Poor technique galore against fast bowling, Australia v South Africa test series

Just when Indian X cricketers were busy criticising young Indian batsmen  for their poor technique to play fast bowling, I was watching South Africa vs Australia test series on television.

One thing I was carefully looking for was how Australians, South African batsmen play fast bowling so that I can compose an article comparing the techniques of Indian batsmen and them, and can pinpoint what exactly Australia and South Africa batsmen do well that they handle the short pitch fast bowling much better than the Indian batsmen. I was very disappointed and even confused with what I saw. 

Chris Rogers, Australia Opener, needs to show
more than a fancy footwork to survive against
fast bowling of South Africa to prove he is better than
Shikhar Dhwan of India.

I have no doubt, with what I saw on TV, that Indian young batsmen, in particular Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Ajinkya Rahane displayed much better technique and temperament than South African and Australian batsmen while facing a fast bowler. Even Shikhar Dhawan looked better than what openers Graeme Smith and Chris Rogers are looking at the moment. Even the pitches are comparatively flatter in this series, no doubt about it, then what we saw in South Africa vs India series recently.

In the first match of the series, Mitchell Johnson proved too much to handle for South African batsmen. Hashim Amla, Grame Smith, all are in sixes and sevens when facing him. Other bowlers also took advantage of fear created by Mitch in South African batsmen and they picked some easy scalps too.

On second day of 2nd test between Australia and South Africa, being played at Port Elizabeth, South African fast men were all over the Aussie batsmen. Only adventurous David Warner was able to score some runs, with outside and inside edges mostly, while other 4 top order batsmen went back to pavilion by loosing their wickets due to poor technique rather than great bowling.

Seeing these batsmen, who are supposed to have the best technique against fast bowling, struggle so miserably and who are looking completely out of control, one wonder why all hell breaks out when some of Indian young batsmen, likes of Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan, gets out to faster bowlers. They also don't face quick bowlers too often as they play more of their cricket on turning (not flat) Indian pitches. Clearly, double standards are adopted while judging players of India to others.

Also there has to be some balance when techniques are judged. Over the years Indian batsmen have mustered more runs in Australia and South Africa than the batsmen of those countries have managed to score on turning tracks in India. Indian batsmen,Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, leading test runs getters, have plundered runs all over the world. Same can't be said about non-indians when it comes to their performance in India. For example, a modern day great batsmen 'Ricky Ponting' of Australia, hardly managed an average with bat in India that can be called respectable. Ponting's average in India is 26.48 while his overall average is 51.85 runs.

Boring Slow Pitch Robs fans 2nd Test, South Africa v Australia, Port Elizabeth

South Africa limped to 214-5 at the end of first day's play of test match between South Africa and Australia. at Port Elizabeth. It was a day which every cricket fan wished never came in their life. The pitch was a real villain.

For a series that was seen as a platform to find out who is the best fast bowling attack in the world, between Australia and South Africa, the cricket pitch dished out by the curator was a big disappointment. It was painfully slow. Even Mitchell Johnson looked as slow as Vernon Philander. The ball barely bounced higher than the waist and shots were difficult to time for the batsmen.

May be it was a well thought tactic from South African team management. The inability the host batsmen showed in first test against short pitch bowling of Australia seems to have sent message to pitch curator "We want low and slow wicket. Mitch is too hot to handle!" But looking at how match stands at the end of first day's play, the pitch hasn't quite helped South Africa's cause. Instead it is Australia who seems to have a upper hand in match, even though fast and furious Mitchell Johnson has managed on 1 wicket (Hashim Amla) thus far.

AB De Villiers and Deal Elgar played well for South Africa and gave the scoreboard some good look. The scorecard at stumps on day 1 looked like this :

Cricket Score Card, Australia vs South Africa, 2nd test Day 1 Stumps

Dean Elgar played well, mostly defensively against seam bowlers and occasionally attacking to spinner Nathan Lyon, for 83. AB de Villers, batting on 51 not out, continued his good form with fine half century creating a new world record of scoring half centuries in 12 consecutive test matches. He shared the record with Viv Richards, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir before this fifty.

Nathan Lyon talked about the pitch and what he makes of the day's play. He said that they knew this would be a very difficult pitch to bowl on, and he is happy with the control they have maintained, and stoked that they got those two bonus wickets when they were waiting for the new ball.

It was a hard fought day of cricket on a disappointing spirit sapping pitch. Australia will be feeling better about today, but you mustn't forget that AB de Villiers is still out there.

Pitch  gave South African cricket fans to make a shout "Mitch who? So much for the over-hyped Australian bowling attack. On a green, seaming pitch with overcast conditions they have hardly made a dent. SA march on and get stronger by the hour. What was really disappointing was watching Lyon bowling around the wicket, targeting leg stump and on the pads - so negative, very un-Australian. Couldn't help noticing Harris leaving the field with a tweak and Smith was right Centurion totally suited Johnson, but maybe he can get some more tail-ender wickets here yet. Mind you both are in the their mid thirties now anyway and injuries are part of that age category," said McKenjie.

But Am I hearing complains about the pitch from Australians. So all the Aussies, complaining about the pitch. Are you saying that your Mitch is just a one-type-of-pitch-wonder, and cannot perform consistently across all sorts of pitches? Unlike Dale Steyn, who has great figures over a protracted period of time, even on the subcontinental road pitches? He did not even look remotely threatening for frightening today, even the raw and inexperienced Elgar played him out without giving any chances.

In reality test match still in the balance here, but it seems to be a peculiarly flat and lifeless wicket. I wonder why? :-) How things have changed! I'm sure the SA quicks will not be looking forward to bowling here, and if Philander is carrying any injury it could be a real issue, because SA only have four bowlers (unless I'm missing someone). Still, if they get 300+ it is still runs on the board that AUS have to get. Lehman says the pitch is pretty good with plenty of grass but very dry underneath. That means it should spin later on, but probably won't break up too much. But do SA have a spinner who can take advantage of bowling last?

Top 5 overrated bowlers in cricket

Sometimes ICC player rankings can be quite misleading. Today we will talk about few such bowlers who have been ranking high consistently in the rankings table, but doesn't deserve to be at the top.

1) Vernon Philander (ICC rank 2) - He has taken 106 test wicket in 21 test matches so far at an average of 18.75.This South African medium pace bowlers manages to bowl at a speed of about 28 kph, on average. He rarely swings the bowl. But he doesn't have to be fast nor he needs to swing the ball to achieve higher rankings and pick large number of wickets. The wickets in South Africa does all the work for him. Specially designed wickets are making this mediocre bowler look great, even as everyone knows he has nothing in his armory to trouble the batsmen when he goes abroad, especially in subcontinent.

V.D. Philander

2) Ravichandran Ashwin (ICC rank 10) - With 104 wickets in 19 test matches at an average of 28.50, R Ashwin is one of the fastest spin bowler's to enter the hundred wicket club. While this is exciting for indian cricket, what is disappointing is his inability to take wickets overseas and win India matches. So far what we have seen of him he doesn't look capable enough to take wickets out of subcontinent.

R. Ashwin

3) Tim Southee (ICC rank 9) - This New Zealand medium pace bowler is again a bit of 'green track bully'. He bowls a good channel outside the off stump on green New Zealand pitches. But he lacks speed and his length is just perfect for batsmen to clobber him out of the park if he does not get ready-made assistance from the conditions. Southee has taken 112 wickets in 31 test matches at avg 30.69 for his wickets.

T.G. Southee

4) Saeed Ajmal (ICC rank 5) - He is pakistan's 'off spinner'. But don't get fooled by the introduction. Saeed Ajmal does everything else other than 'off spin'. He has the bowling action which purists were praying that no one will have after Mutthiah Muralitharan of Sri lanka. Ajmal has taken so far 169 wickets in 33 matches at an avg. of 27.46 runs per wickets.

Saeed Ajmal

5) Dale Steyn (ICC rank 1) - This might come as a surprise for most of you. But Dale Steyn is much overrated than one might have thought. He is just an 'outswing' bowler. South African speedster lacks the ability to ball 'inswingers' and struggle to ball to left hand batsmen. 356 wickets in 70 test matches at an average of 22.90 isn't that special, especially when you bowl in South Africa cricket conditions. Also he averages 45 plus when it comes to taking the wickets of left hand batsmen. It's not that he is a poor bowler. In fact he is quite good. But rank 1 is definitely bit too high for a bowler with so many limitations.

Dale Steyn

*Note - The ICC rankings in this article are stated as on Feb 19, 2014. Also I wasn't quite in my full senses while compiling this cricket article.

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.