Pakistan tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa

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It's quietly exciting seeing South Africa build again. It reminds me of England in the early 2000s. Hopefully it helps revive test cricket there after the farce we had not long back in NZ. We often hear that cricket needs a strong Windies but my word we need a strong South Africa as well.

I cannot believe I am saying I miss Mark Nicholas on the broadcast. Apparently Star Sports had him for the BGT.
 
It's quietly exciting seeing South Africa build again. It reminds me of England in the early 2000s. Hopefully it helps revive test cricket there after the farce we had not long back in NZ. We often hear that cricket needs a strong Windies but my word we need a strong South Africa as well.

I cannot believe I am saying I miss Mark Nicholas on the broadcast. Apparently Star Sports had him for the BGT.
And ff they can get Nortje back on the park they'll have one of the world's best fast bowling attacks come the WTC final
 
And ff they can get Nortje back on the park they'll have one of the world's best fast bowling attacks come the WTC final
Nortje one of my favourite bowlers of recent times. Such aggression. Just reading he has opted out of a red-ball contract but hope he has a few more tests in him when he recovers from his broken toe. One of the quickest around at top pace.
 

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This test has revived the discussion around substitutes as Pakistan are effectively down to 10 with Saim Ayub's injury. Would be tough to police in areas where a fast bowler in particular goes into a game with a niggle that would then become undisclosed where possible. The case in point in this test would be a pretty straightforward one. I recall the supersub rule and we have something similar now in GCA 4 where you name 12 but 11 bat and 11 bowl. One is tempted to say as long as the AFL are nowhere near it, it might operate effectively and not be exploited by the coaches.
 
Graeme Smith has a higher Test strike rate than Hashim Amla. I didn't expect to write those words.

Smith was ugly as s**t but was always a pretty positive proactive sort of batsman.

Amla scored more than half his runs in boundaries (mind you so did smith) so probably always felt like he was scoring quicker than he was - and looked so bloody good doing it: still surprising that his strike rate was not somewhere around 55 though
 

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South Africa enforcing the follow on brings about an obligatory Calcutta 2001 reference from Shaun Pollock on commentary.

I can't see this backfiring on South Africa the way it backfired on Australia back then, I doubt they will even need to bat again.
 
Enforcing the follow-on rarely works on a flat track. SA should not lose this test but had they put on another 200 before stumps, and Pakistan would have to have batted for the rest of the test to stave off defeat.
 
Enforcing the follow-on rarely works on a flat track. SA should not lose this test but had they put on another 200 before stumps, and Pakistan would have to have batted for the rest of the test to stave off defeat.


Looking at their selections - debuting Maphaka for example and dropping Bosch immediately after he was almost man of the match and Patterson also was almost man of the match dropping him as well: that looks a lot like a team experimenting before the WTC final and just seeing what they have. Getting Mulder back in the side, Maharaj back.

Probably a silly decision to bowl again given how flat it is but given how little they’ve had to toil so far this summer it probably won’t hurt them too much.
 

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Pakistan tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa

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