Cricket: Summer 2018-19

[Up the Guts]

The punishment was pretty fucking stupid, but, things in the dressing room for whatever reason were clearly wrong too so hopefully that has been adressed.

Best conversation I had about the whole drama was with a Pakistani cab driver who couldn’t believe the PM got involved and blew the whole thing into a national issue. If it sets a new precedent internationally for dealing with ball tampering then I guess it’s not too bad. I just don’t have a whole lot of faith that particular administrations will act as harshly against their own players in the future.

 

[Derpus]

Best conversation I had about the whole drama was with a Pakistani cab driver who couldn’t believe the PM got involved and blew the whole thing into a national issue. If it sets a new precedent internationally for dealing with ball tampering then I guess it’s not too bad. I just don’t have a whole lot of faith that particular administrations will act as harshly against their own players in the future.

Is a year ban really a commensurate response anyway? i don't think that's an appropriate ban and shouldn't set a precedent.

In rugby, you perform a dangerous tackle which can literally put lives at risk and it's still only a few months off at most. Most other sports are the same.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Yep, the punishment was completely over the top, but don't we love a pile on in Australia. Everyone was climbing over each other to heap opprobrium on these guys and CA duly responded. I guarantee you not one other nation will follow our lead with this and just think it's the Aussies who had it coming (not without some justification I might add). I would have banned them for 3-6 months and had them playing before the end of 2018.

Can't do anything about that now and we need to accept that this team isn't very good at the minute. Still, there need to be some changes made in the batting order. You can't have top three players who have such flawed techniques against the new ball. I think Ussie opening and Labuschagne in the middle order with Finch at 5 or 6 makes more sense for now. Better still, they could pick Joe Burns but I gather that decision has already been made.

All of that aside, there have to be some serious questions being asked about our domestic setup. Kohli praised the Ranji Trophy for the FC grounding it gives their players and I saw Tom Moody tweet something about why CA aren't taking the Shield as seriously. I agree with him. There are now 14 matches per team in the BBL, I saw the other day. That is clearly too many and squeezes the FC programme far too much. If we want to get back to the top of the rankings this must be addressed. CA have decided that too much of a good thing is never enough and have overcooked it, as is typical of sporting administrators in this country.

 

[Brumby Runner]

I have to say I was disappointed with Nathan Lyon's foray into the current batting lineup. Greatly admire him as a bowler and competitor, but that's where it should end.

For him to come out so strongly in support of Finch on the basis of him being a "good guy who really puts in hard in the nets" (or similar) is out of line. Players should leave the selections and the justification for them to the selectors. It is unarguable that Finch has been out of his depth at test level in this series and should be replaced. It is not up to team-mates to chorus their support of under-performing players and thereby place pressure on the selectors (or deflect criticism away from them) to keep that/those player(s) in the team.

And what puerile reasons - good guy; I guarantee there are over 10 million good guys in Australia but not one of them would make the Aussie team on that basis alone. Works hard in the nets; sounds just like Cheika justifying some of his mysterious selections in the Wallabies, as though it is more important to perform at training than in the heat of a real contest.

So now it looks like Usman will open in Sydney, forgetting that he is also somewhat out of form at the moment and no doubt has more pressing things on his mind just now. Lamb to the slaughter. And then the rest of the batting lineup is shuffled around to accommodate Finch down the order.

I am coming round to the belief that selectors and administrators in both cricket and rugby in this country are more intent on rewarding and protecting their favourites in spite of results than they are committed to the paying fans and supporters.

 

[Sully]

I'd just like to say I'm more than happy with the lengths of suspensions handed out to the cheats and I don't give a fuck what the rest of the world would have done.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

That's fair enough Sully, but I just hate the hypocrisy of the other nations and their own band of cheaters who get off scot free.

 

[Up the Guts]

I hear you BR but I think Lyon is between a rock and a hard place. He can’t really say anything remotely critical about individual players without the media blowing it up as a dressing room crisis. I think the good guy stuff is basically a tacit admittance that Finch’s batting is not up to standard as Lyon hasn’t got anything positive to say about his batting and has to talk him up as a great bloke instead.

 

[Up the Guts]

Finch and Marsh out. Handscomb and Labuschagne in (not 100% confirmed at this stage). Not sure I see the point in Handscomb for Finch, both have been dropped for technique flaws, a BBL 80 doesn’t make Hanscomb a different player to the one that was dropped after the Perth test.

 

[The torpedo]

Finch and Marsh out. Handscomb and Labuschagne in (not 100% confirmed at this stage). Not sure I see the point in Handscomb for Finch, both have been dropped for technique flaws, a BBL 80 doesn’t make Hanscomb a different player to the one that was dropped after the Perth test.

Always remove logic from the equation with regards to the Australian selectors

 

[Brumby Runner]

And even Hanscomb's 80 had very little to do with technique. It was more like baseball bash from what I saw, and he looked terribly awkward doing it. Not a step backwards by the selectors, but certainly not going forward either.

 

[Derpus]

We lost the toss, game over.

 

[formerflanker]

AUSTRALIA: Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Shaun Marsh, Travis Head, Peter Handscomb, Tim Paine (c), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

 

[Sully]

I've always thought the #3 was your best batsman. What did I know!

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I'm with you Derpus, lose the toss, lose the game. We're right up against it at the moment. Just as I say that, though, Kohli is out.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

I hear you BR but I think Lyon is between a rock and a hard place. He can’t really say anything remotely critical about individual players without the media blowing it up as a dressing room crisis....

Like this?

"Nathan Lyon is fed up — and in an interview that will rival Cameron Bancroft’s as the most explosive of the summer let his teammates have both barrels."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ne...w/news-story/f3b35e7f2393e482dc1fd3e7fcac69df

6/539 as I post this so Test unwinnable, Series lost, almost time to let the finger-pointing & blood-letting begin.

 

[RugbyReg]

Like this?

"Nathan Lyon is fed up — and in an interview that will rival Cameron Bancroft’s as the most explosive of the summer let his teammates have both barrels."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ne...w/news-story/f3b35e7f2393e482dc1fd3e7fcac69df

6/539 as I post this so Test unwinnable, Series lost, almost time to let the finger-pointing & blood-letting begin.

because the number 1 team in the world beat the number 5 team? Meh

 

[Up the Guts]

Like this?

"Nathan Lyon is fed up — and in an interview that will rival Cameron Bancroft’s as the most explosive of the summer let his teammates have both barrels."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ne...w/news-story/f3b35e7f2393e482dc1fd3e7fcac69df

6/539 as I post this so Test unwinnable, Series lost, almost time to let the finger-pointing & blood-letting begin.

Click bait headline. I was out there today—it’s an absolute road and Australia’s bowlers are way overworked. I don’t really see any point in bloodletting until after we’ve batted, it could well be the sort of where both teams score 500 odd in the first innings.

 

[Up the Guts]

So finally a declaration for 620ish. No team has ever lost after scoring so many in the first innings. This isn’t a bad thing in terms of saving the game for Australia, our batting lineup won’t have any expectations/pressure on them. The pitch is also in significantly better condition than the one in Melbourne.

 

[formerflanker]

So finally a declaration for 620ish. No team has ever lost after scoring so many in the first innings. This isn’t a bad thing in terms of saving the game for Australia, our batting lineup won’t have any expectations/pressure on them. The pitch is also in significantly better condition than the one in Melbourne.

My expectation is for all batsmen to spend a lot of time in the middle. Two days minimum.
A bonus would be to score more than India.
India set the plot with a long, slow innings so we can legitimately do the same.
It's not as though we can go all BBL and smash our way quickly to a lead.

 

[Up the Guts]

My expectation is for all batsmen to spend a lot of time in the middle. Two days minimum.
A bonus would be to score more than India.
India set the plot with a long, slow innings so we can legitimately do the same.
It's not as though we can go all BBL and smash our way quickly to a lead.

I was buoyed by the short stint before stumps, actually. Yes Khawaja was dropped but Bumrah looked as toothless as he has all series and there wasn’t a lot in the pitch for the spinners. If they can get through the first hour we will be well set.