Cricket- the sport not the insect

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42x16ss

42x16ss

May 23, 2009
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Alphabet said:
People calling for Cook to be stripped of captaincy are ignoring the main point, which is that he has been massively let down by his team. It doesn't matter how good a captain is, if the fundamentals- good, in-form, fresh, and motivated cricketers- aren't there, then the team is going to be brutally punished, irrespective of how many slips you pack in.

Michael Clarke is often considered the best captain in the world. Was his captaincy winning Australia matches in India and England? No. Could Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor, or Allan Border have won any of those matches if they captained instead of Clarke? No. If you haven't got the players to begin with, no captain can ever make a difference.
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Got it in one. As a batsman Cook showed a few glimpses of decent form in the first three tests but was targeted very heavily by a surprisingly good bowling attack - Mitchell Johnson certainly amazed us all with his consistency this series. Kevin Pietersen looked like he didn't even care where he was and just wanted to head to the beach with a mini-mal, Trott's head was all over the place, Bell was too far down the order (should have been no. 3), Prior was targeted similarly to Cook, Swann was attacked from the second he picked up the ball and James Anderson totally lost his teeth.

England IMO lost this far more than Australia won. Haddin propped up almost every first innings total and a few second innings too, Smith and Rogers only started cashing in on the two dead rubbers, Bailey doesn't seem to be up to test standard, Watson was inconsistent with the bat and Johnson's consistency was utterly bizarre.

Out of the Aus batsmen only Warner, Clarke and Haddin truly did their jobs consistently in the live tests and heading to South Africa that is a bit of a worry, along with the fact that the only players under 30 in the squad are Smith, Lyon, Warner and Siddle while Rogers and Haddin are 36, Harris is 34 and Clarke is nearly 33 and his back is a ticking time bomb.
 
D

del1962

Oct 16, 2012
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My thoughts on Australia bowling / England Batting

Australia's bowling was extremely consistent and effective, Mitchell Johnson's pace made life very difficult, especially for England's lower order, Harris was good especially early on in the innings before he tired, Siddell and Watson where able to dry up the runs and Lyon managed to be useful.

I think Bell and Pierterson where perhaps England's most dissapointing batsmen, Bell because he seemed to lose confidence as the series went on and Pieterson because when not getting out to stupid shots was hanling Johnson pretty well but was happy to take a single of Johnson and expose those with lesser techniques to their fate. Stokes obvioulsy handled Johnson with more and more confidence as the series went on and from his second test was pretty much England's best batsman, Cook perhaps suffered from the captaincy, Carberry got himself becalmed too many times as did root and then they both tended to get out, neither Bairstow or Prior seemed to be able to handle Johnson at all, nor could any of the tail.
 
M

movingtarget

Aug 5, 2009
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42x16ss said:
Got it in one. As a batsman Cook showed a few glimpses of decent form in the first three tests but was targeted very heavily by a surprisingly good bowling attack - Mitchell Johnson certainly amazed us all with his consistency this series. Kevin Pietersen looked like he didn't even care where he was and just wanted to head to the beach with a mini-mal, Trott's head was all over the place, Bell was too far down the order (should have been no. 3), Prior was targeted similarly to Cook, Swann was attacked from the second he picked up the ball and James Anderson totally lost his teeth.

England IMO lost this far more than Australia won. Haddin propped up almost every first innings total and a few second innings too, Smith and Rogers only started cashing in on the two dead rubbers, Bailey doesn't seem to be up to test standard, Watson was inconsistent with the bat and Johnson's consistency was utterly bizarre.

Out of the Aus batsmen only Warner, Clarke and Haddin truly did their jobs consistently in the live tests and heading to South Africa that is a bit of a worry, along with the fact that the only players under 30 in the squad are Smith, Lyon, Warner and Siddle while Rogers and Haddin are 36, Harris is 34 and Clarke is nearly 33 and his back is a ticking time bomb.
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South Africa will be a much bigger test for the batsmen but some of the wickets will probably be similar to Australian ones. Haddin and Johnson were the heroes for Australia. I was one of the people who thought Johnson would never play another test. I was amazed at how well he bowled and Haddin has basically taken over Hussey's role. Mr consistency. The South African tests should be very interesting. England gets 5 months off now, at least the guys not paying the ODIs and they need it. Time enough to regroup.
 
M

movingtarget

Aug 5, 2009
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darwin553 said:
I am lost for words.
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Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. England can't defend 300 ? I almost felt sorry for them tonight. Faulkner does what he can do with a bit of luck but that's ODI cricket. One mediocre over from Stokes towards the end made the difference and let Australia back into it. The Aussie celebration just shows how hungry they are about winning. Still can't believe they won. Entertaining game.
 
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movingtarget

Aug 5, 2009
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Good fightback by the Aussies against South Africa after getting into early trouble. SA need some early wickets in the next session. Would be a bonus for SA if they can get Haddin out early also, with the form he has been in. Couldn't understand Smith bringing on the spinner when SA had Australia under pressure.
 
darwin553

darwin553

Jun 25, 2013
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the asian said:
A Tassie? or does he bat like him?
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Not sure on the first count but on the latter definitely not - reminds me of Michael Vaughan - he is however Ponting's anointed one to replace himself long-term.
 
hoerpi

hoerpi

Jan 8, 2012
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In another game, Watling and McCullum played some nice test cricket. Hopefully they could add some more runs tomorrow, it's needed.
 
42x16ss

42x16ss

May 23, 2009
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the asian said:
What the **** has happened to Johnny Boy?

Where is the guy who used to bowl all over the place and get hit for a plenty.

I'd like to see him back !
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Dennis Lillee dragged him out the back of the WACA change rooms, took to him with his old aluminium bat and told him he'd be back if he didn't start bowling on a consistent line and length :D :p



Johnson actually did do a lot of work with Lillee to change his delivery and approach to the wicket. Lillee also gave him some more general mentoring on how to get into a batsman's head and crack him mentally - possibly his greatest weapon. With Johnson, the ability has always been there, it just only appeared sporadically until recently. Most Australians are just as confused by this consistency as the rest of the cricket world!
 
the asian

the asian

Jan 20, 2011
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Brilliant Stuff by McCullum and the Kiwis !

Hope they can finish it off tomorrow and keep the Indians win less in NZ.:)


And we came back from the dead to win a tight one !

Even though it's only against Bangladesh it's some progress for us and pretty impressive stuff !

This team has shown some fighting spirit of late.
 
Alphabet

Alphabet

Oct 21, 2012
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South Africa at home aren't all that. Australia ran them ragged in 2012 in Australia, and South Africa haven't beaten Australia in South Africa since about 1970. Even Sri Lanka, a team that has always struggled to be competitive away, took a test off this South African team (back when they had Kallis, too) recently. They just aren't that good at home, their strength is playing away. Also the way Johnson is playing right now, Australia are unstoppable. There aren't any batsmen in the world today (except maybe Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Misbah and Chanderpaul) that have had to face serious, accurate pace before in their careers, so they're all hopeless when confronted by it. Sure, everybody's gone up against a waster like Shaun Tait flinging down 5 wides an over at 160km/h, or Tino Best, but not since Ambrose, Walsh and Donald has a bowler combined great speed and accuracy consistently. Akthar could do it when he was bothered, Lee could do it in ODIs. Nobody else.

I caught some of the Bangladesh - Sri Lanka ODI the other day, and it was lovely. People saying 'it was only Bangladesh' are being really unfair. Bangladesh are quite good at ODI cricket these days, and besides, when was the last time a team won a match after being 8/67, and after the other team were 2/114 chasing 180? It's a big achievement and should be treated as such.
 
M

movingtarget

Aug 5, 2009
15,676
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Alphabet said:
Siddle's lost some pace in recent weeks. He was never sub-130 before.
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I think he is going to be under threat from some of the younger bowlers for selection if they can stay fit. Harris also is probably pushing himself in the tests with his injury problems but hopefully can last until the next Ashes series. Hilfenhaus seems to be bowling well at the moment. The Third Test in South Africa should be a good one. Our batsmen have to pull their finger out.
 
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