Everything posted by titan_uranus
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Anyone for cricket?
We really need to get one of these two out early (preferably Tendulkar). Their tail starts now, pretty much. Jadeja, Dhoni and Ashwin are the next three, they're all 'all-rounders'. They can all bat a bit, but none are proper batsmen. I'll feel a lot better once we take one more wicket.
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Best current Test XI - draft selection
From left field slightly: Pick 88 - Dean Brownlie (NZ) He's the highest ranked batsmen (who isn't Bangladeshi) remaining. His stats are equal or better than any other remaining batsmen, and he recently managed a 100 and 50 in four innings against South Africa, in South Africa. He also looked decent enough against us last summer. I'll take that for 88.
- Best current Test XI - draft selection
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Best current Test XI - draft selection
Actually, I can do this now. No one took who I was considering. Pick 72 - Brad Haddin (Australia) I know it's possible that he may never play again, but I need a keeper. There aren't any decent ones left, and frankly, Haddin is better than most other countries' keepers. Pick 73 - Trent Boult (New Zealand). I need a Kiwi. He's taken some wickets recently, so that'll do.
- Best current Test XI - draft selection
- Best current Test XI - draft selection
- Best current Test XI - draft selection
- Best current Test XI - draft selection
- Best current Test XI - draft selection
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Best current Test XI - draft selection
Round 7, Pick 56 - Ian Bell (England) Round 8, Pick 57 - Tim Southee (New Zealand) Jackson Bird (Australia) Hope Southee's the Kiwi Nasher was referring to. He's playing some good cricket at the moment, to be honest. 20 wickets in his last three tests, all away in the subcontinent. Given what's left out there, and that I need someone from NZ, I'll take it. Bell is in the top 20 batsmen according to rankings, so that's not a bad get 56 picks into the draft, I'd say.
- Best current Test XI - draft selection
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NFL
I had to follow it online at work. I almost gave up at 28-6, but the power outage caught my attention. Lucky it did. I haven't seen the full game or replay, but I have seen the last fourth down attempt we had. I saw holding/PI. Oh well, I'm sure there were others. Looks like CK took a half to get over the nerves. Flacco had a dominant postseason, deserved the MVP from what I've seen/read. Once again, the Super Bowl winning side is one with a low-ish seed, without having a stellar regular season, but who peaked at the right time. Giants last year, Packers the year before, all similar. Timing is everything.
- Best current Test XI - draft selection
- Best current Test XI - draft selection
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NFL
Amazing two Championship games. Giving up a 17-0 start, on the road, I wasn't confident. But we really did play great football to win the game. I was so happy with that performance. Baltimore played fantastically too, to beat New England, so it's going to be close. We've got to stop the run, first of all, and our secondary needs to do better than Denver and New England. Both those sides gave up far too many big plays (Champ Bailey on Torrey Smith, e.g.). If our defence stands up to its ability, I think we can restrict their scoring enough to get the win. It's nice barracking for a team that's made it to the last game. Horrendously, though, I'll be at work on the day and won't be able to watch it. Shattered.
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NFL
Ridiculous weekend of football. Denver-Baltimore was an epic game. To give up those two big special team TDs but fightback to maintain level scores, on the road, with Denver off a bye, was huge. No idea why Denver took a knee at the end. Peyton was good, but three turnovers isn't good enough for a playoff. I felt all year they were pretenders, only beating two teams with winning records (Baltimore and Cincinnati) in their 13 wins. Still thought they'd have the Ravens' measure though. SF - wow. Even I didn't think we could get it together like that. Kaepernick like that makes us a hot chance. Of course, it might not be like that on the road, but still, almost 200 rushing yards is insane. Seattle-Atlanta was incredible. You always felt Seattle could do it if they got on a roll, and in the second half their offence was unstoppable. Atlanta couldn't get them off the field. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, though, they made some unforgivable errors. Mucking up on 4th down late in the 2nd, and then not getting a score from the final drive of the first half, were two massive mistakes. And when their defence needed just one block or one tackle, they let Matt Ryan drive the field for the game-winning FG. Mind you, Atlanta wasn't going to let Seattle make all the mistakes - that last kickoff was atrocious! Houston-NE was...well...predictable. Quite unbelievable that after such an even season with so many teams playing well, 3 of the final 4 teams this year are from last year. This year, though, despite being on the road and not home, I feel SF has a better chance to make the Superbowl. Atlanta doesn't scare me as much as Seattle does, I think we can take their defence and we have the personnel to stop their offence. Should be great. NE should beat Baltimore at home, but Baltimore at its best can pull it off. Still tipping NE-SF for the grand finale.
- Best current Test XI - draft selection
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NFL
Broncos and Patriots should win comfortably, highlighting the overall weak standard of the AFC. As for the NFC, being a 49ers fan I sincerely hope the home field advantage will be enough to overcome Aaron Rodgers and that bevy of receivers, but I worry about our defence. Justin Smith is key, but even if he's back to 100%, we've had a bad few weeks, Aldon Smith is out of form, and we're just conceding too many big plays. Russell Wilson and Tom Brady tore our secondary apart, and Aaron Rodgers is better than both (with better receivers). Meanwhile, Kaepernick is all over the place. If he gets it together like he did in Foxborough, then maybe we can match the Packers on offence. It's going to be close. Seattle-Atlanta should also be close. All week I've been leaning towards the Seahawks, but having watched their game against Washington, they were flat and started terribly. At Atlanta, maybe they Falcons can put up some early points and put some pressure on. They will certainly be more effective on offence than Washington with RG3 on one leg was. I'd love an Atlanta win; for one, they deserve it, but more importantly, I think SF can beat them in the Championship game, whereas I fear that, even at home, we'll lose to Seattle. I'm tipping Patriots to beat Denver in the AFC Championship, making it a NE v SF (hopefully) Superbowl.
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Anyone for cricket?
In the first article, if you'd read it (can you read? I'm not sure anymore), you'd note Healy's very positive tone towards Wade, including justifying Wade's mistakes as a keeper with the fact that he's young, he's only been doing it for a year, and he has time to improve, especially given his batting. In the second article, if you'd read it, you'd note that Healy's tone is, 5 days later, completely negative, calling Wade out for not being that young (25 is young. Full stop. Haddin was brought into the team at 31), and all of a sudden not giving him the 'one or two years' to get accustomed to Test cricket. I bolded those two phrases just to highlight the point. If you'd read the full articles, and read the clearly contrasting tones, you'd understand. But, you don't.
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Anyone for cricket?
Ian Healy, January 6 - "The confidence of that batting performance will flow into his keeping and he's working hard. It takes maybe one or two years for a wicketkeeper to think properly and to be able to switch up and down with the concentration and to stop stressing. It's a hard road. He's the right age and he's got all the skills and the ability so he'll get there." Ian Healy, January 11 - "Matthew Wade says he's still young and he wants to keep improving, but I don't think he's that young. He's 25." Hypocritical [censored].
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Anyone for cricket?
Oh yeh, I remember doing this! It was fun. I'm in, but only if it's OK that I might not be able to check any more frequently than once or twice a day over the next month. If that's OK, then I'm in, but if it's going to make it too slow then so be it.
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Anyone for cricket?
So I've been AWOL from here the last couple of months. Suffice to say, not a lot has changed. We still have enough fast bowlers, we still don't know which 3 are our best, we still aren't sure about Lyon, we still have a flakey top order, and we still probably aren't good enough to win the Ashes, or even the series in India. It will be interesting to see what we do in India with our batting line up. I see Cowan, Warner and Hughes, with Clarke at 5. Put Wade back to 7 (Johnson at 7 is dumb for a billion reasons). Then we have 4 and 6 to fill. Watson as a batsman only isn't good enough, I don't think. As an all-rounder he could move to 6 and bowl a bit, but I'm not convinced he's good enough at that either. Sounds like Khawaja will come in, maybe to 4, so maybe Maxwell to 6 to add a second spinner. David Hussey has been floated around, as he can bowl too, but, as much as our batting lineup will be devoid of experience, I don't see Hussey coming in as an option being realistically contemplated. As for the bowlers, Siddle to me is the only certain fast bowler. Johnson went from hero to zero (again), Starc is inconsistent, Bird is new and I like him, but to me is superseded by Pattinson, who has injury problems all over the place, and Hilfenhaus is now way back in the queue. Siddle starts. If all others are fit, then Pattinson also starts. That leaves one more spot, which I see as being between Bird, Starc and Johnson. The selectors loved Johnson in Hobart but he simply is not good enough to bat at 7, and we can't afford to go into India against potentially 3 spinners and only take 5 specialist batsmen, one of whom will be Khawaja who is crap. I'd start with Bird, which is harsh on Johnson, but so be it. Thus: Warner Cowan Hughes Khawaja Clarke Maxwell Wade Siddle Pattinson Lyon Bird
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Anyone for cricket?
It's such a pity, really. There are fair arguments to say that the washed out day in Brisbane and Pattinson's injury in Adelaide cost us those two matches. We were on top in both of them, and we could easily be up 1 or 2-0. But one terrible day, and the series is now gone. Really, we've only played one shockingly bad day all series (today); they've had more bad days and played worse for longer. That's Test cricket, I guess. Hastings won't get another Test any time soon. He's bowled one good ball all match (got de Villiers out). Starc has no control, nor does Johnson, both bowled far too many short deliveries. Siddle walks back into the side, and Hilfenhaus probably joins him for Hobart, with Hastings and then one of the lefties to go. As for the batsmen - in every innings we've been 3 down for not much, only today Clarke and Hussey weren't able to bail us out. Warner is not a Test batsman, he simply isn't. His 100s look good but they continually get followed with sub-20 scores. He's a boom/bust batsmen and that's not good enough. He has to drop down the order or go. Cowan isn't doing much better, but I see a Test batsman at least in him. Watson's also not a Test batsman, and isn't going to go anywhere if he keeps batting by plonking the front foot down the crease. Chances are we'll be bowling for a lot of tomorrow and then have a futile 2-3 days to have to bat to try to score about 500 or save the match. The only chance of either of those is if we get a top order platform. Hopefully Ponting makes some runs and helps out in that regard.
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NFL
Drew Brees' record of consecutive games with a TD pass is over! He was terrible yesterday v Atlanta, threw for 5 interceptions (there was a 6th but it came back via a penalty) and his only TD pass also died off due to a penalty. On the one hand, Green Bay was about as effective against the Giants last Sunday night as Melbourne generally is at Kardinia Park. So maybe they're in a bit of a form slump. On the other hand, maybe that loss will spark them to get moving towards the playoffs again, especially since they've lost the number 2 seed to Chicago as it stands.
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Anyone for cricket?
Good call from Ponting. Let's hope he can crack one final ton and help us win the Test. With Siddle and Hilfenhaus both out, hopefully it's Hazlewood over Hastings (I like Hastings, but I don't see a long term future in Hastings and I don't think his bowling is threatening enough to take wickets against South Africa). Lyon needs to play.