The Cricket Thread

[Robzy]

Waugh, Gilchrist and Warne were all players others lifted for.

And Glenn McGrath

Gilchrist was one of the BEST cricketers I've ever seen!

[i_amtrunks]

Getting smashed again.

So when India declare sometime tomorrow and put us in chasing 600 odd and the wicket is starting to fall apart I wonder if we will even make the follow-on or if our batsmen will pull their fingers out.

I also wonder if the wicket is as flat and useless as Gambhir is making it look, or if we had have won the toss if we would have been all out by now. We are lucky Clarke has been so tidy or India could well be at 450 already, Lee and Johnson both need to be dropped till they can relearn how to bowl at the stumps and not 3 feet outside off, and all the part timers have been ineffective, White and Watson worse than Katich and Clarke.

When we do bat I wonder how much Mishra will bowl, I have the feeling that Kumble might try and hog an end to make up for his terrible showing in the first test.

[jacksplatt11]

We're getting thrashed again.. Can't say I'm surprised though.. You're right Trunks, When we persist with bowlers like Lee and Johnson who can't bowl straight, we're just asking for huge scores against us.. To Laxman and Gambhir's credit though, I hear they have batted pretty superbly... I'll have to watch SportsTonight to check it out

And yeah, will be interesting to see what Kumble does, being captain, does he sacrifice perhaps a better bowler at the moment in Mishra to give himself more of a go? or bowl Mishra despite the fact he'll want to impress selectors.. Mind you, making 45 off 73 for a bowler is nothing to scoff at but Kumble has shown before he's very handy with the bat

[STL]

Whoa. Ausralia made it to 50 w/out the loss of a wicket. If they bat through tmrw, they'll draw to fight another day and maybe get some confidence. But none of the bowlers have been great and i_amtrunks you are absolutely right - Lee and Johnson have no consistency.

Whoa x2! Katich bowled the same number of overs White did. White has to go. I'm a passionate Victorian but he doesn't cut it. If he makes the Aussie team it will be as a one day or 20/20 specialist. His test batting at the moment pales compared to some other more worthy batsman.

It's surprising I understand everything going on in Lee's life but when I think of that, my mind turns to Warne. With his back against the wall, Warne would perform. He would life and b/c of that he made everyone stronger. But I got to stop living in the past.

In the present McGain needs to get fit to be the temporary plug and Australia needs to start blooding a few spinners. I think the batsman are fine. As we've discussed, they've just got to play less favourites.

[i_amtrunks]

It's surprising I understand everything going on in Lee's life but when I think of that, my mind turns to Warne. With his back against the wall, Warne would perform. He would life and b/c of that he made everyone stronger. But I got to stop living in the past.

Was that maybe because Warne didn't really care about his home life, and lived in the moment?
I was never a Warne fan, but I must admit the man knew how to keep his on field and off field lives completely separate.

Australia used 8 bowlers to take only 7 wickets, and Johnson was extremely lucky to take 4. Hussey could have also bowled (seeing as he did in the 2nd test) which would have given us 9 bowlers, Hayden and Haddin missing out. Katich was getting better turn than White or Clarke, but Ponting bowled his slow pacers rather than the handy offspin he used to have.

Gotta agree with STL that White is not the solution that Australia need, his batting has been below par for him, but at least his fielding is good. Without Symonds, and with Ponting in decline, Hussey is now our best fieldsman (Clarke is highly over-rated), while Johnson and Lee are great outfielders, they'll never be Pidgeons.

If we collapse over the next 3 days into a piling mess like we did in the second test and go 2-0 with a dead rubber 4th, we need to experiment with the bowling. Drop White, Johnson and Lee, rest Clark, Ponting and Clarke, add in Siddle, Bollinger, Krezja and bring over Casson and Hauritz who with his form thus far in the Sheffield means he could easily replace White. Trialling Hopes and D. Hussey or Hodge to strengthen the batting would be ideal. M. Hussey as Captain, Hayden as VC, and we have a side that would be interesting to watch.
We'd most likely get thrashed, but hey it'd allow us to see how most of the guys go.

As far as this test goes, it looks like the Indian bowlers might struggle a bit too, guess we will see by lunch on day 4 if the groundsman was true to his word in doctoring a pitch ideal for Kumble. In a way it's kind of like match fixing, every country has certain pitches that behave in certain ways, and that's fine, but to state that you have made a pitch to help a certain player, that's taking it a little far isn't it?

[Fungal Infection]

Whoa, at the time of writing this, Australia is only behind by 80 runs with 4 wickets in hand and a minimum 33 overs to play. And they've averted the follow on. Can they do it?

[Pulse]

Can they scrounge up a draw? They probably could

Is a sniff of a win in the air? My tips for Tuesday are way-shorter than the Aussies chances of a longshot...

[i_amtrunks]

India 2/43 a lead of 79. One of those wickets was of the night watchman Sharma.

On a day that Kumble showed why he needs to step aside from the captaincy, India were atrocious in the field, Clarke was dropped 3 times (all fairly easy catches) on his way to a patient 112 to guide the Aussies only 36 runs short of the Indians 7/613. The pitch gave nothing to the bowlers till late on the day, now it looks like it might start to fall apart.

Lee was lucky to be bowling to Sehwag who was easily the pick of the Indian team, getting his first 5 wicket haul from a massive 40 overs (Tendulkar bowled 1 , Kumble 43). Personally I think it's fair enough that he was stuffed and in need of a good rest instead of opening the batting.

Just as you could see the moment when the momentum swung from the Aussies to India in the first test (the Singh Khan partnership), you could see the momentum swing back to the Aussies when the Indians could not remove Clarke and White for most of the day. Watch the Indians play for the draw today, and go for the draw from the get go in the fourth test. India are too scared to risk playing a game that will see them draw a series, and see the Australians retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

While Clarke was the only Aussie to score a century, and it was a good one, he once again showed that he can only score runs when the Aussies are in a good position, and when the batsmen ahead of him have put decent runs on the boards. Had we been 3/100 I have no doubt he would have been dismissed for a paltry sum of runs.
White was much improved with the bat, but his lack of turn with the ball and not scoring too many runs should see him replaced for the final test. I expect to see a lot of Katich bowling today. Hopefully he can pull a Sehwag and get a handful of wickets. (then move Hussey to open to give him a break if needed).

And in related news did anyone else read that Harbhajan Singh has been given permission from the ICC (read: BCCI) to have injections of an illegal steroid to help him recover from a...... toe injury. Yes thats right little Harby needs an illegally banned substance to overcome what has always been reported as a minor injury. Anyone else think the cheat has taken a performance enhancing drug and has tested positive to internal tests and now India are going to cover it up by claiming any future positive tests are due to this "legally sanctioned" taking of a banned substance? If it were anyone else I'd not bring it up, but Harbhajan is right up there with Shoaib and Asif in the dirty grub and rotten cheat stakes.
And I wonder how easily Gambhir will get off his ban for that elbow incident...

Anyway it should be fun to watch India play the negative cricket that they used so well in Sydney earlier this year [/sarcasm]. Lets see what excuses they can come up with when they draw a game they should have won.

[STL]

We drew. No surprise really and given India's negativity, I doubt they'll play for anything in the last game.

One thing that frustrates me to no end is the regard people seem to starting to hold Michael Clarke in. All the talk about his increasing maturity and how that makes him the perfect captain for Australia is annoying the hell out of me. He -does- not have the persona to be a successful captain. As trunks pointed out, he would've failed w/ the bat if the top order has. He has no backbone about him. In the last tour when he made 91 odd with Martyn, it was Martyn's innings that held the Aussies together yet he gets the credit for playing with his flair. And while he was quick to separate Katich and Gambier, that doesn't make him a leader either. I mean plenty of players try to separate fights/arguments in other sports like Rugby and AFL but that doesn't make them born leaders either. Clarke may be maturing but maturity does not mean you for a single moment possess leadership qualities. I'm pretty sick of the commentators talking about him and his maturity. Its important to mature but maturing does not mean you have all these leadership and personal qualities that make you great. I'm happy to be proven wrong but let's make Clarke earn it. He did nothing special. Hayden, Ponting both made near centuries - they just didn't notch up the triple figures. Which is important but he didn't score very much more than them.

For me, reading the report, Katich had the last over of the 4th day. That says enough about White's ability. Play Kreja. Period. It's a risk worth taking.

And I concur absolutely. India's rise is something to be feared. Not b/c of their cricketing ability but the amount of power they will wield. I may be taking it too far but I fear their administration will be bad for the game. Self-interested, arrogant, and conceited.

[jacksplatt11]

We drew. No surprise really and given India's negativity, I doubt they'll play for anything in the last game.

Yeah, definitely look for India to play safe, all they will be looking for is a draw, they're 1 up so I guess it's up to us to take it to them...

Michael Clarke has been, and always will be, a front runner.. When we struggle, he struggles.. When other players do all the hardwork, in this test Hayden, Katich, Ponting n co, Clarke is quite happy then to come in and perform and take all the credit... If he is made captain, I'll be severely disappointed.. Who to make captain after Ponting? I don't know, maybe Hussey if he is still playing, but there are much better players and captains (or captain material) waiting in the wings...

When White started out, he was a true all rounder, batter/bowler.. But over the last couple of years he has obviously concentrated too much on his batting...

Should definitely play Krejza, we need a true spinner, and we're not going to find one until we give some a go... Relying on part timers like Clarke, Katich and White (that's all he really is nowadays) will not do..