Cricket Summer 2020-2021

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I'm on board with not changing a winning team, certainly not regularly. I'm not on board with picking blokes with terrible domestic form in the hope that they'll come good at test level.

 

[Derpus]

Harsh on Wade. Hes been OK and soaked up a lot of balls playing too high up the order.

Burns and Head should be sent packing if there is anyone else going.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Wade is middling at best as a test batsman for mine. I won't deny the avalanche of runs in Shield cricket that got him back into the side, but I don't think he's got the technique or the temperament to be consistently successful at test level. Head is the same IMHO.

Green on the other hand looks like he'll make the step up. He's played well today.

 

[Derpus]

What happened to that Patterson kid?

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Seems to have disappeared off the selection radar. Now that IS harsh. He's got both the technique and temperament to play test cricket. I think his form tailed off and he got injured at the wrong moment too, to be fair.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Quote on cricinfo NZ v Pakistan live blog comments earlier today: "How good is Test cricket? On a scale of one to ten, 48 million". Was in reference to all three Boxing Day Tests btw.

Pakistan 269/9 chasing 372 but more importantly 10 overs til stumps. Wagner with two broken toes on his landing foot has bowled 23 overs today, 28 in the innngs (2/55). Bloke's a frickin cyborg. Needs to be brought back for the last three from an end & given permission to short-ball Afridi & Shah back to the hotel.

Edit: the demon spinner Santner picks up the last with a sharp c&b, NZ win by 101.

 

[Up the Guts]

India’s bowling attack is very good but we’ve never really batted well under Langer at all. Opening has always been a problem as has number 5 and 6. I’m happy enough with Green but a bit concerned about the other options being floated.

 

[Brumby Runner]

I'm on board with not changing a winning team, certainly not regularly. I'm not on board with picking blokes with terrible domestic form in the hope that they'll come good at test level.

That quite eloquently describes Burns and Head imo. Coaches/selectors should always be looking to put the strongest team on the park regardless of the winning record when there are obvious deficiencies in that team. Don't really know who would be best to replace Burns and Head as I've seen little of the SS this year, (and I think it's gone into hibernation for the duration of the test series - idiocy) but I do reckon both of Finch and Maxwell have been in better form recently in shorter version games and importantly in better form over many years. I'm sure there would be others from around the country. I'd like to know where Kurtis Patterson is right now. Injured?

 

[Derpus]

Warner, Pucovski, Finch and Maxwell all look decent options to me. I get you arent meant to be aggressive in test cricket broadly speaking but we arent even trying to play shots.

If i have to see another 20 from 100 balls ill vomit.

 

[Up the Guts]

Warner, Pucovski, Finch and Maxwell all look decent options to me. I get you arent meant to be aggressive in test cricket broadly speaking but we arent even trying to play shots.

If i have to see another 20 from 100 balls ill vomit.

It’s a good point you make about run rate. Rahane was struggling a bit partway into his innings before Pant came in and bashed a few fours that rattled our bowlers. Rahane then got a few looser balls and was able to get into a rhythm.

We’ve struggled to put any pressure on their bowlers. Siraj bowled well on debut but he shouldn’t have been that hard to handle, he’s only bowling mid 130s (yes, he got movement at times but that should be able to be dealt with). Australian teams of old would have tried to get on top of him early and put the pressure on. In my opinion, Langer has got them so fixated on avoiding batting collapses that they just go into their shells after a wicket falls and don’t look to advance the score. The issue is that even if you chew up 15 overs, at under 2 rpo you’ve not even moved the needle. Hopefully, Warner fixes this issue. I would like Wade back down the order as well because he also provides a bit more counterpunch.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

All sorts of interesting discussion points here team. Firstly, I think the Indian bowling attack has done a sterling job, just like they did in 2018. That said, our blokes have gotten bogged down and not scoring as freely anyone would like, which compounds the pressure. Why? We've got blokes out of form and/or batting out of position who are worried about retaining their spots and this leads to them retreating into their shells and not cashing in on the odd bad ball. In short, at least half of the top six are scrambled in their thinking. We've also had a couple of untimely injuries that have forced the selectors to go with a very much non-preferred batting order. If we think about the alternative scenario, where top order players with either good records in Australia (Warner) or a tonne of runs at Shield level in the lead up (Pucovski and possibly Harris) open the innings, we've potentially got a middle order with a lot less pressure on them. If Warner and perhaps one other player open and we're not 1/5 in the second over then I suspect Marnus and Smithy can get to work on building an innings.

The one positive has been how technically correct Green has looked. He's got a very solid defensive foundation that he builds the rest of his game around. What an old school concept!

 

[Teh Other Dave]

Bumrah was again superb, and Ashwin creates hell for lefties.

The rubbish part about the BBL is that players can no longer be dropped to Shield to find form during the series. Burns will have to wait until Feb-March, or otherwise slog it out at the County Championship.

Similarly, Harris' s choices to keep his eye in are BBL or Melbourne club cricket.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Bang on Dave

 

[Up the Guts]

Bumrah was again superb, and Ashwin creates hell for lefties.

The rubbish part about the BBL is that players can no longer be dropped to Shield to find form during the series. Burns will have to wait until Feb-March, or otherwise slog it out at the County Championship.

Similarly, Harris' s choices to keep his eye in are BBL or Melbourne club cricket.

Even worse is the fact that guys in the squad aren’t playing any cricket at all at the moment due to the bubble restrictions. IPL in October also meant a lot of our test players couldn’t play a single shield game.

 

[Derpus]

Well at least it isn't only Aussie rugby that is a shambles.

 

[Teh Other Dave]

Why can't we have patient batsmen like Pujara?

Probably because bogans will cry about it being boring while placing an online bet on UFC or NRL.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

For Aus to make WTC Final they need to play SA & win 2- or 3-0, if SA win one Aus are out. Eng can still scrape in IF they beat SL in T2 & India 2-0 or 3-1 AND SA take a game off Aus.

NZ have no games left so can only sit back & watch what transpires.

 

[Derpus]

How do the points work? Do you lose points for a loss? b/c NZ have actually won one less than Aus, same amount of draws but no losses.

There also doesn't seem to be much parity in number of matches played.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^ originally everyone was going to play the same number of home & away series, every series was worth 120 points pro-rata by number of matches in the series so e.g. in a two-match series each is worth 60, three-match 40 etc.

Then Covid came along & wrecked the schedule so ICC decided to recalculate using % of points on offer: Edit: India are now 71.1, NZ 70, Aus ~69.2

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Awesome test series, especially if you're a neutral, but disastrous for Australia. Our batting has been exposed and it meant that if our bowlers weren't firing at 100% all series we were going to have a rough time of things. Can't deny how good India were though. What a performance from their second and third string bowlers and the fortitude shown by their batsmen to firstly hold us out in Sydney and then edge towards a win in Brisbane. All credit to them and back to the drawing board for us.