Siddle Petering Out?

[Black Diamond]

All you showed in the OP is an ability to guess and make idle speculations. You also indicated you haven't really paid attention to Siddle's output beyond a drop in speed. He is bowling very well.

 

[Cursed Cat]

OP has copped a bit of stick for what was a reasonably-argued post, fair enough if people don't agree but no call for the ridicule.

For all that though I agree with the general response; Peter Siddle plays a specific role for the side and as such he's opted to focus on unerring accuracy at the expense of pace - it's a credit to him that he is a skillful enough bowler to do so.

He's gone from leading briefly leading the Australian attack to being a dependable change bowler and it's a testament to the man that he's willing to sacrifice his ego to do right by his country.

Heard a bit of talk recently regarding Siddle's strike rate and average putting him on par with Merv Hughes and Craig McDermott, thought I'd bring up their respective stats to try to generate a bit of discussion in regards to that claim :

Siddle 179 wickets in 50 tests @ 28.8 - strike rate of 59, 3.6 wickets per test economy rate of 2.94

Hughes 212 wickets in 53 tests @ 28.28 - strike rate of 58, 4 wickets per test, economy rate of 2.94

McDermott 291 wickets in 71 tests @ 28.68 - strike rate of 57, 4.09 wickets per test, economy rate of 3

for mine that claim doesn't quite hold up at this stage of Siddle's career, but there's not a helluva lot between the three, and he can quite conceivably close the smallish gap by the time he's done ...

 

[Prestigerrycomo]

Glenn McGrath wasn't the quickest of bowlers either.

 

[Jimthegreat]

If you can't identify that Siddle has dropped pace to maintain accuracy and play a role in our attack, then you probably don't watch much cricket.

He is comfortably ahead of those named.

BS!!! Of couse he hasn't dropped pace to maintain accuracy. Why would he need to the way he had been going.

He was a better bowler when he was faster. He's lost weight. muscle with his diet and I think he's simply not as strong. Bowling steadily, not doing alot wrong but I'm not sure he has the same penetration. Yes he'd be unlucky but no, he won't play ahead of Pattinson.

 

[Jimthegreat]

Glenn McGrath wasn't the quickest of bowlers either.

Come back to us when he McGrath's skill-set to bowl at that pace.

No slight on Siddle of course, just don't think the drop in pace suits him.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Yes he'd be unlucky but no, he won't play ahead of Pattinson.

Yes he would. Especially with the current bowling attacking.

 

[Jimthegreat]

Yes he would. Especially with the current bowling attacking.

With a fit Pattinson he won't. Not unless he gets another 5-7km+ on his bowling. Pattinson WILL play when fit, which will be in South Africa, absolutely no if's or butts there. You actually think we'd leave him out? Siddle won't play ahead of Johnson or Harris. We all know that. Problem when you have good depth of fast bowlers.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

With a fit Pattinson he won't. Not unless he gets another 5-7km+ on his bowling. Pattinson WILL play when fit, which will be in South Africa, absolutely no if's or butts there. You actually think we'd leave him out? Siddle won't play ahead of Johnson or Harris. We all know that. Problem when you have good depth of fast bowlers.

Siddle is the perfect foil to Johnson and Harris. Pattinson was poor in England and is an attacking seamer, which is fine, but the holding role Siddle normally plays allows Johnson and Harris to go all out.

 

[Mkcaptain]

Why would you want to change a bowling attack that has been on fire all series

 

[Noobz0r]

It's all about bowling in partnerships, Siddle is the key to this for Clarke.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

It's all about bowling in partnerships, Siddle is the key to this for Clarke.

Exactly x x

 

[Kyptastic]

Pretty much has identical stats to Harris in the series so far and I don't see anyone calling for Ryano to be dropped.

 

[Cursed Cat]

With a fit Pattinson he won't. Not unless he gets another 5-7km+ on his bowling. Pattinson WILL play when fit, which will be in South Africa, absolutely no if's or butts there. You actually think we'd leave him out? Siddle won't play ahead of Johnson or Harris. We all know that. Problem when you have good depth of fast bowlers.

disagree with this, I think Pattinson has to earn back his spot in the team.

 

[TassieEagle]

disagree with this, I think Pattinson has to earn back his spot in the team.

Exactly, never give a sucker an even break. In this case the sucker is Johnson.

 

[The_Reaper]

Pretty much has identical stats to Harris in the series so far and I don't see anyone calling for Ryano to be dropped.

To be fair Rhino has been very unlucky this series. Could have easily had 5-6 more wickets in my opinion

 

[Sylvia Saint]

No worries at all about Siddle's bowling. What has happened to his batting though? For a long time he was threatening to become a Paul Reiffel or Brett Lee-esque "bowling" all-rounder but he looks no better than a #11 of late.

 

[legend166]

What's wrong with all of you? 64 posts in and no one has even bothered to go get his stats? Whenever I see a thread of this nature the first thing I do is open up a new tab and head to Cricinfo.

But before that, I don't think it's accurate to call Siddle a 129-135kmph bowler. Granted, on the afternoon of Day 1 of this test his pace actually did dip under 130, and I noticed it (I can't remember if I posted about it or not) because it was unusual. He's certainly not as quick as he used to be, but he's generally around the 135-138kmph range.

Now, on to the stats. Since the beginning of the 2011/2012 Australian summer (i.e. a little over two years ago):

27 test matches
102 wickets
26.81 average
Econ. 2.84
SR 56.5

It's pretty hard to argue with those statistics. He's playing the exact role that he should be at the moment, the third quick who can bowl in a variety of ways when needed. When looking for someone to replace him, we need to actually have someone who can do that role better. Just because he's the third quick doesn't mean he's the first dropped.

People want Pattinson to replace him. Pattinson has a career economy rate of 3.27. If the bowling line up is Johnson, Pattinson, Harris and Lyon, three out of the four have career economy rates of >3 (Lyon doesn't really play that holding role as well as some would think). And speaking of Lyon, that would mean he'd have a lot less opportunities to attack with his bowling (which makes him far better).

Anyway, long story short, Siddle is playing his role fantastically and obviously should stay in the team.

 

[Black Diamond]

One of us went to his stats in post 10.

 

[Kyptastic]

The only thing I will say is that I hope in the endeavour of gaining control and guile that Siddle hasn't lost the ability to do things like this:

 

[Blueboiiz]

This is what i mentioned in a thread a while back.

Been looking at Siddle's speeds and he is slower than past years. What made Siddle great was bowling long overs at 140 kmph and to me he doesn't look as threatening.

He's still playing well in his role and easily cemented in the team but i reckon Siddle can offer us more if his speeds a touch higher to rush the batsman more.

 

[Showbags]

crazy diet of his will catch up with him eventually.

Love to know how many world class athletes are vegan. Very few if any would be my guess.

Plenty actually:

Carl Lewis
Martina Navratilova
Billie Jean King
Mac Danzig (UFC)
Mike Tyson (though he may have gone Vegan at the end of his career)
Greg Chappell
Peter Siddle
Joe Namath (NFL)
Robert Parish (NBA)
Daniel Bryan (Wrestling)
CM Punk (Wrestling)
Killer Kowalski (Wrestling)
Austin Aries (Wrestling)

Plus a surprising amount of Vegan bodybuilders (none that I can name but easy to google).

 

[Black Diamond]

IIRC Carl Lewis went vegan strictly for performance rather than ethical reasons. He found he was able to eat much more without compromising on athleticism.

Robert Millar is a former cyclist from Scotland who was a top racer in the 1980's winning king of the mountains in 1984 as well as placing fourth overall. He had several good results in other big races too. Like Lewis, he did it for performance reasons. He was a vegetarian I think, rather than a full vegan.

Dave Zabriskie (one of several cyclists who testified against Lance Armstrong) has been a vegan for a few seasons, notwithstanding the occasional piece of fish.

 

[glenferry23]

Yes, Lewis adopted the vegan diet because of its recovery benefits rather than its ethical reasoning. He was way ahead of his time in that regard, the awareness of the vegan diet 20-30 years ago was nowhere near what it is now.

There are countless vegan athletes today. Prince Fielder is another, Arian Foster from the NFL, Scott Jurek. Many others too including bodybuilders and UFC athletes. It's not a crazy diet at all and there's no scientific evidence to suggest its detrimental to the athletes, despite the OP's initial claim.

Hell even as we speak, there are two vegan marathon runners, husband and wife, running around Australia doing a marathon a day since January 1 this year in order to raise money for charity and awareness for the vegan diet. That's right, a marathon a day for 365 consecutive days. On a raw vegan diet. By the way, they're both aged in their 60s.

I couldn't do one, let alone one every day for an entire year.

 

[aflcliche]

Thought this thread was about him getting Pietersen out so often

 

[ManWithNoName]

Darren Lehmann

"In our bowling attack you need to have speed ... gone are days when you can bowl at 120-125km/h; you need to be at 140 if possible. I think speed is a really big issue, especially in Aus, where you need some velocity on ball. Mitch has shown that this series so far. We're looking at blokes that can bowl with some pace"