South Africa v India Dec 10, 2023- Jan 4, 2024 3 T20s 3 ODIs 2 Tests

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Good for Elgar, a nice average boost against extremely weak opposition after years of toil on spicy SA wickets.
 
Elgar on track for a 200 with good support from Jansen who is an underrated batsman despite looking as tall and ungainly as Bruce Reid,

His highest score is 199, would be a big moment in his second last Test.

Something refreshing about overseas Test cricket commentary, way more mature and insightful discussion compared to in Australia where the directive seems to be "you aren't a commentator, you're a wannabe comedian".
 

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Whats Bavumas injury?

I guess he did something in the warm up? but he batted behind Jansen yesterday, very confusing.
 

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Not because they are tying to fit the IPL in though.

No I understand that
I had this discussion with someone today though - as much as fans of both those teams will enjoy it, it’s not a necessary match: the two teams play each other in good sized series regularly as it is so a four match series would be fine, SA as much as they aren’t helping their own cause by promoting their domestic t20 comp, need more good quality test cricket at the moment so for the neutral fan at the very least I would much much prefer to see 4 tests India and England and 3 India vs SA than how it has turned out
 
I know as a Windies fan I always get the ‘cricket needs your team to be thriving’ comments and I understand them because in the short formats at least, we are always, when playing well, among the most 1-2 most watchable sides in the world. So I get that.

Test cricket to me NEEDS SA to be strong.

They have the most spectator friendly conditions for a start: fast bouncy pitches that to be fair, are more exciting generally than MOST of Australia’s, the Gabba and occasionally Perth being the exceptions. PE can be a bit bland sometimes but as a general rule they are the best viewing grounds in the world, and the stadia are a bit more picturesque to go with it.

They have the only fast bowling production line that matches Australia and realistically probably has exceeded it:
Donald, Pollock, Ntini, Steyn, Philander, Kallis, Rabada, Morkel might shade McGrath, Hughes, Gillespie, Lee, Johnson, Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood for 200+ wicket takers I’ve seen in my lifetime. Either way it is close. Given how revered Australia is during that 30 years, it’s incredible to think another team has maybe matched it (to be fair to Australia they’ve had the better of the next tier with bowlers like Kasper, Fleming, Bichel, Pattinson, Clark I think - SA has had Nel, McMillan who never took a five-fer, Ngidi and Jansen look like great prospects).

They have never had much of a spin cartel but that’s probably to be expected.

They’re the only team that’s taken it up to Australia with any regularity other than the recent Indian sides, they had a huge patch of overseas competitiveness - a decade worth - and from memory played some major parts in ending some English captaincy careers which is always nice.

They have had some of the toughest players I’ve seen - guys like Gary Kirsten and Grahame Smith are among the first players that come to mind when I think of the hardest cricketers I’ve seen since Border retired and like everyone who witnessed it, nothing will ever make me forget the roar of the crowd when Smith emerged to face peak Mitchell Johnson at the SCG in one last show of defiance 15 years ago to try and save a dead rubber in a series they’d already won.

Equally in players like De Villiers and Cullinan - who unfortunately is remembered for his ineptitude early against Warnie - and Amla, they have also had some of the most breathtaking batsmen of the modern game, as well as perhaps the most correct in Kallis, and in Kallis and Pollock they had two guys who in another era could have, if they wanted to, cut a formidable career in two completely different facets of the game to the ones for which they were most famous. I once read that Pollock out of every batsman around during the same era, had the style that most closely resembled Brian Lara’s, he was just very rarely called upon to use it in anything other than a rearguard or number 8 capacity.

They’ve done all this with far less interest pervading the format in their home country than what the big three have in theirs.

To me test cricket needs them to ‘keep the bastards honest’ as it were. Pakistan are logically the other side that should be well resourced enough to do it but a) they never play India and b) they are simply never good enough for long enough to make it happen
 
No I understand that
I had this discussion with someone today though - as much as fans of both those teams will enjoy it, it’s not a necessary match: the two teams play each other in good sized series regularly as it is so a four match series would be fine, SA as much as they aren’t helping their own cause by promoting their domestic t20 comp, need more good quality test cricket at the moment so for the neutral fan at the very least I would much much prefer to see 4 tests India and England and 3 India vs SA than how it has turned out
There was a recent change from 4 to 5 Test for the India v England, probably because it is one of the more profitable series that both teams can play. And if we where to consider Australia, India and England as the top three teams, boards would want to see more of these teams play each other.

As for this series, I think they could have forgone the ODI competent here seeing it's not relevant until 2025 and added a third test. There is also a South Africa A v India A First Class series at the moment that can be viewed here

I will give kudos to Cricket South Africa, making sure that the SA20 does feature all their internationals. A common critique that the BBL does receive from this board.
 
There was a recent change from 4 to 5 Test for the India v England, probably because it is one of the more profitable series that both teams can play. And if we where to consider Australia, India and England as the top three teams, boards would want to see more of these teams play each other.

As for this series, I think they could have forgone the ODI competent here seeing it's not relevant until 2025 and added a third test. There is also a South Africa A v India A First Class series at the moment that can be viewed here

I will give kudos to Cricket South Africa, making sure that the SA20 does feature all their internationals. A common critique that the BBL does receive from this board.
If we only played 2 Tests and then sent a 'C' grade team to play our Test series overseas, we could manage this. :drunk:

But Cricket South Africa probably have a lot more to lose financially if the SA20 is not a success right now from the get-go.
 
No I understand that
I had this discussion with someone today though - as much as fans of both those teams will enjoy it, it’s not a necessary match: the two teams play each other in good sized series regularly as it is so a four match series would be fine, SA as much as they aren’t helping their own cause by promoting their domestic t20 comp, need more good quality test cricket at the moment so for the neutral fan at the very least I would much much prefer to see 4 tests India and England and 3 India vs SA than how it has turned out
India & England have been playing 5 test series for a little while now...Both of them used to regularly play SA in 4 tests series until recently...SA seemed to have fallen into the mostly 2 tests series bracket with all the other nations...Agreed that it should be at least 3 tests...Every series should be that number as a minimum.

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Shame for Jansen. Stranded due to his captains injury, who'd have done anything to get out there to get him to his first ton.
Just too injured to help him.

Ashwin continues to be uninspiring outside the subcontinent.
 

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South Africa v India Dec 10, 2023- Jan 4, 2024 3 T20s 3 ODIs 2 Tests

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