Abdullah719
T20I Captain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Runs
- 44,825
Mickey Arthur at a presser today:
On the Azhar Ali catch issue and on whether he considered taking on ref again "It was quite easy, especially after the demerit points last week, so I made sure that Grant Luden held me back but to be fair, he wasnt 100% sure that he caught that so it was a little bit different to last week"
"We had a seam all-rounder like Faheem Ashraf but anyone who watched Yasir Sha's last 2 overs would see how much it turned and if we could get the spinner in the 4th day then a spinner would certainly be in it"
"We had seamers who toiled very hard today, I thought that in the first 2 hours we bowled particularly well"
"They did battle in terms of pace in their comeback spells but we toiled hard today"
"We controlled the run rate but unfortunately we didnt take wickets ; normally when you control the run rate and build pressure, the wickets normally take care of themselves, which they didnt"
"I thought Faf played particularly well, and Temba played well as wel"
"We went with 6 batsmen in the game; after Centurion we felt that we needed 6 batsmen and we thought that there was enough work there for 3 seamers"
"and we knew if we could take the game to deep, the spinner would come into it; because the wicket is fairly dry, and the spinner doesnt come into the game until Day 3 or 4 and obviously we need to take the game that far"
"When you setup strategy, you set it up as glass half-full strategy (optimistic) so that we would score enough first innings runs to bring the spinner into the game right at the back end of it"
"We have spoken a lot about 5 bowlers a lot; You can go with 5 bowlers or 4 bowlers and we went with 4 bowlers in this game and rightly or wrongly, it will play out in the end"
"I think this is a good crop of [South Africa] lads and again and the bowlers in South Africa's attack are outstanding"
"When you have 3 guys who are bowling at 145KpH+ and then you have Vernon who doesnt give you anything and challenges you with every ball, so its a very very good side"
"Elgar gets the job done and Markram will be a very good player for some time to come"
"They are a very good unit particularly in these conditions where the wickets suit them"
"The temperament that Faf showed through the day was outstanding"
"I am a little disappointed as I havent been back in South Africa in a coaching capacity since 2010 and the standard of wickets in Centurion and what we have here I think has not been good for Test cricket"
"With South Africa whenever you play a team from the sub-continent, you will always ask for a little bit of bounce and pace"
"I think both wickets have been very weighted in favour of the bowlers and obviously its homeground advantage so its fair"
"Being an opening batsman in South Africa at the moment is a tough gig"
"I just think its has been inconsistent and there were 7 stoppages today where the ball hit the batsmen"
"And I am talking about Day 2, I can understand if it gets to Day 4 and Day 5 as that's what happens in Test cricket"
"as the wicket deteriorates significantly and it should"
"But it shouldnt make the first innings a lottery and I still think that batting in the first innings is extremely tough"
"We though long and hard about playing 4 seamers here and we have got arguably the best spinner in Test cricket so we thought it was a no-brainer"
"And it did turn significantly in the last 20 mins today, and that's only Day 2"
"If we get to Day 4, then Yasir Shah plays a massive role for us; South Africa would say that probably with the uneven bounce and cracks opening up, if you are bowling at 145KpH it makes it pretty difficult to face as well"
"At that point we were looking at Tea time and give the quicks an extra time to come in full steam after Tea"
"Its just the extra bounce and our techniques have been exposed a little bit"
"We are still staying a little leg-side of the ball instead of trying to get a little offside of it and in these conditions, you got to be offside of the ball"
"Its tough to do as it goes against the grain of what our batsmen do normally"
"We spent 7 days in Benoni to get their [batsmen's] techniques better for the short ball because we knew that South Africa would come hard at them and that they would ball as many short balls they possibly could"
"And that has been the tactics against all sub-continental teams but we did work on it but extra bounce is something we need to cope with"
"In Centurion we got ourselves on 100/1 in innings #3, and if we had got 250 ahead then it would have been a very good game of cricket and I would have backed our bowlers so it was a missed opportunity at Centurion"
On the Azhar Ali catch issue and on whether he considered taking on ref again "It was quite easy, especially after the demerit points last week, so I made sure that Grant Luden held me back but to be fair, he wasnt 100% sure that he caught that so it was a little bit different to last week"
"We had a seam all-rounder like Faheem Ashraf but anyone who watched Yasir Sha's last 2 overs would see how much it turned and if we could get the spinner in the 4th day then a spinner would certainly be in it"
"We had seamers who toiled very hard today, I thought that in the first 2 hours we bowled particularly well"
"They did battle in terms of pace in their comeback spells but we toiled hard today"
"We controlled the run rate but unfortunately we didnt take wickets ; normally when you control the run rate and build pressure, the wickets normally take care of themselves, which they didnt"
"I thought Faf played particularly well, and Temba played well as wel"
"We went with 6 batsmen in the game; after Centurion we felt that we needed 6 batsmen and we thought that there was enough work there for 3 seamers"
"and we knew if we could take the game to deep, the spinner would come into it; because the wicket is fairly dry, and the spinner doesnt come into the game until Day 3 or 4 and obviously we need to take the game that far"
"When you setup strategy, you set it up as glass half-full strategy (optimistic) so that we would score enough first innings runs to bring the spinner into the game right at the back end of it"
"We have spoken a lot about 5 bowlers a lot; You can go with 5 bowlers or 4 bowlers and we went with 4 bowlers in this game and rightly or wrongly, it will play out in the end"
"I think this is a good crop of [South Africa] lads and again and the bowlers in South Africa's attack are outstanding"
"When you have 3 guys who are bowling at 145KpH+ and then you have Vernon who doesnt give you anything and challenges you with every ball, so its a very very good side"
"Elgar gets the job done and Markram will be a very good player for some time to come"
"They are a very good unit particularly in these conditions where the wickets suit them"
"The temperament that Faf showed through the day was outstanding"
"I am a little disappointed as I havent been back in South Africa in a coaching capacity since 2010 and the standard of wickets in Centurion and what we have here I think has not been good for Test cricket"
"With South Africa whenever you play a team from the sub-continent, you will always ask for a little bit of bounce and pace"
"I think both wickets have been very weighted in favour of the bowlers and obviously its homeground advantage so its fair"
"Being an opening batsman in South Africa at the moment is a tough gig"
"I just think its
"And I am talking about Day 2, I can understand if it gets to Day 4 and Day 5 as that's what happens in Test cricket"
"as the wicket deteriorates significantly and it should"
"But it shouldnt make the first innings a lottery and I still think that batting in the first innings is extremely tough"
"We though long and hard about playing 4 seamers here and we have got arguably the best spinner in Test cricket so we thought it was a no-brainer"
"And it did turn significantly in the last 20 mins today, and that's only Day 2"
"If we get to Day 4, then Yasir Shah plays a massive role for us; South Africa would say that probably with the uneven bounce and cracks opening up, if you are bowling at 145KpH it makes it pretty difficult to face as well"
"At that point we were looking at Tea time and give the quicks an extra time to come in full steam after Tea"
"Its just the extra bounce and our techniques have been exposed a little bit"
"We are still staying a little leg-side of the ball instead of trying to get a little offside of it and in these conditions, you got to be offside of the ball"
"Its tough to do as it goes against the grain of what our batsmen do normally"
"We spent 7 days in Benoni to get their [batsmen's] techniques better for the short ball because we knew that South Africa would come hard at them and that they would ball as many short balls they possibly could"
"And that has been the tactics against all sub-continental teams but we did work on it but extra bounce is something we need to cope with"
"In Centurion we got ourselves on 100/1 in innings #3, and if we had got 250 ahead then it would have been a very good game of cricket and I would have backed our bowlers so it was a missed opportunity at Centurion"
