The Cricket Thread

[optimus1]

And congrats to the Aussies vs the South Africans! Good way to wrap up a series win, particularly on Warner's batting and Harris' heroics. This is not counting on a fearsome Johnson backing up his Ashes' form.

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Is anyone following the other major tournament? The Asian Cup?
I'm glad to see Afghanistan showing signs that they have a future on the world stage, given time of course! Good win vs Bangladesh, however lack of experience against top teams shows through the final results vis India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Now if only Ireland would become the next Full Member and Test playing nation, followed by Afghanistan as an ODI side........

[i_amtrunks]

Now if only Ireland would become the next Full Member and Test playing nation, followed by Afghanistan as an ODI side........

Then the Netherlands and Canada in the next 10 years, with another 4-6 countries added to the T29 format would be fantastic.

Ireland would be a fairly competitive team if England didnt steal all their (and South Africa's) players!

[Bartrim]

I am glad Australia are winning in test cricket again, but am I the only one who thinks they are turning into a pack of "bad" winners?

[i_amtrunks]

I am glad Australia are winning in test cricket again, but am I the only one who thinks they are turning into a pack of "bad" winners?

Were we ever good winners?

[Megatran]

We got beaten by Pakistan last night in the World Twenty-20. I can't recall a match where we've dropped so many catches.

[Verno]

Congratulations, Steve Smith. Downright awful captaincy.

[i_amtrunks]

Congratulations, Steve Smith. Downright awful captaincy.

I don't know about awful, the only thing awful about the cricket is Clarke trying to be a commentator...

It was dour, but smart. Marsh showed he can dig in and battle it out and that will improve his confidence, plus Australia only needed a draw to win the series. Getting Marsh the experience will be worth it with Burns not finding his feet and Watson continuing to fail.

Far from exciting cricket, but I'd prefer to have seen Marsh get 100 than us win as a good aside for the future.

[Jenko21]

Congratulations, Steve Smith. Downright awful captaincy.

I find it hard to fault Smith as acting captain, I think he did rather well for his first go round and i do see him as the next captain of Australia, that being said i can not figure out for the life of me why Shane Watson is still a test player, he has done next to nothing so far in this series and i dont see him doing anything during the next test.

[Verno]

Perhaps I'm used to attacking and aggressive captaincy decisions. Smith has been reported as saying he wanted to bat India out of the game, thus why they resumed batting this morning. That would have been fine if Australia had come out and scored an additional 50-100 runs in 15 overs, because that's all it would have needed. But instead, they wasted 2.5 hours (an entire sessions, albeit rain interrupted), seemingly waiting for Marsh to crawl to an undeserved century -- and after that 2.5 hour wait, Marsh ran himself out on 99. Well worth jeopardising a definitive result in the entire match.

In order for Australia to have won, they needed to keep India in the game, trying to win themselves by chasing the runs hard. They don't have Shane Warne to conjure wickets anymore, and haven't done for a while now. Clarke understood that which is why he's been so aggressive in his declarations in the past, to dangle the carrot in the oppositions faces, keeping them interested.

I find it hard to fault Smith as acting captain, I think he did rather well for his first go round and i do see him as the next captain of Australia

Smith IS the captain. He's #45. He's not acting captain. He's not a stand-in. If Cricket Australia wanted that, they'd have given Brad Haddin the reins. But they didn't -- they've officially handed over control to Smith, and if this is a sign of things to come, then we're in for some boring cricket.

[Jenko21]

Smith will find his way, i think he needs this to better himself as a captain. From what I'd read he was a ln acting captain (obviously not true) that beeing said the first day n a half was good cricket then downhill from there