2 hours ago, Wadda We Sing said:

I so want to beat them in the Ashes this year now after that. Im not sure we have the team but beating India in India recently gives me some sort of confidence that the talent is there somehow. If im lucky and things go right, i may even get over for a match. Blasting off in Briton Macca!

 

Isnt there a Basketball World Cup coming up somewhere? There should be if there isnt!

I have heard about the Basketball World Cup recently but not sure on the details Wadda.

As for the Ashes,  my theory on winning over there (or anyehere for that matter) often revolves around individuals scoring centuries.

Do it enough times and you set up wins ... and if a player scores a big hundred it's hard to lose a match.

So we've got Smith and who else?  We need Harris,  Warner,  Khawaja or someone else to make some big scores (as well as Smith)

Our bowling is fine but our bowlers need scores that can allow them to bowl to targets. 

Can't say I'm all that confident but we live in hope!

15 hours ago, Macca said:

I have heard about the Basketball World Cup recently but not sure on the details Wadda.

As for the Ashes,  my theory on winning over there (or anyehere for that matter) often revolves around individuals scoring centuries.

Do it enough times and you set up wins ... and if a player scores a big hundred it's hard to lose a match.

So we've got Smith and who else?  We need Harris,  Warner,  Khawaja or someone else to make some big scores (as well as Smith)

Our bowling is fine but our bowlers need scores that can allow them to bowl to targets. 

Can't say I'm all that confident but we live in hope!

Yep spot on. Often a series like this is one where they discover a hidden talent. I always think Warne bowling to Gatting. Never forget that one. If he hadnt arrived before that delivery it certainly announced it.

Warner is the one who can make the big tons i think. He gets out playing rash shots a lot and if he can curb that he might. The poms and the crowd will go all out to get Smith and Warner after the ball tampering fiasco, so its good the world Cup was played there as they would have copped it already and can settle down to business. The Poms will also be thinking get Smith out and we win the Ashes.

I must say with the state the footy is in at the moment, i am quite looking forward to the series. Many late nights await.

1 hour ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Yep spot on. Often a series like this is one where they discover a hidden talent. I always think Warne bowling to Gatting. Never forget that one. If he hadnt arrived before that delivery it certainly announced it.

Warner is the one who can make the big tons i think. He gets out playing rash shots a lot and if he can curb that he might. The poms and the crowd will go all out to get Smith and Warner after the ball tampering fiasco, so its good the world Cup was played there as they would have copped it already and can settle down to business. The Poms will also be thinking get Smith out and we win the Ashes.

I must say with the state the footy is in at the moment, i am quite looking forward to the series. Many late nights await.

Yeah the footy isn't great but it's times like these where you find out a lot about the club Wadda.

Tanking aside,  we need to still act like professionals.  Both collectively and as individuals. 

The reason I mention tanking (and it still goes on) is that list management and recruiting for needs started way before the point that we're at right now.

So we almost certainly have our eye on a certain type or a certain player (much like we did with Oliver)

As much as I'm a skeptic with drafting I do recognise that the best of the best are quite often at the pointy end of the draft. 

So we can do both ... fight out the season and find out who we want to go with as well as having an eye on the future. 

So I will be watching the last 6 games with avid interest.  As well as the Ashes! (along with the golf,  le tour,  EPL,  MLB & the horses)  ha ha

Edited July 18, 20195 yr by Macca

Ireland have the poms 6 down before the first drinks break at Lords in their test match.  Perhaps a very good omen for the ashes!

Edit... Make that 7 wickets... go bite a pillow you pommy Bast*rds!

Edited July 24, 20195 yr by grazman

England rolled for 85 before lunch by Ireland.   

The Aussies are becoming a great side. Smashing Pakis ATM. Labuschange, Burns and Warner all hitting form with the great Smith I think we can roll India off the top of their perch especially with a world classs bowling line up of Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon.

Cameron Green highlights (looks ready made with both bat & ball ... a real talent)

Will Pukovski (got all the shots & temperament)

Michael Neser (an ideal 3rd seamer?)

Mitchell Swepson (awaits an opportunity behind Lyon)

Australia's 17-man Test squad: David Warner, Will Pucovski, Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Matthew Wade, Cameron Green, Tim Paine (capt), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, James Pattinson, Michael Neser, Mitchell Swepson, Sean Abbott.

 

Excellent article in today's Age about Will Pucovski's development from a young age

Good luck to him but reading these stories always me think of Graeme Hick.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/the-net-session-that-stamped-12-year-old-will-pucovski-as-a-future-star-20201110-p56d93.html

 

By the time the 1986 season was out, the possibility of Hick's playing at Test level was being taken seriously, and the debate was shifting from whether he would play international cricket to which country he would represent. At the time, Zimbabwe seemed a long way from Test status, so he set himself instead to fulfil the residency requirements for England qualification, and despite an offer of a four-year qualification period from New Zealand he opted to take the longer path of a seven-year wait to play for his newly adopted home. By the time he became eligible, public interest in his seeming destiny as a great batsman for country as well as county was intense; David Lloyd was later to write that he doubted "any cricketer [had] ever come into the international game burdened by such impossible expectations".^[32] Hick's Worcestershire teammate Graham Dilley had been in no doubt that he would succeed, perhaps ironically given what was to follow writing that Hick exerted "psychological pressure on the bowlers, like Viv Richards or Javed Miandad."^[33]

Hick's batting performance in Test matches

Hick made his first appearances as an England batsman in a three-match One Day International series against West Indies, the first being played at Edgbaston on 23 May 1991. He made only 14 in a low-scoring game, but a few days later, in the third and final match of the series, he hit 86* and shared in a match-winning stand of 213 with Neil Fairbrother. The stage seemed set for Hick's Test debut at Headingley on 6 June, and Hick was even pictured on the cover of the Radio Times.^[34] He was given a hero's reception by the crowd as he came out to bat, but a tortured 51 minutes later he was back in the pavilion having made only six, and he could do no better in the second innings. After further innings of 0, 43, 0, 19 and 1 he was dropped before the last match of the series. Although Worcestershire did win the Benson & Hedges Cup, in first-class cricket Hick finished with an average for the season of just 32.91, which remains his lowest in any English summer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_Hick

3 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Excellent article in today's Age about Will Pucovski's development from a young age

You could have compared Pukovski to the thousands of young stars across a myriad of sports who have made it in the big time but you chose to drag out Graham Hick. haha

Brighten up a bit DJ,  Pukovski is a rare talent who I not only admire for his talents,  but more so being able to be honest about his own health

He passed up a chance to play for Australia at the time as well

Kudos to the bloke I say

Edited November 14, 20204 yr by Macca

I just can't believe Burns will play for us against India. Kohli will laugh himself to sleep. Are we going to rely on the unit to get us through the series like against the poms.

Good toss to lose?

Time will tell

And best of luck to Burns ... he's been given a lifeline and hopefully will take advantage

Anyway,  if his selection doesn't work it's on the selectors,  not Burns himself

Big ask for Wade to open against the India attack (especially under lights) ... wish him well also

Not happy with Burns in the side but yes it is the selectors. 

Fairly good opening session for us with 42 not being a high total. Bowlers were very good.

Tight contest. Anything above 250 will be a challenge. We need early wickets.

Joe Burns on 2 not out about to get his highest score for the season to date.

Advantage India after 2 completed innings ... batting 2nd the Aussies probably needed a lead of 80 to push for victory

But we're 53 runs behind.  We're going to have bowl India out for not much more than 220 in their 2nd innings to stand a chance

Chasing anything above 300 against their attack (on a wearing wicket) is a big ask in my view

I can't see us winning this without bowling India out for 200-odd. Chasing 250+ on a wearing wicket with night-time swing and Ashwin's spin is going to be too hard for us I fear.

The quicker we can move on from the Burns/Wade combo to any two of Warner, Pucovski and Harris (who should have played over Burns), the better.

11 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

I can't see us winning this without bowling India out for 200-odd. Chasing 250+ on a wearing wicket with night-time swing and Ashwin's spin is going to be too hard for us I fear.

The quicker we can move on from the Burns/Wade combo to any two of Warner, Pucovski and Harris (who should have played over Burns), the better.

No doubt. Our poor batting started at the top. There was no umph in it and it set the scene. Indias bowlers were good but at the start they bowled outside off too often. Almost impossible to see us getting out of this. Get Pujara and Kohli out cheaply and we are a chance.

Josh Hazelwood 5 for 3  Who are we playing the Indian Under 12 side ?

Hazelwood has underrated in my opinion at times however he has been phenomenal today.

18 hours ago, Macca said:

Advantage India after 2 completed innings ... batting 2nd the Aussies probably needed a lead of 80 to push for victory

But we're 53 runs behind.  We're going to have bowl India out for not much more than 220 in their 2nd innings to stand a chance

Chasing anything above 300 against their attack (on a wearing wicket) is a big ask in my view

I hope you are watching Macca

 

 

Edited December 19, 20204 yr by nosoupforme
.

Well, I said we needed to be chasing sub-250. We've certainly achieved that.

Incredibly good bowling. Sad to see Shami injured - not just as it may rob the series of another good player, but also because it ruins what was likely to be a massive record-setting innings. Still, I think I heard that's the first ever Test innings in which all 11 batsmen batted and none of them reached single fingers. 

Brilliant bowling. Kept the ball right up and they did not have a hope. Hazlewood and cummins were sensational today.

2 hours ago, nosoupforme said:

I hope you are watching Macca

Working today but I listened in

"We're going to have to bowl them out for not much more than 220"

Covered that spread alright!

All out for 36 is hard to fathom. 

And now Kohli goes home ... hard to see India winning a Test from here on in but any prediction needs to be taken with a grain of salt!

Their bowling is very good but our attack is absolutely first rate

And we shade them in the batting playing on our home decks

Warner is still doubtful for Melbourne but what about Pukovski?  Wade?  Has Burns done enough in this 2nd innings to hold his spot?

A six to win the match!

Edited December 19, 20204 yr by Macca

Top of off stump line works every time.

Great innings by the skip yesterday. Got us close enough to apply pressure.

4 hours ago, Macca said:

Working today but I listened in

"We're going to have to bowl them out for not much more than 220"

Covered that spread alright!

All out for 36 is hard to fathom. 

And now Kohli goes home ... hard to see India winning a Test from here on in but any prediction needs to be taken with a grain of salt!

Their bowling is very good but our attack is absolutely first rate

And we shade them in the batting playing on our home decks

Warner is still doubtful for Melbourne but what about Pukovski?  Wade?  Has Burns done enough in this 2nd innings to hold his spot?

A six to win the match!

Yep ! amazing win. Burns holds on this time for the next test well done to him. Wade ? I don't know with him possibly will stay in. Pulkovski will have to wait his turn and learn to duck and weave which seems his weakness however concussions won't help his cause for now.

I cannot see Warner missing the Boxing day test no way not him. Green will probably  make way. 

All out for 36 who could believe it 

 

Not a good start to second test. The unit out for a duck has ruined my day. See if green can hang in there and paine can bat as well as adelaide. Ball turning a bit.