Our Test Bowling Attack

[Flower power]

I think we have to concentrate on making the Young Turks ( Jarvis , Vittori & Co ) perform at the highest level , and at the same time keep hunting for young bloods , whom we will nature in our ever improving first class structure . And I hope we have a balanced development structure where we neglect some critical areas such as spin bowlers .

[sscricket]

hhm please your talking rubbish now ! the best bowling lineup we can go with in order to take 20 wickets is 8.cremer 9.meth 10.jarvis 11.mpofu

This is probably the best attack Zim can put together at this time. I would keep the Jarvis slot open to Vitori or NCube even while the other three are mandatory with Meth leading the pack.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Reginald querl should be there should he put the hand up to roll the arm

[FlowerPower]

Guys, guys, devoid of subsatnce as hhm's argument for Panyangara may be, lets not be too hasty to discredit the poor lad, unfairly so I may add. He may not be forcing his way into selection, nor half as good as hhm would like us to think, but he is doing fairly ok and not as bad as some here would have us believe. For the record this season:

He has 9 wickets at an average of 16.66 and a SR of 42.6 decent figures and to contextualize...he has bowled half the overs that Querl has bowled for his 25, at 12.44 at a phenomenal SR of 32.5...and to give even better context, Mpofu having bowled about half a match less has also 9 wickets. And prior to his injuries six years ago he was a decent prospect, but that was 6 years ago.

So just as hhm exaggerates Panyangara's class I don't see the need to devalue him either.

Also at the risk of sounding turn coat, I think my favoured attack of 8. Cremer 9. Jarvis 10. Vitori 11. Mpofu, may just have issues should we need to contain, yes this is an attacking quartet, but against better teams than Bangladesh we may not even take the wickets we hope for, but also go at 5 an over and face 450-0 by close of day 1, with worse in prospect. And having the Proteas use the same strategy (which I admired) and fail (remember Watson and Hughes), our more modest bowlers have no chance of pulling it off against the likes of Watson and Hughes, Cook and Strauss, Viru and Gambir, etc...

So we may need to sobber up a bit about:

8.Cremer 9. Jarvis 10. Vitori 11. Mpofu
to something like:
8. Price 9. Jarvis 10. Vitori 11. Mpofu or 8. Cremer 9. Jarvis 10. Rainsford/Meth 11. Mpofu,

I think the former being a better option, but agreed Panyangara is not there yet, but also he is not totally useless.

[FlowerPower]

Reginald querl should be there should he put the hand up to roll the arm

DOGGY I think that is all good, and good performances should be noticed and rewarded, but as hhm and a few of us grayer haired members of the forum tried to explain you don't want to be in the habit of rushing debuts and handing caps to anyone who has a good spell in any match...(I exaggerate, Querl has had a number of good MATCHES, let alone spells)...but you don't want to be dishing out test caps at anything attracting your attention. If you look at Philander for the Proteas for example, he was the best bowler in FC for TWO seasons. That means he proved his consistency and eventually found his way to the Test side, after excelling CONSISTENTLY in FC and on A tours.

I agree, every now and then a Cummings(18) or Jarvis(18 before his injury) will come along, fine, let them as exceptions rather than a rule. Immediately post 2004 we had to grab whoever could impress even after a game or two, as we had no one. Now we do, we can be more gradual and methodical in our approach. First it was Vitori (and to a degree Jarvis) then Ncube, now Querl, we can't keep doing it that way, as hhm said, you creat an impression that you have a fantastic half season then you are almost entitled to a go, which shouldn't be, yes if they are a prodigy by all means, but otherwise go through the motions. I mean without disrespect Querl is 23. If he were excellent (which I think he CURRENTLY is) we should have heard of him long back. Let him show that this is his level, and not an isolated purple patch.

But note I rate the lad, and think what we (management) ought to do is wisper in his ear, tell him we have plans for him, tell him to keep taking the wickets, we notice him and keep him interested. Anyone fails (and I mean more than bowling one 4.5 3 over spell...I mean fails for 2/3 matches, by all means let him through).

[betterdays]

Any line-up without Price is still a couple of years away.

Zimdawg - you are guilty of what you accuse hhm of ... 'n i like it - boards should be shaken up from time to time. bring in querl if you insist but only at the expense of Jarvis

all those happy for Meth seem also to be promoting Jarvis on the back of his international performances but the same cannot be said of Meth (yeah, new day and all that) but point to his FC performances. On that basis, assuming FPs figures are correct, Rainsford deserves a proper shot

the undesired attack you all point to contains Price and Mpofu (minimum requirements) - for me Panyangara and Rainsford (as a pair) will do no worse than Vitori and Jarvis (as a pair) but add Cremer, in place of Ray, to Vitori and Jarvis and i'll be building a comfy spot on the floor behind my sofa. [edit: as a point of clarification: i wuldn't have either of these pairs bowling in the same test]

I like our bowlers generally, in truth of all those mentioned Querl and Panyangara are nowhere in my reckoning... but Cremer has not really performed as well as it seems you all believe despite having really, really improved since 2005. basically he's taken ODI wkts this year against Canada and Kenya (7 wkts in his last 11 ODIs and 5 of those were against Canada and Kenya

[eugene]

Eugene, I don't remember hhm mentioning Maregwede at any stage. Out of all the senior guys, Maregwede is one guy who has been starved of hhm's support

I often cheekily add an extra player or two to his list to see if he notices. Normally it is Ebrahim or Kasteni but I thought I would go with Maregwede today.

[hhm]

4-man attack:Mpofu, Rainsford, Elton, (Price). Sub Panyangara, ahead of Meth, Jarvis, Shingi, Nicholson, Ncube, Vitori, Querl; (Utseya, Cremer) - all in that order!

nuff said

Enjoy

[sscricket]

The only team that will be attacking is the opposition when Meth is not in the team.
You guys have overrated all the other bowlers either due to lack of choice or bias.

[eugene]

4-man attack:Mpofu, Rainsford, Elton, (Price). Sub Panyangara, ahead of Meth, Jarvis, Shingi, Nicholson, Ncube, Vitori, Querl; (Utseya, Cremer) - all in that order!

nuff said

Enjoy

Let me see here, Chigs will pick up 2 wickets, Mpofu 4, Rainsford 2 and Price 3. That is 11 wickets, where are the other 9 coming from to win the test match? Run-outs?