to be had from the taste of real cricket one can only take so much from white ball cricket especially T20. And what a wonderful surprise to see a packed house in attendance at Centurion with an attack to do us proud. Hats off to the Protea coach who made the brave decision to leave out Maharaj who in my not so humble opinion is a world class spin bowler. We'll only know in hindsight whether the correct decision was made but say what a quartet of genuine pace. Take into consideration the fact that both Lyer and Kohli were dropped at 4 runs a piece to underscore the potency of the Protea attack. But then there's a scribe who thinks that the attack was wayward in parts and I agree. Nice to know there's improvement to be had but while we ponder all that let's not forget there's also the mouth watering return of a fully fit Andrich Nortje to add to the mix. I guess if there's one thing lacking with regards to variety it's the lack of a swing bowler in the likes of a Dale Steyn or a Vernon Philander.....wouldn't it just be the perfect pace attack.

Here, an extract from an interesting summary......

"Arguably, those who turned up should have made more to cheer about. Apart from the two dropped catches, South Africa were not always consistent or threatening enough but before we criticise them too harshly, there's a reason for that. Before today, Jansen had only played 11 Tests and Coetzee, two. Burger was on debut. They are young players, who are still learning at this level and will need (and also won't have a great deal of) more game time to develop their disciplines. They are also not holding bowlers by nature - and we may yet question South Africa's decision to leave Keshav Maharaj out of their XI - which we need to remember. For now, the trio is in their international infancy and they have Rabada's full support. "They are magnificent bowlers," Rabada said. "And they are wicket-takers; they've proven it. They have an x-factor about them."

Just as an aside I think the SA Bowlers used yesteday ws effective and aside from Rabada Whie bowlers were sued in the main - the three attack bowlers doing best (Coetzee, Burger and Jansen) were in fact replacements of Black bowlers.   How the selection committee dealt with that inefficiency of some Black bowles represnets a change from what happened in the past.   Wonder how that was allowed?   Anyway I think it was a much-needed  improvement in the  bowling atatck of the team.        

Mike, as a favour can you translate y our post to engels?

What the heck is wrong with Kaptein Midget....is he injured once more plus what has Petersen done with the bat to be selected?

Not sure what is going on with selection of the team but they diffenetly strayed away for meeting the ANC mandate in sport.

Is that a light at the end of the Dark Tunnel or what?

Don't worry about the Midget, he's done, oh look they'll prop him up and he'll hang around like a blue-arsed fly but he's on his last legs it's just a matter of time. To be fair to Peterson, whence the last time he's played any sort of decent cricket? Ja??? Then ask yourself when is he next going to play test cricket? There's sweet nothing in the pipeline except for the NZ tour, test cricket as I've said is dead in SA. And BTW there's a 7/4 split in the run-on team.

Well not bothered about the mix even if 11 players other than whites took to the field.

But selecting the form players and the best available is my point.

We wasted years and years selecting certain pale players and overlooked many "PLAYER's" of quality due to politics.

Lets select the best not the rest has always been my view.

"Well not bothered about the mix even if 11 players other than whites took to the field"

"Lets select the best not the rest has always been my view"

I have said this myself many times on this forum....

I don't give a shit what the colour of your skin is.... if you are the best in whatever particular position, in whatever sport it be, you immediately get my vote.

Whilst some or many people might not believe this to be true, but I believe that if the Springbok or Cricket squad was completely full of just black players, and they were continually being very competitive or dominating every opponent that they play against..... they would enjoy the respect and support of the entire nation.....I truly do believe that.

It is this interspersed quota selection bullshit that makes even the very best black players question why they were picked, which is not doing any justice to them who put the sweat and tears into being the best..... it's shameful

Imagine really being the very best at what you do, but then second guessing why you were picked for national honours because of the colour of your skin..... and this is precisely what the black cricket players complained about before, and I 100% support them.