Crcket item

One good score followed by 2 disasters.   He made only 7 runs from 18 balls while De Kock made 34 from 33 balls.  
Amla must be careful - he is going the Graeme Smith way.

Do you have any other cricket thoughts Oompie, I mean other than de Kock and his opening partner?

 Sure - but since you dislike De Kock and adore Amla you are always in the wrong.  

Adore is not a standard sporting emotion Oompie, oops there goes Quinty.

And once again, when we need Miller to fire, he flops.

 Seems to be a good total on that pitch...NZ struggling a bit at 48/4 after 16 overs.  Go boys!

 It was an outstanding performance by the bowlers...top shelf. After the retirement of Klusener we struggled for a quality Allrounder down the order, now there is two, Dwayne and Andile. The former had outstanding bowling figures and Andile also put in a much better effort. Apparently AB had a word with the bowlers at the break, whatever he said should be bottled for future use down the track. Also interesting that the Kiwi Captain thought his bowlers had done a great job until in hindsight he saw how good the Proteas bowled.All the batsmen struggled with the wicket with the exception of AB and Quinton but the task for the Kiwi batsmen was made a lot harder with the good line and length of the Protea attack. The attack was bound to suffer a step back after the departure of the highly accurate Kyle Abbott and the absence of Philander but thankfully that experience is now behind the team.

I think the bowling was outstanding.   I think Pretorius was 3 wickets for 5 runs -  which is somewhere near the top of international matches.    

I think the bowling was outstanding.   I think Pretorius was 3 wickets for 5 runs -  which is somewhere near the top of international matches.    

 Dwaine Pretorius has been my tour hilite ..... lovely surprise, never heard of the fella, who I read has aspirations to play Test cricket as an allrounder .

 He dries up the runs, which in turn creates pressure, pressure in turn creates wickets....we've never had someone like him, not sure if can go to another level again but today he was almost perfect. On a certain type of wicket he could be a batsmen's worst nightmare.

As the Aussies say, ' go you good thing, go '

In the limited over one day game of cricket today it is important to get a good start and score runs early.
Failing to get a good start from the openers places an enormous burden on the rest of the batsmen. This is evident when u see guys like Miller, AB etc having to swing at everything in an attempt to add runs because some of the batsmen ahead of them have failed to deliver.
The one day game of today is attractive to spectators because it produces a result and is aggressive as opposed to the 5-day test games that in many instances produce no result and are boring to watch in most if not all cricket test series.
Kerry Packer with the support of folks like Barry Richards and Tony Greig understood the need for change in the game and threw cricket a lifeline by introducing the limited over game.
Bravo guys and thanks.

 Good point. Imagine cricket without the various short form games today. They enabled a world cup contest.

Nothing in cricket more exciting than the T20 WC.

 Test cricket will always reign supreme as real cricket and a true contest whereas the shorter versions of the game are more to the taste of those who want to be entertained by the abbreviated formats. Shorter versions of the game can be compared to shorter versions in other sports eg Rugby(7's) and Chess(Blitz).No-one is saying the longer format of Rugby is dying. Interestingly enough the players love and respect the longer format more than the shorter format and there are still pockets of interest from the public in a variety of venues across the world..eg Newlands, several Ozzie stadiums, England etc.
Test cricket will continue to exist side by side with the shorter versions as long as the players and purists love it.