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The New and Improved Cricket Thread© - Now Roadblock Free!

Rezbit

Member
I can't believe Boland, Hastings and Richardson are in an international team together. I can understand needing to pick one to fill the team, but wow.
 

Faceache

Member
Overall a good series for England, but they still crumble under pressure. The top order in particular is still a problem, and Hales / Compton is not the solution.

South Africa played really well this last test match. They've found a real gem with Rabada, and seem to have found a good opener with Cook. Not quite all the doom and gloom it was earlier in the series.
 

kmag

Member
Overall a good series for England, but they still crumble under pressure. The top order in particular is still a problem, and Hales / Compton is not the solution.

South Africa played really well this last test match. They've found a real gem with Rabada, and seem to have found a good opener with Cook. Not quite all the doom and gloom it was earlier in the series.

England got a bit lucky. Had South Africa's bowling been at full strength with Steyn and Philander it would have been a lot closer, but you can only beat whats put in front of you.

Looks like South Africa's selection issues have largely been decided if Steyn and Philander are fit.

Cook, Elgar, Amla, De Villiers, Du Plessis, Bavuma, De Kock, Philander, Steyn, Rabada, Morkel

on the other hand I think England have real issues at 2,3 and 5

Cook, Root, Stokes, Ali, Broad, Anderson and Finn are really the only people cemented in their team. Even then they're getting away with playing Ali atm but even in this last test, Piedt was getting proper spin throughout while Ali barely got any turn at all.

Hales doesn't have the technique for test cricket
Compton's got very good defensive technique but his temperament is a suspect and he's still too passive.
Bairstow isn't a good enough keeper and will go on Buttler type degradation in his batting if he concentrates on his keeping
Taylor had one decent innings but looked awful.

I imagine Hales will be the only one to lose his spot though. England have a pretty straightforward home schedule (SL and Pakistan) this year so I imagine they'll look a lot more settled after those series.
 
England got a bit lucky. Had South Africa's bowling been at full strength with Steyn and Philander it would have been a lot closer, but you can only beat whats put in front of you.

Looks like South Africa's selection issues have largely been decided if Steyn and Philander are fit.

Cook, Elgar, Amla, De Villiers, Du Plessis, Bavuma, De Kock, Philander, Steyn, Rabada, Morkel

on the other hand I think England have real issues at 2,3 and 5

Cook, Root, Stokes, Ali, Broad, Anderson and Finn are really the only people cemented in their team. Even then they're getting away with playing Ali atm but even in this last test, Piedt was getting proper spin throughout while Ali barely got any turn at all.

Hales doesn't have the technique for test cricket
Compton's got very good defensive technique but his temperament is a suspect and he's still too passive.
Bairstow isn't a good enough keeper and will go on Buttler type degradation in his batting if he concentrates on his keeping
Taylor had one decent innings but looked awful.

I imagine Hales will be the only one to lose his spot though. England have a pretty straightforward home schedule (SL and Pakistan) this year so I imagine they'll look a lot more settled after those series.

Morkel is rarely ever 100% fit these days, I doubt Steyn ever will too and Im not sure about Philanders issues but SA need way more depth in bowling. Lucky Rabada looks promising, as I said before this test where he took a ten for.

I dont know how much more AB has left too. He says he is keen to keep playing, but he doesnt look like it. Either he will continue playing at a lower level than he is able to or he will need to give up short form cricket (which I doubt he would).

England would do well to unearth another young top order batsman and bowler (as Anderson is nearing his last couple of years, if he is not already in that phase). But every nation would be better if they had another good bowler and batter.

I think that surprisingly, Australia has done the best rebuild currently because they have finished for retirements except for voges (who looks good for another 12-18mths). Other than that, anyone who gets seriously injured even (touch wood) would have enough time to come back and play for years.

Might be time to put 'The Wild Thing" down.

yeah, only geting a game cause he can bowl over 145kph.

If there was another Australian bowler who is just lightning quick (around 150kph) then they would be selected. However they are injured at the moment.
 

hamchan

Member
Australia need to solve their issues against the slow ball ASAP or we might as well not go to the T20 World Cup.

This Pandya guy seems pretty rubbish though lol.
 
I agree with Kohli's sentiments when Smith got out, stop the chit chat and worry about batting.

Its an international match, playing for spots and form for an upcoming world cup, and you are speaking to the commentators while batting. Its a reason why I dont think there should be T20is, as half the players dont even take it seriously.
 
Australia need to solve their issues against the slow ball ASAP or we might as well not go to the T20 World Cup.

This Pandya guy seems pretty rubbish though lol.

we've been trying to solve that issue the last 30 years....

In my opinion, a lot of it is just about respecting the bowler a bit more. Take the singles and rotate the strike (which spin bowlers HATE) and then hit the boundary on the bad ball each over. Its what I tell my div 5 team each week, yet these international players still want to hit every ball for six.
 

Window

Member
These plugs for tv shows and movies by commentators is hilarious.

I agree with Kohli's sentiments when Smith got out, stop the chit chat and worry about batting.

Its an international match, playing for spots and form for an upcoming world cup, and you are speaking to the commentators while batting. Its a reason why I dont think there should be T20is, as half the players dont even take it seriously.
Maybe it came across the wrong way but yeah it did seem as if Smith didn't care about the game.
 

wachie

Member
Two bad umpiring decisions resulted in two wickets and turned this entire game on Australia.
lol the salt in this post, which were those two decisions? I can call Head being unlucky but that was marginal and hardly a shocker.

I love Head, that century in BBL is one of my favorite knocks of the past few years.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Video not available.

This is getting really dumb though. I saw it live. The Hawkeye screen showed it pitching outside leg live. I don't know why you're trying so hard to say it's not?

You search online and everyone agrees that it's outside leg.
 

wachie

Member
This is getting really dumb though.
It is,

Here is cricinfo's commentary
Ashwin to Finch, OUT, the umpire didn't get to watch the previous delivery so Finch gives him an action replay sans the inside edge. He moves well across the stumps to try to sweep an offbreak, and is beaten again. Pitches within, straightens to hit middle. Dead plumb. Not so sure about the replay that is showing it pitched outside leg. That shake right at the last moment makes it look not right
Sorry I dont frequent rabid conspiracy theory forums to discuss what people online think. I saw it live, it looked plumb. Same thing with the commentators. The second replay showing it pitched outside is sketchy as noted by cricinfo.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
You know live footage is always shot at an angle that will skew perspectives right?

I saw live and also the Hawkeye version that shows the pitch dead straight. It's not predicting ball trajectory. It purely just shows where it has pitched.
 
My personal opinion is that it the umpire was under pressure after getting a spray, incorrectly I might add, from ashwin and dhoni for giving the not out the previous ball. The second one was outside leg when I watched it live that's my opinion though.

Also, a game of cricket is not won or lost on one or two deliveries/bad calls. Each team has ten wickets and can face 20 overs. Generally, you need to be the better team for a longer period of time than the opponent at test level, and as the format shortens, you don't even need to be the better team for the majority of play.

Last night, we bowled badly and didnt bat as well as we could have with none of the top three batting though the innings which is the general rule of thumb to chasing (I mean batting while miked up is pretty disrespectful of the opponent too). India deserved to win the game as they played better than us, kohli was great and their spinners stood up.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Oh no, I agree that we can't blame our loss on that, and also they were marginal line calls, but to say that it was a correct decision is going a step too far.
 
Oh no, I agree that we can't blame our loss on that, and also they were marginal line calls, but to say that it was a correct decision is going a step too far.

Yeah, it was definitely not the correct decision.

HawkEye ball tracking up to when the ball hits the pads (I.e. Before it uses its trajectory algorithm to predict where the ball is going to go) is far more accurate than human eye and human inference. Sometimes I disagree with the predicted trajectory but that is not what is in question here.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
The weird thing too is that we probably export the most t20 franchise players.

Oh man, guess lyon isn't going to the world t20.
 

kmag

Member
Marsh is batting pretty slowly in T20 terms here.

Australia well ahead of the rate but the spinners are on now for India and this is where Australia came a cropper last time although they've basically gotten to a point where they can take 2 or 3 overs of nurdling it for singles before going for a blast.
 
Lol Darwan!

I don't have to much issue with SMarsh farming the strike to the batsman in form unless he gets completely bogged down... and as I write that he gets out.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Haha Christ we are just so bad at t20.

Also we never seem to prepare for it. We shouldn't be playing with experimental squads this close to the world cup.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Fucking Wade.

So fucking useless.

Edit: congrats to India and also congrats to Wade for being able to pad out his stats.
 
Who's going to captain Aus. on Sunday? Warner and Smith in NZ, Finch gone, Wade also going to NZ with Bancroft coming in. Watto? The GOAT? Dig up Bailey?
 

hamchan

Member
I don't know what Wade does if he's not good at keeping and not good at batting.

Also yeah give Bails a shot for the last match. Don't really know why he didn't play these last two t20 matches.
 
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