Rabada
There's still rain on day 4 and it doesn't look great for test cricket at the SCG today. There's hardly any rain on the radar but what there is seems concentrated on the coast along Sydney's eastern suburbs.
South African fast bowling ace Kagiso Rabada (in action) is having an off series. He's second in the South African bowling series analyses with 11 wickets at an average of 32 but that contrasts with 268 career wickets at 22.85, and South Africa really needed him to fire given the current weakness of the batting. Although Anrich Nortje has reached impressive speeds over 150kph.
Some musings. The Brisbane test was over in two days on a greenish wicket. Asked if it was a surprise, Australian spinner Lyon said something like 'Not entirely, considering the bowling strength of the two sides' which kind of summed up the situation. But Australia's batting has been superb since whereas South Africa's has looked uncertain.
The mentality 'they're here to see me bat, not to see you bowl' is fairly common (never mind Warnie). In that context, it was amusing to see Australian captain Pat Cummins win the toss at Melbourne and elect to bowl before the first day crowd of 64,000, targeting the perceived fragility of the South African batting.
This upended Melbourne test convention which goes along the lines of 'When you win the toss you bat 9 times out of 10. On the 10th time you think about bowling and then bat!' Australia won anyway by an innings and 182 runs.
The 'Mankad' type dismissal is in the news, as it's considered unfair to dismiss a batsman who isn't facing a ball. However, Mitch Starc warned a batter at the bowling end several times about walking down the wicket before the delivery. It's against the rules of the game as it gives a head start if the batters take a run. 'I'm not doing it deliberately' was the defence, which went down poorly with the man who gets penalised by a run should he overstep the crease (which is checked every delivery, and 'no-balls' are shown on numerous TV replays). Said Starc 'I think he should get docked a run'...
Rabada
There's still rain on day 4 and it doesn't look great for test cricket at the SCG today. There's hardly any rain on the radar but what there is seems concentrated on the coast along Sydney's eastern suburbs.
South African fast bowling ace Kagiso Rabada (in action) is having an off series. He's second in the South African bowling series analyses with 11 wickets at an average of 32 but that contrasts with 268 career wickets at 22.85, and South Africa really needed him to fire given the current weakness of the batting. Although Anrich Nortje has reached impressive speeds over 150kph.
Some musings. The Brisbane test was over in two days on a greenish wicket. Asked if it was a surprise, Australian spinner Lyon said something like 'Not entirely, considering the bowling strength of the two sides' which kind of summed up the situation. But Australia's batting has been superb since whereas South Africa's has looked uncertain.
The mentality 'they're here to see me bat, not to see you bowl' is fairly common (never mind Warnie). In that context, it was amusing to see Australian captain Pat Cummins win the toss at Melbourne and elect to bowl before the first day crowd of 64,000, targeting the perceived fragility of the South African batting.
This upended Melbourne test convention which goes along the lines of 'When you win the toss you bat 9 times out of 10. On the 10th time you think about bowling and then bat!' Australia won anyway by an innings and 182 runs.
The 'Mankad' type dismissal is in the news, as it's considered unfair to dismiss a batsman who isn't facing a ball. However, Mitch Starc warned a batter at the bowling end several times about walking down the wicket before the delivery. It's against the rules of the game as it gives a head start if the batters take a run. 'I'm not doing it deliberately' was the defence, which went down poorly with the man who gets penalised by a run should he overstep the crease (which is checked every delivery, and 'no-balls' are shown on numerous TV replays). Said Starc 'I think he should get docked a run'...