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1st Test, Australia vs. South Africa, 9 - 13 Nov at the Gabba!

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The Red Baron

Chilla Wilson (44)
Clarke act selfish after not declaring yesterday 20 overs before the end of play. That would left Australia with enough time to knock the Cricket Bokke over. The Cricket Bokke will now go into the second one with no pressure and in better shape. Faf to replace JP, Tahir for Kleinveldt and probably Tsokoli for Rudolph. This will release AB from wickey duties and our attack will be balanced.

How do you work that one out Paarl?
 

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
How do you work that one out Paarl?
he was more into pushing his own average up and making a double ton then thinking about whats good for his team. If they gave your quicks time to go full trottle for the last few overs last night and nick a few over, came out this morning fresh again they would be able to get the last few wickets and knock the runs needed. Not to difficult to understand.
 

The Red Baron

Chilla Wilson (44)
he was more into pushing his own average up and making a double ton then thinking about whats good for his team. If they gave your quicks time to go full trottle for the last few overs last night and nick a few over, came out this morning fresh again they would be able to get the last few wickets and knock the runs needed. Not to difficult to understand.

Rubbish. Clarke needed to give his quicks a target to bowl at. His intention was to not go out and bat again, therefore he had to set SA a total. He wasn't far off either.
 

No4918

John Hipwell (52)
he was more into pushing his own average up and making a double ton then thinking about whats good for his team. If they gave your quicks time to go full trottle for the last few overs last night and nick a few over, came out this morning fresh again they would be able to get the last few wickets and knock the runs needed. Not to difficult to understand.

Disagree with all that. They would have declared behind or at least evens and the Proteas would have been under no pressure at all. It was in the last session Hussey and Clarke really got going. If they'd missed those runs they would likely have been chasing a score north of 200 and with a session or two at the most to get. Suddenly Australia's batsmen are under the pump. Lot easier to chase 50-100 than 200+.

If Clarke were selfish he would now have the highest test score of any Aussie batsmen. He put his wicket on the line to help Hussey to his century and get Wade off the mark as well.
 

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
Rubbish. Clarke needed to give his quicks a target to bowl at. His intention was to not go out and bat again, therefore he had to set SA a total. He wasn't far off either.
We'll never know how far off he was because he waited to long before declaring. He was playing to safe and that cost Australia this test.
 

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
Disagree with all that. They would have declared behind or at least evens and the Proteas would have been under no pressure at all. It was in the last session Hussey and Clarke really got going. If they'd missed those runs they would likely have been chasing a score north of 200 and with a session or two at the most to get. Suddenly Australia's batsmen are under the pump. Lot easier to chase 50-100 than 200+.

If Clarke were selfish he would now have the highest test score of any Aussie batsmen. He put his wicket on the line to help Hussey to his century and get Wade off the mark as well.
Put his wicket on the line? now how many were Australia down when declared? Stupid selfish from him. His Muppet coach obvious could not stop him to think team first. How can you say the Proteas would have under no pressure if Australia still had to bat? If they declared last night and gave their attack time to go full trottle they would have bagged this one and remember any team seem to lost wickets when they play shot and try to be positive. We only had to close shop to force the draw for 70 overs.
 

cyclopath

George Smith (75)
Staff member
Nice application of the 20/20 retrospectoscope, Paarl. Your post implies Aus "would have" won by declaring yesterday. I think that is debatable, and unprovable.
Also seems a bit churlish to bag the team that played the more proactive cricket.
 

mark_s

Chilla Wilson (44)
he was more into pushing his own average up and making a double ton then thinking about whats good for his team. If they gave your quicks time to go full trottle for the last few overs last night and nick a few over, came out this morning fresh again they would be able to get the last few wickets and knock the runs needed. Not to difficult to understand.

I genuinely laughed at this Paarl. SA managed to turn a dominant position at the end of day 1 into a position where there was a non trivial risk of a loss by tea of day 5 by playing negative, self preserving cricket.

It was the cricket equivalent of the All blacks scoring a try in the first 10 mins against the wallabies and then deciding to shut up shop and hold out the wallabies for the remaining 70 mins of the game.

Anyway onto Adelaide, where the pitch will probably also favour batting.
 

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
I genuinely laughed at this Paarl. SA managed to turn a dominant position at the end of day 1 into a position where there was a non trivial risk of a loss by tea of day 5 by playing negative, self preserving cricket.

It was the cricket equivalent of the All blacks scoring a try in the first 10 mins against the wallabies and then deciding to shut up shop and hold out the wallabies for the remaining 70 mins of the game.

Anyway onto Adelaide, where the pitch will probably also favour batting.
Boet, in all respect to try and compare a 80 minute game to a 5 day one is a bit laughable or just a lack of knowledge of the sports.
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
he was more into pushing his own average up and making a double ton then thinking about whats good for his team. If they gave your quicks time to go full trottle for the last few overs last night and nick a few over, came out this morning fresh again they would be able to get the last few wickets and knock the runs needed. Not to difficult to understand.

Sorry Paarl, but that is absolute bullshit. This bloke is rapidly developing into one of the best captains we've had in some time. I would lay money that pushing up his average was not in his thinking. You are mistaking him for Brian Lara, who did as you described when chasing the world record a few years ago.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
I don't think it would have been wise for Clarke to declare any earlier than he did. I think the suggestions that Australia should have been more aggressive and declared whilst behind were ridiculous. In the first test of a series, intentionally putting yourself in a position where you may lose the test (but have a slight chance to win) is just crazy. Why put unnecessary pressure on our team in the first test and risk having to bat for close to a full day in the fourth innings on the final day of a test?

If the next test was back to back (i.e. starting at the end of this week) then I wouldn't have declared at all. I'd have left the Proteas bowlers to bowl for as long as possible.

Given that there is a 9 day break before the next test I think it was good to give our bowlers another workout and they should have certainly gained some confidence from yesterday.
 

Blue

Andrew Slack (58)
Again, why are these kind of pitches being prepared with a modern game under pressure?

To make sure there is a fifth day I guess. Still think it's short sighted.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Again, why are these kind of pitches being prepared with a modern game under pressure?

To make sure there is a fifth day I guess. Still think it's short sighted.

I agree completely Blue.

I went to the Hobart test last year against New Zealand which had a lively pitch and it was very entertaining.

Whilst the batting in that test was very poor and suggested the pitch was much better for bowling than it was, the reality was that the pitch provided plenty for the bowlers and batting was a challenge.

Low scoring test matches are generally the most exciting in my experience.
 

barbarian

Phil Kearns (64)
Staff member
Again, why are these kind of pitches being prepared with a modern game under pressure?

To make sure there is a fifth day I guess. Still think it's short sighted.

I think this pitch was OK. Ideally you want the game to be decided on the 5th day, and had we not lost a day to rain then the game probably would have been decided.

The game would have been perfectly poised if yesterday was day 4.
.
 

Torn Hammy

Johnnie Wallace (23)
Again, why are these kind of pitches being prepared with a modern game under pressure?

To make sure there is a fifth day I guess. Still think it's short sighted.


I'd blame the lack of movement from the Kooka ball over the pitch. some excellent swing bowlers throwing down gun barrel straight balls at 130 kph.
 

Penguin

John Solomon (38)
We'll never know how far off he was because he waited to long before declaring. He was playing to safe and that cost Australia this test.



Nup. A days play lost because of rain cost Australia the test. Clark did the right thing. A lot of the television commentary team (all ex test players & a captain or two) thought that he declared too early!
 

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
Nup. A days play lost because of rain cost Australia the test. Clark did the right thing. A lot of the television commentary team (all ex test players & a captain or two) thought that he declared too early!
You should not listen to the Aus commentators specially Chappel. I'll say it again, you neede no more then 20 more overs to roll over us and THAT cost you the test despite after a day lost. Pretty sure if we had a cloudy days play you would have been in trouble with the ball moving around in those conditions.
 
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