Cricket: Australia lose to South Africa

[Flaming_Arrow]

W00T IM GOING ON SUNDAY

[kurrymuncher]

NOOOOOOOOOO Australia wins, with only 10 balls remaining. oh well, how about Smith, what a champion.

[vce01]

smith is a deadset legend

[NE2000]

omg that was so hardcore right at the end, when Australia celeberated and Smith just walks down, calm as you like, down onto the field. Couldn't help but smile and silently applaud that guy, he's a legend just for that.

[Flaming_Arrow]

what happened?

[kurrymuncher]

Well, Ntini and Steyn batted for over an hour and a half, and there was only 10 overs remaining in the day for Aus to win. Then Steyn gets out and everyone thinks its over because SA had lost Smith to an injury, meaning that they would have been all out. But then all of a sudden, Smith comes out to play with a broken hand and dodgy elbow, keeping SA's chances of a draw alive. They then bat it out for a few overs, until the second last over, and then Smith gets bowled. SO Australian won the match with only five minutes remaining in the match. It was so awesome, you should have seen the atmosphere in the ground, it was like a world cup final. You could even sense the commentators sitting on the edge of their seats. All in all, Australia did a good job, even though SA won the series. But the real highlight of the day was to see Graham Smith coming onto the field with a broken hand, trying to keep his team alive.

[midas_touch]

I didn't watch all that much of this game, but it looked like it definitely went down to the wire, and that the Aussies made very hard work of dismissing South Africa's tail. Graeme Smith's decision to come out and bat at the end has to be applauded. To try and save the game despite being injured demonstrated great courage and leadership by him, I've gained a big appreciation and respect for him because of that act.

[osmoister]

i agree, smith's effort was simply heroic. reminded me of luke hodge against st.kilda when he continued playing throughout the match after he broke his ribs in the first quarter. it takes balls to stand there when you got fast bowlers steaming in

[costargh]

i agree, smith's effort was simply heroic. reminded me of luke hodge against st.kilda when he continued playing throughout the match after he broke his ribs in the first quarter. it takes balls to stand there when you got fast bowlers steaming in

Heroism is given out like candy these days.

[osmoister]

i agree, smith's effort was simply heroic. reminded me of luke hodge against st.kilda when he continued playing throughout the match after he broke his ribs in the first quarter. it takes balls to stand there when you got fast bowlers steaming in

Heroism is given out like candy these days.

i don't think this would be an example of your statement. he was injured in the early days, had scans to confirm his broken finger on top of the injured elbow he had and took no part in the match till that time. his team were gone and he came out to play in the hope of salvaging a draw. almost everytime he hit the ball, his injured hand let go of the bat. btw, i don't like the south african team much at all and i found his actions just inspirational. you had to watch the match to understand.

[RD]

I thought that one of the bowlers would bowl some bouncers at Smith. But yeah good effort to come out.

[osmoister]

I thought that one of the bowlers would bowl some bouncers at Smith. But yeah good effort to come out.

nuh aussie bowlers have too much respect for him, they wouldn't do that.

[NE2000]

I thought that one of the bowlers would bowl some bouncers at Smith. But yeah good effort to come out.

nuh aussie bowlers have too much respect for him, they wouldn't do that.

I think they would if the game was coming into the last over, not to hit him or anything but just to shake him up...as Andrew Symonds said last year, a cricket field isn't a place to be friendly. But yeah Australia, although they lost the series, probably dominated more sessions than South Africa did, and could have come up 2-1 or even 3-0 if they had a bowling attack that works. Unfortunately it appears Australia needs to wait a long time till they get a bowling attack as potent as modern-day South Africa or India, and that puts them behind those two teams.

And as for heroism, he had a broken hand, plus he was receiving injections in his top elbow. Then you've got Mitchell Johnson bowling a yorker at 140 kph and I would imagine digging that out hurts.

Next series (tour to South Africa) should be interesting too.

[NE2000]

News: Matthew Hayden dropped from ODI and T20 squads, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson also rested due to heavy workload...haven't seen Ponting captain a T20 game for a while (I don't think he's captained T20 since the loss to India in the T20 World Cup?), but we'll see how it goes.

David Warner is Haydos's replacement for the T20s
22-years-old
batsman
Never played a first-class game
Averages 25.44 with the bat in T20s
Probably won't get a game

Other new guy is Ryan Harris
29-years-old
all-rounder
Batting average in first-class is 18, in T20 is 11
Bowling average in first-class is 33, in T20 is 18 (all rounded to 2 sig figs)
looks like he might be useful with the ball


Twenty20 squad Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes, Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin (wk), Shaun Marsh, Shaun Tait, David Warner, Ryan Harris, Cameron White, Nathan Hauritz

Based on that I see Marsh, Hopes, Ponting, Hussey, Hussey, White, Haddin, Bracken, Tait, Hilfenhaus, Hauritz playing the game, that is in my opinion I don't think there's enough space for Warner or Harris but anyway we'll see how it goes...

[the_head]

I thought that one of the bowlers would bowl some bouncers at Smith. But yeah good effort to come out.

nuh aussie bowlers have too much respect for him, they wouldn't do that.

We couldn't waste any balls. Everything needed to be wicket taking balls.

On the subject of Hayden getting dropped from twenty20's, it's the perfect opportunity to find some form. Nobody gives a shit about 20/20's and it would be good to smash the bowling round for a bit. Hope he goes on.