Australia v South Africa, 1st Test, Brisbane, 17-21 December, 2022

Very poor from the Oz tail.

Game set up nicely.

might be over by tea at this rate

Shit pitch that should be cited. Too green for a cow.

Nah. Pitch is fine. Batsmen are spoiler with autobahns and covered pitches.

So good not to have an autobahn. This is a test of technique and temperament as cricket should be.

That should apply to the bowlers as well. It's day 3 and the pitch is still as green as the outfield. 23 wickets have fallen for ~400. That's just comedy cricket. We've had too much of it for the last 4 or 5 years.

Day 2... my mistake

Lol Boland. Seems addicted to multi wicket overs.

Been at Xmas festivities and haven't seen much.

A bowlers Test. No surprises given the pitch. Peach by Koo for his 300th.

Glad we weren't chasing 100.

extras saved our arse

Inside day 2 and the test match is over.
Have batting techniques on bowler friendly pitches become so diminished, due to the plethora of hit and giggle 20/20?

Only the 2nd time ever a Test has finished in 2 days in Aus.

Blackadder wrote:
Have batting techniques on bowler friendly pitches become so diminished, due to the plethora of hit and giggle 20/20?

obviously,

They’d need to prepare an absolute motorway for a match between these two to go the distance.

Even the chase was bizarre, extras top scoring with over 50% of the runs as the Australian batsmen threatened to do a bit of a Sydney Chunder!

Aus bowling was below average for much of the 1st innings. Too short and wayward, yet we still rolled the SAffers for 152.

Smudge and Blowie saved our arse in our 1st innings. Rabada was below his best and Ngidi only average but they still did enough to trouble the bats. Nortje was pretty scary. Head's brilliant innings was clearly the difference in the respective 1st innings.

I was out for much of the day today but kept an eye on the score via the phone. I was rather shocked when the Yarps capitulated to 9-69 then all out 99. But having seen the highlights, the pitch clearly quickened up (was pretty deadly actually) and our bowlers were much more disciplined.

The ball that gave Koo his 300th was an unplayable peach. It pitched on a perfect length on off and jagged back to crash into middle. Van der Dussen missed it by 6 inches. Even if he had've had his pad closer to his bat, the off cut would've still defeated his bat and had him plumb. Cummins was much more on-song in the 2nd innings and snared a michelle. Boland chipped in with his now customary multiple wicket over.

Aus wouldn't wanted to have been chasing 100 or more because Rabada was breathing fire. He grabbed 4 quick wickets. Nortje got carried away with the pace and bounce in the wicket and conceded 11 wides, all over the keeper's head.This allowed Xavier Tras to top-score with 19.

The 2nd Test MCG deck should produce a much fairer contest. I reckon Richie Richardson (Match Ref) will give this deck a "Below Average" assessment. Way to soft and green, and way to advantageous to the bowlers.

ScoBo isn't that far away from getting into the Record books.

After 5 Tests he has 25 wickets at 10.36. The record holder for lowest average after 5 Tests is Aus's CTB Turner with 45 wkts at 9.40. If he can get his average back under 10 in the next Test (a big ask), he would become the low average record holder after 6 Tests (currently George Lohmann with 38 wkts at 10.00).

Ten ducks, 34 wickets, all over in 5 sessions really. Amazing.

lardbucket wrote:Ten ducks, 34 wickets, all over in 5 sessions really. Amazing.

And even more amazing that England weren’t playing!