Full pace attack for the 4th test?
How can I put into words the frustration that we’ve experienced while supporting our team in this Castle Test series against England? The first test came down to the last over, needing just one more wicket. The second test was a joke from a South African perspective, we got whipped by an innings and 98 runs. The third test, oh so frustrating, again it came down to the last over and again we didn’t have the firepower to win the test.
Other than the dismal second test, it would seem that the Proteas have the better of England, our batting has been awesome, even with the no show that is Ashwell Prince. Prince has scored a whopping total of 78 runs in the series at an average of 13, he’s only got above 20 once. I don’t know how this man is still playing test cricket for South Africa. So it would seem that the batting department is doing their jobs, which unfortunately can’t be said for the bowlers.
The irony of dropping Makahya Ntini for the third test because he didn’t strike is beyond me, because his replacement, Friedel de Wet only took one wicket in the Newlands test. And guess what, we still couldn’t bowl England out twice.
So now we’re heading into the fourth and final test at the Bidvest Wanderers, needing a win to draw the series. Cricket South Africa managed to cock things up when they announced the squad, they included Imran Tahir, even though his paperwork wasn’t up to scratch. With Paul Harris bowling like a lame mule, and the inclusion of Ryan McLaren and Wayne Parnell, I would suggest and recommend that the Proteas pick an all out pace attack.
The Wanderers pitch is quick at the best of times, and with the consistent rain around Johannesburg we really can expect a belter of a pitch, so let’s drop Harris like a bad habit, replace him with McLaren, and put Parnell in for the injured Friedel de Wet. That gives captain Graeme Smith five quick bowlers with JP Duminy putting in a few overs of spin. If the Selectors really have the balls they’ll drop Prince and include Alviro Petersen, the Lions opening batsman, who would be playing on his home ground. Petersen also offers us another spin bowling option, he has an average of 34.66 with the ball in the SuperSport Series. But they are more likely to promote Amla to number 2 and drop Ashwell Price down the order.
My team for the fourth test: Graeme Smith, Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher, Ryan McLaren, Dale Steyn,Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell.
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I agreed with the Ntini move. De Wet had a kak 3rd test, but was injured and considering his first test, I still would have picked him.
Harris needs to rest until he can learn to bowl and field…
Otherwise I think you’re spot on with your team Shaun, you have my permission to inform the Captain that the ginger has spoken.
Ugh… I dunno. I’m too bleak to think about it to be honest. At this point, as long as something happens, then I’ll be okay. Some changes need to be made. It’s getting to that point when they need to start investing for the future. I’m a bit worried about that to be honest.
Statistically Harris has been one of the best strike bowlers of the series. Something which seems to have been ignored by a lot of his detractors. Harris should stay – he’s done his job for the team and his role from the start has been as a holding bowler – he just happens to have been quite successful at getting wickets for the side.
Parnell is brilliant and should have been there from the start. I can agree with him but Mclaren has done nothing to justify his inclusion.
We need a genuine opener and Peterson is on form – I wrote a blog post asking what the hell players have to do to qualify for this SA test side at the moment because there is no consistency in terms of selection and planning
I’m scared to watch this one. Something need to be done, i thought the 3rd test was ours until our bowlers failed to bowl.
@Cricket Strategist that maybe so, but it’s sometimes not how many wickets you’ve taken but how you’ve taken them. Harris has taken a total of 11 wickets in the series, 7 of them came in the first test.
The next 4 wickets came from 87 overs, at a cost of 67.5 runs each. Which is far from his career average of 33.64.
The boy isn’t playing well… full pace attack please.
With all due respect Harris’ figures are thrown out by that spell of 1/146 in the second test. If that was stripped out, he has a marginally better strike rate than Dale Steyn.
Economy rate of 3.1 is not bad considering the pasting that everybody took in the second test and the fact that for the 40 overs he bowled in the last innings of the third test he had attacking fields.
The stats don’t lie and the quality of batsman that he has gotten out in this series is indicative that he is a vital cog in the make up of this side. It might be easy to blame Harris but the side loses balance when he is not there.
Sorry and I meant to add – We’re calling for his head after 1 and half bad tests despite him being one of the best performers in the domestic league.
Its easy to make him a scape goat but lets be honest, the English have just been really stubborn and despite us outplaying them on probably 65% of the days in the series, we’re 1-0 bbecause of an awesome performance in the second test…
@Cricket Strategist fair enough…. let’s see what the selectors do for this test.
Suffice to say that the all pace attack seems to have paid off for this first innings so I will creep quietly back into my box.
@Cricket Strategist well I’m glad the selectors were reading, and I’m even happier that we lost the toss and ended up bowling… I heard a reporter mention that Smith would have batted if he won the toss.
To me it was all about the pace bowlers, on a green bouncing pitch under cloud cover, I would have bowled.