[LateCut]

Can someone explain what the term "natural game" means? I am at a loss to find a meaning of this phrase that makes sense. I am just being awed by the gritty 2nd inning played by SA to save the match. Everybody put a value on their wicket mostly in vain. There was only one player who had the strike rate above 50. It was that of Amla who perished at 17. The man who single handedly forced a draw had a strike rate of 29. Faf Du Plessis was standing unconquered at 110 when the wistle blew. Was it his natural game? I do not think so judging from his stats in ODI and T20s stat (could not find his FC stat). What is striking is that this was his first and only test at the ripe old age of 28. Contrast this with our most succesfull batsman. This stat spans among tests, ODIs and T20Is at 60, 80 and 100 (roughly). Compare that with that of Plessis' (35, 88 and 155). Who is more aggrssive when it counts? Certainly not Tamim. Tamims strike rates are simillart to Graeme Smith's whose test average is close to 50 (as compared to 38. for Tamim). Our state of affirs for other batsmen is more abysmal in this respect. Similar analysis on other BD players shows the Kamikazi mentality even more pronouncedly. Is the natural game means playing on the backfoot irrespective of the length of the ball, trying to hook or pull anything short, charge out of the crease when in doubt, try to blast the ball out of the stadium to punctuate a personal milestone or at nevous nineties? I doubt it. I for one do not believe that we have the talent to play test cricket. I think we play our "natural game" to hide our inadequecy of skill (and talent). It is an excuse that is too easy to invoke (i.e. he got out playing his natural game). We resort to it freely and often at the face of each failure. If a lesson is not learned then it just might be coded in the DNA and cannot be altered. Thus I would wish that the current crop of BD players get out of test cricket and form a Russian Roulette team instead. Test cricket is a vintage to be sipped not gulped.