Cricket Discussion - Part 2

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An hour in and that Test looked like it would be lucky to go for four days. As it worked out it didn't even last two!

At one stage a groundsman came out and cleaned up the bowling creases. He removed half a bucket of soil from one end and left the batting crease looking like the Grand Canyon.

If that fiasco happened in Australia there would be calls for an inquiry into the preparation of the wicket but as it happened in India the ICC will probably do nothing. They spend millions on a new stadium then produce a substandard wicket which turns a five day test into two days. Unbelievable.
 

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Only saw the highlights, so my view is limited what was bowled, but over 3 full innings there seemed to be a lot of wickets taken by spinners to rubbish slog sweep shots by the batsmen and 1) they missed the ball and got bowled or lbw, or 2) got an edge and caught in close or 3) caught with the ball going high in the air. There were about 6-8 balls that absolutely spat of the pitch, but I have seen a lot worse pitches than that.
 
What did that Indian leggie in the late 1980s do in his second test. His name was Hirwani (spell). He took 8 wickets in each innings on debut at Madras / Chennai like Bob Massie did on debut at Lords in 1972. When I get in front of my computer will see what they did in their 2nd test

Unfortunately I dont think Hirwani or Massie played enough to take 100 wickets.
 
philreich said:
Regardless of the pitch, has a bowler ever had a better debut than Axar Patel? After 2 Tests, he's taken 18 wickets at 9.44.
Click to expand...
Here is a list by number of tests who has taken the most wickets per test number. Their average is the tie breaker if the same number of wickets like Hirwani and Massie both took 16 in their 1st test.

Tests - Lowest Average after Playing X Matches

Test Cricket - Lowest bowing average after playing X Matches
www.howstat.com

MatchesPlayerCountryWicketsAvgYear
1​
India​
16​
8.50​
1988​
2​
India​
24​
10.71​
1988​
3​
India​
31​
13.94​
1988​
4​
Australia​
39​
7.97​
1888​

Hirwani had 36 wickets @ 14.61 after 4 tests but his test career ended in 1996 almost 9 years after his debut with only 66 wickets @ 30.11 from 17 tests. He didn't play a test between November 1990 and November 1995.

I knew Ashwin had a high wicket strike rate earlier in his career but had no idea he had the most wickets taken per test from test number 38 thru to 65 when Murali takes over from his 66th test thru to his 133rd and final test.

After 77 tests Ashwin has 401 wickets and Murali has 433. Hadlee is the only other bowler to average 5 wickets per game and take 400+ wickets ie played 86 tests for 431 wickets, and he had 391 wickets after 77 tests.

Bob Massie took 8/84+8/53 = 16/137 in his first test, Hirwani took 8/61+8/75 = 16/136 in his first test at Lords 2nd of 5 in the series, then Massie over 2 innings took 5/92 in his 2nd to have 21 @ 10.90, took 0/34 in the next test his 3rd for 21 @ 12.52 and then his 4th test took 2/146 over two innings at The Oval and was at 23 @ 17.78 after 4 tests. He played 2 tests against Pakistan in Oz a few months later and at 26 years old his test career ended with 6 tests 31 wickets at 20.87.

Both Hirwani and Massie started like a rocket, but both fizzled out for different reasons.
 
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When I looked at Hirwani's stuff, his last test before that 5 year break where he didn't get selected, he bowled a world record 59 consecutive overs from the same end without a bowling change and only standard drinks and session breaks, against England at the Oval in 1990 and took 1/137.
 
6 or 7 years ago when Kerry O'Keeffe announced he was leaving the ABC, a few of us wrote about some of his best work on air.

I said one of the funniest stories I heard him talk about was when I was driving across the Hay Plains between Sydney and Adelaide and he told the story of how he met Mike Jagger in 1980 and that he thought he was good chance to crack onto Jerry Hall.

I did a shithouse job explaining the story on here, but finally found it on you tube the other day. He talks about Jerry the last 90 seconds but you need to listen to the first 4 and half minutes build up.


 

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I love Head's passion and bitter disappointment when he gets out, but he really needs to work on his body language when walking off. Throwing his head back and forth, kicking his bat isn't how a captain should act...it's mens cricket not U14s.

Carey out....here we go again
 
Lost by 13 runs after losing 9/76
 
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philreich said:
This Axar Patel continues to amaze. First day of the Fourth Test against England, and he already has 2 for 6. He surely can't keep this up, but he now has 20 Test wickets at 8.8.
Click to expand...

As long as he’s destroying the poms it’s ******* great.
 
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