Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Arthur Crabtree wrote:And a shocking series for SA. Huge defeat.

Might be that their batting stats will rival England's v Pakistan in UAE under Strauss.

Not good for Superhuman Steyn's Asian stats.

Those stats don't make for good reading....

Batsmen series averages

de Bruyn - 52
Philander - 40
FAF - 26
Bavuma - 23
QDK - 13
Elgar - 12
Amla - 10
Markram - 10

Obviously, this is a series best forgotten about, because the overall Test stats of these batsmen tell a different story....

de Bruyn - 21
Philander - 25
FAF - 42
Bavuma - 33
QDK - 36
Elgar - 41
Amla - 47
Markram - 47

Bowlers series averages

Rabada - eight wickets @ 23
Maharaj - 16 wkts @ 24
Shamsi - four wkts @ 32
Philander - one wkt @ 38
Ngidi - one wkt @ 63
Steyn - two wkts @ 89

And overall bowling averages....

Rabada - 21
Maharaj - 27
Shamsi - 46
Philander - 21
Ngidi - 19
Steyn - 22

So, no reason to discard anyone...just write this off as a bad series, and learn from it.

back to back series defeats in sri lanka though, they have been horrific in sub continent recently...even worse than england!!

South Africa are the number 2 side in the world. Sri Lanka are number 6 (although there's only 9 points between 2 and 7). They really should not have lost that badly - thrashed twice, and after being destroyed in India too.

Touring Asia is hard for non-Asian sides, and only seems to be getting harder still, but I do worry about the strength of home advantage at the moment. Sri Lanka played three spinners in each game, and Lakmal bowled 6.3 overs in two matches. When you're bowling the new ball with two spinners, it's not a good sign IMO.

First ODI....

Sri Lanka 193 all out

Perera 81
Perera 49

Rabada 4-41
Shamsi 4-33

SA win by 5 wickets, 53* for JP

No FL for this one I think Andy. You were wondering what was coming up. Too late now of course.

Sri Lanka 244-8

Dickwella 69

Matthews 79 not out

Ngidi 3-50
Phehlukwayo 3-45

De Kock has raced to 70* from 53 balls, 121-2 in the 19th over

South africa 246-6 with seven overs to spare.

De Kock 87 from 78
Amla 43
Du Plessis 49
Duminy 32

Akila 3-60

South africa 363-7

Hendricks 102
Duminy 92
Amla 53
Miller 51

Perera 4-70

Fastest ODI Debut ton record for Reeza.

Amla provided a good start upfront with more than run a ball 50. However, he now even struggles to hit the balls on the leg side, which was his preferred area to score given that he had modified his trigger movements in tests as well as ODI's to score in that area. Reeza and Duminy then took control to post a mammoth total. It was ncie to see Miller tonk the ball in his own style after a very long time. Good for SA and him, but his inconsistency is the key problem. SA massive favorites imo especially the score being 73/3 in chase of 363.

89/4.

Angelo and Kusal partnership have to rebuild and set a platform for this chase.

126/5 now.

Sri Lanka 285 all out.

Dhananjaya 84

Ngidi 4-57
Phehlukwayo 3-72

5th ODI Sri lanka bat first and post 298-8 Mathews 98*