FoxSports reports : "Spin king Shane Warne believes South Africa have handled the pitch issue well by not complaining to match officials. Warne claimed there would have been uproar had Australia skipper Ricky Ponting been injured in the same manner as Smith." Enough said Tuesday & OZ! That pitch was a disgrace 2 OZ cricket & was better than what India had 4 SA 3rd test over there last year. The difference was the better all rounded Indian attack compared 2 OZ's 1 dimensional, underprepared semi-professionals.

Chickens have come home to roost 4 KP. The gr8 Allan Lamb said this about him : "We are a laughing stock at the moment, we are a total shambles... and Pietersen is to blame for that." Where would SA b with KP, exactly where England is, he's such a celebrity, he would not have made it in the Team culture that SA promotes. Besides, our no4 Kallis, is a legend allrounder, only 2nd 2 Sobers. Now the Poms can see the man 4 who he is, a Triune Being : Me, Myself & I! But Poms, jeers u've lost 3 Captains in a year : Vaughan, Colly & now KP. Another SA born Captain takes over in Strauss.

Backo, did you not notice how the Aussies struggled to get 20 wickets in a Test over the last 2 series (NZ exempted)? Australia's bowling stock is probably at it's lowest in the past 20 years. Their batting is made up of struggling batsmen in the wrong side of thirties bar one. You want to tell us that Australia will still be No.1 for a long time to come? What is your opinion based on? A hunch?

Chill Penny. Looks like criticism of pitches and 'doctoring' is only reserved for subcontinental wickets :-( The Sydney wicket was not fit to host a test match and your own ex-players said that it is a surprise that only one player ended up with broken bones. It might be an honest mistake but the same magnanimity is not afforded to the groundsmen in the sub-continent. Words like 'dust-bowls', 'tarmacs' get bandied around with impunity. Anyways, my previous post was tongue-in-cheek and I do believe that the groundman made an honest mistake.

It's nonsense! People saying kp is getting too big for his boots - his boots are pretty big you know! England management knew the manner of the man when they made him captain. It sounds to me like kp wanted to run the team like a good team should be run but the management got involved and it all ends in a mess. Just look at the keeper/batsman fiasco which has been going on for years now! We had one of the best keepers in the world in Chris Read and England let him go! Great player like Shah can't get into the team, others who should not be there can't get out. This is the way the English run a cricket team! I expect kp went against this kind of thinking and people did not like it.

Not much being said around here now about the timing of Ponting's declaration. Guess he knew what he was doing after all huh? :-) Haven't seen anything written about the ball from Johnson to bowl Smithers either - the ball of the series, a beautiful delivery...

Watched the dramatic last hour in the gym bar here in phnom penh.What a great way to end a great series,chock full of drama. Congrats to both sides for just playing cricket. Siddle is great,full of aggression but no mouthing off. Hayden must be finished or do they have to hold him down and drive a stake through his heart. Hopefully he will take his mate symonds fishing with him as well.

"also no1 seemd to notice SA nearly chased down the runs on a 5th day pitch with more holes in it than yur average minefield" No-one noticed because it didn't happen. Define "nearly". They got within 100 runs? You might only show your face around here spasmodically jnichols, but at least the anti-Australian bias of your posts remains consistent....

Dareno, I thought you were specifically talking about this Sydney Test, hence my comparing the number of wickets that the Saffas took. My mistake. Still, the SA bowling attack isn't as potent as some here seem to think - not when you look at how little trouble the Aussie tail had against them, and as others here have pointed out, the Aussie top order threw their wickets away a number of times. Crimson, thanks for the sage words of advice on how to not embarrass myself when posting. You are one of the benchmarks here in that regard, so I'm presuming that you want me to do as you say, not as you do? And talking about stupid posters - "This win helps SA more than OZ, it covers their cracks, they still failed to take 20 wickets on a breaking pitch" - Madzulu, that statement is sillier than Karma's 'winning loss' one. How does this loss help SA? And the Aussies took all the wickets that were available to take you clown - are you suggesting that if Smith didn't hurt his pinky he would have carried his bat and been undefeated? Give credit where it's due, the Aussies deserved this win. As Saman and some others here have been sporting enough to concede. And as us Aussies did when SA won the first two matches...

good riddance to kp. he has been getting too big for his boots. cricket is a team sport. cohesiveness and mutual respect among team mates are important ingredients for success.

With Pietersen such a strong influence in the dressing room God help Andrew Strauss. Clearly Pietersen does not have a high opinion of Strauss as a Captain, or indeed a test player. If he had he wouldn't have been so desparate to look outside the current test team for Vaughan to provide him with tactical support and advice.

Quick somebody check if Tuesday is still alive. Kp what a tosser. Still a South African born as the skipper though 8-)

Lol @ Kevin Pietersen. Muppet.

Here we go, now Kallis needs to resign. Whoever said that is barking. Congratulations to the Aussies for winning this Test, they were the better team. Graeme Smith is a true legend of this game, and he is only 28.

Kallis should not resign, neither should Boucher. Instead, AB should open instead of Mac, Prince should come in @ 5 & JP @ 6. This win helps SA more than OZ, it covers their cracks, they still failed to take 20 wickets on a breaking pitch. The new era will prove 2 b worse than the old, it will b a bit late though, they will b losing 2-0 vs SA in SA.

Agreed Severed...good hard cricket, played in the right spirit. After all the nonsense against India last year, I'd almost lost my stomach for the game (well, maybe just my stomach for reading this blog....). SA deserved to win, but with the consolation victory, and a few new kids in the team who show promise, I'm hopeful that we've got the ingredients to pick our game up again. Oh, and if Ponting and Hussey can get back some form, so much the better - I'd say it's time for Hayden to call it a day.

Pietersen is just saying what he thinks like Botham he could take England forward rather than just staying in the old age Pietersen should say

well done to south africa! What a brilliant performance esp. by the skipper who led from the front. Perhaps the aussies need a captain with more charisma and more passion and zest for the game as well as someone who can think out of the box esp when they are in trouble. He may have passion for the game, but obviously he does not show it! Well done to Dale Styen , he is definetly a top class player! KP has a lot of drive and commands a lot of respect from his fellow team mates but is very egostistical! if he can bring his ego down by a couple of big notches , he may be just fine! i also think that the Eng need a new coach , just as well Moores resigned - new blood and a coach not so conservative but rather "ready to fire" should do the trick for england! Perhaps KP shudant have left SA after all. Just Imagine if KP was playing for SA right now, where would eng be and SA for that matter! he is definetly a class player as we all know.

i didnt think he would last long anyway but i did think he would take us into the ashes

What a test series! What a test match! The Aussies deserved to win the match. The most striking thing for me is the difference between this series and the AUS - IND series in Australia. There was none of the unnecessary argy bargy form guys who's egos surpassed their ability. (Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds). There were no geo-politics at play. Every game was played in the right spirit. South Africa were confrontational, but only in the field and not in the press. India can take a lesson form this. SA, and Smith in particular, came out of this test series having earned the respect of the Aussie crowd, as witnessed by the standing ovation when he came out to bat. Well done to the Sydney crowd, and I can only hope that the South African crowd show the same level of respect and appreciation to the Aussies when they come here in a few weeks time.

16/1 on Vaughan to capatin England for the Ashes...usually I would keep my money safe...but with the idiots at the ECB I am tempted ! Mind you it is 12/1 on Elvis Pressley so perhaps it would be wasted money.

Freightliner...Collingwood resigned after 'that run out series' and so he should have done as it was a disgrace, so the ECB had no choice there. Strauss (despite his good recent form) consistently goes through long patches where his place is in jeopardy which he always seems to avoid by a eventually getting a couple of great innings, with Collingwood / Bell / and any number of wicketkeepers a perennial liability could England really afford to have a captain that justified his place just because he was captain, a la Vaughan?...he may get it this time around 'if' KP does go but more likely Cook who talks more eloquently...after all stuff like that is what really matters. Isn't it?

Siddle did alright for himself after an unimpressive first test, he ended the series well. I agree with nrvs, the Aussie batting lineup was the bigger disappointment. That's where Australia had the experience and the biggest advantage in strength on paper going into the series and I felt they underperformed. South Africa's top order efforts weren't that much better to be honest, the only times SA's top order clearly outplayed the Aussies was in the second innings of the first and second match. Pretty much reflects the closely fought nature of the series that there wasn't much to choose between the batting or bowling from either side. South Africa's tail certainly outdid themselves this series, I've never seen them bat with such determination or effectiveness.

I forgot to mention that you cannot have a captain holding the coach to ransom,it is unforgivable for Pietersen to say that Peter Moores should go,it has nothing to do with him.

Kevin Pietersen should never have been appointed as captain in the first place.Andrew Strauss should have been made captain of the test side,and Paul Collingwood should never had been replaced of the one day side.Andrew Strauss would/will make a better captain and should have been given the job,and why Paul Collingwood`s one day captaincy taken away i will never know.The England Cricket Board have brought this all on themselves and it was only about how long before it blew up in there faces,and it took longer than i thought it wood.If i can see it why could the powers to be not see it for themselves.