South Africa v Sri Lanka 1st Test

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South Africa v Sri Lanka 1st Test at Centurion

Start of play (08.30 GMT) Weather: overcast

SA have not won a home Test series since 2008, which was against Bangladesh. And SL have not won a Test Match since Muralitharan retired, so both of these teams will be desperate to change that.

My prediction will be 2-0 to SA. Not because of the type of wicket, (SL showed in England that they could bat well on green pitches) but because the SL bowling is not that strong.

SA won the toss and will bowl.

Teams:

SA: G.Smith(c), J.Rudolph, H.Amla, J.Kallis, A.Prince, AB de Villiers, M.Boucher(w), D.Steyn, V.Philander, M.Morkel, I.Tahir.

SL: T. Dilshan(c), T.Paranavitana, K.Sangakkara, M.Jayawardene, T.Samaraweera, A.Mathews(w), J.Silva, H.Herath, N.Perera, U.Welegedara, C.Fernando.

Fists of Fury wrote:Trott and Kallis together? The ground would be empty! I think Kallis at 3 and KP at 4 would scare many a bowling unit!

Skye, if batting lineups around the world continue with these bottleless collapses then yes Philander will have some ruddy good figures haha.

Aye probably best to wait and see how he goes in NZ and then England. The latter will be the real test. NO disrespect to NZ

You don't really rate this Philander fella much, do ya Fists?


The elephant in the Protea's dressing room.. Is Vernon Philander capable of taking more than 5 wickets in an innings?

My comments have probably been a bit misconstrued, Kingprotea.

I think he is a very fine bowler - nice shape, excellent areas, very consistent. However, I'm just trying to remind people that his career is yet young against two dreadfully brittle batting lineups, so we should wait until he does likewise against England/India before proclaiming him the second coming of Malcolm Marshall.

On proven form over the last 2 years this is my team.

Cook
Smith
Kallis
Bell
Amla
De Villiers
Prior
Philander
Steyn
Anderson
Swann

biltongbek wrote:On proven form over the last 2 years this is my team.

Cook
Smith
Kallis
Bell
Amla
De Villiers
Prior
Philander
Steyn
Anderson
Swann

I think that team would be No1 for quite some time

Great work today by South Africa today and in particular Philander impressing again. A special word for Mark Boucher with a display of faultless wicket-keeping and an important half-century. Disappointing again from the SL batsman who just can't get it right at the moment

Gregers wrote:Comparing England and south Africas sides is very interesting atm.

Smith > Strauss
Rudolph < Cook
Amla = Trott
Kallis > Pieterson
De Villiers > Bell
Prince = Morgan
Boucher < Prior
Steyn > Andersen
Phillander > Broad
Tahir < Swann
Morkel = Tremlett

I'm not sure that I fully agree with this assessment. If you want to go player-by-player I think Smith is equal to Strauss (very similar careers actually), Kallis is equal to Pietersen as a pure batsman and de Villiers equal to Bell. Philander is hard to compare with Broad but at this stage it wouldn't be fair to say Philander is better, particularly after the series Broad has just had.

A player-by-player judgment also fails to consider the overall worth of a player (e.g. Steyn may be better than any of the England bowlers but Anderson is better than any of the other SA bowlers so it is unfair to just say Steyn>Anderson) A better comparison would be by marking each player out of 10 and adding it up, something I've attempted to do here:

Smith 8
Rudolph 6
Amla 9
Kallis 10
de Villiers 9
Prince 7
Boucher 8
Philander 8*
Steyn 10
Morkel 9
Tahir 6

SA total = 90/110

Strauss 8
Cook 9
Trott 9
Pietersen 9
Bell 9
Morgan 7
Prior 9
Bresnan/Tremlett** 8
Broad 9
Swann 9
Anderson 10

England total = 96/110

*Too early to give Philander higher than 8 despite his start
** Both could play, but I've rated both the same anyway

Shelsey93 wrote:Great work today by South Africa today and in particular Philander impressing again. A special word for Mark Boucher with a display of faultless wicket-keeping and an important half-century. Disappointing again from the SL batsman who just can't get it right at the moment

Gregers wrote:Comparing England and south Africas sides is very interesting atm.

Smith > Strauss
Rudolph < Cook
Amla = Trott
Kallis > Pieterson
De Villiers > Bell
Prince = Morgan
Boucher < Prior
Steyn > Andersen
Phillander > Broad
Tahir < Swann
Morkel = Tremlett

I'm not sure that I fully agree with this assessment. If you want to go player-by-player I think Smith is equal to Strauss (very similar careers actually), Kallis is equal to Pietersen as a pure batsman and de Villiers equal to Bell. Philander is hard to compare with Broad but at this stage it wouldn't be fair to say Philander is better, particularly after the series Broad has just had.

A player-by-player judgment also fails to consider the overall worth of a player (e.g. Steyn may be better than any of the England bowlers but Anderson is better than any of the other SA bowlers so it is unfair to just say Steyn>Anderson) A better comparison would be by marking each player out of 10 and adding it up, something I've attempted to do here:

Smith 8
Rudolph 6
Amla 9
Kallis 10
de Villiers 9
Prince 7
Boucher 8
Philander 8*
Steyn 10
Morkel 9
Tahir 6

SA total = 90/110

Strauss 8
Cook 9
Trott 9
Pietersen 9
Bell 9
Morgan 7
Prior 9
Bresnan/Tremlett** 8
Broad 9
Swann 9
Anderson 10

England total = 96/110

*Too early to give Philander higher than 8 despite his start
** Both could play, but I've rated both the same anyway

Sorry mate but that carries little credibility. I accept the fact that rudolf is once again not really succeeding at his second go at international cricket. To rate Tahir at 6 is questionable at best.In the past two years Struass averages 32 and you rate him 8 whereas smith averages 52 and yet gets the same rating.

Morgan has as average a start to test cricket as Tahir, yet you rate Morgan a 7 but tahir a 6. Irrespective of whether Philander can play or not, he is in tremendous form currently and worthy of a better rating (assuming you are doing your rating on current form.)

Swann in my opinion although the best spin bolwer around at the moment, not worthy of a 9 rating.

Proven form over the last 2 years yet you put Philander in...makes little to no sense, for the reasons I have stated above i.e. too short a time and against batting lineups with some real issues.

biltongbek wrote:Sorry mate but that carries little credibility. I accept the fact that rudolf is once again not really succeeding at his second go at international cricket. To rate Tahir at 6 is questionable at best.In the past two years Struass averages 32 and you rate him 8 whereas smith averages 52 and yet gets the same rating.

Morgan has as average a start to test cricket as Tahir, yet you rate Morgan a 7 but tahir a 6. Irrespective of whether Philander can play or not, he is in tremendous form currently and worthy of a better rating (assuming you are doing your rating on current form.)

Swann in my opinion although the best spin bolwer around at the moment, not worthy of a 9 rating.

I never claimed to be hugely credible - just highlighting the issues with player-by-player!!

Strauss and Smith - In my opinion not quite as good as those I've given a 9 over the last couple of years. Given that both have been out of form I'm a little surprised by the disparity between Smith and Strauss's stats - both have struggled against left-arm seamers as well, not that that is likely to be a factor next summer.

Tahir and Swann - Tahir hasn't had much to do so far and has struggled when he has so I can't give him higher than a 6. I still think he could be very good though. Swann is world class and although he's had a poor year has had SA's left-handers in all sorts of trouble in the past.

Morgan - 2 100s and 3 50s already. Hardly a worse start than Tahir's. Could do with improving his average though.

Philander - Current form is not the form of summer 2012

Philander has been in trmendous form during the past few years in the Supersport series.

Granted it is in domestic cricket.

2009/10 season 9 matches 45 wickets at an average of 14,73
2010/11 season 7 matches 35 wickets at an average of 16.11
2011/12 season 3 matches 14 wickets at an average of 18.42

Does show he isn't just in form for the past few months.

So Philander is better than Broad after 3 good Tests on green top pitches against brittle line ups. :facepalm:
Forgot what Broad did against a far better indian line up?

Exactly, Shanky.

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:So Philander is better than Broad after 3 good Tests on green top pitches against brittle line ups. :facepalm:
Forgot what Broad did against a far better indian line up?

Not sure if anyone is saying that, what they are saying is that the potential is there;

Philander Aus 14 at 13.92, SL 10 at 10.20 Broad Aus 20 at 30.35, SL 9 at 53.88

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:So Philander is better than Broad after 3 good Tests on green top pitches against brittle line ups. :facepalm:
Forgot what Broad did against a far better indian line up?

Never suggested that, didn't even question Broad's rating.

biltongbek wrote:On proven form over the last 2 years this is my team.

Cook
Smith
Kallis
Bell
Amla
De Villiers
Prior
Philander
Steyn
Anderson
Swann

I dont think 3 good Tests equates to proven form over the past 2 years.

oops wrong topic