The Cricket Thread

[DALBY]

Sensational cricket all round. Trusted Burns always.

[Fat Side]

What a finish. I wonder whether the notorious Indian Bookmakers had a hand in it.

[jourgo]

First off - what a performance by India in this test series. Really! This is the kind of grit that most professional sporting teams the world over can only dream of. Full credit to them - they took everything Australia could throw at them, negotiated their way past a horrific number of injuries and the loss of their best batsman after the humiliation of the first test, and pulled off something pretty damned special.

Now - the blowtorch really needs to be applied to the Australian team. The complete inability to stop - or even slow down - India's momentum on the final day is a major concern. I really like Tim Paine. Always have. But the lack of imagination, his total unwillingness to experiment - to just TRY SOMETHING to halt the march - was actually kinda bewildering. Plainly the game was fast being lost, but he just kept plugging away with the same tactics that hadn't really worked all day.

At the end of the day, a rag-tag team of second string Indian players made the best Australia's got look impotent - on their home deck.

[DALBY]

First off - what a performance by India in this test series. Really! This is the kind of grit that most professional sporting teams the world over can only dream of. Full credit to them - they took everything Australia could throw at them, negotiated their way past a horrific number of injuries and the loss of their best batsman after the humiliation of the first test, and pulled off something pretty damned special.

Now - the blowtorch really needs to be applied to the Australian team. The complete inability to stop - or even slow down - India's momentum on the final day is a major concern. I really like Tim Paine. Always have. But the lack of imagination, his total unwillingness to experiment - to just TRY SOMETHING to halt the march - was actually kinda bewildering. Plainly the game was fast being lost, but he just kept plugging away with the same tactics that hadn't really worked all day.

At the end of the day, a rag-tag team of second string Indian players made the best Australia's got look impotent - on their home deck.

Summed up nicely mate, I too can't speak highly enough of India. We looked dreadful in patches. Cummins was good however.

[MrWoollie]

Accurate from Jourgo.

All praise and credit to India. Dug in and showed a lot of grit when times were tough. Like a team full of Allan Borders. Just what you want in that situation.

From the Australian perspective, a lot of negatives.

1. No runs from the openers. Warner was not fit.
2. After our #3 and #4, we struggled for runs. No middle order scores (except the 80 odd from Green).
3. Not a hint of the usual wagging of the tail that Australia has become used to.
4. Other than Cummins who was fantastic, and Hazlewood who was good in patches, the bowlers were pretty poor.
5. Captaincy was uninspired and unimaginative.

On the positive side, Green looks pretty handy. He could be that 40+ average all-rounder batsman, and even though he didn't hit the wickets, has shown at state level that he's better than his figures would suggest. Just failed to get the movement and any hint of luck. An all-rounder who can average 40 in the middle order and bowl 10-15 overs an innings at 145kph would be a great addition to the side. I think he needs to adjust to being the guy who bowls with an old ball and some overs with the near new second new ball rather than a first change option that he does at state level.

[Fat Side]

Summed up pretty well I think.

Paine cannot remain Captain. He is not instinctive and struggles to read moments in the game and provide an adequate response. A couple of years ago he botched the DRS by challenging everything until we exhausted our options only to have none left for the stinker of a decision that followed. It was a moment that Paine wasn't prepared for.

As much as I like Paine as a player and he has stood up when we needed a leader post the sandpapergate scandal, but now is the time to hand in the Captaincy. CA fucked it up by, not only suspending Smith for a year, but never allowing him to Captain again. Warner is too old so who is in the mix? Labuschagne? Cummins? I don't know, but they have plenty of work to do.

[MrWoollie]

I was just looking at a comparison between Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson.

It is remarkable how they match up statistically.

Smith Kohli Williamson
Test Matches 77 87 83
Innings 139 147 144
Runs 7540 7318 7115
Balls Faced 13680 12740 13649
Scoring Rate 55 57 52
High Score 239 254 251
100s 27 27 24

It's like they were triplets.

[DALBY]

Happy 2023 all, hope Scorchers can win another title this year.