General Cricket Thread (It's Come Home)

I've stopped following the match.  This is more like what I expected!  India win toss, put 600+ on board, Ashwin bowls England out for squat twice on a turning pitch.  And they've bowled Kohli into form, nice of them.  

Did see the Voges thing, glad he's all right.



DOG STOPPED PLAY



Who says cricket's dull?

I've heard about Indian pitches, although I've never been able to exactly follow the matches played on them before now.  I'd place my bets a little lower than 600, but the way they're talking about the pitch once it turns (and it's going to TURN according to projections) they won't need to and your prediction sounds fairly accurate.  But hey, at least England can't possibly put up worse of a fight than Australia did a few days ago!  

There was a bit of conflict between Kohli and Pujara early on but then they pretty much




and got a good strong partnership going.  Can't say I blame ya for not following, I'll keep tuned though since it's my first time being able to observe an Indian test match and it's got me all curious.  Plus it's been pretty fun keeping an eye on the laptop while sailing the seas in Wind Waker!

Cricinfo is a brilliant site, it's one of my most visited at work. Procrastination through live text is...

...definitely not one of the major reasons I got into cricket in the first place. Er. Cough. (peeks behind self)

Anyway, here's a not at all hyperbolic title about England's chances.

Yeah, that does seem to accurately sum things up.  When I saw the dropped catch come up on the screen yesterday I could feel in my gut that that was a pivotal miss on England's part.  

They're already 1 for 20 too.  



Cricket's always been ingrained in me from childhood, my mother had it on every summer and growing up in the era of greats watching summer after summer of outright inspirational performances it was hard not to remain interested in the sport to varying degrees.

(Okay you really do, but still.)

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh dear

Well, England's making a pretty good fight of it!  If it weren't for that wicket of Cook in the last over I might have even said they had a chance.  Alas with the next guy in sounding like he's too inexperienced to survive these pressures and another 318 runs on the board to get I suspect on this pitch it's a bit too tall an order.  Still, great contest!  Which is more than I can say about the previous two tests over here!  

As for us over in Aus, big changes on the way!  Six guys dumped from the team.

As for the changes, we'll have to see how the newbies perform although they all pretty much did far better than those they replaced over the last few days in Sheffield Shield.  As for the dumped names:



As for the as for's, as for the as for the as for!

Jimbob wrote:

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh dear

Lyon still in side: good.

Adam Voges with second highest Test average ever by most 'proper' metrics:



And yup, even though they're going to lose it's nice to see some fight. Especially the impressive Cowan (100 balls face at SR < 35 - yes, named after one of your fave players!) from Hameed. Will only go down as a 25-and-out next to his averages, but meant more.

Well, England lost.  Capitulated for 80-odd runs once it started.  




On brighter news they got one of the batsmen I wanted to see in the side!  Young Matt Renshaw made the cut and opens the batting, big pressure, but he definitely has the talent if he can survive the furnace/is given time to settle in and not dumped immediately.  At a time when we desperately need players who can take their time to blunt momentum and slowly craft an innings he's practically a godsend.  

Only time will tell if the new additions can make the long term cut, and I certainly won't be expecting an immediate turn around, but I'm largely liking the formation of the team right now.

Pretty much as expected, that.  Win toss and win, lose toss and lose.  Once England's blockers from up the top got out it was only a matter of time. Shame the first Test was on a road.

Nothing to say about the Aussie selections yet.  Renshaw sounds like a Hameed from what you've said and he's done okay, but we'll see how they actually fare.

Honestly England had their chances, they just didn't capitalise on them.

Brydon Coverdale (Cricinfo) wrote:

...what both teams wouldn't have given for the pink-ball day-night factor to be the primary focus of this past week. Instead, all anyone has cared about is what South Africa's captain sucked in Hobart, and why Australia sucked in Hobart. As for the day-night Test, both teams will just suck it and see.

Nice.

Australia's had a great first day so far, that said it's yet to be seen how the match will turn when they face the night session.  If this follows last years d/n match formula we'll see a lot of wickets during the night session which will likely be when Australia faces the ball.

also faf got booed when he came to the field because of tampergate

The more the bowlers can get away with in this era of massive bats, the better.

Personally I was on his side to start with.  Then it dragged on and on, it was revealed this wasn't the first time he'd deliberately tampered (last time was shinning the ball on the zip on the trousers apparently ), and most importantly his attitude and persistence in even now trying to deny guilt by appealing the ruling (guilty) after a tribunal that lasted several hours.  

So now I just can't help but shrug.  



Anyway, on the match, which just finished day one.  At this point it was easily Australia's day, taking out everyone besides Faf himself until he decided to declare shortly after Faf's well earned century and throw Australia in for the last twelve overs of the day (a move I don't exactly agree with, supposing the change works for the side and the batsmen actually perform and you need those thirty odd runs you could've gotten?  I suppose he was also possibly factoring in what happened last day/night test here)  Due to Warner hurting his arm the openers were changed to Khawaja and Renshaw, and while they didn't score much they are showing a lot of promise.  A lot of quality defending went on in the last session of the match today, they blunted the bowling attack nicely and so the day ends very nicely for Australia at zero wickets and 14 runs managing to survive the most dangerous time in a day/night test.

The last couple of overs had some very nice bowling as well, and the day ended on a nice suspenseful tense note as SA's bowlers peppered the openers with some blisteringly well aimed deliveries.

That's one way to silence -ing!  And some nice Cowanish work from the improvised opening pair.  Bet they fall in a heap tomorrow though.

EDIT: Well I was very wrong hey.

So in the end Faf's foolish decision to declare after overhearing how Warner would be unable to open due to how long he was off the field if the innings ended there has backfired.  We now lead by almost the exact amount of runs he could have put on had he decided to bat rather than be cute, and if this match ends as closely as I now suspect it will the runs he deliberately gave up on could well play a role.  


The newbies seem to be good additions, a few wickets cheaper than you'd want but they're new, and more importantly all of them scored better than the batsmen they replaced making for a competitive match slightly in Australia's favour.  Khawaja continues his excellent form, Smith, well, they call it a good innings on cricinfo however he'd been skating on very thin ice for about half an hour before he got himself run out when he saw a single that wasn't there.  Still, a sketchy fifty-odd being a bad innings says how big a wicket he is.


Ooh, starc was plum lbw but decided to review, with the ball was pitching off leg stump by a millimetre was overturned!  




And that's stumps!  Nothing really changed since the first half of my post, they put a few more runs on the tally and did a good job maintaining their wickets for tomorrow.  So far this has been Australia's test through and through, the soul search seems to have produced fruit, a few strikes and SA can still easily bring the match back in to contention, but they absolutely do have to make a strike.  Australia's shown they're not just going to implode like last match.

Yesterday ended with a competitive match going in Australia's favour.  Today?




SA in absolutely massive trouble now, they can still technically come back from here, but they'll have to dig in like nothing else tomorrow and likely require Australia to pull another apocalyptic batting performance.  Not impossible, but with their tails down and Australia feeling on top of the world again the window is closing.  Khawaja's astounding 145 and du Plessis early declaration are in my eyes the two big events that shaped this match so far, although Starc and Lyon absolutely killing it during the last session and a half also played a big role.  

This match has been a corker, really tight contest between the bat and the ball, definitely a match that puts the "test" in Test cricket.

I wager Pakistan are probably watching this right now in horror as they see their chances of nabbing a win or two spiralling down the toilet drain.

Meanwhile in India...



This is your country's fault, Athrun - or possibly your country's secret masterplan? Bayliss being all, 'aggression aggression aggression' when what we actually need is some good old-fashioned strike rotation.

And yup, Australia have made one heck of a comeback. Does the cricket world good to have several centres of strength, I'm glad SA have rediscovered their mojo and I hope Australia can too.

(Also New Zealand are romping merrily over Pakistan, which is arguably the most fun, with Amir swinging it around corners early days and Colin de Grandhomme being 'a thing'.)

Today saw Australia drive home a win in what was a very dominating performance (yet not so dominating it killed all suspense mind you).  The SA bowling attack kept trying to take Renshaw down with some ridiculously accurate and consistent bowling, over after over, and yet every time the ball simply never connected with the bat, as if it had been sprayed with some kind of ball repellent before the match.    

Warner got himself recklessly run out and Smith nicked one to a fielder two runs out from a win having failed to attain the same ball repellent Renshaw had applied.  

On the SA side Cook managed to drive home a well earned quality century, and Philander due to his consistently outstanding bowling through the series earned himself Man of the Series, with how enjoyable his spells were to watch I'm glad to see him get that recognition.

Good match, the two defining factors remain Khawaja and du Plessis reckless declaration.  A reboot has done the Australian test team a world of good and things are looking far more positive ahead of the Pakistan series on the horizon.  




I can't say I disagree that England did need some more aggression to its play, having grown up hearing about how often they'd play for a draw when an assured win was off the table. That said too much of it starts getting the batsmen throwing their wickets away recklessly.

BLOODY HELL ENGLAND



The first girl's an imitation of most of England's fielding. Toss.

And well done to Australia, although I can't get too excited about a dead rubber. Introducing a bunch of debutants (and Wade) may or may not work, and we simply don't know yet.

Better done to New Zealand who are smashing this. Nice to see Taylor get some form back.

Aaaaaaaand they broke Hameed as well. Great going, guys.

This is only the third time that a team has made 400 and then lost by an innings. Great work, chumps chaps. Great work.

Sorry I missed the last couple of tests! I honestly forgot they were on, got the fifth dead rubber live score up now though! A brief window when Broad got Kholi out cheaply alas it seems to be closing quickly for them.

Can't say I'm familiar enough with England to pass comment on the article regarding Cook, although I'm not sure I approve of there being a gulf of seven entire months between England playing a test before they're off to SA and then here. Seems like a recipe for getting rusty, and if they get stomped in SA (which if SA's promising bowlers continue improving is highly likely, they were such a pleasure to watch during their tour here) I can't say it sounds like a good recipe for preparing for an Ashes.

As for Cook, like I said, not informed enough to really critique, although I did notice the mentioned missed opportunities in the match I followed that were, essentially, partly his fault. That said perhaps the break might refresh him.

Meanwhile Australia seems to be continuing their upward trend after rebuilding the team, although to be fair to Pakistan it's not entirely because they're outclassed, rather their fielding mistakes (as usual) allowed Australia to set a absurdly high first innings total. Right now I'd say that's the main difference between the teams, they let too many chances go and we kept pretty much all of them.

Got to be impressed with Pakistan this innings. They'll still lose, but they've made a game of it. Pakistan continue to be stereotypically mercurial.

Which is more than can be said for England. Appreciate you keeping up with it, Athers, but I'm not sure it was worth your while to be honest. Their bowlers just lack extreme pace or well-controlled spin, which means that when there's no swing or reverse swing, they're doomed.