Cricket- the sport not the insect

[movingtarget]

2 questions.

How long will a flukey 98 keep this young lad in the team, despite him appearing out of his depth with the ball (not bad, but toothless).

Why does George Bailey get such a bad wrap from you lot - he's the only Australian who's looked like he knows which end of the bat to hold this Summer.

Bailey would have to be in the mix as for Agar I'm not convinced he will retain his position unless they want him to open the batting.

 

[movingtarget]

Would be interesting though if Agar hit another good score and showed up his more illustrious team mates including his captain. Our batting is diabolical at the moment.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Australia now have to go through the motions for 3 days knowing it's completely futile.

Very tough mentally.

 

[darwin553]

It's been awhile since these forums were up and running and in the meantime we have seen the poms retain the ashes. Well poms enjoy it now because the Ashes are remaining in Australia come January.

 

[del1962]

It's been awhile since these forums were up and running and in the meantime we have seen the poms retain the ashes. Well poms enjoy it now because the Ashes are remaining in Australia come January.

Really admire your (misplaced) confidence mate.

Unfortunately the Lacashire weather saved you guys from a 5-0 defeat

 

[Alphabet]

The sticking point in the Ashes is that the Australian fast bowlers have largely absolutely crushed the English fast bowlers for performance- this despite being on their turf, and bowling to a far stronger batting order, and not being able to reverse swing the ball. Stat attack:

Anderson 15 wickets @ 26
Bresnan 7 wickets @ 28
Broad 6 wickets @ 52
Finn 2 wickets @ 58.5

vs.

Harris 11 wickets @ 18
Siddle 16 wickets @ 21.68
Starc 8 wickets @ 27
Pattinson 7 wickets @ 43.85

Swann has been the difference. English pitches have been dry, crumbly, and spin friendly. All they've had to do is bat reasonably well and have Swann blow Australia away. I'm starting to believe now that England will lose in Australia because I suspect we will roll out greentops and capitalise on the fact that our fast bowlers are much, much better than England's- even Anderson. We haven't even unleashed the J-Bird yet, and then there's still the likes of Hilfenhaus (who in the 2009 Ashes in England took 30 wickets at 26) and *gulp* Johnson waiting in the wings. England meanwhile have just the one good quick, followed by two guys who blow cold more often than they do hot (Broad and Finn), one guy who blows **** all the time (Bresnan) and then what else? Tremlett? Onions?

 

[darwin553]

The sticking point in the Ashes is that the Australian fast bowlers have largely absolutely crushed the English fast bowlers for performance- this despite being on their turf, and bowling to a far stronger batting order, and not being able to reverse swing the ball. Stat attack:

Anderson 15 wickets @ 26
Bresnan 7 wickets @ 28
Broad 6 wickets @ 52
Finn 2 wickets @ 58.5

vs.

Harris 11 wickets @ 18
Siddle 16 wickets @ 21.68
Starc 8 wickets @ 27
Pattinson 7 wickets @ 43.85

Swann has been the difference. English pitches have been dry, crumbly, and spin friendly. All they've had to do is bat reasonably well and have Swann blow Australia away. I'm starting to believe now that England will lose in Australia because I suspect we will roll out greentops and capitalise on the fact that our fast bowlers are much, much better than England's- even Anderson.

Not surprised at all looking at any of those stats. I just hope Harris has got 5 tests in him in Australia.

 

[Alphabet]

We won't get 5. Best to get 4, give him the 3rd test off. But Harris isn't irreplaceable, sooner or later Pattinson is going to find his 2012 form, Cummins ought to be fully fit come December, and perhaps Hilfenhaus may have impressed enough in the Shield to earn a comeback. Ideally Pattinson and Harris should never ever play together.

 

[darwin553]

Ideally Pattinson and Harris should never ever play together.

I think we have had this argument before

Pattinson, Harris and Siddle (sigh but deserves his spot now) is the bowling line-up. Starc perhaps for Pattinson if Boof needs a left-arm quick to dismiss Cook.

 

[hoerpi]

Great stats Alphabet. After three games I have to admit that none of the teams have impressed be really, England hasn't been good but better.

 

[Alphabet]

Great stats Alphabet. After three games I have to admit that none of the teams have impressed be really, England hasn't been good but better.

England are being carried by Swann, pretty much. Apart from that there's not a lot to split the teams. Root has been deceptively good. He has averaged almost 50, I think, but importantly, his only 50+ score in 6 innings was the 180 at Lords. And he was also dropped there a few times early on. Clarke and Bell are trade-offs, then everybody else on both teams have been poor with the bat (except for the bowlers ).

I think we have had this argument before

Pattinson, Harris and Siddle (sigh but deserves his spot now) is the bowling line-up. Starc perhaps for Pattinson if Boof needs a left-arm quick to dismiss Cook.

It's madness to play them together until one (or ideally both) of them sorts out his injury issues. Both could quite conceivably get injured in the same test and then you'd have to have Siddle and Watson bowl 90 overs each. Play one alongside somebody more physically resilient, like Starc, or perhaps Bird (not sold on his fitness yet, although he's 26 so unless he's a Harris case his body should have matured by now).

Some time ago Michael Holding said that the reason for young fast bowler injuries (especially for countries like Australia, South Africa, England and New Zealand) is because they emphasise way too much on gym work. Holding reckons you can be javelin thin and still be very quick, it's all about their rhythm and they don't need to bulk up at all. And you can see his point vindicated by the fact that other countries that don't have the same emphasis on gym work, like Pak-istan, rarely have trouble with keeping their fast bowlers fit. Shoaib Akthar has been their only injury prone bowler in my lifetime, and he only started having problems when he started bulking up around 2003.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

This is about as delusional as the rubbish about Anderson carrying England which every major cricket columnist ran with after the first test.

England haven't played well, but they've battered these same bowlers in Australian conditions before, and they won't stay in poor form for 10 tests.

 

[Alphabet]

You can't deny it, Swann has been the difference. England haven't been significantly better with the bat, only marginally so; and the Australian fast bowlers have mostly outperformed the English fast bowlers. So where are the results coming from, given that the Australian quicks have made up the difference that the Australian batsmen gave away to the English batmsen? Logically it can only be Swann. Either Swann or fielding.

Australia aren't anywhere near top form, either. The only players that have looked 100% are Harris and Siddle. Clarke is still one gear short of hitting his peak, and the rest (except maybe Steve Smith) are well below their best. This is a far inferior team to the 10/11 English team, as well, so even when everybody peaks, I don't believe they will be as good. Conversely, this is a better Australian team than 10/11. If CA can bin Adelaide and play a test at Hobart instead, then I think Australia have at least a (slightly) greater than 50-50 chance of winning the series.

 

[greenedge]

@Alphabet: totally agree.

I think we have a chance of winning our next two games/ should be more confident in Australia.

Starc is still thin, but has been getting bigger...
For Siddle it works- he needs it for his bustling style.

 

[Alphabet]

If England aren't about 4/55 by lunch, they've pretty much won the test.

 

[movingtarget]

This is about as delusional as the rubbish about Anderson carrying England which every major cricket columnist ran with after the first test.

England haven't played well, but they've battered these same bowlers in Australian conditions before, and they won't stay in poor form for 10 tests.

Bell has been very good. Root, Cooke and Trott pretty ordinary. Petersen has looked pretty good but gone on with only once but England have had at least one batsman go on to to make a big score in every test. Australia hasn't except for Clarke's century. Australia badly needs a quality spinner as well. England is still playing like the more settled side personnel wise but the Aussies without the lost time in the last test would have gone close and did not lose the first test by much. So far, the series, apart from the second test debacle has been pretty close. I think South Africa would beat both of these teams at the moment.

 

[Alphabet]

If England aren't about 4/55 by lunch, they've pretty much won the test.

A hat trick in the first over after lunch and we're back lads .

South Africa aren't that good, as they showed when they toured here last summer. I fully expect them to be handed a thrashing when they play Pak-istan in the UAE soon(?), they haven't got a spinner and Ajmal was all over them in South Africa itself, imagine the damage he could do on proper Abu Dhabi bunsens.

 

[darwin553]

Doing alright atm. Bird has been a revelation.

 

[Alphabet]

^ People who've watched him (admittedly that's pretty much nobody ) have known for some time that he's miles better and much more refined than Pattinson, Starc, and the others. Since about November 2011, Bird has been unstoppable in the Shield and should have been the first bowler on the teamsheet ever since.

But the way the English press carried on when he was named in the squad, even if they were totally ignorant of Shield cricket, was pretty disrespectful, up there with that 'Nobody from Kazakhstan' insult when Vino won the Olympic road race. Does nobody in England watch even international Australian summer cricket? Bird was amazing against Sri Lanka.

 

[movingtarget]

Doing alright atm. Bird has been a revelation.

Too bad he spoilt it with some rubbish bowling at the end of the day. Harris and Bird. Extra runs for England that will irritate Clarke and the coach.

 

[darwin553]

Too bad he spoilt it with some rubbish bowling at the end of the day. Harris and Bird. Extra runs for England that will irritate Clarke and the coach.

Can't do too much about some lucky shots from Anderson. Looking forward to Warner scoring some runs today

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

England have played badly the last couple of games, and a few key players are not firing, but Aussie delusions aside, they've still been better, and they have far more upside from current performance levels (if we look at demonstrated maintainable performance, rather than expecting players who have never demonstrated Test match batting ability to suddenly become regular run getters)

 

[darwin553]

England have played badly the last couple of games, and a few key players are not firing, but Aussie delusions aside, they've still been better, and they have far more upside from current performance levels (if we look at demonstrated maintainable performance, rather than expecting players who have never demonstrated Test match batting ability to suddenly become regular run getters)

It's the quality of our fast bowlers up and down our squad that are keeping us somewhat in the game. Say this 10 years ago and I would have laughed at you.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

To emphasise the point, after the first Test it was all Anderson; after Lords it was all Swann, and if we do anything in this match suddenly people will only talk about Broad.

Different players will have good games at different times; the key is having enough decent players that you don't need the stars to align to get enough contributions to win a match.

 

[darwin553]

To emphasise the point, after the first Test it was all Anderson; after Lords it was all Swann, and if we do anything in this match suddenly people will only talk about Broad.

Different players will have good games at different times; the key is having enough decent players that you don't need the stars to align to get enough contributions to win a match.

Now it's broad - but to be truthful, you need to have all your bowlers firing...same with Australia...this start for England in this first session of the 2nd day will drag all you Poms into the pubs across the country.