Mitchell Johnson make South Africa batsmen dance on his tune - South Africa vs Australia Day 2 scorecard centurion test

Mitchell Johnson continued to expose the overrated opponent batsmen, who are supposed to have good technique against pace and bounce, with his hostile spell of 4 wickets for 52 runs at centurion on day 2 of first test match between Australia and South Africa.

fired-up mitchell johnson bullied south africa

The scorecard at the stumps on day 2 read South Africa 140/6 in their first innings. Earlier Australia were bowled out for 397 runs in their first innings with dale steyn claiming 4 wickets for 78 runs. The detailed scorecard looked like this at the end of second day:

Australia vs South Africa scorecard, centurion test 2014, day 2 stumps

South African batsmen never looked settled against constant short pitch bowling from Mitchell Johson. Graeme Smith, in particular, looked like a sitting duck with both legs tied together when facing bowling of Australia. His misery ended when he got out awkwardly fending off a bouncer directed in rib cage by johnson in his first spell. Petersen was next to go playing bad shot to get out. Hashim Amla continued his poor form with bat and was again got out at low score after scoring series of low scores in last series against India. Short ball again claimed Faf du Plesis as he chose to sit in comfort of dressing room rather than guts it out in the middle. Duminy threw his wicket away against a spin of Nathan Lyon. At the end of second day AB de Villiers was on the crease batting not out on 52 along with Robin Peterson batting at 10.

Overall it was australia's day and cricket fans had much to say.

steve48 says: "The way he bowls at the tail, MJ on fir an 8 for! I am a proud Pom, but have followed this guy since Dennis Lillee made his prediction; having read 'The Art of Fast Bowling ' as a kid, and watched him terrorise my then hero Dennis Amiss, I figured he knew what he was on about! Always suspected he would eventually ram our taunts down our throats, cos when he gets it right, no batsman seems safe, of body or stumps! No offence to South Africa, but nice to see its not just us English who struggle with his pace, aggression and angle. Can't have been a quicker left armer, with all due respect to wasim akram, the most skilled quick I think I have seen. So much on DeVilliers now, then if Steyn is fit and firing, could be a few twists left in this game. But ABD really needs to protect that tail. MJ made Swann and Broad look like Phil Tufnell!"

Paul-Rone Clarke says: "Some small vindication from those who asserted that wasn't just England being really poor that cost them the ashes The MJ factor played a big part.
Smith and Marsh batted well, but the extra 5kmph that MJ gets above Steyn or Morkel pushes the comfort envelope of all but the most extremely good of batsmen. Small margins make big differences in cricket.

How many people were amazed when the radar gun first began to find that a spinner bowls at 60%+ the speed of a seamer? Warne bowls 60 McGrath bowled 84 - you'd swear the ratio must be far higher than that. So it is with the extra pace MJ brings. 4 mph might as well be all the difference in the world. He looks so much more threatening than Steyn or Morkel you'd think they were playing on different pitches
For SA DeVilliers is a class apart - - and the Saffers best hope of salvaging something from a series that already looks to be heading the Aussies way" 

BradmanBestEver says: "McDermott should be applauded for his bold, accurate statement that MJ is the best fast bowler in the world today. Today's performance by MJ as compared to Steyn's over the past 2 days, coupled with MJ's destruction of England over 5 tests proves McDermott is correct. Lillee's statement that MJ is a "one-in-a-generation" bowler has also been proven. At 32 how long can MJ's dominance last?if only we had another MJ."

captain tuk tuk who lives in pakistan has become an aussie fan "I live in Pakistan but I an an Ausis fan now because I am a true cricket fan. Ausis did really well Micheal Johnson just as expected by us Ausis fans did a great job but we must give credit to DeVillars who is playing really well against the most fearsome attack in these conditions I doubt the trio of Styen, Philander and Morkel is as good as Johnson, Haris and Siddle in these conditions well played AB."

Predictably there are heaps of praise showering on Mitchell Johnson, and he deserves it as well, as Cricket Australia continue to surge towards becoming the number 1 test side in ICC rankings, once again.

Australia make South Africa choke on day 1 of centurion test

Australia completely humiliated South Africa on Day 1 of centurion test in series of 2014. South African bowlers looked pedestrian even on pitch made again ( rather doctored) to make look ordinary bowlers like Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, and Morne Morkel look great. The score at the end of day 1 was 297 runs for the loss of 4 wickets for Australia.

shaun marsh on his way to a authoritative 100

The 4 wickets taken by South Africa were due to some poor shots played by Australian batsmen and not due to some world class bowling. With DRS (Decision Review System) in place even umpires were unable to gift South Africa free wickets which they did in South Africa vs India series.

With retirement of kallis, every person who is non-choker knows that South Africa does not have quality batsmen. Hashim Amla and AB De Villiers are well known for throwing their wickets, in fact become sitting ducks under pressure. Less said about Graeme Smith the better is for readers here. He as a captain has. never won any ICC tournament of note.

The scorecard at the end of first day looks like the one shown below:

Aus vs SA scorecard at stumps day 1 centurion test match

The hero for Australia were Shaun Marsh (scoring 122 not out) and Steven Smith (not out on 91 runs) who made a mockery of South African bowling attack.

At the end of the day, confirming that they are chokers, South African bowers started to bowl negative lines and even tried to bowl bouncers in fading light so that umpires are forced to take the players out of the field.

It is clear that South Africa doesn't deserve the number 1 ranking and whole world would be happy when a deserving team like India or Australia retain the number 1 ranked team status in ICC test team rankings.

Marsh is a lot like Mitch Johnson, undoubtedly talented but lacking consistency. Hopefully getting this century with Smith, who has wonderful application and determination at the crease will rub off on Marsh. He has scored a century before and nose dived - lets hope it doesn't happen again.

I predicted 295/4 at stumps on the preview thread, I don't know how we did it, I guess that it was a combination of some mature strokeplay and some very impressing leaving. Happy for Marsh, he got a lot of stick but he delivered and I have to take my hat off to the selectors. Sending Australia in to bat has been a blunder and if Australia win this match as a result it will be a hard pill to swallow for Smith.

I have failed to understand why people are saying South Africa is having a world class bowling attack, they have just two quality bowlers 1) Morkel and Steyn. Philander is a pretty average bowlers who needs ample help from pitch to be of any effect. Maclaren is another ordinary bowler and either Robin Peterson is having some Godfather in SA cricket board or SA selectors are a bunch fools to select him consistently. The Aussies attack is way better then this so called overrated south African attack. They have really have struggled to take 20 wickets against an inexperienced Indian batting lineup. I do not think SA stands any chance with this attack unless some spectacular effort from Steyn or Mokel.

Reactions from cricket fans are quite interesting.

HatsforBats says: "Shaun Marsh cops a hell of a lot of flack from us Aus supporters on these forums, I know I give him some despite my joy at watching his best (part of the frustration really). But he is doing a very fine job here indeed (67 n.o. on one leg). If he goes on to make a big one Amla will not be happy with dropping that early chance.

A shame Clarke couldn't resist the challenge, but hopefully Marsh, Smith & Haddin can push on in the afternoon session and get this total up toward 300. By the look of the pitch (and with some uneven bounce) I would think batting last won't be easy, and Lyon could be a handful.

And I just have to say; Philander's first delivery of the day was an absolute peach! Best delivery I've seen since Harris bowled about 50 of them at Cook. It's not often I wish to see Aus bowling first but I was hopeful."

 Jb633 praises Shaun Marsh and says: "Got to give credit to Marsh here. Despite almost everyone saying he doesn't deserve to be playing, he has gutsed it out in difficult circumstances and has pulled Aus through. There is no way Watson would have done the same or Bailey for that matter. The Aus batting (bar Clarke/Haddin/Hussey) has been on the whole poor for 2/3 years but they are starting to look more solid if Marsh can find his feet and Watson to come back in for Doolan. Maybe drop Watson and bring in Hughes. I think Aus are well ahead in this game given the wicket looks pretty shabby and looks like it will go up and down later in the game. If they can finish the day 280 for no more than 7 I think they will be satisfied with that."

But I tend to agree with home and away win scenarios. The trend is that all sides are struggling away from home. And all batsmen struggle against quality quick short pitched bowling. No batsmen enjoys getting hit! I only wish cricket journos would get these simple facts and quit beating up on sub continent teams. Just like cricket is legitimately played on seaming snorters, it is also legitimately played on dust bowls, turners and flat tracks. Some teams do better on one and Others on the other. And the teams that do better on both are usually the Best in the World. Thats all there is to it.

South Africa V Australia who will win test series?

A mouth watering fast bowling tussle seems to be on cards as South Africa will take on Australia at Centurion today in first test match.

While many a cricket fans are lining up to see which is the better bowling attack and will south africa be able to finally remove their chokers tag, there could be disappointment. The news coming from South Africa is depressing as the cunning groundsmen of South Africa has removed the grass from the pitch on request of south african team management to save their batsmen from the bouncers and bone breaking deliveries of Mitchell Johnson.

The squads are as follows:

South Africa Team : GC Smith, HM Amla, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, F du Plessis, D Elgar, RK Kleinveldt, R McLaren, M Morkel,WD Parnell, AN Petersen, RJ Peterson, VD Philander, DW Steyn, TL Tsolekile

Australia Team : MJ Clarke, BJ Haddin, JM Bird, AJ Doolan, RJ Harris, MC Henriques, MG Johnson, NM Lyon, SE Marsh,JL Pattinson, CJL Rogers, PM Siddle, SPD Smith, DA Warner, SR Watson

Dale Steyn would like improve on his recent bad showing in test matches, even as Mitchell Johnson again returns to South Africa in form of his life

Against India, all the groundsmen were specifically told to let the grass grow as there was no real fast bowler, but against Australia south african batsmen don't want to become sitting ducks. It is well known fact that most south aftrican batsmen lack technique to handle fast bowling at test level.

While pace battle is on the cards, here are some interesting views coming from cricket fans of both australia and south africa:

truththecovers says:"Everyone is licking their lips re the match-up of the 2 bowling attacks, which is wrong in my opinion. It should realy be looked at as the SA batting line-up vs the Aus bowling attack and vice versa. Looked at it this way, it becomes a fairly simple equation from there. No one in their right minds would give the Aus batting line-up lower odds to outlast the SA bowling attack than the other way around. The absence of Kallis is a big factor, but the SA top 5 will prove yet again a very hard nut to crack. Harder than their counter parts."

Madan Shivkumar is not ready to give Australia any points for their Ashes victory "I guess the Aussies are reading too much into a victory over a battered and bruised England. The saffers will be much harder to beat with the kind of line up they have,never mind kallis s absence - he was not the player he was anyway; steyn philander and morkel are more than enough to bowl out the Aussies considering that they are going to have 2 new faces in the XI. Most of the Aussies are confidence players and if the saffers can break the rhythm of Johnson then its gonna be pretty hard for the Aussies." 

 Greatestgame, the supporter of South Africa cricket is irked when someone mentioned about the inability of south africans to handle spin bowling, he says: "Stop making excuses for, or raising the topic of, SC teams here. We hear that "SA cannot play spin." Now you say "SA cannot play pace." How did SA get to be #1 they can't play pace or spin?SA national cricket is dominated by genuine pace bowling, on quick, hard tracks - the bowling they grow up, & thrive on, & play every match.

In 2012, before SA's series in Eng, debate raged about "the best" attack, much like today. The English attack, pronounced as "the best in the world" by Eng media & management, took 2 for 637 dec in test 1. Amla 311* Kallis 182* Smith 131 etc.

SA destroyed Johnson & Starc that year, at Aus' quickest venue, Perth. Amla scored 196 at SR 88.68. ABdV scored 169 at SR 91.84. Smith scored 84 at SR 84.These guys can decimate genuine pace, and this series has NOTHING AT ALL to do with SC teams."

Comments apart, what can really trouble South Africa is the egoistic nature. They think they are too talented, but they are far from it. We saw in a series against India how at times they did not wanted to be out on the park and were trying fast bowlers in fading light to run away from competition. This lack of fight will hurt them badly against Australia who are known to take advantage of such moments by playing aggressive cricket. South Africa don't have ability to handle pressure situations, in absence of Jaques Kallis in particular.

Fact tha Ab Devilliers never contributes under pressure and that Vernon Philander is more of a threat only in tailor made conditions, it won't be a surprise if Australia defeats South Africa. Also to be noted is that South Africa has recently won more matches against minnows than a top test team. The victory against India was gifted by umpires.