The Good The Bad and The Ugly

[Bomber Bears]

May as well get some series reviews going as the result is essentially decided, Ashes are staying in England it's pretty clear

The Good
There's not a whole lot of good but there are a few glimmers of positivity going forward
- Siddle has shown, sort of in Brisbane but more impressively yesterday/today that he knows how to bowl when using his brain, and that he can bowl a sustained, dangerous spell. Impressive and should be handy going forward if he keeps this up
- Steve Smith shouldnt have been chosen, but I think there is a bit to like about his play. As a batsmen he did well today (before getting out to a rubbish shot - not alone there), lacks the maturity for test cricket at this point but he'll get there. As a bowler his leg spin showed some good drift and flight, not much turn but that is partly the pitch, partly i suspect an action where his arm is just a tad high. Only 21, alot of improvement left there
- Hussey returned to form, lucky to be chosen at all but played well
- Harris bowled well in Adelaide and Perth, Johnson in Perth
- Watson continued to play well at the top of the order
- Haddin has batted pretty well

The Bad
- Bowling - Dont want to be too harsh because they never had much to bowl at, but lack consistency. Bowlers would put in a good spell then waste their next spell, at various times Siddle Harris Johnson Hilfenhaus have all bowled trash
- Watson - minor grievance maybe, but he has to start converting those starts to bigger runs. Also came across as a bit selfish with his running today and his reviewing every LBW
- Hughes - Shouldnt have been chosen in poor form and his dismissal before this innings were not great
- Fielding was of a poor level and this isnt acceptable
- Katich getting injured

The Ugly
- Selectors - Xavier Doherty? Out of form Phil Hughes? Out of form Steve Smith. Beer. WTF. If you're going to pick a young NSWelshman Khawaja was the man to choose at this point, most mature and ready we had. Hauritz did everything he could yet was ignored. Dussey Fergusson Marsh also batting well
- Pontings batting form - Sad to watch the shadow of a once great player. Time to retire
- Clarkes batting form - too many dismissals hanging the bat out to dry. Only saving grace is that he wasnt fit to at least start the series, but despite at least appearing to be working very hard the last few innings throwing it away once in (although I think today was the victim of good bowling)
- Batting in general not of standard, didnt give our bowlers a chance and we collapsed readily
- Mitch Johnson outside of Perth has been disgraceful, Hilfenhaus hasnt been that bad bowling wise, at least keeping it tight, but has also been very unthreatening and doesnt justify getting chosen in Australia, Bollinger was terrible in Adelaide.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

Watson is involved in so many run-outs, it isn't true. He needs to go to school for that. I don't think his judgement or calling is what it could be.

 

[skipper kelly]

The Ugly.

Australian Supporters/Past Players/Media

 

[mattymac]

watto is a bit of a scatterbrain. he is flighty. definately not captain material as some people like to think. gets out way too often in the 90s and causes way too many run outs --> can't control his nerves. just was screaming to get off strike to swann today so ran out hughesy and caused a collapse. ditto adelaide ran out kat and caused a collapse

atleast he had a decent series aside from igniting two massive collapses with brainless frightened running

 

[XFactor1979]

[youtube]iSj0dkqBiWc[/youtube]

oh you meant the good the bad and the ugly

carry on

 

[Doodlesweaver]

watto is a bit of a scatterbrain. he is flighty. definately not captain material as some people like to think. gets out way too often in the 90s and causes way too many run outs --> can't control his nerves. just was screaming to get off strike to swann today so ran out hughesy and caused a collapse. ditto adelaide ran out kat and caused a collapse

atleast he had a decent series aside from igniting two massive collapses with brainless frightened running

Read this quote from an article in cricinfo after the first innings in Adelaide. Is he admitting that he didn't call and that is why Katich got run out?

"It's going to be interesting to see our running between wickets after the first innings," Watson said. "If I call it might make things a little bit easier. He'll be sweet. He'll be out there fighting his heart out."

It wouldn't surprise me as the guy at the other end frequently appears to be slow of the mark when running with Watson.

 

[dan warna]

Hughes: bad and ugly and throw in stupid, the way he plays, he maybe quite bright.
Katich: Ugly because he was in moderate form when injury struck him down
Watto: Good, carrying a massive load atm.
Punter: bad and ugly which is sad because he was one of the most goodest of all time (made up word acceptable?)
Clarke bad and ugly, should be at 5 or 6, cannot hold up in the top order, needs to be protected to get the most out of his modest talent because he isn't good enough to play 3 or 4.
Hussey: Good, 500 runs in 3 test matches before running out of steam in the 4th test, i guess carrying the rest of the badding line up was too hard
North: Rubbish, bad and ugly, out of his league in the majors, quality person, but on the flip side better than smith.
Smith: Bad and Ugly, played stupid bowling unimpressive, maybe a player in 2 or 3 years time, atm rubbish and carried, carried hard to be a burden, average fielder also..
Haddin: batting was good, Keeping wasn't bad or ugly, just ordinary, a few dropped catches subtracted from his solid batting. Can't lead with the batting but can support a good batsman, batted well with clarke and hussey, cannot bat on his own.
MJ, one great test of legendary status, 3 ordinary to bad ones ones.
HIlfenhaus: bad and unlucky
Bollinger: One rubbish test, should never have been selected for it, cries from the media proved a false hope
Harris: genuinely good, struck down with injury.
Doherty: 2 FC games and ODI form does not a test player make.
Hauritz: batting well in FC, still can't bowl.

 

[breeno]

^

Are you drunk?

 

[dan warna]

^

Are you drunk?

In what way? sentence construction a bit rubbish, but accurate description of what we have seen this series.

clarke averaging 20 at no.4
smith, carried
hughes carried
punter finished legend that he is

 

[Cousin Jed]

ditto adelaide ran out kat and caused a collapse

If Katich wasn't asleep at the wheel they could have almost run 2.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

If Katich wasn't asleep at the wheel they could have almost run 2.

see my comment, Jed, sounds like he is saying he didn't call that run.

 

[krusden]

The REAL ugliness:

The Australian media has been nothjing short of disgraceful and if say ponting DID pull the pin would be up his ar!e mentioning percentages of winning and so forth. they've blamed the captain, the coach and asked for warne, mcgrath and the ghost of the Don to come back rather than the one glaring fact for me - that the standard of shield has dropped so much that the XI we have is almost the best to pick from.
have a look at the games, we see games over in 2 or 3 days lately, we see no batsmen banging the door down such as 10 years ago. There is some to come in that people mention such as white etc but this misses the point that these blokes are 25 years + in age and theres no blokes at 18, 19, 20 coming in.
so if you bring these blokes in then by the next ashes in 2013 we have a team full of 30+ year olds again. However if you look at the poms theyre blooding people like finn who is only 21.

 

[puntnut]

Ugly: Johnson's arrogance, Ponting

 

[Surkin]

Smith: average fielder also..

I'll have some of whatever you've been shafting.

 

[Yoda_]

Bump

with the season now finished, thought we, on Bigfooty could do our own review on the way the summer panned out. Here are my thoughts:

The Good

Shane Watson, what more do we have to say? Really repaying the debts that have accumulated over the years with his injury history. His shoulder problems, his back problems, all things that have made him a mentally stronger person, with his character really showing through in the past two years of his exceptional form surge. A true world class all rounder who may just be shy of elite due to conversion rates, but his stats simply do not lie and he has been our most reliable player the past twleve months at least.

Michael Clarke, some people may be asking themselves, why Michael Clarke? Not becuase of his woeful batting but his audacious captaincy, his thinking outside the box, his workings of the game. Who would have though, Mitchell Johnson at 4 would produce almost a match winning 57? or what about brining on Brett Lee back in game 2 (or 3?) and he proceeded to build speed and fire on all cylinders to finish with 3/27 from his 10 overs? or what about his use of his bowlers throughout the series? often chaning them at will, only to find that the bowling change has caused a wicket for the Aussies.

Steph Smith, I have been as critical as many on Smith as an international player, but his bowling has seriously come on in leaps and bounds this summer, to an extent where he should almost be out number 1 spinner. His batting is still a long way away from international standard, but his exuberence with the ball in hand is really pleasing, whilst his variations are starting to come through.

Brett Lee is back b*****!! 'Bing' came back into the squad and had an immediate impact and is going to be a lethal weapon in the sub continent, with his pace, swing and accuracy a real problem for even the most seasoned players. His batting in some of the latter games has also been sorely missed, so a real plus to have Brett Lee back and firing again.

The Bad's

Where to start, our injury toll really hit us hard towards the end of the summer, which included (in no particular order); Ricky Ponting, Ryan Harris, Nathan Hauritz, Xavier Doherety, Michael Hussey and now even Steph Smtih all on the sidelines due to injury. Is this a blessing in disguise? We now know Ferguson can play and have duly seen his game come on, could we see him go up a cog on the sub contintent? hope so.

Simon Katich's injury. A very unorthodox player, but a player who was sorely missed from the batting line up, providing the glue for the top order and the middle order, he could of played the Cook/Trott role perfectly, but had to sit on the sidelines and watch on as Australia lost the ashes for a third time in 4 attempts.

Cameron Whites form, made a comment about his form the other day, and was ribbed for it, I think people need to open their eyes a little and see that he has struggled recently.. BIG TIME. A huge risk to take him to the world cup, hope he proves me wrong, but he was perhaps the biggest let down of the one day series.

Ben Hilfenhause summer. What a let down from the boy from the Apple Isle. Promised everything in the world from his exploits in the last ashes, but failed to live up to anything really. 4 wickets at over 100? pathetic!!.


The Ugle

Andrew Hilditch "I thought, us as the selectors did a good job and selected a team that we thought could win the ashes".. seriously, you guys f***ed up, take ownership of it. Glad James Sutherland came out and said, yeah, dunno what Andrew was on about really. lol.

Losing the ashes, but not just losing them.. Getting pantsed in them. 3 tests by an innings. Seriously, who (of the older guys on BigFooty) have seen an Australian team lose threee of the 5 tests in that summer by an innings?

Any ways guys, post what you learnt about the Aussies this summer.