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Ashes 2013-14

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Other than the odd shooter, the pitch is behaving well, and there is literally no lateral movement on offer....

I have often noticed that S.A wickets behavior changes a lot within the space of hours.....especially in terms of movement on offer. India benefited in the second dig and now it's S.A's turn.
 
great great game of cricket ... india will be disappointed, sa will be equally disappointed ... what a great game.
 
Played in good spirit too.....really hard fought.

India bowled an over more than they were allotted, despite running the risk of losing.

My only disappointment was I wanted to see Ashwin bowl the last over.......they should have invited S.A to hit out. Oh and Dhoni's defensive captaincy is a slight problem in Test cricket.
 
Fantastic game but Di Plessis could have gone into the history books were it not for that needless and moronic run out. And what was the 6 off the final ball all about? It just showed that they could have done it, after all Steyn is no rabbit and Philander was well set. I think they bottled it a bit, if that was a one day game they would have won no problem. Morkel was padded up and ankle or no ankle could have blocked an over if needed. For an outsider a disappointing end to a great game
 
In one day game you can't have all players on the boundary mate. There is a difference between chasing 6 rpo in ODI and in tests.

The moment there was more than 10 required in the final over.....the only realistic option was to take two runs every ball.

Because clearing the ropes had risk associated with it...one wicket could have meant the match was lost, as Morkel was not able to bat.
 
I'm hosting a Q&A session between some Barmy Army members & Jonathan Agnew on Sunday.

Might sit in on that one - could be interesting.
 
kingjulian said:
In one day game you can't have all players on the boundary mate. There is a difference between chasing 6 rpo in ODI and in tests.

The moment there was more than 10 required in the final over.....the only realistic option was to take two runs every ball.

Because clearing the ropes had risk associated with it...one wicket could have meant the match was lost, as Morkel was not able to bat.
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Come on when du plessis was run out they only needed less than a run a ball. Sure India had the boundaries covered but there was a single on every ball; it wasn't as if India looked like they would take wickets. Morkel was padded up to bat if necessary - and both Philander and Steyn batted out a maiden over, They didn't know whether to stick or twist and bottled it!
 
I'm not sure mate...I think neither said wanted to lose the test match after 5 really hard fought days. That's the crux of it, and there was more to lose by risking it in a two match series, especially for the home side. They were probably hoping India would attack for the three wickets needed, and they could sneak some runs in the process. India were hoping they would attack more and throw away the wickets...neither side blinked in the end.

The Wanderers wicket has a reputation where teams lose wickets in a cluster. Even in that match... up untill Du Plesis wicket, i'm with you, SA should have been more aggressive, but it's also hard to say if they would have been successful...AB and du Plesis wickets were directly a result of them trying to up the tempo..

I'm not sure if Steyn and Philander could have poked around for runs and still be wicket-less. There is a reason why batsmen leave balls instead of playing all the balls. There were about three or four singles that were not taken, but other than that they would have had to take some risks to score. That is why i guess they took it to the last over without losing any more wickets.
 
kingjulian said:
I'm not sure mate...I think neither said wanted to lose the test match after 5 really hard fought days. That's the crux of it, and there was more to lose by risking it in a two match series, especially for the home side. They were probably hoping India would attack for the three wickets needed, and they could sneak some runs in the process. India were hoping they would attack more and throw away the wickets...neither side blinked in the end.

The Wanderers wicket has a reputation where teams lose wickets in a cluster. Even in that match... up untill Du Plesis wicket, i'm with you, SA should have been more aggressive, but it's also hard to say if they would have been successful...AB and du Plesis wickets were directly a result of them trying to up the tempo..

I'm not sure if Steyn and Philander could have poked around for runs and still be wicket-less. There is a reason why batsmen leave balls instead of playing all the balls. There were about three or four singles that were not taken, but other than that they would have had to take some risks to score. That is why i guess they took it to the last over without losing any more wickets.
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Those 3 or 4 singles not taken could have left them one strike away from winning the match! It just looked like they didn't know what to do. Dhoni was in defensive mode and the bowlers looked pretty inoccuos. One more wicket would be the time to shut up shop when they were so close to making history, with a last innings winning score so high it is unlikely to ever be beaten. Even as a neutral I was on the edge of my seat willing them on! Great test match with the advantage ebbing and flowing, looking forward to the next one more than the MCG!
 
tony said:
Those 3 or 4 singles not taken could have left them one strike away from winning the match! It just looked like they didn't know what to do. Dhoni was in defensive mode and the bowlers looked pretty inoccuos. One more wicket would be the time to shut up shop when they were so close to making history, with a last innings winning score so high it is unlikely to ever be beaten. Even as a neutral I was on the edge of my seat willing them on! Great test match with the advantage ebbing and flowing, looking forward to the next one more than the MCG!
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I'm not sure I agree mate.....Singles were offered to Philander but Steyn was getting bouncers that can't be called wide.....he had to hit it to get runs. That was the reason they didn't go for it....

Morkel lasted two balls in the first innings when he had two legs to stand on and Tahir lasted one......i'm not sure SA were willing to risk one more wicket to find out, after coming that close.

It's easy to score singles on the key board, but they were tail enders, and there is good reasoning behind a safety first approach. In worst case, the bowlers could resort to bowling negative lines....in Test cricket it is allowed.

Dhoni attacked for too long with Zaheer while not playing Shami for a long spell.....It was actually Dhoni's mistake that allowed the match to get this close. If he couldn't get a draw from that, he would be criticized very heavily....he got a bit lucky there in the end.
 
Hang on though as I recall Morkel was out trying to hit it out the park in the first innings, not save the game. He would have only had to bat an over out max . Sure they were bowling short and wide to Steyn but Philander was in and playing well ( not sure he would appreciate being catagorised as a tail ender! ) , surely he didn't need to block that over out, especially as there were runs on offer. Maybe Smith should have got a message out on the field, because the batsmen looked as if they needed some guidance. Anyway a flat end to a fantastic match, maybe us Brits pay too much kudos to a glorious failure;)
 
ha so piers morgan is giving an interview pitch side , saying how england are doing better today but giving out that this is his first visit to australia for the ashes and it's already over. Mid sentence Root is bowled out . Enjoy piers .
 
tony said:
Come on when du plessis was run out they only needed less than a run a ball. Sure India had the boundaries covered but there was a single on every ball; it wasn't as if India looked like they would take wickets. Morkel was padded up to bat if necessary - and both Philander and Steyn batted out a maiden over, They didn't know whether to stick or twist and bottled it!
Click to expand...

South Africa bottling it? who would of thought that?, ;)
 
Bottling it is harsh....but they were overly cautious given that Test cricket allows them the luxury of playing out a draw. The decision may have been driven by their history with bottling it previously. They took it to the last over and started having wild slogs and it didn't connect until they got a rank full-toss as the last ball when the match was already over.....that was their strategy all along, if you read what Smith, their coach etc have said since.
 
I managed to get my £10 on England just in time before England bowled their first ball. England were 6/1 to win the test.

When I got up this morning I found that the odds for the same bet would now be 4/5 on! :)
 
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