Tough Newlands wicket, but…

Can’t believe a one day specialist like Stubbs is now suddenly our test batting number 4 It’s insulting Stubbs failed to secure a spot in the short format of the game so how the fuck does this coach think he is now our answer in tests? Surely if you are taking the likes of van Tonder and de Swart to NZ as young bats then give them a go against India in the absence of Bavuma Is this not obvious?

Test over in less than two days - what a fuck up test cricket has become Is this state of affairs meant to be progression? Gone are the days players dig in and fight it out building an innings Instead you see stupid shots like the ones I saw Beddingham and Verreynne trying to execute along with all the other rash dismissals I did not bother watching The fact that there has been a shift in how test cricket is played thanks to the boring T20 shit that gets shoved down our throats coupled with how shit the Proteas side is these days, has me either not watching cricket in total or switching channels when I do decide to watch. For some time now our test side has been the worst I can recall. And by that I effectively mean our bats. We have a top 6 that don’t average much over 30, that are mostly made up of 30 or close year olds. There is just nothing to get excited about. I feel for our impressive attack having to endure such inferior batting team mates. No wonder KG at times seems to have lost his mojo. What’s the point of getting fired up only to have your bats let you down each time I bet KG wishes he was born 10 years earlier

Well Kohli showed one could bat on it as did Markram on day two We just have a piss poor bunch of bats

I had chat to Verreynne at the airport when I was in SA in March, it was at the time he had been dumped in favour of Klassen. He had been the only one that had come out of the previous series with some credit and then got inexcusably dropped. But yeah he like the rest have failed Rassie has always been a complete failure in the true format of the game. His poor technique has always been exposed at test level and he is now too old. He turns 35 next month and in my books always been substandard

Kinda think these two would know better than the armchair critics.....

South Africa were surprised by the pace of the Newlands pitch on the first day of the New Year's Test but both stand-in captain Dean Elgar and batting consultant Ashwell Prince stopped short of out-and-out criticism of the surface.

"It (The pitch) generally plays a little bit slower and as a batter you can adjust to that. This one just seemed to get quicker as the session went on," Elgar told Star Sports in his post-match interview.

Prince, who spent the bulk of his career with Cape Town as his base, was more strident in his observations and claimed he had "never seen a Newlands pitch like this before," because in addition to the way the ball accelerated off the surface, there was also variable bounce and seam movement. "I've never seen the pitch that quick on day one," Prince said at the post-match press conference. "I don't think as batters you mind the pace in the wicket but then you need the bounce to be consistent. The bounce was a little bit inconsistent with some keeping low and some bouncing quite steeply. There's also the seam movement, which you don't mind on day one but if you have the seam movement with consistent bounce, then it's a different situation."

The bounce was also notably different at either end. With bowlers operating from the Wynberg End - where Mohammed Siraj took his first innings six-fer - the bounce was up and down, while at the Kelvin Grove End - where Lungi Ngidi took three wickets in an over - some deliveries reared up. "There was a lot steeper bounce that way," Elgar said, pointing to the crease he would have been standing at with Ngidi bowling to him. "And that side, it was a little bit lower. So I don't know what to make of it."

Having played 19 first-class matches at Newlands, including one earlier this season, Elgar came into the match confident he would know what to make of the surface, even though its mottled look was different to its usual even-tone.

"From the naked eye it actually didn't look too bad," he said. "The wickets of the past, even domestically, haven't played at all badly. They've actually been quite good. It didn't look horrible."

Still, he expected it to retain its bat-first quality and decided to stick to that but knowing this wicket was going to play like that, "I would not have chosen it," he said.

Prince also backed the bat-first decision at the toss. "If we had arrived here today with overcast conditions, then perhaps (we would have bowled). But we arrived here with blue skies and even though there was a tinge on the surface, I don't think our batters are ever bothered when there is a bit of bounce on the pitch as long as the bounce is consistent and the movement is consistent."

The bounce was also notably different at either end. With bowlers operating from the Wynberg End - where Mohammed Siraj took his first innings six-fer - the bounce was up and down, while at the Kelvin Grove End - where Lungi Ngidi took three wickets in an over - some deliveries reared up. "There was a lot steeper bounce that way," Elgar said, pointing to the crease he would have been standing at with Ngidi bowling to him. "And that side, it was a little bit lower. So I don't know what to make of it."

Having played 19 first-class matches at Newlands, including one earlier this season, Elgar came into the match confident he would know what to make of the surface, even though its mottled look was different to its usual even-tone.

"From the naked eye it actually didn't look too bad," he said. "The wickets of the past, even domestically, haven't played at all badly. They've actually been quite good. It didn't look horrible."

Still, he expected it to retain its bat-first quality and decided to stick to that but knowing this wicket was going to play like that, "I would not have chosen it," he said.

Prince also backed the bat-first decision at the toss. "If we had arrived here today with overcast conditions, then perhaps (we would have bowled). But we arrived here with blue skies and even though there was a tinge on the surface, I don't think our batters are ever bothered when there is a bit of bounce on the pitch as long as the bounce is consistent and the movement is consistent."
Asked if he would rate the pitch poorly, Prince also chose his words carefully. "One team can get bowled out. I remember a Test in India, where they had a formidable batting line-up, and we bowled them out before lunch on day one. If you give a top-quality attack, bowler-friendly conditions then they can do some serious damage," he said. "To sum things up, if both line-ups can't bat on the surface, that says a lot."