Axis of Bob

37 to win. Can we dream?

I think that Vaughan is correct. Broad made a decision in the heat of the moment that he valued his wicket more than he valued a lifetime of being branded a cheat. Mind you, I suppose he already will be branded a cheat for his ball tampering exploits in South Africa and being a general tool. Not a good reputation he already has for one so young.

Nasser Hussein is incredibly enjoyable to listen to in a position of English adversity. He's such a massive whinger and sore loser and it makes you realise why England were so bad when he was captain. Such a victim.

And then some actual magic to get Trott! (I think he probably hit it, but he's out)

Ah, Starc with a little bit of Mitchell Johnson magic to get Root.

Geez, I knew he could bat, but this is something else. Incredible stuff. Incredible, sensible, and effortless.

Hmmm, maybe he should have started his career batting at 7!

Haddin gets a lot of grief, but he was OK behind the stumps. It was certainly one of the tougher days he'll have to keep as the ball was moving around and we sprayed the ball around a fair bit. I agree with the Clarke at 5 calls. He's such a good player of spin and so important to us that we need to give him the best chance to make runs for us. I'm sure that's why Cowan is at 3, so that he could blunt the attack for more than one ball. Smith batted very well when he came in. Really sensible batting and looked well organised - far more so than a few years ago. Rogers was stiff. Also, picking Agar (who could easily finish his career batting at 7) to bat at 11 means that we have no free wickets all the way through the lineup. Agar has a couple of 50s to his name in very short first class career and has batted exceptional well at time. In fact, my personal batting order for the tail could possibly be Pattinson, Agar, Siddle, Starc (and Starc has a test 99 to his credit and averages in the 30s!). Certainly a long way away for our tail of a few years ago (where we had Siddle, Harris, Hilfenhaus and Doherty/Beer/Lyon).

Yep, awful shot. Clarke got a ripper, but Cowan's was the sort of shot that shortens a test career. Rogers looks OK and Smith actually looks reasonably comfortable. I apologise in advance for the two quick wickets I have likely just created.

Agar has started very well. Tall, bouncy and a really nice trajectory. Trott doesn't look that comfortable against him. Still very, very early but like promising.

I think it's also important to note that the conditions in India are unique. These are strange pitches for Australian batsmen and bowlers, and the style of bowler India has is ideally suited to the conditions. If you look at the spinners that India has (that are successful) you will note that they are spinners that would not do well in Australia (or most pitches). Indian spinners are accurate and bowl mainly sidespin. In Australia these balls just go straight because there's no purchase in the pitch, and Indian spinners have very little success in Oz. Aussie spinners have to bowl with lots of overspin to get the bounce, which is dangerous on our pitches (like Lyon, but also mainly leggies). But the lack of speed and bounce in India means that these balls spinner slowly and predictably. Indian spinners, with their darty, accurate sidespinning deliveries, can get good variation with fairly pedestrian deliveries. They don't need many revs (as seen by Jadeja) to turn the ball. Too many revs can mean being ineffective because you know every ball will turn. What does this mean? Our batsmen have seen very little of this bowling, and have had to respect it even less. Our bowlers aren't used to being played so easily. But, most of all, I don't see this as being detrimental to our Ashes preparation at all. It's irrelevant. The game will be won and lost with pace and the ability to deal with it. India means nothing. Also, India is going to do well at home with these pitches, but it will ruin them overseas because they will have the same problems we have had in India. The difference is that there's only really one place in the world that has conditions just like India.

It seems like there's been something like this brewing for a while. Obviously there is a feeling that the culture in the team just isn't good enough and they needed to do something to show that. I don't have a problem with it. It's like Ross Lyon dropping Dal Santo and Milne in his first season for not following defensive instructions. Arthur is telling them that playing for Australia is a step up in commitment from Shield. It's also not a bad time to do it, given that the series is pretty much lost already. I agree that the team is in trouble if this action is required to correct the problem. Coaches don't pull out that card unless it's really needed.

I'm happy to pull up some old posts on Pup Clarke. Seeing the ball pretty well at the moment.

Have Geelong activated that pick for this year?

It looks like that was his dominant half of the game too!

700 cases .... is that total or those in excess of the baseline? 10 deaths ..... or 10 deaths more than would be expected? Nearly 4000 people died in the Bhopal disaster. Does this mean that we should not make pesticides? Because that's the same argument you are making. Alternatively, over 300 people die every year in Victoria through road accidents. This means that we should ban cars. The alternative to the pretty clean energy production of nuclear energy is that we produce our electricity by burning coal (since that is the only viable large scale alternative at the moment) which has far worse side effects. It's just that the issues with coal are easier to see and so people aren't as scared. It's the same as why people don't think twice about driving their car, but get irrationally fearful when they get onto a plane. It doesn't make sense to be scared, but it's because very few people understand enough about it.

There has been a massive overreaction to the Fukushima nuclear issue. It's not sexy to go into bat for nuclear power, but the fact is that most people do not understand it well enough to have an informed opinion. Most people are just scared because they can't see what's happening and their only understanding is 'radiation = death'. Have a look at the worst nuclear accident that has ever happened - Chernobyl. How many people do you think died as a result of that? How many people actually died? How many people died of Thyroid cancer as a result of it? This is now over 20 years later, so the long term effects are well known. People are only scared because they don't know enough about it.

He really paid for that early attack, Cadel. The problem is that he is a very similar type of rider to Wiggins, but he's not time trialling as well as him. Evans is a better climber, but he's not a dynamic rider. He's used to covering moves in a similar way to what Wiggins does, and then beating them on the time trial. He's not really an attacking climber that can break Wiggins on the climb with bursts of acceleration. Unfortunately he's been forced to ride in a different style because of Wiggins' superior time trialling Wiggins is being Cadel, and Cadel is trying to be Schleck ...... but not a very good Schleck. More like Dean Waugh, rather than Steve or Mark.

Did Sky miss a trick, though? Evans was really struggling when he got back to the group, but they slowed down and allowed Evans to recover in the group. If they kept the pedal down until the summit then they could easily have dropped him. Interesting that Porte was dropped today after doing the pacing yesterday.

Ha, no more than 1 minute later, Cadel attacks!

This is building to be something interesting.

Cadel's big advantage is that he's done it before. He's lasted the distance and was going well at the end. The last time trial and the last mountain stages are as much about having a tough body after 2.5 weeks of torture as it is about talent. He just needs to keep up the pressure and stay patient. I remember when Sastre won it a few years ago. He did nothing for 2.5 weeks and then won it in the last few days. Last year Schleck almost won it on a single stage at the end when everyone was exhausted (except Evans). Evans doesn't need to get desperate, he needs to stay patient and pick his time. Is that time tonight? I don't know, but I'm looking forward to finding out!

Cadel rode his strongest at the end of last year's tour. Last night wasn't a tough enough stage to do real damage. Tonight is the big stage that could do damage, and there is a stage later on where it finishes after a big descent. Watching last night, Wiggins is an awful descender. Riders were being backed up behind him the whole way. Evans had a few chances to go last night, despite the attention, but he didn't. He could have driven the descent, because he was in position, but he stayed back in the field. I kept thinking that there was a reason for it. I think that it is a game of attrition for him, where he's tiring out the Sky team to isolate Wiggins when he's least comfortable. There will be some sore boys after last night, though. Tonight's stage is a good 'un. 2 uncategorised climbs and a cat 1 finish. It will be very interesting.

Evans looked a lot more comfortable on the climb - it was very encouraging. That was just one short climb and you could get team mates with you if they only needed one effort after being fresh from an easy week. As they get deeper into the tour, it will be harder and harder for Wiggins to get his team around him and he'll become more isolated. Especially on really tough stages with repeat high mountains. It was also not a particularly important stage for Evans to have his team with him, as it wasn't a long climb. The test for Evans will be with the time trial(s). Wiggins' pet discipline is the time trial, so it would be a massive thing if Evans could keep with him. Once the mountains come then we'll see how good Wiggins really is.

Ha! I was up at that point watching us as we were collapsing. All I was hoping that they'd bowl badly to Hilfy and he'd smack a quick 30 odd. Harris batted very well and Lyon was fantastic! I was waiting for the moment when Nathan Lyon was going to surpass Siddle's highest first class score of 45. The way Lyon was batting it looked like he'd get there comfortably too. I'm still not exactly thrilled with our tail (despite their performance this match). Before this match Harris averaged 10 with that bat, Siddle 15, Hilfy 15 and Lyon 8. We are fine if these guys batted from 9 on, but we lack a real number 8 who is capable of playing long innings. They are all capable 'Brett Lees', but not many 'Mitchell Johnsons'. Pattinson should become that number 8 in time, as he looks very accomplished, so I'm not as worried as a long term issue.