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Summer of Cricket thread

I remember being impressed with Webster in the Sydney Test last year.

I would like to see him get more chances. But I might not be up to date on player form.
 
grazorblade said:
I have to say...I'm a little baffled at England's tactics

In perth with a bouncey wicket (yes I know its not the wacca but with drop in pitches it played like a traditional wacca pitch) you never want to play with a diagonal bat. So you really want to be careful playing anything wide unless it is super full. On the other hand, the bounce is pretty true as is the pace. A lot of bowlers get excited by the bounce and pitch back of a length because you get a lot of play and misses and batters ducking and weaving but its fools gold. The windies showed that you actually want to bowl on the fuller side at perth.

In the first innings, England were shorter than us and I thought we were quite poor to let them get away with it. In the second innings England flashed at anything wide and got punished and we flashed at anything short and got rewarded, yet they persisted with the back of a length tactics!

Do England have no one with local knowledge of Australian pitches? Not that I mind...

England said that the game rewarded people who are positive...which is super unnuanced. Adelaide will be interesting. There are times in a pink ball test (the middle session of the day if I recall correctly) where batting is way easier and you want to be positive, and no one is better at positive cricket than the bazballers, but there are also sessions where it is better to be more cautious and they don't have those gears in them

The first innings collapse from us showed we can reward poor bowling tactics, there is a real frailty to us (although their speed and more importantly wrist speed will make things tricky even when the tactics are wrong), so not confident of a whitewash yet
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I personally don't think a diagonal bat matters so much compared to being VERY clear in the balls you choose to let go and the ones you choose to try and score off. What angle your bat is on when hitting the ball matters less to me.

You could see how clear both Head and Weatherald were when facing their first 15-20 balls. Left everything just outside off that wasn't in a good scoring zone whilst knowing that they were in control of the match and the conditions. England were the ones under all the pressure and the openers just needed to stay out there and keep the pan on sizzle.

Was brilliant opening batting by them two and then obviously Trav kicks on and does Big Daddy Trav things!

Maybe wishful thinking but my gut tells me that after the chaotic flurry of English wickets in their first innings, once the Khawaja fiasco began there was too much adrenaline and that was the main catalyst for that batting innings.

If England needed to climb Everest to win this series I now feel like they need to find a way to get to the Moon. We didn't even have Cummins or Hazlewood.
 
Alex M said:
English friends
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Bitter enemy if you please. ;) You make a good point about their bowlers appearing spent in sec inns. How will their bodies cope with rock hard surfaces from baking temps over the next four Tests. Our guys are used to bowling on them, they aint.
 
grazorblade said:
In perth with a bouncey wicket (yes I know its not the wacca but with drop in pitches it played like a traditional wacca pitch) you never want to play with a diagonal bat. So you really want to be careful playing anything wide unless it is super full.
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Spot on. Pom comms said the same, that Pope, Brook and think the other was Root, anyway the three Boland victims, that they all perished driving widish balls they should have left. I agree as with this so called bazball mentality they feel they have to have bat on ball rather than waste a scoring opportunity. WE Aussies are more cautious.
 
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Richie said:
Spot on. Pom comms said the same, that Pope, Brook and think the other was Root, anyway the three Boland victims, that they all tried driving widish balls they should have left. I agree as with this so called bazball mentality they feel they have to have bat on ball rather than waste a scoring opportunity. WE Aussies are more cautious.
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Sometimes in sport you need to earn the right.

Head and Weatherald played themselves in to some extent and were more selective.

Head also had the odd slice of luck and chasing a small total we could afford to take some risks.

All the Poms needed to do was let a few balls from Boland go, they were right on top, and our bowlers would have gotten tired quickly, especially with Lyon injured and perhaps unable to bowl.

The win was 40% absolute brilliance from Head 10% luck and 50% the Poms throwing away a test win in a way i don't remember seeing before.

Aside from their batting, I question their bowling strategy. If they are playing 5 quicks every game, the bowlers need to be fitter, and they need to rely on some part-time spin.

I hope that they dail it back a bit and at least try to build their innings and play the percentages. They might have the talent to make it a competitive series.

Mentally it is hard for some sports teams to forget previous losses and just play what is in front of them.

Bowling wise, both sides over did the short ball at times and that cost them runs.

Spreading out the field or funky fields rarely works. All that was missing in the Australian second innings was a few edges through the vacant slips.

The Poms bowling shorter or fuller than Boland is one reason why Head and Labs were able to score quickly. I didn't notice a lot of "line and length". But perhaps Head made them look bad.
 
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A lot of habits from T20 are creeping into test cricket.

Trying to win and win fast vai high risk low percentage strategies.

Sometimes a patient team that just does the basics well might win, because the other team implodes.

IMO doing the basics well, bring patient, relentless and grinding the opponent down via attrition are unique aspects of test cricket, because a team has 5 days to win the match.

There is no Geoff Boycott in the current England line up and i wonder if they have a bowler capable of long spells of patient accurate bowling.
 
Hounddog said:
All the Poms needed to do was let a few balls from Boland go, they were right on top, and our bowlers would have gotten tired quickly, especially with Lyon injured and perhaps unable to bowl.
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" BRAINLESS BATTING and BOWLING" Pommie press tearing strips off Stokes and his meek men. He may be lucky to keep his job if they face a series thrashing.
 
Hounddog said:
There is no Geoff Boycott in the current England line up and i wonder if they have a bowler capable of long spells of patient accurate bowling.
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No Boycott, hardly surprising that the 'corpse with pads' or was that Lawry, (both painfully slow scorers) was the most scathing of former players over the First Test debacle as he was the biggest stickler for putting a price on your wicket. Jimmy Anderson was that accurate guy to smother a batsman, his type come along once in a generation.
 
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Hounddog said:
Spreading out the field or funky fields rarely works. All that was missing in the Australian second innings was a few edges through the vacant slips.
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Aussies did the same at Headingley, 2019 to allow Ben Stokes the freedom to play as he wished too. Boundary riders all across the park but many of his smashes went over their heads or fell short. Our skipper should have kept on the pressure with plenty of close catchers telling him if you wanna score big you are taking a huge chance. After all England were nine down. Bizarre. Not quite the same as the other day, but we were underdogs when we went out to chase the target.
 
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Hounddog said:
40% absolute brilliance
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I've seen similar in white ball knocks that win games. What stands out from this, was Travs never say die attitude even tho winning was AGAINST THE ODDS with the added pressure of it being a Test match. That is the kinda courage our diggers drew on against the Japs at Kokoda.
 
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Richie said:
I've seen similar in white ball knocks that win games. What stands out from this, was Travs never say die attitude even tho winning was AGAINST THE ODDS with the added pressure of it being a Test match. That is the kinda courage our diggers drew on against the Japs at Kokoda.
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Really??? It's nothing like it.
 
Hounddog said:
Sometimes in sport you need to earn the right.

Head and Weatherald played themselves in to some extent and were more selective.

Head also had the odd slice of luck and chasing a small total we could afford to take some risks.

All the Poms needed to do was let a few balls from Boland go, they were right on top, and our bowlers would have gotten tired quickly, especially with Lyon injured and perhaps unable to bowl.

The win was 40% absolute brilliance from Head 10% luck and 50% the Poms throwing away a test win in a way i don't remember seeing before.

Aside from their batting, I question their bowling strategy. If they are playing 5 quicks every game, the bowlers need to be fitter, and they need to rely on some part-time spin.

I hope that they dail it back a bit and at least try to build their innings and play the percentages. They might have the talent to make it a competitive series.

Mentally it is hard for some sports teams to forget previous losses and just play what is in front of them.

Bowling wise, both sides over did the short ball at times and that cost them runs.

Spreading out the field or funky fields rarely works. All that was missing in the Australian second innings was a few edges through the vacant slips.

The Poms bowling shorter or fuller than Boland is one reason why Head and Labs were able to score quickly. I didn't notice a lot of "line and length". But perhaps Head made them look bad.
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Good post, Hound dog.

Hadn't realised you were a cricket fan?
 
Lawrence Neil-Smith and Louis Smith in Tas Second Eleven game at Kangaroo Bay, Baggers. It starts today.

Might go along and have a look.
 
Richie said:
Aussies did the same at Headingley, 2019 to allow Ben Stokes the freedom to play as he wished too. Boundary riders all across the park but many of his smashes went over their heads or fell short. Our skipper should have kept on the pressure with plenty of close catchers telling him if you wanna score big you are taking a huge chance. After all England were nine down. Bizarre. Not quite the same as the other day, but we were underdogs when we went out to chase the target.
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I felt like England were on top as Carse ( can never remember his name?) and Gus Atkinson were batting in the late order.

For England lose it from there, so quickly, has been pretty astonishing.
 
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