South Africa vs Australia 1st Test

[rod_rooster]

Australia have named their 12 man squad. No McGain or Hauritz.

Team: Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Doug Bollinger, Brad Haddin, Ben Hilfenhaus, Phillip Hughes, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Andrew McDonald, Marcus North, Peter Siddle.

[wycbloods]

Australia have named their 12 man squad. No McGain or Hauritz.

Team: Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Doug Bollinger, Brad Haddin, Ben Hilfenhaus, Phillip Hughes, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Andrew McDonald, Marcus North, Peter Siddle.

I will tip that Hilfenhaus will carry the drinks and North to bat at 6, Haddin 7 and Mcdonald 8.

[rod_rooster]

South Africa: Graeme Smith, Neil McKenzie, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Mark Boucher, Morne Morkel, Paul Harris, Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

Unchanged 12 from Sydney. Tsotsobe would carry the drinks you'd think.

[CoverKing]

No doubt Tsotsobe will carry the drinks, but more importantly where is Ashwell Prince?? is he still injured???

and i think not having Hauritz or McGain could come back to haunt us, but obviously they thought if they were to play Hauritz they would be doubling up with North's offies.
i am hoping to see the Hilf get a crack and Bollinger to carry the drinks. agree that north will be at 6 haddin at 7 n ronnie at 8

[rod_rooster]

Ashwell Prince is fit but just not selected.

[wycbloods]

Ashwell Prince is fit but just not selected.

Amazing what an injury can do to your career . Poor bugger was VC but Duminy's fantastic start has made the choice for the selectors very difficult i guess.

[CoverKing]

Ashwell Prince is fit but just not selected.

surely amla open or AB, prince in the side and mckenzie out? what do u all think??

[rod_rooster]

Ashwell Prince is fit but just not selected.

surely amla open or AB, prince in the side and mckenzie out? what do u all think??

McKenzie made as many runs as Prince in 2008. With Prince missing for so long now it would be difficult to drop someone for him. McKenzie is the only one they could drop but he had a very good year even if he didn't set the world on fire in Australia.

[Pup]

Exactly,

Mckenzie had a excellent 2008 apart from the Australian Tour and deserves his spot. He better perform this tour though because the South African Selectors are very quick to pounce on players over 30 in bad form.

On a side note, i am away from my Austar for the next week or two is this covered on ABC radio?

[Hondo]

Australia have named their 12 man squad. No McGain or Hauritz.

Team: Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Doug Bollinger, Brad Haddin, Ben Hilfenhaus, Phillip Hughes, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Andrew McDonald, Marcus North, Peter Siddle.

I will tip that Hilfenhaus will carry the drinks and North to bat at 6, Haddin 7 and Mcdonald 8.

I don't reckon they'd bother playing an all-rounder at 8. Why not just play a specialist bowler? If we are collapsing that badly an 8th batsman won't save us IMO.

I reckon Hilf is safe and it's Ronald or North fighting it out for the last spot. My tip is MacDonald will be 12th man.

[Pup]

It seems to be on the radio for those who dont have Foxtel or are away.

7.30 Pm Start

[Gozu]

Ashwell Prince is fit but just not selected.

I'm not sure if I heard correctly but I thought I heard that Prince didn't even make their squad?

[NFC]

Hilf 99.99% certain to debut! FD88 will be stoked.

Australia (likely) 1 Phillip Hughes, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Marcus North, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Doug Bollinger, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus, 12 Andrew McDonald.

Really interested to see Siddle here. He's getting better with each and every game and I've got this feeling he's set for a huge tour. I'm so nervous for Hughes, cmon mate!

[Q.]

Should be a fair bit of swing about and with Hilf being our only true swing bowler in SA he will surely get a gig.

Weather forecast doesn't look good though.

[panther]

Marcus North is a very good SS batsman who deserves a spot in the squad.
But to expect him to be a frontline or part time spinner in Test matches is just not on

We fed The South Affys a diet of off spin in the Tests and 50 over games and they loved it
To play North as the spinner in front of Mcgain would be a brave selection
_______________________________________________________________
North is very likely to avearge about 60+ in this series as a bowler
________________________________________________________________

I will say this time and time and time and time and time and time and time and again
To beat this mob we have to take 20 wickets
Thats not rocket science
But what is neandertholic is to continue to play 3-4 speciallist bowlers against this mob

The closest we came to playing a 5 man good attack was the last test in Oz [and we won !]

Play 3 fast bowlers
Play Mcdonald as the 4th seamer who did a good job in his only test bowling
Play a leg spinner and no off spinning deserts against this mob

Until we get the bowling right this mob will beat us
Im sick of having teams like India + South Africa 3/100 or 4/160 and seeing them get to 400+

Unfortunately Mcgain will no doubt play when we are 1 or 2 nil down
Too bloody late then

[Lightning McQueen]

No doubt Tsotsobe will carry the drinks, but more importantly where is Ashwell Prince?? is he still injured???

and i think not having Hauritz or McGain could come back to haunt us, but obviously they thought if they were to play Hauritz they would be doubling up with North's offies.
i am hoping to see the Hilf get a crack and Bollinger to carry the drinks. agree that north will be at 6 haddin at 7 n ronnie at 8

Ronnie will be 12th, I've said in the past that there is no point playing a spinner just for the sake of playing one, North took wickets in the tour match, use him if we need one.

[Lightning McQueen]

Hilf 99.99% certain to debut! FD88 will be stoked.

Australia (likely) 1 Phillip Hughes, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Marcus North, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Doug Bollinger, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus, 12 Andrew McDonald.

Really interested to see Siddle here. He's getting better with each and every game and I've got this feeling he's set for a huge tour. I'm so nervous for Hughes, cmon mate!

The only change that I could see appropriate is Katich to face the first ball.

[Q.]

I reckon this pitch will offer little to the spinners. If the rain is sparse, then maybe late on day four will we see some turn.

Does this mean we shouldn't have played a spinner? A specialist wrist spinner is far more likely to extract what little the pitch will offer than would a part-timer.

[Lightning McQueen]

I reckon this pitch will offer little to the spinners. If the rain is sparse, then maybe late on day four will we see some turn.

Does this mean we shouldn't have played a spinner? A specialist wrist spinner is far more likely to extract what little the pitch will offer than would a part-timer.

I'd hardly call McGain a specialist, they are probably thinking his wheelchair might get bogged if there's some rain during the match.

[Swamp Donkey]

I will say this time and time and time and time and time and time and time and again

To beat this mob we have to take 20 wickets

Well there's no need to mate, cos anyone who has any idea whatsoever about Test cricket already knows it!!! Nothing like stating the obvious.