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The Cricket Thread

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Night_Walker

Well-Known Member
dragon-dark-master said:
Very unsporting because it happened to Australia?
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*Sighs* No, it was an unsporting tactic full stop.

I'll admit that as an Australian I do have a slightly biased PoV, but then most sports fans do, but I can and do step back to view these kinds of things impartially.

Anyway. Well Ricky won't be batting unless desperately required, the injury must be worse then we thought.
 
N

Night_Walker

Well-Known Member
otaku-dono said:
Ahahahahaha 150 all out.

WI chasing 350 in two days, easy as pie.
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I know what you mean... what on Earth were the boys doing?!

Well yeah, you'd certainly have thought it would be for them. And even when we got the breakthroughs it was frightening how close they managed to get...

Big team think needed before the boxing day test against the, arguably, better Pakistani side...

Still big time props to Bollinger and Watson they saved us with the ball, there's absolutely no doubt about that.
Johnson still as wayward as ever, if Siddle or Hilfenhaus return for the boxing day test I think he'd be hard pressed to keep his spot - even more so if both are fit. At international level I don't think it's good enough to have a bowler that you "never quite know what you're going to get" from in the team just because he might have a stunner when there are bowlers who're more reliable out there (even if they don't bowl stunning spells).

And okay maybe Watson went slightly over the top when he got Gayle, but come on - you're trying to defend 350 over 2 days and you manage to get out the guy who smashed 100 in 70 balls in the first innings, of course you're gonna be fired up by it.
Not sure he should be fined, at least not heavily for it, but you would have hoped he'd know better then to do that.

Not sure if Ricky'll play Boxing Day, clearly that arm is giving him more trouble then he'd like to admit - and when you consider where he got hit (where the tendons meet the elbow joint) it might be a while before it really does recover. So maybe it's best to give him a rest and bring someone else in for Boxing Day.
 
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Night_Walker

Well-Known Member
Apparently Phillip Hughes has been called up to the side for the Boxing Day test against Pakistan... which I can't quite understand to be honest - Ricky is a #3, Hughes is an opener.
The opening pair have worked quite well surely it'd make more sense to bring a middle order batsman in and promote Clarke or Hussey.

*Sighs and shakes head* Why is it Bollinger who seems to be the one under pressure to hold his spot in the bowling department? He put in what I think (without meaning any disrespect to Gayle) should have been recognised as the man of the match performance for Australia, without his wickets we wouldn't have won, yet somehow he's not assured of holding his spot but the wayward "never quite know what you're gonna get" Johnson is?
 
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N

Night_Walker

Well-Known Member
Bloody Katich... bad enough he runs Watson out for 93 but he then goes and gets himself out...

Good batting performance by the boys, although we really need to break this whatever the heck it is in relation to getting 100s, it's got past the point of being 'funny'.

Hautriz must have given the recognised batsmen a scare when he was out there, for a while it looked like he'd get that elusive ton (of course then the commentators had to mention it and bang out he went). Gave me a scare though when he seemed to have re-injured his groin, seems to have pulled up okay though.

I personally thought Ricky declared too soon, granted it seems I'm being proved wrong by the outstanding work of the bowlers, but after we saw happen in Perth surely an extra 50 wouldn't have hurt?

I still think the referral system needs to be set up so the decision is either supprted as right or rejected as wrong, none of this "Ooh, it's close so it's the umpire's call" nonsense.
 
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Raddaya

My Little Ponyta
N

Night_Walker

Well-Known Member
Shane Watson carries his bat for 120 in the Australian second innings...

...

Finally! An Australian has reached that elusive century, hopefully that'll open the floodgates for the rest of the summer.
It was certainly long overdue, that run of 70s, 80s and 90s had just got past the point of being funny (in a painful way).

Sill I think Ricky definitely missed a trick in the first innings with his declaration, and same in the second innings, to the point that I think Australia is down about 50-70 runs from what they should have had. And right now I'd have to say Pakistan is out in front, and unless the boys strike early tomorrow I think Pakistan can pull off the win.

In bad news for the Western Warriors and the West Indies it looks like Chris Gayle has torn or severely strained a muscle in his debut for the Western Warriors in the KFC T20 Big Bash.
 
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Raddaya

My Little Ponyta
W00t England won
Now India can be No.1 for longer
w00t
 
N

Night_Walker

Well-Known Member
Well I'll be darned, the boys turned it into an easy win... Didn't see that coming.

Excellent periods of play with bat ball and in the field from Pakistan, maybe if they'd turned up and bowled the way they did in the second innings during the first they'd have had a better chance.

Some of our batsman need to relearn some of the basics and stop fishing for the ball well away from their bodies... I don't mean to take anything away from the Pakistani bowlers, who I thought genuinely did bowl very very well in the second innings, but some of those dismissals were the result of bad shot selection.

Mitchell... Did the selectors finally threaten to drop him? Cause that's the only thing I can think of that might have lit the fire well enough under him that he finally returned to the form he was in over a year ago when he was the lead of the attack. That first over on day 5 won us the match.
Still I wish he and the other quicks would stop banging it in short so much... That's just not gonna get wickets and it's unsporting guys. And he better bowl the same way in Sydney.

Hautriz, an excellent showing :) Now he'd better back it up in Sydney for his own sake, cause young Steve Smith is knocking loudly on the door.

Watson, hopefully this'll silence all the critics. He's been our best most consistent player this summer and it all came together for him in this match :)

Bollinger and Siddle, solid performances once again. Gonna be tough to decide how Hilfenhaus can slot back into the team now...

Ponting... oh geez he just can't stay out of the line of fire right now. Hope he'll be okay for Sydney.

Good all rough performance from the boys... but it could easily have gone a different way.
 
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Barbarooza

BarBOSSA
Bet Ponting feels like a **** now. I know Australia always bat if they win the toss, but on this pitch, what a stupid bloody decision it was. Well bowled Pakistan and especially Asif and Sami. Good to see Sami back.
 
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Night_Walker

Well-Known Member
Barbarooza said:
Bet Ponting feels like a **** now. I know Australia always bat if they win the toss, but on this pitch, what a stupid bloody decision it was. Well bowled Pakistan and especially Asif and Sami. Good to see Sami back.
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Yeah, hope we can manage to pull this back out of fire. Either way Ricky better learn from this...

Talk about inflexible, you don't just automatically say "if we win the toss we'll bat", you always assess the conditions thoroughly when you get there. Okay most of the time you'll want to bat first, but you have to be open to the thought that at times ground conditions will be such that you bowl first.... Like yesterday.

Maybe he's still mentally scarred from that 05 Ashes tour of England when he chose to bowl in one test and then Glenn had that fluke accident, followed by Pointing choosing to bowl in another test fairly soon after and getting his bowlers carted everywhere. But seriously he needs to get over those experiences if that's the cause of it, because not reacting to conditions can put you right behind the 8-Ball.

I didn't see the Australian innings, because I actually hadn't realised the test started when it did - since most tests start on Thursdays or Fridays, but I have to say again a lot of the dismissals were the result of the batsman 'fishing' for the ball.
I don't want to sound like I'm saying the Pakistani bowlers didn't bowl well, because quite clearly they did, just that a lot of the dismissals looked to be at least partially the result of bad batting. It's been a repeated problem for the boys this summer, they really need to get a hold of tapes of them batting and fix this.

I hate to keep harping on this but I think we now have proof of exactly why the referral system needs to be 'right or wrong' as opposed to 'right, wrong, umpire's call' - Siddle to Sami, ball pitches fullish just outside off, swining back in, hits Sami on the knee-roll, Umpire says not out, on referral Hawkeye shows it's gonna hit the top of the stumps and yet because it's hitting the top the Umpire is still allowed to say "I think it's not out".
That was a mistake plain and simple.
 
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Raddaya

My Little Ponyta
Same complaint. Different reason- exams. Sigh. Wish I coulda seen the turnaround. No, I have to see it on cricinfo UGH
 
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Night_Walker

Well-Known Member
dragon-dark-master said:
Didn't catch the finish. At work. Put apparently it was quite good?
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It was a stunning win when you think about the match;
~ Australia bungled their decision after winning the toss and got skittled for it.
~ Pakistan batted well, although I'd have to say not brilliantly, to establish what looked like the game winning lead of 206.
Australia batted better in the second innings, and looked a chance at times. But you'd have sworn that they were heading for a lose when Clarke, North, Haddin Johnson and Hautriz all went in fairly quick succession (4-40) and Australia went to stumps on day 3 at 8-286 just 80 runs in front with 2 wickets left.
Hussey and Siddle came out and (through a combination of good batting, slightly lacking captaincy from Yousuf and some indifferent bowling) adding an Australian record 123 runs for the 9th Wicket. But given Bollinger got out almost immediately, leaving a total for Pakistan of 176, Pakistan still looked to be out in front.
~ Pakistan came out in the right mindset, got to 50 without much trouble and then the game began to swing back and forth like mad.
- Farhat hit a drive in the air straight to Johnson, who took a good low catch at mid-off.
- Iqbul was given out LBW off Hautriz's bowling but saved when the referral system shows he hit it, but in the next over Johnson gets a nick with a ball pitching on about middle and off that continues to leave him.
A few balls later Johnson sprayed one down the legside, Butt tried to help on it's way only to see if fly into the outstretched hand of Haddin in one of the all time great wicket-keeper catches. 3-51.
- Yousuf came out and steadied the ship. But just as he started looking like he'd clobber Haurtiz to all parts of the SCG and get the runs in a blazing innings he blasts one (literally) straight back at Haurtiz who takes an amazing and brave return catch. It came right in at his chest, he got the hands up to it and managed to hold on to it, but he went down on the pitch after grabbing it and had blood coming from his left thumb.
- Hautriz then gets Misbah-ul-Haq caught (off a strange kinda prodded cut shot) with the second ball he bowls after his left thumb gets taped up. 5-77.
This brought Akmal brothers together and they stabilised things for Pakistan before the faintest of edges to Haddin off Johnson brought Kamran undone. 6-103. However it still looked like Umar was going to win the match for Pakistan as he was getting really good support from Sami.
- Then just as the seems to be slipping way (6-133) the Aussies go up for a caught behind by Haddin from Sami off Hautriz, the umpire says not out but Haddin is convinced he heard a faint edge so they refer it. Hotspot reveals an edge and Sami is on his way. Next over without any more runs being added Umar finally goes for the big shot off Bollinger and skies an easy catch to Johnson.
- Kaneria and Gul try to blast Pakistan to victory but are both caught off Hautriz, by Watson and Siddle respectively sealing a famous win for the Aussies.

For Australia to come back and win this game, when they'd pretty much been chasing it since day 1 (where the wrong decision was made by Ricky), was incredible and speaks volumes about the heart of this team.

All my sympathies go out to Pakistan and their supporters, this has to be worse for them then what happened in Melbourne cause it seemed like they were always going to win after bowling Australia out cheaply and batting fairly well in their first innings, but somehow Australia pulled it out.

I've heard various commentators say that Pakistan lost the match rather then Australia winning it. I must say that does a disservice to both teams.

Pakistan played well, very well.
They seized the opportunity Ricky handed them and used the first day conditions to cheaply dismiss a very good Australian batting line up.
They batted fairly well in their first innings and got a good lead.
They they managed to restrict Australia's lead to a relatively small one on what was then a good batting wicket.
They also batted fairly well in their second innings, with most being undone by good bowling and brilliant catching.

Australia also played well.
Their bowling in the first innings pulled them back into the match, Pakistan could have easily got over 400 in their first innings (especially given the Pakistani openers put on 109 runs, and the team put on 96 for the next 2 wickets).
Their second innings batting performance again let them done but Watson (97) and Hussey (134 not out) stood up, with some decent support from Hughes, Clarke, Haddin and most of all the unlikely hero Siddle.
Then the bowlers came back and bowled their hearts out, with the team taking every opportunity and half chance that came their way.

Both teams did mess up at times;
Ricky made a blatantly wrong call to bat first (and he still needs to understand, given his talk following the match, that bowling first doesn't mean you don't back your bowlers and or batsmen to win the match - it's about adapting to the conditions).
Quite a few of the batsmen in both teams did get out thanks to bad shot selection.
Kamran dropped four fairly easy chances from Hussey, three on day 4 alone, while Haddin caught everything.
Yousuf's field placings on the morning of Day 4 seemed too defensive, especially to Hussey, for the position Pakistan was in.

I think Pakistan may, due to a lack of test cricket recently including a lack of winning tests recently, have just taken their foot off Australia's throat slightly late on Day 3 and on the morning of Day 4. But the fact is opportunities don't win matches, teams making the most of those opportunities win matches.

Australia won the match as much as, if not more then, Pakistan lost it.
Granted Hussey should have been caught 4 times but if Siddle hadn't stuck with him that would have meant nothing, and Siddle could easily have just edged one behind but he put a high price on his wicket.
I'd only chalk 4 of the Pakistani second innings dismissals down to definitely bad batting (Misbah-ul-Haq, Kaneria, Umar, Gul). The others came down to either good bowling, moments of brilliance in the field and or fluke luck.

Well played to both teams.
 
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