The Association Football Cricket thread

[TubbsFarquhar]

Has there been a more difficult game of cricket to select a man of the match?

Probably Tongue.

 

[RPCB]

What a wild test match.

20 wickets on day 1. 16 on day 2. The people who bought tickets for the other 3 days would be thoroughly disappointed.

 

[largebus]

Watch them roll out an absolute highway in Sydney in response, only for the Test to be washed out.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Watch them roll out an absolute highway in Sydney in response, only for the Test to be washed out.

Still be better than what the MCG produced

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

Still be better than what the MCG produced

Hey, the MCG pitch is just giving a good representation of how Victoria is travelling these days, shite.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Hey, the MCG pitch is just giving a good representation of how Victoria is travelling these days, shite.

That's just Geelong

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

You blokes whinging over >0.75 degrees seam movement when cricviz states that 2010-16 in the county championship the average was 0.58 degrees and 2017-19 it was 0.71 degrees. Seam movement should be expected in 4-5 day cricket. Not lambasted because white ball cricket has ruined techniques.

Those of us that watch county championship matches and/or highlights can see this is nothing out of the ordinary. It's just test batsman are used to flat tracks and can't handle this type of pitch.

In fact, our bowlers failing to reach 0.75 during the 2023 Ashes tour was noted as being historically low.

Well of course there’s more deviation in England than here. First of all the cooler climate where allows for more swing, pitches don’t dry out as quick and you have the bigger seam in hand made dukes.

Rarely do you get this type of deviation here in Australia where if you get this type of deviation you also have to cope with the inconsistent bounce on faster wickets.

What was it ..26 wickets in 98 overs. And you have many former test players agreeing the pitch wasn’t good enough.

As Age reported..”The indentations created in the first innings of the game had hardened, creating the opportunity for balls to jump.”

Laughable

 

[Frank Bunn]

What a wild test match.

20 wickets on day 1. 16 on day 2. The people who bought tickets for the other 3 days would be thoroughly disappointed.

It was fun but it wasn't really test cricket. The idea is to test players' technique, fitness, and mental strength over several days with different pitch, weather and ball conditions. This game was mostly decided by the toss as the pitch was unplayable until this afternoon.

They were expecting crowds of 90,000 for day 3, maybe 80,000 for day 4. They don't sell tickets for day 5 but it could have been 70,000. Not just the fans missing out but Cricket Australia and Channel 7 losing millions in revenue from 'short tests'.

‘Short Tests are bad for business’: MCG carnage could spark change on pitch preparation

Cricket Australia lost about $4 million in revenue from the two-day Test in Perth and, with 90,000 expected on Sunday, will likely be hit even harder if the Boxing Day Test does not see a third day.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Well of course there’s more deviation in England than here. First of all the cooler climate where allows for more swing, pitches don’t dry out as quick and you have the bigger seam in hand made dukes.

Rarely do you get this type of deviation here in Australia where if you get this type of deviation you also have to cope with the inconsistent bounce on faster wickets.

What was it ..26 wickets in 98 overs. And you have many former test players agreeing the pitch wasn’t good enough.

As Age reported..”The indentations created in the first innings of the game had hardened, creating the opportunity for balls to jump.”

Laughable

2 minutes in. Both from an era that would have used attrition to stumble to a good score on this wicket.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Victorians really are a precious bunch

 

[eth-dog]

Hey, the MCG pitch is just giving a good representation of how Victoria is travelling these days, shite.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Shitlist addition: Victoria.

We had a good run.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Shitlist addition: Victoria.

We had a good run.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Hey, the MCG pitch is just giving a good representation of how Victoria is travelling these days, shite.

Wickets that were not pitch related:
Australia 1st innings:

• Head
• Weatherald
• Marnus
• Smith
• Green
• Starc
• Carey
• Boland

England 1st innings:

• Crawley
• Duckett
• Root
• Stokes
• Carse
• Smith

Australia 2nd innings

• Weatherald
• Marnus
• Usman
• Carey
• Green
• Starc
• Boland
• Richardson
• Neser

England 2nd Innings

• Duckett
• Root
• Crawley
• Carse
• Stokes
• Bethell

It was poor batting and poor batting technique. Only Ponting and Waugh have been the ones game enough to just say that it was terrible batting.

 

[Sozabarus]

Wickets that were not pitch related:
Australia 1st innings:

• Head
• Weatherald
• Marnus
• Smith
• Green
• Starc
• Carey
• Boland

England 1st innings:

• Crawley
• Duckett
• Root
• Stokes
• Carse
• Smith

Australia 2nd innings

• Weatherald
• Marnus
• Usman
• Carey
• Green
• Starc
• Boland
• Richardson
• Neser

England 2nd Innings

• Duckett
• Root
• Crawley
• Carse
• Stokes
• Bethell

It was poor batting and poor batting technique. Only Ponting and Waugh have been the ones game enough to just say that it was terrible batting.

Ponting said the players shouldn’t be playing on a wicket like that. Like most, he was critical of the pitch as well as the batting.

And same for Mark Waugh.

 

[99 Problems]

Yeah some poor batting doesn’t mean the pitch also wasn’t unacceptable. Feels like ever since the criticism of some flat decks years ago we’ve had a few go too far the other way the past few summers

 

[glenferry23]

2 or more things can be true at once. Both teams batted without discipline and application at times and many dismissals were preventable with a tighter technique and application to the conditions.

Concurrently, the grass coverage was not a good decision in hindsight and it did too much overall to the pitch. I’m all for more balance to the bowlers as so many things in cricket in recent years are stacked in favour of batsmen.

They got that incorrect this time and a 2 day Test, especially Boxing Day, is going to understandably be in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Ponting said the players shouldn’t be playing on a wicket like that. Like most, he was critical of the pitch as well as the batting.

And same for Mark Waugh.

Isn't that the point though?

If close to 30 of the 36 wickets taken were not pitch caused then isn't the complaints about the surface all a bit beside the point.

The pitch may well have been too bowler friendly and that will have contributed to the lower scoring nature of the match. But if most of the wickets are down to poor batting then it isn't directl responsible for the game ending within two days.

 

[largebus]

The obviously anti-Vic biased ICC gives MCG poor rating after giving Perth a very good rating.

All part of the grand plan for WA to steal Boxing Day.

 

[Bradesmaen]

The obviously anti-Vic biased ICC gives MCG poor rating after giving Perth a very good rating.

All part of the grand plan for WA to steal Boxing Day.

36 of the 36 wickets were the batsmens fault. Wait 34 cause Boland can't do anything wrong

 

[glenferry23]

First time in almost 2 years the ICC has rated a pitch that low, that’s a not a great look for the MCG. I think the demerit point is more of a slap on the wrist thing, however the optics of it still reflects poorly on all parties involved.