titan_uranus

The rain in the second test may well cost us the series, looking at the way this Test is going. Sri Lanka have passed our score with 6 wickets in hand. Dilshan and Mathews are set at the crease. They're going to need to press on and get a significant lead, but we're not bowling well. Lyon hasn't convinced me yet. Took 5 wickets in his first innings and only 3 since. Not really troubling the Sri Lanka batsmen. Johnson has, yet again, been a disappointment, and Copeland is economical and decent but nowhere near fast enough to be taking the new ball. Siddle is just OK. Harris was superb but is injury prone, which is unfortunate. Hughes is still crap, Watson's out of form with the bat, so to Clarke, but Marsh's technique should prove to the selectors that people like Hughes and Smith, with ODI/T20 techniques, are not the way to go in Test cricket.

Absolutely no way they were going to make this many changes. Just three players from the Ashes side? Far too radical. Bailey isn't good enough. Nor is O'Keefe. Cowan is OK but Marsh is better. Siddle is better than Pattinson and Johnson is still our best option when he isn't shot mentally.

Sri Lankan tour squad has been announced: Shane Watson, Phillip Hughes, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke (capt), Michael Hussey, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Brad Haddin (wk), Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle, Trent Copeland, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon, Michael Beer Good squad IMO. Smith dropped is the single most pleasing thing about it. He is so incredibly over-rated, but it seems the NSP has woken up and realised he is neither a number 6, nor a spin bowler, nor good enough at either to be an all-rounder batting at 7. He simply isn't a long-form player at the moment. No Bollinger and Hilfenhaus are also positives, as is the inclusion of Marsh. I'd go with this as the team for the first test: Watson Hughes Ponting Clarke Hussey Khawaja Haddin Johnson Harris Siddle Beer Might as well keep Beer there and try to give one guy an extended run at it for once. Lyon is probably a more promising bowler but I feel we need some consistency. There will of course be a potential need for a second spinner in Sri Lanka. We can get spin out of Clarke, but then again we can get another seamer in Watson, which would give us the option to drop a paceman for Lyon. That would probably be Harris. Khawaja moves to 6 to allow Ponting back at 3, where he may well flourish without the captaincy. Edges out Marsh, but he is the incumbent and both have the Shield form. If Khawaja stinks in Sri Lanka Marsh might take that spot in South Africa.

Almost there it seems: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/sports/football/nfl-and-players-said-to-be-near-a-new-labor-deal.html?_r=1&ref=football

Thought Tomic played really well last night. Had the break in the third, but he unravelled at 3-1 when he could have really pressed Djokovic. Then had some chances to break in the fourth. Ultimately Djokovic is a far better player, so there's no disgrace in losing in the slightest, but there were definitely some immensely positive signs last night. Could well be a force in the next 5 years. A much bigger shock though was Federer losing after taking the first two sets. First time he's ever lost from that position in a Grand Slam, after 150 or so wins. And it wasn't Nadal, Djokovic or Soderling either. And it was on grass. Clearly coming to the end, is Roger. Nadal-Murray is going to be a very interesting semi. Nadal might still be a bit injured, and dropped a set to Fish in the quarters. Murray steamrolled Lopez. Maybe with a bit of crowd support, who knows?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/sports/football/nfl-set-to-proceed-toward-deal-with-players.html?_r=1&ref=football Promising signs.

Another strong batting performance from Watson, but Hussey dominated. His third century in ODI cricket. They are both still amazing innings. People can rubbish the opposition, and it's true, they're not as good as most other nations. But if they were that bad, or it was that easy, we'd see it happening more often. It doesn't happen for a reason. It's that special an innings. That same argument applies to those (I assume WYL is in this bracket) who de-value Murali's achievements simply because he played more games against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe than Warne and others did. Plenty of other Sri Lankan and Indian bowlers have had plenty of games against Bangladesh, yet they don't consistently take 5 wicket innings.

Watson. Holy moly. 185 (not out) off 96. 15 fours, and a record 15 sixes. And we had 24 overs remaining. If Bangladesh had scored a few more he could easily have made 250. Wowee.

Loving seeing England get knocked out of the World Cup by 10 wickets. Couldn't get either opener out. They both made centuries and England were made to look second rate. Again. You'd pick Sri Lanka to beat NZ, and comfortably I'd say, but the other semi is going to be a classic. India's not in the greatest form, despite their wins, and Pakistan can either be brilliant or insipid. Hopefully it's the former.

I think Australia and South Africa are somewhat opposites at the moment. We have little talent but still seem to strike fear into the hearts of any opponent. South Africa have ridiculous talent, but any team can go into a game thinking 'we can get them' with their fragile mindset. Honestly, South Africa may as well not bother playing World Cups. They just cannot win games that mean something. That was a simple chase, and at 2/100-odd they were cruising. New Zealand isn't Pakistan, their bowlwers aren't much chop at all. That should have been simple, but they are so mentally fragile they are always prone to losing.

Well they did what I wanted, but unfortunately White again failed to live up to his end of the bargain. If we win who knows if he will keep his spot again. I hope he does, but that was a poor innings ended with a terrible shot. Ponting's currently on 86. I'd absolutely love to see him go on and make 100.

For those reasons he should be playing, but not in White's spot. In Smith's. Smith is not going to win us a game off his own bat, nor off his bowling. White, in current form, won't either. But he could, and that for me is the difference. David Hussey provides middle-order stability and is equally good with the ball as Smith. Then, if White gets going, we're actually a chance.

Correct. We're relying on the hope that if it all clicks (i.e. Tait, Lee, Johnson all bowl fiery spells, and Watson, Haddin, White launch into some power hitting) we can beat the better teams. But our 'regular' form, if you like, isn't good enough. South Africa and Sri Lanka's regular form will beat us most days.

Agree, White's not in form at all. But against India, the possibility of White going off like he did in Vizag last year (his last meaningful innings btw) appeals a lot more to me than a potential run-a-ball 30-50 from Ferguson. Of course, White could easily make a duck, but we beat England 6-1 and won 4 out of 5 group WC matches with nothing from White, so if he can find some form we can only go skywards. The key, though, is not the batting IMO, as India's bowlers aren't that good. The key is to prevent their batsmen from setting a big total or running down whatever we post. They are good enough to make 400 if the pitch is amenable. Sehwag, Tendulkar, Kohli and Yuvraj are all in top form, and Dhoni, Pathan and Gambhir add to a stellar top 7. We have to bowl tight, with plenty of short stuff, and not let them get away.

Agree re: Smith. He's not bowling, and when he does it's not any good anyway. David Hussey's bowling is better, and so is his batting. Should be in the side. White I'm not so sure about. Ferguson was good back in 2009 but White could be the factor that wins us a quarter/semi final.

Also, without having seen any footage, I've heard that Krejza bowled quite well. Seems like he got some bounce to go with his turn, which is good, as that will improve his wicket-taking ability immensely.

The wicket was tough to bat on, but it had more runs in that 176. Poor batting, exacerbated by good bowling. Pakistan's bowlers have the two things we can't bat against: reverse swing and ODI-style spin. A bowling line-up of Afridi, Rehman, Razzaq, Hafeez, Gul and Riaz is strong. Nonetheless, we batted terribly, showing that we can't always rely on Michael Hussey to bail our top order out. We're likely to get India in the quarter final, as I think they'll have no trouble beating the Windies tonight. That's going to be a heck of a game, but I can't see us winning on current form. With Ponting, White, Smith, Johnson and Tait all struggling I don't think we'll have enough firepower with either bat or ball to beat them. Having said that, if we can get some runs out of White and Ponting and if Johnson and Tait can straighten their lines up then we can only improve considerably on what we've shown so far. Apparently that was the first time we'd been bowled out in a World Cup since 1999. It was the first time Tait's batted in a World Cup, and Lee's first loss after 16 games.

Bloody West Indies. 4 wickets in hand, about 20 runs to get, Sarwan and Russell set at the crease, and they lose. Which basically means England are through. You could mount a totally believable and credible case to say England should be 0-6.

9/29...that must be close to the worst loss of 9 wickets in ODI history! That's one heck of an implosion!

Ridiculous innings from NZ. 114 off the last 6 overs. Wow. Good old Kamran Akmal again. Dropping sitters. But he did the cricket world a favour. If he'd held the catches Taylor offered him early, we wouldn't have seen him unleash at the end.

Bloody South Africa. Totally ruined my night last night. England should have 0 wins and 4 losses, instead they have 2 wins and a tie. Disappointing. Choosing Hussey is the right move, even though we have Ferguson over there already. Hussey should have been there from the start and is, IMO, an automatic selection for the next game. One of White and D. Hussey will go. I predict D. Hussey, but it's not like White's in any form. But White's the VC and he has a lot more room to improve than David Hussey. I'd rather have White in there going into the latter stages.

I don't see any need to employ a division system. What the next FTP needs to have is fairness, and that means all the countries playing all the other countries the same number of times, home and away. It's a better leveller, it gives teams better ideas of where they rank, and it helps promote the game by allowing the weaker countries (NZ, WI, Bangladesh) to experience the stronger teams (South Africa, India, Sri Lanka). In ODI cricket Bangladesh and Zimbabwe need to start playing the other 8 countries far more regularly, whether we like it or not, to promote their development. Ireland and the Netherlands should be thereabouts too, maybe not as regular as the other sides, but they need to play the big boys more than just once every four years. Cricket will be better for it when it expands into more countries. Ireland has shown it has the capacity to play, and beat, the better countries, but their development as a ODI (and, later, Test) nation is only going to stall if they don't get the chance to play Australia, South Africa and co. more than once every four years.

I hope you and WJ are joking (I think you are). Clearly there is no need for a clash strip when it is patently obvious which team is which. Given everyone wears white in Test cricket it's not hard to work out.

India would sorely be ruing that one-short from Munaf Patel off the last ball of their innings...

Another strong performance from an Associate, this time Ireland pushing Bangladesh to the brink. Yes, it's only Bangladesh, but they're in good form, at home, with 100% of the crowd on their side. Ireland have some talented players, I can easily see them knocking off the Windies or England.