titan_uranus

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.

How about that Luke Butterworth! 99 and 6-for in the same match. Nice work.

ten Doeschate has 4 centuries in 28 games, that's a lot better than I would have thought (even if most of those games are against other associate teams). The associate debate is interesting. I'd prefer to have them in World Cups, it is, after all, a World Cup, and when an associate beats a full member it's always great fun. I get the argument that most of the time the games are too easy and don't offer competition but cricket should be aiming to develop world wide, and cutting the associates out of the World Cup restricts their development severely. I mean, outside of a World Cup, when is Australia ever going to play the Netherlands? Or Kenya? Or Afghanistan? And if we did, we'd send a second-rate (or worse) side to do it.

1) Hussey should have been taken to the WC in Steve Smith's place. Smith is crap. Hasn't made a 50 yet and hasn't taken more than 3 wickets in any innings. Adds nothing. Hussey is our best ODI batsman, a proven finisher, and is fit right now. 2) I feel for the Dutch. That almost was the biggest upset in WC history. If they can keep playing like that (big if) they can challenge and/or beat Ireland, West Indies and Bangladesh, and that might be enough to get them through.

That 7 really was appalling though. A top four of Watson, Haddin, Ponting (who's looked good these two warm-up matches) and Clarke is sound and compares pretty well with the other sides (India and South Africa aside). It's the out-of-form middle order of White, D. Hussey, Smith and Johnson that needs to perform from a batting perspective, although we could feasibly get enough runs in the group games from the top 4. (PS: the 7 and 73 were warm-up games which technically aren't ODIs, but who cares?)

Well, given Hussey's injured, there's no chance of that. White's form from the middle of 2009, when he batted at 3 against England and made a century, through to the tour of India last year, where he made 80-odd of about 40-odd, was top-notch. Along with M. Hussey, our best ODI batsman. Since the Australian summer he's struggled. But at his best he is, undoubtedly, in our best XI. I have no idea why you hate his captaincy, I think he does a good job. The bowling is an issue. Part of that is because of the way he was treated in 2008, but really, he shouldn't have dropped off so quickly. He would have been a much stronger candidate to replace North if he was still picking up a wicket here or there. But he needs his first class batting to improve anyway.

I wouldn't say there are 'worrying signs' a week out from the WC, but there are issues that need to be resolved. We didn't take a wicket from a bowler yesterday, just one run out. Krejza got to bowl 10 overs but the reports are that he isn't setting the world on fire, on pitches that are made for turn. In our innings Robin Peterson took 3, and he's not much chop. I guess it's a learning curve for a guy who's played 1 ODI but it's a risky situation. David Hussey and Steve Smith aren't providing the best back-up either. At least we've been lucky and played two top-class teams, rather than a waste of time against Canada or Kenya. This way we know we're a bit off and can look to improve on those areas in the easier actual WC games. Just went out for 7? Clarke? He made a nice 73. I didn't think you paid much attention.

Watch the game. Then comment. Of course, if you have watched it, then you aren't the greatest analyst of cricket, in which case ignore the latter instruction.

No I don't mean he is worse than Clarke. Form ruts are just that. Ruts. Both Clarke and White are class players with the long-term form to prove it. Short term, neither of them is playing well, but they are terrific ODI batsmen. White needs to lift his game, no doubt, but if he does the team lifts to another gear (keeping in mind we just beat England 6-1).

Played well in the warm up against India for about 70 overs. Then we were owned by decent spin. Clarke, White, Hussey, Ferguson all dismissed by spin for 8 or less. White is in an horrendous form slump at the moment. Not great timing. We bowled well, but let them get from 8/138 to 214. But the batting needs work.

(Without having seen a single ball...) What a game! Victoria chasing 259 after Cosgrove and Bailey made centuries, slumped to 8/192 in the 39th over (of 45). Then Glenn Maxwell hit 61 off 27 and Peter Siddle 25* off 16 to win off the last ball of the match! Wish I was down at Bellerive to see that one!

Also, Mike Hussey and Hauritz are out of the World Cup. Shaun Marsh unluckily misses out on being the replacement, Callum Ferguson gets that job, and Krejza is in for Hauritz.

Fair enough. Of course, there is one simple solution to that problem, but let's not go into that now. Let's instead debate whether Trent Copeland will get a game for Australia this year. Surprised some by beating Chris Lynn to the young cricketer of the year award. I think I read he took 60 wickets in 11 matches. That's a pretty darn good effort. Given our lack of pace bowling options (well, decent pace bowling options), and the injuries to Harris, Starc and Hazlewood (who might not get back to full fitness before August, I don't know), maybe Copeland will head the queue.

Agreed. 'Floaters', as they are sometimes called, can be a useful tool in ODIs and T20s. Batting orders aren't as important in limited overs cricket. Hopefully he, like Clarke, will get back into some form before the World Cup. With him on-song we'll lift another notch from where we are now. At the moment I think he's just not timing the ball well and that leads to him trying the big shots to hit one in the middle or just get some bonus runs or something. But I'd prefer to see him bunker down and score slowly, and not go out, than try for a couple fo boundaries and get out. Ultimately, though, we need him playing his usual game with a SR of over 100. Maybe it was a confidence thing as well? I mean, I thought it was because they had the spinner on and he plays spin well, but maybe he thought that we might as well utilise his hitting early on and have the more stable back ups of White and Hussey down the order should it fail.

South Africa needed to end their innings a bit earlier, and preferably for a few less runs, to entice India to go for the win. 340 off 90 overs was never going to happen when Sehwag got out early, so it was tailor-made for Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman, who are tough enough to dismiss normally, to drop the anchor and bat the day. Which of course, they did, because they're capable batsmen. Imagine Australia trying to bat out a day. I totally agree that saying Haddin has less catches means Prior is better. Clearly the quality of the bowling and opposition batting translates into the number of catches. In saying that, I look at the way each has batted when they have come to the crease. To be fair to Haddin, he has certainly had a tougher time, being asked to rescue innings at 5/150 odd, whereas in most of Prior's innings he's come in with plenty on the board. But I still look at Haddin and see a batsman who is more than capable of scoring centuries, and showed it, but whose innings ended prematurely due to poor shot selection. There were runs in every pitch we played on, maybe Perth aside, and in almost every Test Haddin got himself in before getting out to a flat-footed drive, a waft outside off, or an attempted slog. It's a line-ball debate at any rate.

Watson's now been involved in 7 run outs. The ones I can remember were all his fault too. It's really unbelievable that he can continue to run like he does, head down, not looking at his partner, ball watching, whatever it is, he isn't good at it. Hughes got a good ball but didn't score freely at all. But Haddin throws his wicket away with careless shots far too often. His 5 in Melbourne, his 6 in Sydney were both thrown away. Sure, batting's been a lot easier for Prior, but when he's had the chance he's made the runs. Also, his glovework has been better. Haddin's dropped at least two catches and he let one go between him and Watson. I can't think of any dropped catches from Prior.

I forgot to post this the other day. This is one of the best articles I've read over the last couple of months regarding Australian cricket. Written by Geoff Lawson: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/wanted-people-who-know-the-game-of-cricket-20110101-19cno.html

Yes, a case can be mounted, but it wouldn't win. He's leaning on his superior average, that's it.

You could take the captaincy out and Strauss would still get in. Watson has run his opening partner out twice. He hasn't scored a century despite reaching 50 four times. He might look like he's settled but he will find a way to get himself out. When Australia has needed a solid opening partnership we have struggled to get one. Even if Watson's not the first one dismissed part of the blame rests with him. He needs to score big runs at the top of the order to give our middle order a platform. Strauss has a crucial century which helped save the Brisbane match, and has worked much better in partnership with Cook than Watson has with Katich/Hughes.

Up until this innings I would have picked Haddin over Prior but Haddin continually throws his wicket away and Prior's batting chances have been limited until today, where he's made 100. Siddle might have been close but Finn and Bresnan have taken wickets in wins, not losses, so one of them would pip him. So yes, Hussey's the only Aussie who would make the series best team.

What a match. From 4/74 they managed to get to 342, meaning India needs 340 in a day to win the series, and South Africa needs 10 wickets in a day to win. Epic stuff. Kallis now past Ponting on the list of century scorers. Trails Tendulkar by 11, and currently averages more than him. Did it all with a crumbled top order and a side strain. But great support from Boucher, Steyn and Morkel to get the score up where it is. Oh, and in that other Test that no one cares about anymore, England has passed 600. Again. Apparently it's the first time the 6th, 7th and 8th wickets have all put on 100. To think that we'll have lost three out of our last four Tests, each by an innings (can anyone see us not losing this one by an innings?) is staggering, even if you'd said it before the Ashes no one would have believed you. This will be Hilfenhaus' last Test, and it should be the last for a while for Smith and possibly Hughes.

I wouldn't. I've seen enough to know that his technique isn't going to get him anywhere in Test cricket. There are options. First off all, what if Ponting returns for the next series? They won't (and shouldn't) drop Khawaja, so Smith's spot down the order could be an option (i.e. Ponting at 6). Secondly, Andrew McDonald is more than capable of batting at 6. Plus, in Sri Lanka most teams play two spinners, which sounds ridiculous for Australia but if we wanted to go down that path we could have McDonald as the third seamer whilst batting at 6. There are, of course, the old chestnuts of David Hussey and Cameron White too. I'd go with any of those before I play Smith again. Unless, of course, Smith becomes a spinner, not a batsman. But at the moment his bowling isn't good enough either.

You know things are going badly when Michael Hussey starts bowling... Siddle's not bowling anywhere near like he did in Melbourne, Johnson is all over the shop, Hilfenhaus is about as damaging as Hussey, Beer is trying but isn't special, and Smith is worse. What is Smith's role in the side? If you can't bat in the top 6 you have to be able to bowl, and he can't. Hopefully this is the last we see of him until he either learns to bat or learns to bowl.

Classic Test in South Africa atm. RSA were on top at 6/247 but Harbhajan and Tendulkar are evening the game up nicely.