Here come the anti-Ntini people. Pity you can't be anti-Boucher too, as he scored 89 yesterday. You weren't saying that when we had Ntini to thank for the Aussies being 15/3, were you?

Soooo close to the king pair for Ponting. The Aussies have had quite a bit of luck in this game, except for Bollinger. Dropped catches, freak runouts, lots of edges, etc. But they'll win it because they know that they need to attack, and without Smith we probably won't be able to chase more than 180. Great toss to win.

All this talk about the pitch, I think it's very good to have a tough pitch like this, but the balance is wrong ; too much weight is given to the toss. There was virtually no grass on the pitch on the first day and it was very flat for the first 2 days, and then broke up. Surely for balance between both teams, you need for batting to be tough(er) at the beginning as well? Anyway, I hope the Aussies bat very quickly and set us 400 so that Smith doesn't get it into his head to come out and bat. As long as Ponting and Hayden get low scores I'm happy. I don't want to see Hayden in SA.

Game over, let's all go home boys. Well played, Aussies.

Welcome back, Pom. I'm not too sure about this test (the wicket looks dangerous compared to the other :x).. if we lose, tough, but I don't want Smith coming out and doing more damange to himself. He's proven himself enough.

JP Duminy, bowling average : 14, batting average : 108. Eat that, Grace. Haha.

Nah, Penny, I added a disparaging comment on Clarke, whom I said would be the leading run-scorer this series, but Ed kindly removed it. Smith will probably come out again and do himelf no end of damage.. I hope not, a dead rubber isn't worth it. We can claim #1 when the Aussies come to us...

I hate it when I'm right.

Well, I can't remember the last time Amla or Kallis put down a chance, so the Aussies can count themselves very lucky so far!

Picture this : SA win 0-3, Ponting resigns from the captaincy. Smith the captain-slayer.. wait a minute, haven't I said this before? =)

Graeme you useless 'tosser'! Haha. Game on folks.

I just realised something : we are Rugby world champions and unofficial Cricket world champions. Good thing we don't have the fabled Aussie sporting gene =)

My cold, hard facts contained in my spreadsheets say that the West Indies are the best one-day side and that Bangladesh is the best Test team. You can't argue with cold hard facts! =)

Yes, Penny, I am. Thanks =)

Well, it would be easy to go off on a rant, but I'll try and keep it simple for each person : @Tuesday, Smith has 293 runs in the series, 60 ahead of #2 (Ponting), at an average of 73. His captaincy has been exemplary, and for a good example look at his field placings, like the Hayden and Clarke wickets in the 2nd innings. @Penny, I seem to remember telling you "I can't wait 'til we can shut you up on the field". Where are your rejoinders now? @Pom, Steyn only gets tailenders, that's perfectly clear. @Arrogant, where are you man? I'd like a pearl or two from you re Aussie dominance. Anyway, by far the best Test series I have ever seen. Off home tomorrow! Later all.

You fickle Saffers. Fair play to the Aussies, who dominated today. With regards to the Hauritz dismissal, well, I still feel that the batsman should get the benefit of the doubt with calls like that, but at least Smith didn't do a Ponting and go crazy. Mac is having one of his worst games in a while (cue people wanting to drop him) ; take it easy folks! Oh, and Siddle is still a pie thrower, even if his pies are going a bit faster.. how many Saffer batsmen got out to good balls? Mac and AB were out to decent balls, so did Morkel. Smith, Amla, Kallis and Boucher can all feel a bit silly right now. That being said, we were 6/141.. the Aussies got 115 runs from being 6/280, so let's see if we can match that. If we can concede less than a 150 run lead we're not out of it, and less than 100 and we can still win it. We shall see. The pitch looks good still, though swing is alot more abundant. Smithers better win the toss at the SCG.

The MCG is HUGE. =o if any of you have been to Ellis Park or King's Park, it's just about double the size. I felt intimidated myself.. the players on the field must feel like ants. Incredible atmosphere. Anyway, I won't go into Ponting's drop (cue all Saffers in the stadium pulling clumps of hair out), but I'd like to focus on a bit of captaincy ; Morkel was bowling horribly in his first spell, and you could see Boucher and Smith encourage him non stop. At the end of his 3rd over, Smith goes up to him and says "It's all because of the end, so my fault mate. We'll switch ends, all you have to do is keep bowling like you are!" They switched ends, and Morkel concededes 8 runs in 3 overs with a ball going very very close to the off stump. And then Steyn being brought back for the last overs before tea with a word of advice from the captain. Cue Steyn producing a Steyn special that rips any right-hander in half and then the grassed catch with Ponting scared witless. Either way, if Steyn can maintain his fire tomorrow the tail should be alot less of a problem than it was in Perth, and that pitch will only get easier to bat on until the end of day 3. Mac had better score a big one. Cyas folks. PS. I love how optimistic Karma is ^^

Khiladi (and Karma), it's Stuart Clark with no 'e', Clarke is the batsman. And Clark is out until at the very least the return series in SA, he got operated on his shouldor or something last week.

Likewise, Penny and the rest. In Melbourne and all is well, 2 more sleeps... . Predictions? I won't say anything other than Steyn will cause problems.

Seriously, Michael Prawn? Why not recall Alec Stewart and Michael Atherton? Boycott was also a decent bat in his day.. let's redo the English team, shall we? 1/ Len Hutton (he's retired apparently but he can't have lost it all, surely? At least he should be able to get past 60, unlike some..) 2/ Mickey Atherton 3/ Michael Prawn 4/ KP (captain, innit?) 5/ Goeff Boycott (he probably would want to open but his running isn't what it used to be) 6/ Sir Frian Bothoff (greatest Englishman alive and all that) 7/ Alec Stewart 8/ Simon Jones (I was tempted to put in Saj Mahmood but parody can only go so far) 9/ Angus Fraser 10/ James Hoggmison 11/ Phil Tufnell. How does that sound, eh David? Definately regain the Ashes, that side could. I suppose if the Poms bring players out of retirement, the Aussies can too.. that old Donald chap caused them a couple of problems last time. We'll get Hutton to suck on some mints to help Jones reverse swing it down the leg side all series.. how does that sound? The Poms should win no problems. Poor delusional bleeders. Bell sucks but at least he doesn't pack up when the ball swings 1 mm either way.

Hilfenhaus < Siddle and Hauritz < Krezja with the bat (and most likely ball too from what I've seen), which is fine by me.. although something tells me that the swing Steyn will get at the MCG will be fatal to most, especially the lower order. The Aussies hate the moving ball. I think they'd do well to call up Watson, but I'm not certain that their batting depth can take the hit of losing Krezja and Symonds in one go ; Watson averages 44 in FC cricket but only 18 from 8 Tests, whereas Symonds is a proven Test batsman. Watson certainly can bowl, though, and I think the Aussies suffered from having only 4 bowlers.. even the strongest get tired after 30 overs like Johnson bowled in the 4th innings. Kallis' bowling is so underrated. The Aussies are looking for a "holding" spinner! Fancy that. Who would have thought that we would see the day when South Africa has the better spinner?

I was looking at Micheal Hussey's innings lists, and it's only the second time in 32 Test matches that he has failed to pass 30 at least in one innings in the match when he got 0 and 8 at the WACA. That's scary. His Test average is down to a "lowly" 61 ; his ODI average is still freakish though, lots of not outs like Bevan.

Thanks to Pom's wife for his little message =) as for the "sneaky sledger", well these Aussies are certainly very quiet in comparison with the last Aussie team I saw, but as in most cricket everyone has a bit of a go at everyone. Lee said to Mac in the second innings, when Mac was struggling through all sorts of appeals every 2nd ball "Doesn't look like you'll be staying here much longer, mate, 'cause you can't even see the ball". Mac cut him over gully 3 balls later for 4, and says "Good thing you bowl so slowly then, Binga". Even Lee sledges! But it's all in good nature.. The Aussies calling Harris a "sneaky sledger" is like the Saffers saying that Warne couldn't bowl. I definately wouldn't be surprised if Symonds is targeted specially because of his temper.

Sorry to hear that, Dazz, keep strong.

Thanks for the good wishes, folks, but for me it does not end here. I'm off to Melbourne on Tuesday =) Anyway, in this test at least the traditional roles between South Africa and Australia have been reversed, don't you think? Usually South Africa has the tail that wags (Pollock/Symcox/Kluesener/Hall and so on), only one bowler that has any success (Johnson averaged 14 in this test, and all the other aussie bowlers averaged over 100!), and a team effort from Australia gets them over the line. Well, this time it was completely the opposite. Duminy, as I have said before, has a huge future, as does this test team, which is very young and can still improve a long way. This win is a tribute to the Captain. Either way, to all you Saffers going crazy, we have a series to win, so take it easy. Oh, and McGrath and Ian Chappel must be feeling like right twunts right about now =)

=)

Good thing our Captain is fat, can't bat, can't captain and can't lead by example, hey Tuesday? I loved the Kallis vs Siddle, though ; Siddle thought he would give a bit of mouth to the greatest Saffer batsman since Graeme Pollock. Ponting ran over straight away to shut him up.. too late! Bosh, bosh, bosh. The Aussie attack is decent, but the track seems to remain true, and I have a funny feeling that the Aussies will be missing a certain blond and tubby victorian tomorrow. Oh, remember Graeme Smith's average in the 4th innings, and Smith is number 4 on the highest run-scorers of all time in a calendar year, 25 runs behind a certain Ricky Ponting who had played 5 innings more than Smith has so far. He is also the 15th fastest ever to 6000 test runs, 2 innings behind Hayden and Lara and 3 behind Dravid and Ponting. Keep sucking on them eggs, Tuesday.

Penny, I came here primarily to watch my team play the best side in the world. So far we're making a decent fist of it, too.

"Saman must be disappointed to spend all his money to go over and see his team not stand up yet again in the key moments." Actually no, Tuesday, I said I was proud to wear my Protea shirt and always will be =) It's a great priviledge to be here and I wouldn't change that even if we got beaten by an innings and 530 runs. Thank goodness all the Aussie women I've met here aren't like you, though. I was beginning to feel sorry for Penny and Arrogant. I'm off for Brekkies, later folks!

Meh, we haven't managed to drive home any semblance of an advantage in this match.. but that's what playing Australia is all about. The difference between the two teams so far has been Johnson's spell yesterday ; we need to shoot them out tomorrow and then something special from the Captain. The 60 odd runs from Krezja and Haddin will prove too much, especially if they add to that score. 250 was gettable, 300 was gettable at a pinch with a special innings, 350 will require a Smith and/or Kallis masterclass, and 400+ might be simply too much psychologically. I'm enjoying the good cricket, though ; good contest. I am by no means ashamed to wear my Protea shirt ; go South Africa! =) (Oh, and funny how when we are on the back foot in a game 135246346 saffers pop up demanding the head of the same players again and again? Ntini is the leading Saffer wicket-taker for this test, getting Ponting/Hayden/Hussey/Haddin.. and you want him to be dropped for an untried and very young swing bowler? Are you insane?! Ntini is our only front-line bowler with experience here, and if we are to make any progress on this stupid continent we NEED him and his experience just as much as we need Kallis and Boucher. Sheesh.)

5-2-5-5. Awe-inspiring. Must be great for the neutral to watch.. I was pulling my hair out. 234/3, we were cruising. Great bowling from Johnson! Now, at long last after 2 years facing sub-standard teams (and India), we will see what South Africa can do. Series-defining day tomorrow, so don't miss it. At least Kallis pulled out of his slump somewhat =) And how good is Amla? Flair, poise, balance.. . The exaggeration on the flick past midwicket was reminiscent of a couple of players, and everyone was talking about Tendulkar. I'm thinking a certain VVS Laxman. Poor Ponting must be scared ^^

Damn! I see what Steyn meant about gearing up the good speeds against the best team. I've been to see a good few games, but I've never seen a bowler like Steyn bowl on a wicket like the WACA. The bounce and carry was amazing, I honestly don't know how the batsmen managed. That man is FAST. Anyway, excellent innings from Katich. I don't like him much, but I've got to admit that he's in great touch ; excellent innings. Clarke played well ; Smith missed a trick by not bowling Morkel enough. Good to see Harris bowling like he was in Pakistan, looked excellent, very tight with the odd bit of bite. Oh, and I got Steyn's autograph! =D If anyone else is at the WACA, I'll be on the grass banks square of the wicket tomorrow under a mexican hat ^^

Tatenda, welcome. When you say : "Im still sure that india would not win in england where the wickets have more bounce", please remind us what happened last time India played Test cricket in England? It was recent, too.

Interesting stat : 4th innings batting averages. Tendulkar averages 36, , Hussey 50, Ponting 53, Chanderpaul 50.6, Dravid 44, Kallis 44. Openers : Sehwag 30, Hayden 49.5, Trescothick 29.5. Legends : Steve Waugh 25 (!), Gary Kirsten 38.6, Lara 52, Mark Taylor 40, Gooch 51.8, Inzamam 37, Richards 47, Richardson 38, Thorpe 44, Hooper 53, Greg Chappell 49, Gilchrist 35, Sangakkara 33. Older legends : Compton 26, Sutcliffe 53, Hammond 46, Hutton 45, Jardine 20, Harvey 40, Morris 45, Hendren 30, Hassett 42 (granted, these players played on uncovered wickets with smaller bats and whatnot)... Graeme Smith averages 53.68 in the 4th innings. Bradman (73), Sunny Gavaskar (58), Graeme Pollock (147 from 3 innings with 2 not outs), Jack Hobbs (57), McCabe (66) and Boycott (58) averaged more(yes, I was bored).

Absolutely brilliant. Lovely way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for KP, but you can't really argue with the Little Master's brilliance, and well done to Yuvi who will have extended his run in the team with that. Flintoff was by far the best English bowler on show, Monty was transparent (overrated?), and Prior is decent but not the answer. Excellently scripted event, after what happened in Mumbai, the national hero brings victory to India. Oh, the emotion. Excellent stuff.

Lol @ Pooch. Well, Tuesday, where are your famously solid Aussies? I must say, it's definately advantage SA in the bowling stakes now with Clark out.. definately the best today with Steyn. It's a pity, I would have preferred full strength teams on both sides. Anyway, how good is Sehwag? And great stuff from Strauss, twin centuries. But the performance of the day in my opinion is Jerome Taylor.. the man's previous highest first class score was 40! Hitting a run-a-ball century is great, especially against some decent NZ bowling. We're in for a great last day in Chennai, though.

Fail, Penny.

"Say, it's only right that we get in there now with a predicition of our own: Smith's posse to edge the series opener by a whisker. That's all we are saying for now." Well, Ed, judging by what I saw today, all three outcomes are possible. Much rides on the first day, as it will most likely go a long way to deciding the game and possibly the series. The Aussies have a great team on paper, but the batting is slightly out of nick ; the Saffer attack will match and possibly better the Aussie one, but the batsmen are mostly not in the same class just yet. They are, however, in great form. We need to believe we can win and seize any chances with both hands!

I didn't see much of the India-England play today, but by the looks of it the Poms are putting up one helluva fight. Well played Strauss, making the most of things. Second time this year that Colly gets runs in the second innings of a match to drive home an advantage.. lol @ "intelligent" KP for becoming Yuvraj's fifth Test wicket to a nondescript arm ball. It's okay, Smith also got out to Yuvraj once, but he got 69 runs first =)

I'm happy for you, Pom =)

"more cerebal types such as KP" .. oh my word, even by your standards, that was hilarious! Go Tuesday!

Go England go.. 102/5, Dhoni and Yuvi are going to counter-attack here. If that goes wrong, England have a great shot at winning this.

Tuesday - I am back home now (and glad for it, because the French administration is just about as bad as the Saffer one). The Perth pitch used for the game today was quick, but there was some uneven bounce and there was some good late swing which the bowlers used at pace. Mac played all around a ball that pitched on middle and hit the top of off, à la Dale Steyn to Michael Vaughan. I didn't think the Kookaburras swang so much.

Money on Swann getting Tendulkar? How many times has Tendulkar gotten out to a debutant? Isn't that some kind of record?

@Arrogant, you are of course right, but the presumption of innocence only comes into play when accused. I didn't accuse anyone.. I just said that we would be naive to think that cricket, like most sports, is truly 100% clean. If an Indian bookie came out and accused, say, Gilly or Flintoff of max fixing, we would all leap to the player's defence ie "he would never do that!" We did that for Cronje, who was arguably the most respected test captain SA have had since Bacher before his downfall. It's not unfeasable, that is what I'm trying to say.

I moved to France at 13, passed the Baccalauréat (Matric) at 15, pre law and law in France, and I passed the SA bar 4 months ago =) Anyway, I really am not interested if you believe me or not, it doesn't really matter. Well batted AB de Villiers, and the ball to get Smith was a proper corker. I understand Coetzee is a Saffer anyway, so understandable =) I can't wait to see Steyn and co go berserk on that surface.

Tuesday - no chance in heck =) my homeland is the single most peaceful and beautiful land on earth. It has problems, but we're working to fix them. Why would I leave it? As for Arrogant, well, Cronje and cronies were guilty, no doubt about it. I do, however, agree with whoever said that corruption is (was?) rife in the sport and that no player can be without suspicion. Such a phenomenon goes above national divides - most cricket boards have taken steps to protecte their players from disgrace. The PCB (Asif/Shoaib are the most recent examples), the BCCI (Harbajhan), the WICB, CSA (think Cronje before admissions), CA (think diet pills and weather), etc etc etc. I am not delusional enough to think that Cronje and co were the only ones who have ever or will ever do such a thing. I guess you're not guilty until you get caught (coming from a prosecution lawyer.. my boss would kill me lol). It is, however, unlikely that players today would indulge in such practices, especially when you look at the morality prevalent in today's game. But then, before Cronje decided to come out with it, we all defended him like no tomorrow. I will say that it is unlikely that any aussies have been recently involved in match fixing simply because they just don't lose very often, and the mentality instilled by Taylor is still present within the team. Nothing really surprises me anymore, though. On a side note, hey Tuesday.. you heard about the Short One's "career-threatening" injury? It really would be an awful pity if he cannot go on and get all those records he dreams about nightly.

I'm wondering if Tuesday even expects people to respond to her bollocks. Anyway, looking great here in Perth, sun is shining and the place is great. Good banter all round, and I'm enjoying myself (especially since the girlfriend finally decided to stay home!). A bit of a heart-in-mouth moment when Morkel looked like he'd broken something, but all is good. If Harris isn't fit for the first test, I've written to Micky telling him that I'm a decent LBG, and if they want to pick me then I'd be more than happy to help out! Can't be much worse than what Pieterson throws up. Vosges eyes lit up like an xmas tree every time he came in to bowl.. mostly short and wide with no turn whatsoever. If there were fielding restrictions in place, Pieterson would have gone for 100+ from his 10 overs. Hell, Yuvraj Singh looks like Shane Warne next to him. Sigh.

Well, folks, I'm off to Perth tomorrow with the girlfriend in tow (she hates cricket, so she's got a car, a camera and money to spend 5 days with). Things don't change much around here, I see.. Karma still warbling on and Tuesday still got a bad case of foot-in-mouth (sorry ArrogantOz, the expression fits ^^). Predictions? I'd say 1-1 in Aussieland. If Robin Pieterson plays we'll have less chance, though. Any neutrals up for a prediction? I'll make a few bold ones : Michael Clarke for Man of the Series, Ntini to head the wicket taking stakes and Kallis to find some form at last.

Shaun Marsh, opening in a test? Roflmao.

Exactly. Freddie here in England is treated like god in cricket circles. These Britons are crazy.

Ryan Sidebottom is a cert and, if there is any justice, will soon be made Prime Minister and Knighted. .. lol good call

Amen.

Well, for keepers I rate McCullum high and Dhoni higher than AB at the moment.. but I think AB needs a few years at the top to settle in before he can start producing the goods. He'll never be a Boucher behind the stumps, but he'll be adequate and he is a great batsman. Remind you of anyone?

Interesting reading, good call guys

Boycott to mate with Kallis.. lol

Good writing.

And I'd like to know why Mr Tickner is obsessed with Jesse Ryder.. and to think I thought the 'unkle' was a clever and witty reference to the band Unkle when you were talking about the Arctic Monkeys. Disillusionment.

Not bad, Mr Tickner. But what happened to all those comments about antipodean spies and whatnot? No more predictions? Aww, come on, you had me waiting!

LOL I knew there had to be a comment about Ryder in here somewhere. What does old Tickner think now about him, and the Black Cap's inability to win?

Personally, first up I think that transformation at national level is a bit silly if you don't start at the bottom, getting everyone (blacks, whites, yellows, greens, ..) playing the sport they love with equal opportunities or as close as you can get to them. Then you will see a gradual, "natural" transformation. South Africa is 80% black. If you start at grass roots level, more and more black players will come through the system as they have been doing so now without help from corrupt and power hungry politicians : Ntini, Gibbs, Adams, Amla, Prince.. would you consider these players to be "quota" players? If I was black/yellow/green playing in SA today, I would be downright ASHAMED to be considered as a quota player. You're there not because of ability, you're there because you're black/yellow/green. I'll take the example of France's football team : out of a squad of 17, 13 are black. France is 90% white. Okay, you get the backdrop of apartheid and racism.. but we can't keep using that as an excuse. The best players in a country should represent that country, whether they be black, white, yellow or green. I do not care. If we had a world cup-winning squad in which there was no white player, it would be perfectly fine with me, as long as the Protea for cricket and the Springbok for rugby is flying high. I am proud of the rainbow nation.. I am not proud of the policies of politicians wanting to install nominal quotas at the highest level.. they break more players than they make. Would you fancy being called a quota player?

Someone send this to Tickner so he can see how it's done please.. good article, especially the immortal KP bit.

Great article, well thought out, interesting viewpoints, funny remarks. Not. So much for blogging. I guess the standard of C365 in general is so high that when you see something of this sort, you can't help but compare.

Australia would have been 136 for 7 with Brett Lee as their only recognised batsman left in the first innings had Bucknor or Benson brought their hearing aides (I forget which.. but then again they both had shockers.). Then they would have lost a few more extra wickets in their second innings, and India's top order would have been allowed to bat. But then again, they wouldn't have needed to. 180 would have been a good score for Australia in their 1st innings, India 532. That's a 352 deficit. Ponting got an extra couple of runs and so did a few others, but never mind. 401 in the second innings would have left India with a mere 49 to get, and this with an entire top order at their disposal! Wow! Ponting would not have declared, but he would have still lost comfortably. What happened to neutrality in journalism?

"South Africa, with one world-class batsman and no world-class bowlers are not among them. " Is Tuesday writing articles for C365 now as well?