South Africa v India tests - Jan 2018

[Dr Cricket]

Also Dale Steyn is out of the series with an injury.
got tissue damage on the left heel and his out for 4-6 weeks.

[Dr Cricket]

He may yet prove me wrong, but you have to wonder why India selected a medium pacer who's not played first class cricket for a year in the squad, never mind the first XI.

Think they took a punt to see if he could take a wicket and be a threat with the old ball, not really a bad option to take a punt if you playing 4 pace men.
plus they probably wanted one quick that could bowl quick.

[Dr Cricket]

apart from Elgar struggles, markram was looking really good at the crease and batting looked quite good when Bhuvi and Pandya were batting as well.
pandya took 2 crucial wickets which will restrict SA scoring at the moment.
if india went at the close with no wickets it would have been tough to come back in the test.
it should be remembered at the moment SA are 142/2 with a tailender at the crease and SA going with one less batsman plus Steyn injured.
if the wicket is getting flatter and easier to bat on then SA still need to score some more runs.
not sure SA would want to collapse to score around 200.
a lot of cricket is still left in this game.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Also Dale Steyn is out of the series with an injury.
got tissue damage on the left heel and his out for 4-6 weeks.

Such a shame.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wonder if he's got any Test cricket left in him.

[GGAS]

Will they go with Phelukwayo or Bavuma for the next one?

[andy]

Gutted for Steyn...wonder if that's him finished at test level now? So close to over-taking Pollock too!

[Arthur Crabtree]

Bavuma I think.

[Dr Cricket]

might be crucial moment in this test as well, especially with it looking like morkel struggling with his rythym and wrist position.
would mean SA going with 4 bowlers and 5 batsman and de kock.
they already lost 2 openers so De villiers, Amla and Faf + de kock need to score bulk of their runs.

reckon what ever happens in the 2nd innings will decide how they replace steyn if they struggle with the bat and the bowling copes ok with 4 bowlers bavuma will come in for Steyn, but if the bowlers are struggling to take wickets or bowling loads of overs reckon they will play andile phehlukwayo.

reckon they will go with phehukwayo not sure they want maharaj to bowl too many overs in this series and if they going with 4 bowlers it would mean him bowling 20+ overs an innings and they would need the 4th seam option if they don't want maharaj to bowl much considering if morkel losing rythym and struggling with wrist they only really have rabada to bowl with the older ball, not sure I want Rabada to be the stock bowler and attacking bowler at the same time.
philander isn't someone known to bowl with the older ball either so I think they would prefer the 5th bowler in this series.

think steyn injury made this game interesting especially if the pitch goes flatter, philander not got the greatest fitness record either and not sure he can bowl that many overs in a day or spell so SA only potentially got Morkel, Rabada and Maharaj when india bat again.
philander won't have the conditions he likes either if the pitch flattens up.
in all likelihood this game might go to the wire.

[Dr Cricket]

Will they go with Phelukwayo or Bavuma for the next one?

I will go with phelukwayo.
think it will depend on what happens on the 2nd innings though.
don't think SA trust philander fitness record either to go with him on a 4 man attack.

if SA lose another seam bowler think India will be confident of their chance in this series from what i seen from this test match so far.

[meninblue]

Saffers must be glad they took a significant lead in first innings considering Steyn won't be bowling. Also luckily they are playing 5 specialist bowlers, so they can bowl one innings with 4. From Indian perspective while batting, Steyn being unable to bowl will be better.

Will they go with Phelukwayo or Bavuma for the next one?

iirc Saffers played 6+5 against Zimbos as well. Given how we are batting, they may like to keep the dominance of their bowlers on our batters and might continue with the 6+5. Morkel too is coming back from injury, another such incident if they play 4 bowlers in next test will be sucidial without any cover. They bowled with 3 bowlers once versus Aussies last year or so when i think Steyn got injured mid-match in 4 bowlers attack. Pehlu.. bowled well versus Zimbos. Good pace although not as fast as Rabada and Morkel, but better pace than Philly for sure who is now operating majorly around 127. Pehlu... moves it away from righties and India have 10 of them. Considering all the situations imo Pehlu... will get a match rather than Bahuma.

[Dr Cricket]

Steyn not batting either in this test match, will only bat if required.

[andy]

I think they will go with Phelukwayo too

[meninblue]

Saffers must be glad they took a significant lead in first innings considering Steyn won't be bowling. Also luckily they are playing 5 specialist bowlers, so they can bowl one innings with 4. From Indian perspective while batting, Steyn being unable to bowl will be better.

Will they go with Phelukwayo or Bavuma for the next one?

iirc Saffers played 6+5 against Zimbos as well. Given how we are batting, they may like to keep the dominance of their bowlers on our batters and might continue with the 6+5. Morkel too is coming back from injury, another such incident if they play 4 bowlers in next test will be sucidial without any cover. They bowled with 3 bowlers once versus Aussies last year or so when i think Steyn got injured mid-match in 4 bowlers attack. Pehlu.. bowled well versus Zimbos. Good pace although not as fast as Rabada and Morkel, but better pace than Philly for sure who is now operating majorly around 127. Pehlu... moves it away from righties and India have 10 of them. Considering all the situations imo Pehlu... will get a match rather than Bahuma.

Add to it, out batters will be relatively better used to the conditions after two innings. So they will have to bowl better as series progresses.And the wicket for next test may not be as sporting as it was in this. Also Daggers batters had to bat first , still managed to get a good score. Batting will not be an issue for them. More reason to continue with 6+5. So Andile will be preferred imo. Let's see who they opt for though.

Andile is much simpler than Pehlu.... No need to use dots in that because of simple spelling.

[Dr Cricket]

India lack some genuine fast bowlers. Shami seems to be the only one. On a tour of South Africa you need more than one.

TBH think india pace look ok.
Bhuvi doesn't really need to be quick because of his movement, he is more of an Anderson/Philander type bowler.
Bumrah was the 3rd quickest bowler in the game and is about similar speeds to rabada and steyn on his day so that one quick there.
Shami as mention can be quick.
pandya bowled the quickest ball in the first innings for india and can bowl 90 mph so not sure pace is really a problem.
think india need to worry more about consistency, bowling at the right lengths and catching rather than the pace, doubt many of the south african batsman are calling the indian quick slow they probably decent pace and still a challenge in SA.

here are the speeds for the indian bowlers in the game so far
Bhuvi average 82.7/ highest 87 Very good for his type of bowling.
Shami average 84.2/ highest 88.8 again good pace.
bumrah 85.9/highest 89.4 again good pace
pandya 83.9/highest 88.9 again good pace.

Reckon india bowlers seem slower or not that quick because south Africa got 3 quicker bowlers bowling but in terms of pace in Test matches the indian team at the moment is above average of what most team are bowling.
think most teams outside Australia and SA, probably india as well are bowling around 85mph.
at the moment SA and Aus are bowling 90mph, india around 85-86, england low 80s, NZ the same, pakistan haven't got much pace bowlers either.


Comparision with SA fast bowlers in first innings
Philander 79.4/82.8
Steyn 86.2/89.4
morkel 85.9/89.9
Rabada 88.3/92.5

as seen with that india pace is quite similar to SA pace men, with only Rabada quicker.
SA bowlers are a touch quicker that is really it.
if indian bowlers were bowling around 80 like England bowlers are mostly doing in Australia at the moment then I reckon you might be making a valid point but around 85-87 is ok.