The Cricket Thread

[Adelaide Hawk]

Hughes already looks better than Wade

 

[Henry Jr]

Smith comes on... Hope the crowd are wearing helmets.

I have to say on Smith... his bowling has improved 10 fold since I saw him bowl last time. Nice loop, turn and variations... lock him in now for India lads.

 

[Henry Jr]

Hughes already looks better than Wade

He hasn't dropped one yet!

 

[grizzlym]

Yawn-fest of a game.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

I don't think Maxwell could bowl these guys out if they switched the lights off.

 

[Henry Jr]

Is Richardson's landing after bowling the ball the weirdest action you have ever seen?

If it was a sub continent player... they would just amend the rules so he could continue to bowl.

 

[grizzlym]

I don't think Maxwell could bowl these guys out if they switched the lights off.

Yep. Any talk of him being a second spinner in the test side is insane. That's not to say it won't happen though. Imagine what good players of spin would do to the trash he dishes up?

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Tony Greig used to get way across when delivering the ball, but not only he got way across in front of the leg stump. I'd only seen Richardson from side on before so I've never seen it before.

That "no-ball" they were querying when he bowled around the wicket is not a no ball. All you have to do is ground your back foot inside the return crease which is what he did.

Just heard Slater say the Aussies have underestimated Sri Lanka, and that has been my point all along. Anyone would think Australian cricket has a tree full of talent, and all we have to do is shake a tree and another quality player falls out. We don't. Our talent pool is dwindling.

This is arrogance at it's best. For Australia to remain competitive in all forms of the game, we need our handful of genuine quality players on the pitch at all times. So if that means cutting back their off-field preparation, so be it. Resting them in matches is not only arrogant, it's stupid.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Not sure I like Pat Cummings asking trivia questions. He probably broke down after asking it.

 

[grizzlym]

Not sure I like Pat Cummings asking trivia questions. He probably broke down after asking it.

I just want to see him bowling. He could just be the cricketer of his generation if he can get it together and stay on the field.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-sri-lanka-2012/content/current/story/600755.html

I see where coach Mickey Arthur is critical of anyone who dares criticize the rotation policy. Well Mickey, the reason we are criticial is because it isn't working!!! Resting players for a match or two is not helping the rehabilitation of these players because they come back, and then they need another rest straight away.

We now see a long list of "injured" players, or more to the point, players sitting about nursing minor aches and pains when they could be playing. AFL clubs began to see that the long list of soft tissue injuries in footballers were caused by the way they were being trained, and changed it.

Top sportsmen through the years have all played with aches, pains, injuries, and managed to pull through. They rested OFF the field, not when they should be ON it. The cricket public is paying good money to watch these guys play, not that collection of misfits who took the field in Adelaide.

Mickey Arthur, YOU have to accept at least some of the blame, not just arrogantly thumbing your nose at people who question your methods.

 

[Henry Jr]

Fancy playing Special K for one match then flick him. Smacks of the Terry Wallace school of coaching...

 

[grizzlym]

"We're very clear on who the best team is and who the best attack is," Arthur said following Australia's defeat in the second ODI in Adelaide."

I like this quote from the Mickey Arthur interview. How on earth could they have a best team? Don't reckon we've played unchanged for ages. So much chopping and changing that any 'best of' must be purely hypothetical, and not as a result of playing with a settled line-up.

 

[djboonie]

So I expect Wade, Warner and Clarke(?) to be added back to the squad. PLus the availability of a couple of decent bowlers would be nice. I like Cutting as an option, Faulkner should be considered. Also if we're going to debut guys I want to see Billy's kid get a chance.

Khawaja's 1 game trial is a joke.
Finch perhaps needs to be persisted with
Hughes is a keeper (and not a bad backup keeper How about we play him at 7 in the test side and give him the gloves)
The bowlers... heck what do we do with the bowlers!

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Did anyone see Arthur and Inverarity being interviewed? What an arrogant couple of knobs they are. Arthur labelling former greats of the game as "naive and stubborn", and Inverarity looking more like a muppet every day looking down his nose at everyone and suggesting that they, and only they, have the slightest idea of how to best manage players. Nobody else has a clue apparently. With attitudes like that, Australian cricket is heading for a huge wake up call, unfortunately too late.

I just wonder how bowlers like Steyn, Morkel and Anderson get on with having to play every Test in a series, and not being rested ... or is it just Australian bodies that need this attention? I also wonder how Sri Lanka feel about being treated with disrespect as some minnow of world cricket?

 

[Garf]

They said on the news tonight that Starc will require ankle surgery soon. Makes you wonder why he is playing at all, rather than risk a serious injury and miss the India or Ashes tours !!

Rotation is BS ! CA should have used this one day series to blood some young talent and stick with them. We do have young talent, and they certainly deserve more than one match here and there.

 

[TBoyleSuperstar]

seriously worried about where we are at at the moment. I hope to god the selectors really do know what they are doing, cause it's unclear to most at the moment. Khawaja should surely have gotten more than one game recently.

Let's hope their plan works and starts to come to fruition cause sheesh, they are testing the patience

 

[grizzlym]

Interesting about Beer and his India chances - this article just appeared on Cricinfo.
As much because it articulates the deficiencies with Maxwell's bowling but also the type of bowler Beer has developed into.

"Should Glenn Maxwell go to India on next month's tour it will only be as Australia's third-choice spinner, with Michael Beer heavily favoured to be named the second spinner behind Nathan Lyon, for the four-Test series.
Earlier this summer, Maxwell was chosen ahead of Beer as the lone spinner in the Australia A team that faced the South Africans at the SCG, and was later 12th man for the Test on the same ground. But his struggles for wickets against Sri Lanka's batsmen have made it clear that the Victorian allrounder is still well short of international standard as a bowler."

"Six matches into his ODI career, Maxwell remains wicketless, and scores of five and eight in the first two matches against Sri Lanka did not inspire a great deal of confidence with the bat either. Beer meanwhile has been bowling solidly as ever for the Perth Scorchers in the BBL, digging the ball into the pitch and changing his pace in a manner reminiscent of the best method for taking wickets in India."

It's terribly sad and an indictment on the scheduling that we're currently assessing spinners for a test tour in how they've bowled in the T20 clown tournament.

I lovedMacGill's comments re Maxwell's bowling too:

"Giving away 50.78 runs per wicket during the series, MacGill remarked that it wasn't so much that the visitors could read what he was bowling, more that they didn't care."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/600979.html

 

[TBoyleSuperstar]

God I hope the shield starts up again soon, so we can test these guys over a period of time and allow them to test and toy with batsman. They need bowling, they need to toss it up and let the ball do it's work. Then we can see what they are made of.

 

[djboonie]

Ridiculous game of KFC last night...

White and Hodge obliterated the Heat, yet, the D/L Method meant WA only had to score at 10 an over for 13 overs...

White, Hodge and Marsh struck the ball so cleanly. Voges Hit a Straight pull shot for 6.

Faulkner stuffed it all up at the end with Heat requiring 3 off 1 ball by over stepping...

First time I've felt enthused by a 20/20 game, but the game was made artificially interesting by the flawed D/L method.

 

[Henry Jr]

Was a joke Boonie. Given there was 8 wickets left in the shed or resources as DL calls, them, the proposed target should have been something like mid 150's rather than the 130's figure.

Did Warne not bowl due to the wet ball?

 

[djboonie]

Was a joke Boonie. Given there was 8 wickets left in the shed or resources as DL calls, them, the proposed target should have been something like mid 150's rather than the 130's figure.

Did Warne not bowl due to the wet ball?

Yep, the spinners were getting slammed! Mind you Alex Keath must have been reconsidering the decision to choose cricket over footy. Not even Zac Dawson had their ass handed to him as much as Keath did last night

 

[Henry Jr]

Yep, the spinners were getting slammed! Mind you Alex Keath must have been reconsidering the decision to choose cricket over footy. Not even Zac Dawson had their arse handed to him as much as Keath did last night

Ah, but did Anthony Rocca bat last night?

 

[Spanish Sahara]

Great start to the one dayer at the Gabba....

Aussies 4/23 already​

 

[Henry Jr]

Anyone up for a spot of tennis?