TOPIC:

From a pure competitive perspective it will be a shame if Rabada misses the rest of the series.... exciting young fast talent who is great to watch....

Early wickets keep the lead below 50-70 and hopefully Aust bat well and post a target over 250 at least........could go down to the wire....

They need to get De Villiers out very quickly on day 3 and try and keep the lead down to below 50. AB could bat Australia out of the game in a short time given his class. Philander is a very competent batsman and they are more than capable of putting on a lot more runs. A defecit of 100+ will be very awkward for Australia with their wonky batting line up.

mikeh wrote: They need to get De Villiers out very quickly on day 3 and try and keep the lead down to below 50. AB could bat Australia out of the game in a short time given his class. Philander is a very competent batsman and they are more than capable of putting on a lot more runs. A defecit of 100+ will be very awkward for Australia with their wonky batting line up.

And if they can not get AB out get the other 3 out! and sharpish.

anchorman wrote: A bit of a mess at the moment, but Mitch Starc did mention in a pre game interview that a bug had gone through the camp in the lead up to the game.It was obvious that Mitch Marsh was suffering the first day,but chimed in with a couple of good wickets yesterday.
A good test match looks like coming from here in.
What do we all make of the Warner issue with his boxer type hand protection?
Also like to add, Mike Haysman is a real pain in the arse commentator.All he wanted to talk about on the first day was the Warner de Kock issue.

Well to be fair he is commentating on a test match in which they are both playing, and in the test prior they had a run in (right or wrong). So it does seem to be a relevant topic. Sure we could get routine ball by ball description but that is not what any broadcasters are asking for at the moment.
I would certainly think that Haysman would be better at everything if he had not come from South Australia. He would have been a great West Aussie.

let us hope Bancroft can get a few runs.

Let's hope it more than a few.

Bancroft is a right handed version of ED Cowan....good for 20 odd and then finds ways of getting out....so many bloody starts....yet no one goes on......also interesting to see so many Aust batsmen getting out on the stroke of lunch, tea or stumps.....if Uzzie was still there overnight might of stood a chance of pushing the lead towards 200......big ask.....need Marsh to get a 100 or close as possible to one.....Paine needs to get a 30 odd....with the tail somehow replicating what SA tail did in their first innings.....150 lead would atleast put a few jitters in the SA team....

ooollllrrrrrry2 wrote: [quote=Going to be pretty hard for Rabada to escape this one, just dumb also. After what happened in the first test and the scrutiny that would be placed on the second for all players?
You would be asking how smart is the bloke and you would probably even have to say not as smart as Warner.

Out smarted Warner in the 2nd innings.. Cant be that DUMB

One thing that has become glaringly obvious to me over the last few Test Series we have played in is that Smith albeit is a great batsman but as a Captain I am still to be convinced as some of his field placings really lack imagination.
To be fair tho I am not sure there are too many tactical geniuses in our current line up.

...and also great batsmen aren't necessarily great captains and vice versa...case in point was Mike Brearley who was one of the best pommy captains ever only averaged in the low twenties with the bat from memory but was a very successful captain....so agree with your point BH that maybe Smith isn't as good a captain as he is batsman.