Big Cricket Thread

[Ochre]

If they were smart, they'd rest one of Hazelwood and Starc with the tight turnaround between this and the SA series, and how much they all bowled yesterday. Not holding my breath though.

 

[Ilkka Sinisalo]

Good to see the selectors show some dare.

Fastest bowler in Australia gets shock Test call

Cummins injury throws team into chaos

wwos.nine.com.au

Surprised it wasn’t Neser, who has also been in excellent form (and usually the selectors just go with the guy who has been the next cab in the rank for a while, which Neser has been along with Boland and Jhye when healthy).

Anyway, big credit to Morris for putting in the work on his consistency to the point where he’s in the frame for Australia selection.

Edit: oops, just saw Neser was also added. Well there’s no way Morris is getting a debut unless multiple bowlers come down with the spicy cough.

 

[Doashuey]

Surprised it wasn’t Neser, who has also been in excellent form (and usually the selectors just go with the guy who has been the next cab in the rank for a while, which Neser has been along with Boland and Jhye when healthy).

Anyway, big credit to Morris for putting in the work on his consistency to the point where he’s in the frame for Australia selection.

Pretty sure Nesser is in the squad already and the most likely to get the call up if they opt for 2 changes (Boland and Nesser).

 

[ioppolo]

Boland is extremely unlucky he's behind that trio for test matches.
Who else has had such a ridiculous start to their career?

 

[darksquare]

He's almost doing an Andy Gantheaume

 

[SloppyJoe]

So we are playing the Saffers on boxing day for the first time since 2008.

I thought they had decided to start their own Boxing Day test match tradition? A cursory search has uncovered this 2008 article: South Africa unwilling to give up future Boxing Day Tests

But I haven't found anything on the reason for their about face.

Also, there is a documentary on Netflix at the moment about controversies in sport called Bad Sport, and one of the episodes is on Hansie Cronje - worth a watch.

 

[kane249]

Boland is extremely unlucky he's behind that trio for test matches.
Who else has had such a ridiculous start to their career?

Andy Bichel?

 

[happy_eagle]

England are going to pull this off ?

Where does Anderson rate in all time test pace bowlers ?
Crazy to think he's still delivering

 

[Ochre]

3rd highest scoring test ever, and 1 and 2 went for 10 and 7 days.

 

[Ilkka Sinisalo]

Actually thought that Pakistan would win this when they got down to 80 something runs to win with 5 wickets in hand, but I foolishly forgot the time-honoured Pakistani tradition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by failing in mind-boggling ways.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Actually thought that Pakistan would win this when they got down to 80 something runs to win with 5 wickets in hand, but I foolishly forgot the time-honoured Pakistani tradition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by failing in mind-boggling ways.

That's a long winded way to say match fixing.

 

[happy_eagle]

Ah the old toilet break

Classic move

 

[FKASC]

Actually thought that Pakistan would win this when they got down to 80 something runs to win with 5 wickets in hand, but I foolishly forgot the time-honoured Pakistani tradition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by failing in mind-boggling ways.

Doesn’t help that their tail is long

This Pakistani tail

 

[FKASC]

These fields are epic

 

[triplegee]

These fields are epic

Loved the short leg on his knees. Couldn't get any closer to the pitch.

 

[WCE_phil]

Dodgy Pakistan is out. Well done England. Australia were set up by shit bullshit pitch earlier on in the year trying only for drawn matches and pakistan succeeded in getting two.

All in all actually one of the all time great performances by England to push the match in every way possible. This was dodgy from the scheduling to the pitch. With sunsets an hour before every day's play was set to finish.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Dodgy Pakistan is out. Well done England. Australia were set up by s**t bullshit pitch earlier on in the year trying only for drawn matches and pakistan succeeded in getting two.

All in all actually one of the all time great performances by England to push the match in every way possible. This was dodgy from the scheduling to the pitch. With sunsets an hour before every day's play was set to finish.

Don't forget all the England players coming down with illness. How convenient for Pakistan.

 

[Ochre]

Yeah you'd never see a boring flat pitch here in Australia where a team easily makes 600 on day 1.

 

[KBLT]

Also, there is a documentary on Netflix at the moment about controversies in sport called Bad Sport, and one of the episodes is on Hansie Cronje - worth a watch.

My Dad is still convinced Cronje was murdered.

 

[happy_eagle]

Another win for "Bazzball"

Wonder what will happen from here. Either
1. Englands approach continues to get results, and test cricket strategy as we know it changes as teams adopt aggressive batting strategies.
2. It continues to work for a bit and then teams figure out how to bowl against the attacking style and they are forced to retreat back to traditional strategies.

 

[WCE_phil]

Another win for "Bazzball"

Wonder what will happen from here. Either
1. Englands approach continues to get results, and test cricket strategy as we know it changes as teams adopt aggressive batting strategies.
2. It continues to work for a bit and then teams figure out how to bowl against the attacking style and they are forced to retreat back to traditional strategies.

The problem is say they play like they did against Pakistan against a stronger batting and bowling line up. They score 1-200 less in the first innings, get bowled for 100 in the second and give the opposition 4 full days to bat. Yes you are pushing for a result but trying to force a result against strong sides will eventually fall over.

A team that is of roughly similar ability playing more conservatively has 5 days and the biggest thing in determining test matches is quality captaincy and not making crucial mistakes over the journey. The other thing you are doing is pushing players to the absolute limit both mentally and physically.

There will be times when you get spectacular results but pakistan being the cheating bastards they are (from admin down to the supporters) to england trying to force the issue, you open yourself up to losses that just shouldnt happen. Now if they were able to switch between 2 gears regularly and play both determined, conservative cricket with the ability to change it up and push hard and fast if needed then that would be greatness and something for the future of test cricket.

Playing how they are will lead to long term injuries to fast bowlers in particular and more batting collapses over time. It's almost impossible to enforce the follow on and even if you score 500 in one innings if you fall for 100 in the second then most of the time you are doing to lose if the opposition knows they have the time to play conservatively and build an innings.

 

[FKASC]

Shaheen might have made it a bit trickier for Eng, but it was pretty clear that Pakistan wanted to avoid losing more than they wanted to win. Which exposes you to aggressive tactics

 

[Biggie]

 

[darksquare]

A win for Bazball, or a loss for a Pakistan side that started by picking a long tail full of inexperienced bowlers, then lost one to injury?

 

[ioppolo]

I can see Bazball failing hard in Australia.