Bowling or the pitch?

Johnson was never as fearsome as he was last week....nor is he as toothless at he appears now in PE. The pitch gives and the pitch takes away.

No pitch could have suited Johnson more than the one in the first test. It was fast, and it had variable bounce. Morkel had figured out how to use it just before the Aussies declared in the second innings...but the hyper aggressive Johnson used it from the beginning. Face it, he was bowling at the head. Most fast bowlers would have few qualms these days...but going back at McLaren's head after the fearful blow he took, was a bit over the top. 

No doubt Johnson will be a factor again in the series, but he will be seen in better context now.

Mozart

A good bowler at least bowl accurately on any pitch - he does not need to spray balls all over the show.   Johnson was really wild at times and for example in three overs bowled by him the batter only had to play at 2 balls - the rest was so wild that it seems he only wanted to keep runs scored against him down.

The pitch last week had very little to do with the situation.   The batting of the openers were non-existent and Amla being out of form exposed the middle order twice.   Reasonably good bowling can show results in such cases,   I call it a very poor batting effort by SA - more so than the bowling being too good for them.

Smith started the rot again today and the out-of-form Amla followed suit.   Then the whole bowling effort went to smithereens so why blame the pitch for a very poor bowling effort?       

 Rooinek

He was not good in the context within which I wrote that comment.  I think he lost his cool and started spraying balls - which is a problem.  

Mozart

It is 41/3 - Warner hitting out at every ball - dangerous practice - but he scored mosy of the runs.  Is the pitch really that bad for  bowling?    

Beeno

If your opening batters are SHIT POOR like ours were ALL teams will be under pressure and that is exactly what happened in the case of the first test.   The situation is that our batters lost the plot after Smith, Petersen and Amla went out early.  

In any event the test was buggered up from word go by a clueless caprain who won the toss and decided we must bowl first and give the Aussies the wonderful opportunity to bat while the pitch was at its best for batting..

That being the case - we were bound to lose the test.   The pitch was good for batting when Smith and Petersen started batting in the first innings and that remains the truth.

Smith is a jeopardy for the team.   He has now batted in four innings - with an average of 9 runs per innings.   Pietersen made 3 runs in two innings in the first test.  

You can blame the pitch till the cows come home - I blame a failed opening batters pair.  

Mozart

You have seen the plot - and still buggered up badly because of prejudice and failed thinking on issues relating to  both rugby and cricket.  Your assessment of situations are diabolical - to say the least.