Back to the DRS

you know I was thinking we have a fake sporting competition out there (wrestling) so they have the freedom to change whatever they like to make it as entertaining as possible. Do they get rid of refereeing "mistakes"? No they have refereeing "mistakes" in every match I watched as a kid. So the drama of the human element of refereeing is part of the entertainment!

Of course if we wanted to completely optimize entertainment value we would have the referee distracted by being hit with a chair while someone tampers with the ball only to have the referee recover in time to see a vicious inswinging yorker clean up the stumps.....not going to say I'm opposed to the idea

yes Nevill has shown fighting spirit in two knocks this year. He is coming good slower than I would like but he may be coming good
Bowling I'm not worried about- our bowlers have done well in all conditions against all opposition and were unlucky to bowl in a heat wave (normally in such conditions you bowl your spinner more often so its a little surprising we didn't. Even if you don't think they are most likely to take wickets, if they can keep it tight then they can keep fast bowlers fresh)
If we replace marsh with a top batter that would make a big difference

I know the rules
my point is what does the DRS contribute?
There is less drama because the decision isn't instant you are watching boring replays for a few minutes after a decision (and bad decisions are part of the drama) and I don't think the DRS solves any structural problems (the tendancy for the umpire to be biased toward the team ahead in the game, the tendancy for people to feel agrieved after a controversial decision. These problems have gotten worse or the same at best)
Also the DRS probably reduces respect for the umpire
I personally am not seeing its value

I don't think the bowlers should escape criticism either, at the end of the day South Africa scored 782 runs (and it could've been more!) On top of that they were missing AB and Amla scored no runs. 

Don't get me wrong the bowlers got us off to a dream start but its almost like we put the cue in the rack after the first two sessions and thought the job was done and that's simply not good enough. 

Collectively we were rubbish at everything in that match and I'm struggling to see any positives. 

Observations about the batting order after that loss:

- South Africa's number 6 and 7 both average over 40. Our number 6 and 7 both average less than 25.
- Vernon Philander has the same batting average as Mitchell Marsh, but he bats at 8. He smacked 73 runs in the second innings, M.Marsh scored 26 at number 6. 
- Marsh's first class average is now less than 30. Anyone who thinks he's a test number six is on some powerful hallucinogens. 
- South Africa won the game with three bowlers, we lost the game with five bowlers. Which sort of puts a dent in the argument that Mitchell Marsh adds anything to the team balance. 

The Australian selectors seem to have seen sense because they've just added two batsmen to the squad for Hobart. Burns will come in for Shaun Marsh (injury). Hopefully they drop M.Marsh and give Ferguson a go at number 6. 

On the upside, Nevill came good with the bat today in a big way. He should stay for the series. 

Shaun Marsh out with a broken finger. Joe Burns and Callum Ferguson added to the squad. Burns in for Shaun Marsh looks extremely likely. Ferguson in for Mitch Marsh? 
Ferguson is a player who came into the SA state side many years ago with big expectations but never has quite reached that level. A good first class batsman, but a test batsman I am not so sure about.

The rules try to take into account the inaccuracy of the system. That is why dismissals end up as umpires call when less than half the ball hits the stumps. What this is saying is, the technology cannot be certain the ball was really hitting the stumps, it might have been, it might not have been, so lets pretend the technology does not exist and go with the decision that would have occurred without there being DRS. So with the Smith LBW the technology effectively said I don't know and the umpire had given him out so he was out.

Great win by SA, one player down for most of the match and no ABD either. 

One of Morkel or Abbott will come in, I'd back in either to tear through this Australian side. 

again an umpires call

now we have 602 runs for the test

600 used to be par though these days it might be 650 with deep tails

When your team is on a losing trot it needs to play against itself for a while. Just aim to get 600+ runs a test and wins will come again

Another positive is Neville starting to show some good signs

ahhh I think we get away with a draw if warner isn't run out

if smith isn't given in the first innings we probably get a huge first innings lead....hopefully the next few games are better for us than this one

lets hope this is the start of something for peter neville
he has had two really impressive performances with the bat. If he comes good that leaves mitch marsh as the only missing link

here is about the stage when the bowlers are probably getting tired

sadly we have only 2 wickets in hand

I used to support the DRS because I always thought that the team on top got the close decisions go their way which spoils viewing pleasure. But I don't think the DRS improves that tendancy.

But it does detract from viewing pleasure by lowering the drama.

I must admit I don't understand the DRS. That was more than half the ball missing and I really doubt ball tracking is particularly accurate

I'm with india get rid of it

I'd really like to see us get 360 so we can at least make 650 runs in the test. Might be difficult though because our psychological strength hasn't been great of late

I would swap neville for wade and maxwell for marsh as the allrounder (or play a specialist batsman)

yeah it just got away from us this test. We had the foot on the throat after the first day and didn't bat long enough for the heatwave to cost south africa.
The Smith LBW cost us but in the end we are 2 quality batters short of a team that compete with top opposition (and thats including Shaun Marsh as a quality batter which may be generous)

Many of the Sri Lankans are new in their careers so their average is deflated compared to their quality. Also a sri lankan batting average 35 probably means they are averaging 45+ at home.  Finally other world class fast bowlers like hazelwood struggled against the same side (as fast bowlers usually do in such conditions). Finally Patrick Cummins got a huge haul on debut against SA at a younger age. Rabada will probably be good but Starc is the best in the world at the moment in all forms of the game. Unfortunately we are a 5-6 man team at the moment.
I think the anti-Australian bias in football fans doesn't disappear when those fans support another sport....I mean I hear this every series - Smith and Warner are crap, their best batters are better. Starc is crap their bowlers are better
Anyway we are at a disappointing standard without bias i'll look out for some positives to talk about (if any) when watching todays play.

The biggest problems for Australia at the moment are
1. Smiths alarming decline since taking over captaincy - this is normal but should be temporary
2. Nevilles surprisingly poor batting at test level. He looks stronger than wade or haddin at first class level but not adjusting yet. He seems to have pretty decent technique at times actually and a fighting spirit (remember his 4 of 150 balls in Sri Lanka). Not sure what is wrong but he averages just 21
3. Mitch Marsh has been a weaker batter this year than some of our tail enders. Over the last two seasons he has averaged 18.5 with the bat below starc's career average of 23, siddles average over the same time of 25.6. We pretty much have a tail that starts once voges gets dismissed. And the top order include Shaun Marsh who has two left feet and hands till he gets 10 runs and Khawaja who is still relatively inexperienced. Expecting 5 batsmen to make 650 runs a test when one is duck prone and another is inexperienced is crazy tactics

Even with a bowler down SA have done damage.

Have you seen the side they are playing with now? Almost the entire top order averages low 30's with the bat, they are a shadow of the side they once were. 

I mean come on, for Starc to be considered the best in the world he needs match winning hauls against England, South Africa or India. 

Rabada has already single handily won a match against England with a huge haul and he was only 20 years old at the time!  

This is the Rabada over I'm talking about. Go and watch: 

http://www.cricket.com.au/video/kagiso-rabada-superb-over-capped-with-adam-voges-dismissal-australia-v-south-africa-first-test/2016-11-06

Starcs 4 wickets in the first innings should have set up Australia to win the match but ce la vie our batting is poor

breaking a record against sri lanka for a fast bowler doesn't count for much? Hardly minnows

Rabada is only 21 and he already has the full package - pace, swing, seam movement, and the brain to know how to use it. Scary stuff. 

There's a five and a half year age gap between the two and Rabada's performance against England already daunts anything that Starc's done in his test career. 

If Starc is to be considered the best in the world he'll have to do a little more than beating down on the minnows of world cricket. 

starc did bowl in a heat wave and has probably been the best bowler in the last 12 months

Huge fan of Rabada scarily good, makes Starc look like a bum. 

WOW. What an over by Rabada. If you can find the tape of the over he just bowled to Adam Vogeswhen he got him out - stunning piece of bowling. 

If smiths first innings lbw wasn't given out, warner wasn't run out like that or the catches weren't dropped this could have been an interesting finish. Australia just got themselves so far behind in the match despite Steyn's injury