Sport The Hangar Cricket Thread IV

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The calls of "come back Smiffy!" are predictable but also overlook that he really wasn't a particularly great captain. Quite aside from whatever your views are on the whole sandpaper business, he was tactically wooden and unimaginative.

He is without peer as a batsman, that we all know, but there is a large degree of nostalgia about him as a leader that simply isn't backed up by the available evidence of how good a leader he was.

That said, Paine's value is fast running out. He's a walking wicket, his keeping is not what it once was and he's tactically flawed too. So if it's not Paine and it's not Smith, who does that leave? Warner - we all know that's not going to happen. Head? Probably not yet secure enough in the side, although he has been quietly impressive in the past six months. Cummins? Maybe, although what leadership experience does he have anywhere?

Paine's errors and bizarre use of DRS also shouldn't take away from what a remarkable effort that was by Stokes. The guy is a star and I suspect he will soon be their captain, as Root needs to give up the captaincy and concentrate on his batting I think.

Paine's errors and bizarre use of DRS also shouldn't be allowed to mask that Joel Wilson is simply not up to it as an international umpire. One minute he's firing batsmen when the ball is missing the stumps by 15cm after taking 10 seconds to make a decision, next minute he's shaking his head decisively for not out when they are absolutely stone dead. I can't believe he would have gotten this far if he's been this bad at lower levels, so I can only conclude he is just not dealing with the pressure. Either way, he needs to go pronto.
 

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I just knew when Stokes got hit on the head early on that he would fight and produce this. Went to bed hoping Aussies would win. Anyway, i fully expect England to go on and win back the Ashes. That was a golden opportunity wasted.
 
As it stands right now Paine is a liability to the side in every department he is involved with.

Give Wade the gloves and by default Smith gets the captaincy back.
 
Say what you want about Smith, he reads the game better than Paine does. Paine’s last 90 minutes was absolutely horrific in every way.

Paine is Kim Hughes without the ability at the moment. I love him, but he’s a dead man walking
 
It always comes back to captaincy when in reality it makes little to no difference.

While a miracle last minute partnership is not how you expect to lose a game, you shouldn't expect anything less than a loss when you set a home side with a few competent batsmen 350 runs to win in 2.5 days.

They've basically get a whole day to do nothing but grind the bowlers down. The NZ approach against McGrath in that drawn series late 90s/early 00s for example - block anything on the stumps, leave anything dangerous and hit the occasional bad ball for 4.

Given the conditions a meek batting performance left us 150 and real scoreboard pressure short.

You know they were all thinking something along the line of "350 has never been done batting second, records will need to be broken, bla bla bla"

Well now the record has been broken and maybe England will take confidence the next time they are confronted with chasing a total for which there is little to no time pressure on a pitch which hardly reflects conditions 40 to 100 years ago.
 
EFC 1871 said:
At the time I thought we should've enforced the follow on. The conditions were predicted to get better for batting, and we could've capitalised on the bowling conditions with a red hot and still fresh attack.
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I don't think we ever had a lead big enough for it to be a choice
 
Stokes knock was huge but tactically we could of done a heap better.

He wanted to take the quicks into the leg side and for some reason we kept feeding his strong zone.
It was like we'll just put 5 on the leg side, surely he couldn't keep 4's and 6's through there.

We didn't even back our selves over after over to keep stokes on strike on ball 5, so we could of got a full over at Leach. I still cannot comprehend this.

This is without touching on our use of DRS.
 
EFC 1871 said:
At the time I thought we should've enforced the follow on. The conditions were predicted to get better for batting, and we could've capitalised on the bowling conditions with a red hot and still fresh attack.
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Our lead was only 112. Enforcing the follow on was never a possibility.
 

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Tactically they prob could have tried to flip a few more coins and hope something worked but Stokes was a man on a mission, he played it absolutely perfectly. Farming the strike to avoid Leech having to face too many balls, picking gaps, creative shot making to completely rattle the bowlers. Other teams got ball players too and sometimes you just gotta tip your cap to something great, and that's what it was. There was something about it when he didn't raise his bat when he brought up the 50 (or his 100, just got on with it knowing there was a job to do) just after he'd run out Woakes that it felt like he really determined to do something special.
 
We kept giving Stokes the easy single on the 5th ball which meant we were only getting a crack at leach on the last ball of the over for about 7 overs running.

Surely with world class bowling attack you'd back one of your bowlers in to bowl a dot ball on the 5th or 6th ball, especially when he's just wants a single to get down the other end.
Bring the field in and make him earn it.

Big difference was Paine was trying to play it safe and Stoke was going out on a limb to win it.
 
Max Baker said:
Got to bring in Starc if fit. Surely.
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Maybe, but who goes out? Pattinson? Whilst he only took a single wicket in that second innings, they scored less than two an over from him. He needs to be backed in so he can find rhythm.
Is Cummins rested? He's probably our best bowler.
Hazlewood? A handy return to test cricket these past two.

The changes need to come from the batting line up for mine. That opening batting pair has got to to be fixed. It's killing us and putting far too much pressure on players like Khawaja (who by now should be used to it). In saying that he's been ordinary also.
What to do with Wade? Runs coming out of his butt at domestic level but a 33 & a duck this test really hurts.
Then there's Paine. Doing nothing with the bat and making some really poor calls as Captain.

If nothing else I'm fascinated at what comes next!
 
Runk said:
Maybe, but who goes out? Pattinson? Whilst he only took a single wicket in that second innings, they scored less than two an over from him. He needs to be backed in so he can find rhythm.
Is Cummins rested? He's probably our best bowler.
Hazlewood? A handy return to test cricket these past two.

The changes need to come from the batting line up for mine. That opening batting pair has got to to be fixed. It's killing us and putting far too much pressure on players like Khawaja (who by now should be used to it). In saying that he's been ordinary also.
What to do with Wade? Runs coming out of his butt at domestic level but a 33 & a duck this test really hurts.
Then there's Paine. Doing nothing with the bat and making some really poor calls as Captain.

If nothing else I'm fascinated at what comes next!
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Assuming Smith is available then a batsman comes out for him and it wont be Labuschagne
 
I think Paine should go on form but he won't. Dropping the captain mid series is something a bit unAustralian.

I thinks Smith will end up captain again once his done his 12 months.

In:Smith Starc Out: Harris Patto

Usman to open.
 
Runk said:
I'll be interested to see if it's Paine that goes. Give Wade the gloves. Let Warner Captain. It'd be a bold move.
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Is Warner allowed to captain? or does he have the same restriction as Smith?
 
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