SA is easily my favourite team to watch right now. Amla and AB are two of the most complete batsmen in the world.

Can't wait to watch Amla in NZ. He is in absolutely sublime touch and it will be difficult to get him out if the pitches are as flat as they have been for Zimbabwe.

Interesting, and it seems there is a lot of illusion about his action looking so iffy - but you have to take the angles the ICC quote etc with a pinch of salt (though, in his case there looks to be some margin left). I'm not sure how it works now but when they tested Murali (following him bowling the doosra more often) I understand he was asked to bowl all of 6 balls. It really is a joke - when he played in matches he bowled 30+ overs a day in extreme heat just trying to get the batter out. When he's tested he's just trying to bowl with a straight arm, with his fingers and wrist completely fresh. With the doosra, it's easier to bowl with more straightening and harder to do with wrist plus fingers when you get tired.

Imo, the testing should replicate a match. If it means a bowler being there for hours, dripping with sweat, then so be it. Better would be testing during a match, but I'm not sure if that is possible.

Also re Murali, and I'm not especially having a go at him, when he was tested he got up to 14.5 degrees I understand. That was knowing he was being tested when he wasn't tired. Obviously he would have straightened his arm a lot more than that during a match.

lol

In theory it's the umpire's call. In practice the authorities say yes or no until the action changes. There should be no issue at all with Ajmal as it's nowhere near close. The authorities were happy with Murali's action, which was closer, and I'm happy to accept their decision. In the old days chucking was more of an issue with fast bowlers. I'm not sure when that changed.

South Africa do seem to fluff their lines quite a bit ! Philander has a phenomenal record so far and Tahir looks better than Harris. I'm not sure whether Finn will get a game when Bresnan is fit again. It looks fairly even on paper but as an England fan I am apprehensive. I fear Steyn may run amok once or twice.

I think any person with more than 2 brain cells will be comfortable saying that if a bowler straightens their arm by 14.5 degrees, out of 6 attempts in a test environment, they probably straighten by more than 15 degrees sometimes in a match. Still, thanks for the great response though. "lol" posts are always awesome.

i mean both ajmal and murali chuck the ball but the ICC have changed the rules and you just have to get on with it. It's slightly unfair that in England or Aus if you chuck the ball you probably get to a decent level and are then told you chuck the ball and are never seen again. If you play in India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka you get to test level, people question you're action, the icc clear the action saying it's within their new restrictions and you go on and have a long career.

In the UK we'd never let these guys get to test level and so are at a disadvantage to other teams.

a good example is maurice holmes. made it to county level, called for chucking, ecb tested and told him he can't bowl his doosra. released by county.

Ajmal is not even close. He's at 8 degrees when the permitted bending is 15 degrees. Were you were one of those who were complaining about reverse swing being cheating until Darren Gough started doing it ?

Re Maurice Holmes he is allowed to play but his doosra failed the test. I expect that the same rules apply to him as everyone else ie there must be less than 15 degrees of bending.

I don't see why. It's the same bowling action and it's likely to be nearly identical every time. It's only amateurs that bowl with a different action every time through lack of practice.

This is 100% not true. If it was then why does every ball tested have a different reading? And specifically, the doorsa is where the hand sort of rolls over the ball, like when you put your hand into a sweater. It's easier to do if you straighten you arm. Once you get tired, even regular spinners are harder to bowl with such fizz, and the doosra more so.

Fwiw I think Botha is as bad as any with the doosra but he doesn't seem to get mentioned as much now for some reason.

lol. Right that is the reason England hasn't produced a great spinner since Jim Laker.

Hi Murali.

What about Ashley Giles?

I was mostly pointing out how its ironic to say you're not having a go at him but somehow its "obvious" he bends it more in a match.

Yes and Mohammad Sami is the best fast bowler since Imran Khan

What were the individual readings ? Were they different by a tenth of a degree, a hundredth of a degree or what ? You need to support your claims with actual figures for them to be meaningful.

I decided to look at this myself. Murali had an extension of 10.2 degrees plus or minus 0.6 of a degree. That's miles inside the 15 degrees allowed.

http://www.islandcricket.lk/news/615...tharans_doosra

I try to stay away from the whole chucking arguments, especially now since Murali has retired. Much safer, imo, to stick to matters of established fact such as Shane Warne being the clear GOAT spin bowler (and probably human being as well)

At game lol us

SL 165 all-out.

pretty much.

England would've won this series 3-0 if it wasn't for those meddling ICC Executives .

His record is far worse than Murali's and he was banned for taking drugs.

I wouldn't say far worse. Also you have to take into consideration that Warne had to compete with Mcgrath and others for his wickets. He also bowled a lot in Aus where spinners are less successful.

I'm not saying Warne is better than Murali though. Both GOAT spinners with their own strengths.

Dont agree with the second part, he was uneffective when he did bowl in parts that helped him.

Untimately theyre the two best spinners to play the game, people from subcontinent think Murali's GOAT people from other parts of the world pick Warne.

His record is far worse. Murali took 800 wickets @ 22.72 and Warne took 708 wickets @ 25.41. Warne has a very poor record against Indian batsmen. He took a lot of wickets of batsmen who were not very good at playing spin. From recent results that seems to be English batsmen lol. However I don't like comparisons either. Both were greats and we might not see their like again.