Test The Ashes Second Test December 4-8 1430hrs @ The Gabba

[Cam Payne]

That pitch is a piece of piss to bat on and Australia will be 200 in front on day three. You people are a bunch of wee wee's.

 

[Nelso]

Good on Root for getting his ton.

I love my sport, I'm not a cricket tragic but if anyone can show me a better sporting contest than the Ashes then I'm all ears! It's got everything, and unfortunately our early settlers were pommies

I've been to Bay 13 many times and not even a Grand Final comes close to the atmosphere there.

Ryder Cup is the best sporting event.

 

[crows dude]

The problem is losing Cummins AND Hazlewood at the same time. Had we only needed to replace one of these bowlers, the attack would have been more settled. The Neser selection came about because of the Brisbane scenario, and everyone getting excited about the pink ball.

I've been intrigued this season with the use of fast bowlers in Sheffield Shield. Rarely do you see any of them playing match after match. They seem to come in for a couple, then out. I don't know the reason for this, are they getting injured? If so, aren't we supposed to be advanced in managing these things these days?

Problem is Neser is 35 years old. He unfortunately couldnt get a decent crack at it during his prime. Same with Boland. Where are the young guys

Mitch Perry (25 Years Old) is the only young fast bowler taking wickets

 

[Cam Payne]

The icc need to grow a pair and start banning players for not bowling their required overs. No fines, not docking points, just straight bans.

74 overs in a day is absolutely deplorable.

Agreed. Steve Smith should be banned for the next match.

 

[Tugga27]

Not convinced Smith is a great captain

I don't anyone has said he is.

 

[RookiePick]

Problem is Neser is 35 years old. He unfortunately couldnt get a decent crack at it during his prime. Same with Boland. Where are the young guys

Mitch Perry (25 Years Old) is the only young fast bowler taking wickets

Something a bit off with our development set-ups.

Our young bowlers are barely allowed to roll the arm over and they still break down regularly. I'm not sure a production line of early to mid-30's bowlers that are at best lasting for a couple of seasons should be the goal.

Admittedly we have had a bit of a golden era with Starc/Haze/Cummins who have kept the competition at bay. It will be interesting to see if CA get more ambitious, as the big 3 start to hang them up and we get a chance to try and hit some generational talents that can produce 80-100 tests.

 

[Trojan90]

I don’t think there’s a sound argument you can make for Williamson with so many holes in his record and who’s away record in general, already inferior to Joe Root’s, is boosted by his record against the weaker countries.

I think he is a beautiful player and watching him on some day one NZ pitches play the ball under his eyes when everyone else is pushing at it and nicking off with hard hands is a borderline privilege as a cricket lover, but he just has not done it nearly enough in other tough conditions to earn that sort of praise. Root had one ‘hole’ in his record and it wasn’t because he had never been able to make runs here it was because he had never been able to convert them into a big score/s.

Well Williamson HAS made a hundred in England but he passes 50 once every 5 innings there - compare that to Root who does it once every 3 innings here.
Williamson averages 30 in England. Root averages almost 40 in Australia - and that’s the ‘hole’ in his record.
Williamson averages 33 in India. Root averages 45 there.
Williamson averages 21 in SA. Root averages 50 there.
Williamson averages 29 in SL. Root averages 60 there.

Williamson has 3 test hundreds and 780 runs in total at 70 in Bangladesh/Zimbabwe. Root has no hundreds in either - he’s never played in Zimbabwe, and averaged 20 in his only series in Bangladesh. Remove those figures from Williamson’s away record and he averages 39.4 outside NZ and 65 in NZ.
Remove Root’s tour of Bangladesh and he jumps to 48 - that’s before considering whereabouts away from home (India, SA, Australia etc) they have made their runs. The only place Williamson ‘gets’ him of any real note is Australia itself and that could change within 3 games.

As much as i like Williamson, these holes take him out of the argument.

Kohli and Smiths careers are pretty similar, trend wise. Smith's absolute peak averaging 77 across 46 tests (vs Kohli 66 across 43 tests) puts him well ahead of Kohli, along with a slump nowhere near as bad as Kohli's who averaged 31 in his last 39 tests (Smith 44 across a similar slump).

Root is different. A lot more steady across his career. A slump across 37 tests where he averaged 41, no real peak like the other 2 (Bazball Era Ave: 57.5). I'd say his consistency to this day puts him in clear 2nd over Kohli. His average has always hovered either side of 50.

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

Problem is Neser is 35 years old. He unfortunately couldnt get a decent crack at it during his prime. Same with Boland. Where are the young guys

Mitch Perry (25 Years Old) is the only young fast bowler taking wickets

Fergus O'Neill is probably the best bowler in Shield cricket but will never get a look in because of his speed

 

[cats_09]

Problem is Neser is 35 years old. He unfortunately couldnt get a decent crack at it during his prime. Same with Boland. Where are the young guys

Mitch Perry (25 Years Old) is the only young fast bowler taking wickets

O'Neill has been regularly taking wickets

 

[PhatBoy]

As much as i like Williamson, these holes take him out of the argument.

Kohli and Smiths careers are pretty similar, trend wise. Smith's absolute peak averaging 77 across 46 tests (vs Kohli 66 across 43 tests) puts him well ahead of Kohli, along with a slump nowhere near as bad as Kohli's who averaged 31 in his last 39 tests (Smith 44 across a similar slump).

Root is different. A lot more steady across his career. A slump across 37 tests where he averaged 41, no real peak like the other 2 (Bazball Era Ave: 57.5). I'd say his consistency to this day puts him in clear 2nd over Kohli. His average has always hovered either side of 50.

Very fair. Not having a ‘gift’ like Kohli and Smith probably meant he was never going to be able to cash in during his peak years like they could. I don’t think even players like Gayle and Sehwag had an eye to rival Smith. MAYBE ABDV is the one you could say MIGHT be in the same ballbark?? But smith’s eye is probably the best I’ve ever seen, maybe in history. Viv might be close. Kohli too had wonderful hand-eye at his peak and had an ability to pick up length and drive almost anything that was below thigh height, and he could pull and cut better than most Asian players. Root doesn’t have as many natural gifts as the other two but he’s compact and doesn’t have as many things that can ‘go wrong’ so it probably stands to reason that he hasn’t had a dip

 

[eddiesmith]

Time to make history then. I looked at the scorecard from the D/N shield match at the Gabba a week or two ago. Victoria posted 318/9 dec, but Queensland followed up with 430. They then skittled Victoria for 143 and won inside three days. That's the precedent I'm clinging to right now. Can't deny I'm worried though.

Victoria also did what everyone thinks England should have done, declared to have a crack under lights and didn’t get a wicket, waste of opportunity.

 

[MarcMaverick]

Our "tactics" in the final hour was deplorable, cowardly and shameful. Archer showed a bigger backbone than Head, Weatherald, Labs and Smith combined. Cricket has a funny way of biting you and it bit us hard.

 

[Donuts_]

The Australian press have enjoyed dining out on England's perceived arrogance.

But, regardless of ths match's result, I would consider the decision to drop Lyon to come from a similar vein of unwarranted arrogance and should be called out as such.

 

[TY24]

A lot are saying it’s his best ever?

How can it be when he’s done it against one of our big 4 bowlers. The two quicks that are missing are usually his downfall (averages 31 and 26 against Haze and Cummins respectively) and he’s done it in a pink ball test on an average Gabba wicket.

I get the pressure angle but purely from a sporting point of view he couldn’t really have asked for better circumstances.

Didn’t have to face his two worst matchups in good batting conditions. I’ll wait to see how he does when either of those 2 come back.

 

[MarcMaverick]

Fergus O'Neill is probably the best bowler in Shield cricket but will never get a look in because of his speed

120s or 130s?

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

120s or 130s?

Think he's high 120s

 

[MarcMaverick]

Think he's high 120s

Well unless he's moving it like Philander, don't see how he gets a spot.

 

[Saint]

The Australian press have enjoyed dining out on England's perceived arrogance.

But, regardless of ths match's result, I would consider the decision to drop Lyon to come from a similar vein of unwarranted arrogance and should be called out as such.

The way the Poms bat, they give their wicket away outside off, so why not just plonk it there all day and wait for them to dangle the bat. They've not really needed to bring on a spinner to break a partnership, the poms do that all by themselves.

Honestly, the way they don't move their foot across swish the bat and nick-out is embarrassing.

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

Well he must be doing something right to be averaging 21 with the ball in Shield cricket

 

[crows dude]

O'Neill has been regularly taking wickets

Taken four less than Perry this year. Plus he is only medium pace. Not many Adam Dales around these days playing international cricket.

 

[MarcMaverick]

Well he must be doing something right to be averaging 21 with the ball in Shield cricket

Or the batsmen are doing something wrong. Could be both.

 

[crows dude]

Well he must be doing something right to be averaging 21 with the ball in Shield cricket

Averages 23 this year. Perry averaging 18

 

[cats_09]

This comment was made yesterday regarding the speed Nesser was bowling in his opening spell - is there an easy way to check a bowlers average speed?

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

Perry's having a good year but let's see him do it consistently

Look truth is Doggett earned his shot

 

[dumb]

I like Fergus, I'd be happy for him to get a go. But he has a touch of the Trent Copeland's about him. Sheer weight of wickets alone doesn't always translate to success at a higher level.