Sri Lanka tour of South Africa 2019 - 2 Tests, 5 ODIs, 2 T20Is

[Wolfs]

That is one fine shot

 

[Sproj]

Bigger.

England's loss, really, was a continuation of their long-held struggles in the Caribbean and maybe shouldn't have been that surprising.

Sri Lanka had just got vitamised by a bad Australian side after similarly getting killed in New Zealand and getting killed at home by England, were coming up against a pretty powerful South African one, in a country where they have never won a series.

It would be genuinely among the biggest series upsets of all time.

I can see a movie coming and rightly so. Remember the Lions!

 

[Hamingja]

Like what do you do about SA?

Is it that they just took this series too easy? Because a great team like that shouldn't be taking teams easy

The commentators were talking about the SA team complaining because they didn't know the SL players and had no footage of them playing. It was quickly dismissed given they had just played in Australia.

So a mix of complacency and a lack of interest in a test series against a "minnow" I'd say. Test cricket is pretty soulless in SA. Produces good cricket regularly but the public interest isn't there so against SL that has probably seeped through to the players too.

 

[Wolfs]

I'm enjoying this Ntini commentary. Dude sounds like he is having fun.

 

[Wolfs]

The commentators were talking about the SA team complaining because they didn't know the SL players and had no footage of them playing. It was quickly dismissed given they had just played in Australia.

So a mix of complacency and a lack of interest in a test series against a "minnow" I'd say. Test cricket is pretty soulless in SA. Produces good cricket regularly but the public interest isn't there so against SL that has probably seeped through to the players too.

Yeah but it reminds me of the 2000's Aussie team. They never took a team for granted except for Ashes 2005 but even then it was just the 2nd test.

 

[Sea fog]

The other factor here is that both games have been played on pitches which best suit Asian players. It is Centurion, CT and Joburg which trouble them. SA batting is highly culpable though. Fancy getting bowled out for 128 on this pitch. Time to move on Elgar, Amla and Bavuma.

 

[Sea fog]

How this is happening without even Mathews or Chandimal is pretty special. I think even after Perera's heroics people expected it to be a one off, special innings and for it to be business as usual in this Test but SA's strategy at home seems to be blowing up in their face.

They prepare spicy wickets which brings average bowlers into the game and while Rabada is one of the best bowlers in the world they should be backing him to take wickets on pitches more suited for a 300 first innings score, not these 200 if you're lucky ones (obviously poor batting has played a big part but the point stands).

There was grounds to do this when they had the likes of Morkel, Philander, Abbott with Rabada but as much as I love Steyn he's obviously getting on and isn't a world beater anymore. An attack of Rabada, 35 year old Steyn, Olivier and Mulder is about on par with India/Australian pace attacks at the moment (form permitting for us outside Cummins) and yet we don't bother to prepare such wickets as we know it would only hurt us.

It led to some great wins against India etc. but time for South Africa to start backing their bowlers to do a job on more then green tops and being building their next generation of batsman. Going to hurt them even more when they go overseas if they continue like this.

Also worth mentioning that Maharaj is a good bowler but he'll never be more then that if he continues to only bowl 6 overs a Test. Needs a chance to develop if he's going to help SA when pitches that favour spin are on offer.

Think they've missed Ngidi as much as Morkel.

 

[Sea fog]

I reckon it'd be a much bigger upset. I'd love to know the odds for both though.

Thing is though the Pakistan series was played on three pitches that are hard for sub-continent batsmen. SA rarely wins in Durban and PE is not a great surface for them either so it was only the Lankan form which had people worried about how they would go.

 

[Wolfs]

Bavuma, Elgar and Amla. Man those are bad stats.

Sums up SA with that drop catch

 

[swanssince2002]

Well Sri Lanka is about to do better than us over there than we did... welp. We all know what happened next...

 

[Doss]

Boy oh boy... Generally I don't like two match test series because it's too short to be called a series imo and just one win and you won't lose the series.

But Sri Lanka have outplayed South Africa in all facets of the game in this series that even if there had been an another match in the series, you would back Lanka to whitewash South Africa 3-0. It's crazy though, I knew there were some talented players in the SL team but never in my wildest dreams would I have predicted a whitewash of South Africa on its own home soil by this inexperienced Sri Lankan team. Has to be amongst the biggest upsets in the game surely, probably the biggest too when you consider their respective rankings and forms before the series. I read Australia were in pretty dire form in the late 80s but won the Ashes as underdogs in a dominant fashion under Border. But surely this one has to beat that!

Australia winning the 1989 Ashes was definitely an upset, but if we’re being honest, that England side was complete dross. Yes they had some decent cricketers in the side, but there was no cohesion whatsoever and their results leading up to 1989 were horrific too.

This South African side isn’t dross. And hasn’t been dross in a very, very long time.

 

[Wolfs]

What's SA's next test series?

 

[Park cricketer]

How this is happening without even Mathews or Chandimal is pretty special. I think even after Perera's heroics people expected it to be a one off, special innings and for it to be business as usual in this Test but SA's strategy at home seems to be blowing up in their face.

They prepare spicy wickets which brings average bowlers into the game and while Rabada is one of the best bowlers in the world they should be backing him to take wickets on pitches more suited for a 300 first innings score, not these 200 if you're lucky ones (obviously poor batting has played a big part but the point stands).

There was grounds to do this when they had the likes of Morkel, Philander, Abbott with Rabada but as much as I love Steyn he's obviously getting on and isn't a world beater anymore. An attack of Rabada, 35 year old Steyn, Olivier and Mulder is about on par with India/Australian pace attacks at the moment (form permitting for us outside Cummins) and yet we don't bother to prepare such wickets as we know it would only hurt us.

It led to some great wins against India etc. but time for South Africa to start backing their bowlers to do a job on more then green tops and being building their next generation of batsman. Going to hurt them even more when they go overseas if they continue like this.

Also worth mentioning that Maharaj is a good bowler but he'll never be more then that if he continues to only bowl 6 overs a Test. Needs a chance to develop if he's going to help SA when pitches that favour spin are on offer.

I just took a look at the scorecard and their spinner Maharaj has just bowled 10 overs. In an ideal scenario, the spinner should be bowling the opposition out in the last innings. But the south african obsession with pace has meant that the spinner has been pushed to the secondary role, even in the last innings when he should be bowling sides out.

A good article on this by Andrew Fernando on cricinfo 2 days back.

Keshav Maharaj's progress stalls as South Africa settle for pace prowess



http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_...gress-stalls-south-africa-settle-pace-prowess

I talked about this in the first test. Ottis Gibson's plan of stacking their side with pacers and hoping they'll blast through every side was always short sighted because:

1. There will be at times when they won't be able to do that even at home like it's happening here.

2. It brings attacks closer.

3. It is counterproductive in their development as a team when they tour away and they'll struggle to be versatile across different conditions.

The South African batting has always been vulnerable since the last two years or so but they still won against India and Australia largely on the brilliance of AB with the bat who saved their ass plenty of times and Elgar too chipped in from time to time. Their strategy was always going to backfire one day because their top 6 (especially after AB retired) is nowhere near solid enough to play with 5 bowlers and just 6 misfiring batsmen.

Secondly, they have played SL at Durban and Port Elizabeth, the most spin friendly wickets in South Africa. If there was ever a case which cried out for two spinners, it was these two venues. If you observed the wickets in the last 1 year or so and even as recent as the last series against Pakistan, all the wickets had a lot of cracks and very seam bowling friendly with irregular bounce. Whereas while both the wickets in this series had something in them for the fast bowlers, they didn't really crack up and both were pretty good wickets for batting where you got value for your shots. And in the absence of Philander, the other pacers failed to step up on wickets where wickets weren't as easy to come by when compared to the crumbling pitches in the recent series.

So this was the ideal scenario where they needed to field two spinners but they didn't even give proper spells to their lone spinner. There was a lot of turn in both the wickets but it's their irrational allergy against spinners has caused their downfall this series. I think more than their batting, they have lost this series because their bowlers haven't been able to step up when the wickets weren't as seam bowling friendly while the skillful Lankan pacers have done so in wonderful fashion (because they're used to bowling on flat pitches at home) and hence the series result.

 

[avishka5]

I like the look of Fernando. Structurally speaking he strengthens our batting line up and allows Matthews and Chandimal to bat 5-6. Matthews is always in and an out through injury but when he's in De Silva will have to go. Also I would have Kusal Perera taking the gloves from Dickwella.

That second opener is the issue now. Maybe Perera could open.

 

[Badesumofu]

If someone told you Sri Lanka would win a historic series victory this season - you would not have thought it was going to be against RSA. Great to watch, both to see them make this achievement and also as a reminder that all Test series wins are a legitimate achievement.

 

[Doss]

And to think the ICC chairman thinks Test cricket is dying.

Fool.

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

Suck s**t Faf.

 

[swanssince2002]

Make Test Cricket GREAT AGAIN

 

[Wolfs]

19 to go

 

[Wolfs]

11 to go.

Faf really doesn't trust Maharaj much

 

[Milang_Panthers]

11 to go...

 

[Wolfs]

Single digits

 

[SunGirl89]

Records that will be broken:
- no Asian team has inflicted a Test series white wash in South Africa (AUS + ENG have)
- no Asian team has won 2 matches in a Test series in South Africa (AUS + ENG have)
- no Asian team has won a Test series in South Africa

This will be the 2nd series win for Sri Lanka in either AUS/ENG/ZAF:
- 2014 - Sri Lanka in England (1 win, 0 losses, 1 draw)

 

[Wolfs]

Damn that's a hit to tie it up

 

[Milang_Panthers]

Whack!!!!!