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    Australia vs South Africa

    The South African media is confident that Australia will be beaten at home for the first time since Curtly & Courtney did their thing.

    Last time SA embarked on a tour to Australia, Ponting had just lost the Ashes. Confidence in SA was sky high. In the event, Australia pulverised South Africa. I have an inkling the same will happen again, that SA will choke at the prospect of actually beating Australia.

    I wonder whether that mental block would be there had that fuckbucket Darryl Hair not cheated SA out of a series win in 1993/94 (well, that's how I remember it anyway).

    Anyway, SA's batting line-up looks good – even though Kallis is on the poor run and Amla is unpredictable. I'm a bot worried about the bowling, especially if Steyn and Morné Morkel are both crocked. I have no confidence in Zondeki as back-up seamer, and our spinner isn't quite Shane Warne.

    #2
    Australia vs South Africa

    Stuart Clark out of the first test.

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      #3
      Australia vs South Africa

      15 for 3 (Ponting 0, Hussey 0) was a heck of a lot more interesting than 202 for 5.

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        #4
        Australia vs South Africa

        341/9 at stumps.

        A decent start. Australia were going at less than 3 an over when Katich and Dude Looks Like a Lady were consolidating. The Australians picked up the pace after that, it seems. Of course, I got to see only the slow batting.

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          #5
          Australia vs South Africa

          That was great stuff, judging by the highlights. Funny for Australia to chose Perth when SA have the better quicks. When West Indies were in their pomp, they never played there.

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            #6
            Australia vs South Africa

            Typical SA to be unable to finish off the tale. 70-odd runs for the last two wickets.

            Amla looked in great nick this morning. Pity he (and Biff) were out before reaching 50.

            Kallis is going at an unusual briskness, 28 off 46 balls right now.

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              #7
              Australia vs South Africa

              Morning G. What's happened to Ashwell Prince, is he injured?

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                #8
                Australia vs South Africa

                Broken thumb.

                Johnson has taken seven out of eight wickets now. SA were 234/4. Now they're 241/8. It's depressing. SA get themselves in a decent position, having Australia at 15/3 and 303/8, scoring 241/3, and then through it all away. Fuck.

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                  #9
                  Australia vs South Africa

                  SA blown away by 90 mile an hour Mitchell Johnson. That might be why Perth was scheduled, on reflection. Johnson has a strange round arm action that stops him swinging the ball back in to the right hander, so it shouldn't be that hard to play him.

                  Kreja can bowl, so can Siddon.

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                    #10
                    Australia vs South Africa

                    The schedule is pretty much the same every year - Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney.

                    The South Africans fast bowlers made the same mistake every visiting team makes every season -bowling too short because it is a fast wicket.

                    Johnson's spell is being compared to Curtley Ambrose's seven for 1 a few years ago (christ, more like 16), which I was lucky enough to see live. I will never see better fast bowling than that, but this was close.

                    The eldest is in a corporate box today after having freebies for day one. Did I get a look in? No. I did not. We shall start charging him board.

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                      #11
                      Australia vs South Africa

                      Best spell of bowling I've ever seen (not live) was Andrew Caddick, England against West Indies 2000.

                      One criticizes nightwatchmen a lot but they could have done with sending one in last night. A worse player might have missed nicking Johnson.

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                        #12
                        Australia vs South Africa

                        "SA blown away by 90 mile an hour Mitchell Johnson."

                        For a left-arm bowler that's quite quick, I suppose. As I understand it, nobody knows why there have never been any truly fast left-arm bowlers. There's no medical or mechanical reason for it that I know of.

                        Wasim Akram arguably the greatest fast bowler of all time, was a lefty, but not blazingly fast, no more that 92 - 93 mph. Possibly inhibited by his diabetes?

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                          #13
                          Australia vs South Africa

                          In cricketing terms 92 - 93 MPH is'blazingly fast', surely? I can't think of many players in my lifetime who have consistently reached speeds exceeding that.

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                            #14
                            Australia vs South Africa

                            Maybe you haven’t lived as long as me, but in my time the following bowlers have all been timed in the range 95 – 100.2 mph.

                            Waqar Younis, Mohammed Sami, Jeff Thompson, Shoaib Akhtar, Andy Roberts, Dennis Lilly, Michael Holding, Cameron Cuffy, Colin Croft, Devon Malcolm, Alan Donald, Brett Lee, and (unbelievably) Lance Klusener.

                            Before my time Tiger Tyson, Wes Hall and Harold Larwood were considered the fastest of all time, but reliable timing mechanisms weren’t around.

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                              #15
                              Australia vs South Africa

                              Sami? Really... I've never thought of him as that fast, unless there was a different one before the waffy haired spraygun of recent years.

                              There's only really Brett Lee at the moment going over 90 reguarly with anything approaching accuracy on the test scene isn't there?

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                                #16
                                Australia vs South Africa

                                I don't know how fast Dale Steyn bowls, but he's pretty quick and accurate.

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                                  #17
                                  Australia vs South Africa

                                  Waqar Younis, Mohammed Sami, Jeff Thompson, Shoaib Akhtar, Andy Roberts, Dennis Lilly, Michael Holding, Cameron Cuffy, Colin Croft, Devon Malcolm, Alan Donald, Brett Lee, and (unbelievably) Lance Klusener.

                                  Before my time Tiger Tyson, Wes Hall and Harold Larwood were considered the fastest of all time, but reliable timing mechanisms weren’t around.
                                  Many of those were timed at over 95mph but you have to take it with a pinch of salt: speed guns are notoriously unreliable even now. Very few - if any - have bowled consistently at more than about 90mph.

                                  It's 'Typhoon' Tyson, btw. A quick google suggests Tiger Tyson is a gay porn star from Brooklyn.

                                  Morne Morkel gets it up above 90mph, too. He's got all the attributes to be the next great fast bowler.

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                                    #18
                                    Australia vs South Africa

                                    Caught the last hour or so of this on Sopcast and it was real quality stuff. Johnson fools Smith completely with a slower ball, then a spell of seriously intimidatory bowling from Lee and Johnson, followed by a very impressive fight back from Kallis.

                                    SA 227 for 3, needing 187 to win.

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                                      #19
                                      Australia vs South Africa

                                      I'm not used to wanting SA to win like this, but come on guys, do them in their own back yard and I might just adopt you as my second team.

                                      If that doesn't inspire them nothing will.

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                                        #20
                                        Australia vs South Africa

                                        Maybe you haven’t lived as long as me
                                        You flatter me, but how reliable were those speed recordings? Did the bowlers achieve those speeds consistently?

                                        There is a youtube clip of a 'fastest bowler in the world' competition back in the 70s where no one comes close to those speeds.

                                        I'll certainly vouch for Holding, having seen him give Geoff Boycott a torrid time at Chesterfield in the early 1980s.

                                        As Fred Truman wisely noted, "People only call me 'Fiery' because it rhymes with Fred, just like 'Typhoon' rhymes with Tyson".

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                                          #21
                                          Australia vs South Africa

                                          South Africa need just another 50 to win, still 6 wickets left.

                                          There's going to be one totally crushed team at the end of this, either the one that let it slip from here or the one that conceded 400+ to lose a test.

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                                            #22
                                            Australia vs South Africa

                                            Well done SA. Despite some of Graeme Smiths unpleasant personality a few years ago, I find myself warming more and more to him by virtue of his sheer talent and determination. Let's hope they push on from here and win the whole series.

                                            Australias bowling attack is very thing looking right now isn't it. Marvelous.

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                                              #23
                                              Australia vs South Africa

                                              That was quite nice. Ponting looked like a shattered George W Bush afterwards. SA gave Australia so many chances to wrap the test up. Losing at home by six wickets having set a target of 414...the Australian press will have a field day.

                                              So in the space of a couple of weeks we've had India and SA chasing down scores of 400+ in the fourth innings. Sort of takes out the mystique of big fourth innings targets.

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                                                #24
                                                Australia vs South Africa

                                                Well done Proteas.

                                                A Cricinfo article on the run chase phenomenon.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Australia vs South Africa

                                                  Oh, I see India's target was "only" 387. And looking at the list of highest successful chases in the fourth innings, SA's win today is the second-highest ever. The highest, of course, was the West Indies 418/7 in 2003. Against Australia. Who also failed to defend the highest target in ODIs, against SA. Chokers!

                                                  What impressed me with SA in this test was that they didn't crumble when things went against them, especially losing six wickets for 22 runs in the first innings. And being st a mighty target, they went out to win it, not settling for batting out six sessions at 1,2 runs and over, hoping for a draw. In the event, the run chase was rather undramatic.

                                                  AB de Villiers was quite amusing. Asked when he thought the test was in the bag, he replied earnestly: "When I got my 100". Later he said that at one point he asked JP Duminy how many runs they still needed. JP said: "Seven". AB had been unaware of how close they were. His strategy was to play ball-by-ball. That indicates a certain mental strength SA teams rarely used to exhibit against strong opposition — perhaps a result of Smith's captaincy.

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