titan_uranus

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.

He now is level with Ponting on 39 centuries. And he takes wickets, which none of the others do. Surely he's at least as good as Punter now. Sehwag has never had footwork. Most of the time he flays the good-length stuff early and the bowlers sh!t their pants and end up feeding him full stuff. He's a superb striker of the ball and when he gets going nothing is a good ball but early in his innings a level-headed bowler can pick him up for nothing if the field's right. Smith's technique needs a lot of work. He plays like it's a ODI. Open stance when driving, doesn't have a sound defence, chases the moving ball to try to put some bat on it. He's not a Test player. The argument that we need to stick with him because he's our future misses the point that he isn't good enough and hasn't shown anything to suggest he will ever be good enough for Test cricket. We definitely need to look to youth but the youth that get selected need to show something at state level. Like Khawaja. And eventually, Maddinson, Starc, Pattinson, Hazelwood and Copeland. Smith isn't good enough. If he can't bat in the top 6 he needs to be out number 1 spinner. Since he's not that either, he shouldn't be there. Picking someone to bat at 7 and bowl as the second spinner isn't smart.

I'm with you. There's no other choice. Cameron White, IMO, would make a better captain, but there's no way he could captain a side he hasn't been a part of for 2 years. Nice argument. But surely the state that's won the past two Shields is the state with the best players? I'm talking White, D. Hussey, Hodge, McDonald, Nannes, Rogers, McKay. Over the last 2-3 years these players have been in their prime, and IMO these have been the best players in the country. Nic Maddinson will be an Australian player. But I don't want him in the side until he's had at least another year with NSW. Learn the craft there, get the runs, experience, form and fitness on the board with them, not with Australia.

No surprises with the squad for Sydney. Either Beer plays as the spinner, with Smith at 6, or we go with 4 pacemen again. There's also the choice between Hilfenhaus and Bollinger if we go with Beer. I'd go with Bollinger, he can't be worse than Hilfenhaus and he knows the SCG well. Plus I assume he's improved his fitness. I'd have preferred to see another batsman named. It's a very weak top 6, with Hughes, Clarke and Smith all out of form and a debutant at number 3. Squad: Watson, Hughes, Khawaja, Clarke, Hussey, Smith, Haddin, Johnson, Siddle, Beer, Bollinger, Hilfenhaus.

Good post, I agree with that. Hughes and Smith were picked because they are young. If they were 4-5 years older, with the same form and the same record, they wouldn't have even been on the radar. But this misguided notion that we need to play youngsters to inject youth into the side has let us down. What we needed to do was play our best XI. Anyone who thinks Hughes or Smith, in their current form, are a part of Australia's best XI, right now, aren't thinking clearly, because they're not. And consequently, we were let down. This is going to sound a lot like a WYL proposition, but I honestly feel that what needs to happen now is a full review of the entire Australian cricket industry. People say this isn't a time to panic, which of course it isn't, but if there ever was a time to be worried or to question what is going on with Australian cricket, it is right now. There's a much too strong focus on limited overs stuff, the selection process is unclear and has caused us problems, scheduling is a worry as well. There are problems all over the place. Also, why aren't Tim Nielsen, Justin Langer, and the other coaches, with Troy Cooley excepted, copping any criticism? Our batting has been woeful all summer, but no one seems to think that might be bpoor coaching? Plenty of people took to Josh Mahoney in 2009 when we weren't scoring, but when our cricket side fails both to make runs or to occupy the crease, Langer apparently had nothing to do with it. Final comment: moving Haddin to 6 is just another wallpaper-over-the-crack move.

Bloody Watson! That's his 15th 50, to go with his 2 100s. He never fails to go out, even when he looks rock solid. We needed someone to stand tall and make a big score, hopefully Ponting is the one to do that. Maybe Hussey will come out there with some runs on the board this time.

Pathetic run out. Watson really struggles to pick a good single. That's the third time he's run out his partner, all of them have been for the first wicket as well. He needs to turn this 50 into a minimum of 100, preferably 200.

How many times over the last 2 years have we taken 'wickets' off no-balls? This time Dar didn't call the no ball until he'd paid it out, but later saw the footmark was close. I'm not entirely convinced he did the right thing given at the time he didn't think it was a no ball but in the end the ball was illegal and the batsman shouldn't have been out. That's another thing England do better than us: their bowlers learn to bowl with their entire foot behind the line.

Siddle bowled a very nice line and length earlier today, got both openers. Seems he and Harris will get the new ball after lunch so that's a sign that Ponting respects his effort. Hilfenhaus won't play in Sydney. All cricket history in fact! Apparently it's only the second time ever that at the end of Day 1 a team has bowled its opponent out and then overtaken their score without losing a wicket.

Really, what today showed was that Perth was won more by an accidental Johnson spell of swing than anything else. We cannot bat against the moving ball. Watson, Ponting and Hussey got hood balls but the other 7 just pushed too hard at the ball outside off. Hughes and Smith are not good enough. Hilfenhaus is useless. He is possibly the least threatening new ball bowler in the world. But the problem is the batting. It's not good enough.

That's true, but I don't think a conference system really fixes anything. The bottom 2-3 teams, who will be out of the running for the wildcard anyway, will put their players out to pasture and prepare for the next year regardless of the system that is in place.

Disagree. Having one, or even two, wildcards does not fully rule out the possibility of a team missing out on finals despite winning more games than a team who makes it. At any rate, it's no different to what we have now, it's just dressed up. Right now everyone plays each other at least once, and for almost every team the big rivalries are played twice a year. So if we changed to a conference system nothing would really change except the possibility for teams to beat better teams to a finals spot. However, for NFL I think it works as well as they could get any system to work.

He'll play for sure. No way they'd let Khawaja play for NSW in a 50 over game if they thought there was any chance he was going to bat at 3 on Boxing Day. Plus Ponting is strong enough to play through it.

The whole wildcard thing shows exactly what's wrong with the conference system. Of course for NFL they have little choice but here for AFL the mere suggestion of it is ridiculous.

That's not what I said. I said it was a 'benefit' of having four quicks. We did not choose to play four quicks for this reason, we did it because the Perth pitch offered something for pacemen and this was a good way to avoid the spinner issue. Not only has England played just four bowlers for each match, but Anderson and Finn have played all three Tests so far, whereas for us Siddle is the only one to have played them all. And for England, Anderson and Finn bowl lots and lots of overs because there's not a lot of support, whereas Siddle didn't have much to do in Perth.

If Anderson doesn't play and Ponting does, this could be the spark Ponting needs to make some runs. This is another benefit of playing four quicks, they get to bowl shorter spells to stay fresher for longer. Anderson and Finn will be exhausted and there are still two Tests to go.

Glad South Africa won. Hopefully they keep this form up and knock India over another two times to become the number 1 side. They deserve it more than India does. India just accrues points by belting teams at home without putting in decent performances on the road.

Well that was quick. Reminds me of last year, this big turnaround. We thrashed them at Headingly, they came back and won the next game at the Oval. Despite him being woefully out of form we need Ponting to be fit to play. Otherwise we'll be playing someone new at number 3 for the most important Test in the last four years. I don't want Clarke at 3, he's not good enough, and how would Khawaja go debuting on Boxing Day in front of 100,000 people at number 3? It could be David Hussey or Cameron White but they're probably not in selectors' minds, so we need Punter. The other call will be the bowlers. Will we go with the same four quicks and use Smith as the spinner? I think Melbourne demands a spinner much more than Perth, and unfortunately that makes Siddle a possible casualty. It's down to Siddle and Hilfenhaus, they each only took one wicket but I reckon they like Hilfenhaus' outswing with Johnson's inswing.

Hussey's now gone past Cook for series runs. What a legend. Those pull shots he kept playing, despite men on the legside boundary, which he regularly beat, were outstanding. Pity he ended up going out to a pull shot. Ponting's got a fractured finger. If he can't play in Melbourne things get very interesting. I suppose Clarke will captain the side, which I don't like at all, and I suppose one of Khawaja or Ferguson comes in for Ponting. I'd prefer to see David Hussey or White though. And what will the batting order be? Clarke is hardly in the form required to bat at 3, so will we throw a youngster in the deepest of deep ends and send in a debutant at number 3 in a crucial Ashes Test? What other choices do we have? Ain't hindsight wonderful?