silly point, with Shane Warne bowling...no thanks!

I think Murali would be more difficult with two high class close in fielders.

Sangakkara gone, bowled Tahir, caught Kallis in the slip.

Although I'm not a big Tahir fan, he's bowled really well in this Test

Tahir gets a thoroughly deserved wicket, he's bowled well and really troubled Sangakara in this spell. I can easily see Tahir picking up 4 or more wickets in this innings. I've liked the look of him from the off and think Smith is still learning how best to use him.

I've not seen any of the days play, but judging by the all round economy rates and the cricinfo reports it would seem that Sri Lanka have been well and truly in their shell. This will of course have contributed to Tahir having a rare decent day - as any spinner will know, it is much easier when you're allowed to bowl to someone and they aren't looking to attack you and upset your line/length. Still, a much improved showing from Tahir. I had high hopes for him when he was first selected, but he has certainly failed to impress to date.

Great low catch to his left for Kallis to take the wicket of Jayawardene, Morkel does his thing and the ball glances almost off the shoulder to slip

Potential new topic - Mahela Jayawardene, has he lost the plot?