titan_uranus

What's the bet North makes a century today, thereby securing his spot for the Ashes, and allowing the selectors to claim they were right, and then for him to start another run of 5 matches where he fails to pass 20?

I think he does too. But it was clear that Hauritz was not going to bowl us to victory, and he was leaking runs, so taking him off was always going to happen. If we play Paine and Haddin together it's Haddin who plays as a batsman. In fact I reckon if he ditched the keeping and focused solely on batting that wouldn't be a terrible idea.

Because I haven't seen any footage I can't comment on field placings but Ponting's never been the best at setting fields IMO. At one point on Day 5 Tendulkar prodded a short ball to short leg, which Ponting responded to by putting second slip in that position. Next ball Laxman edged through second slip. As for the bowlers, we had Watson and North going together at the end because Bollinger was off injured and Ponting wanted to keep Johnson and Hilfenhaus for one last assault. Which almost worked, with Hilfenhaus getting Sharma and Johnson almost getting Ohja. Too true. Hussey, Gambhir, Sharma and Ohja all got the wrong decision. All would have been reversed with technology. Should be funded by the ICC and made available for every single Test. Everywhere.

Fantastic match. Over 400 for both first innings, with a century and numerous fluent half centuries, then under 220 for both second innings with plenty of wickets falling. This match proves how Test cricket is totally a better form of the game than ODIs or T20s. A great showcase, and pity there's only one more match in the series. Having said that, it exposed more of our flaws. Our middle order is weak and should have been changed for this series in preparation for the Ashes. North is crap and has to go. Everyone except, supposedly, the selectors can see this. He is horribly wrong for our middle order, and only scores runs when the pressure's off and he enters with plenty on the board already. At number 6 you either need a stable rock who can steady the ship regardless of the situation or someone who can provide a counter attack. North is neither of these, and should not be retained based on some flimsy off spin that picks up the occasional helpful wicket. Hussey is struggling too, with only two centuries in the last two years, one of which is arguably tainted given it came in the Sydney Test vs Pakistan where he was dropped three times in now dubious circumstances. His career is coming to an end. The other big flaw is our spin bowling. Hauritz should have helped bowl us to victory yesterday, as he should have done in Cardiff last year. The ball was turning and bouncing, there was rough, there were footmarks, the pitch was breaking up, yet he couldn't maintain a decent line nor length and leaked far too many runs. Ponting needed him, especially when Bollinger got injured, but he couldn't rely on him. He just isn't good enough, and we need to find a replacement. IMO it should be Steven Smith. He could bat at 7 or 8 if we swap North for a batsman, or he could bat at 6 and we could play an extra bowler, or someone like Andrew McDonald. Our pace bowlers are undeniably good at their best, and at times in that test we saw them all reach their best, but none of them are consistent enough. Too many legside half volleys for my liking. VVS Laxman is a star. Tendulkar aside, the rest of the Indian batting line up struggle massively in the fourth innings, Sehwag especially (average of 50+ overall but only 28 in fourth innings). I felt he was, with SRT, the key wicket, and I wasn't surprised at all to see him overcome his back injury to defy us, given he made an unbeaten century in Sri Lanka a few months ago to do the same thing there.

What a comeback! 4/48 chasing 216! Gambhir, Sehwag, Dravid and Raina all out. We're a chance! And yes, North has to go. Hussey shouldn't be too far behind him. Our middle order is a joke. If Michael Clarke doesn't score, we collapse. We can't rely on Watson and Katich to produce the bulk of our runs, or Paine, Johnson and Hauritz to bail us out late. We need a stable middle order, and North is as far from stable as can be.

Took their last 6 wickets for 50-odd runs, which is a good effort in India. Draw looks the most likely outcome but we've performed OK so far. Watson, Ponting and Paine with the bat looked good, then Johnson and Hauritz with the ball looked OK. Undoubtedly handy. But not enough to keep him in the side. Needs to make some runs in the second innings.

We can't take North into an Ashes series. He's just not good enough. Time to go. Callum Ferguson is back and healthy again, did really well in the Champion's Leage (which is nothing like Test cricket but it was a good performance coming of a knee reconstruction nonetheless) and is one option for the spot. I still believe Cameron White would do better than North, David Hussey is available, as is Phillip Hughes if they can find a way to restructure the side, or Steven Smith as a batsman. There are options, and North shouldn't be one of them. Watson's in sparkling form at the moment. Twin centuries in the tour game, now another century with only Ponting for support. Pity he didn't kick on though, he should have taken that run a lot more urgently. If we lose this series, which is a fair chance, we'll start the Ashes as the fifth ranked side in Test cricket. That'll mean we'll be below England, and above only the West Indies, Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh. How times have changed.

I was just about to say that Ponting was looking good for his maiden century in India, but he's gone and run himself out. Seems like it's his fault. Looked very good for his 71 but as has been the case with our batsmen of late, he hasn't pushed on to 100. Hopefully Watson can.

Since I don't have Foxtel, the football. Was a close call though... Seriously, though, it should be interesting to see if our bowlers can take 20 wickets in either Test. People keep saying that this is the worst preparation possible because the Indian conditions are so different to Australian conditions. I say if we are able to take 20 Indian wickets on an Indian pitch then our bowlers should be right to take 20 wickets anywhere. Should also be interesting to see if Hussey and Bollinger play, and if they do, whether or not they have much effect.

True, but I still say we're better. Still, shows the strength of Australian domestic cricket. In the last two years the Sri Lankan, New Zealand, and West Indian representatives (T+T aside, but they had Pollard and Bravo) have been mediocre at best. It's largely a contest between the Indian IPL sides and the Aussie domestic sides.

How frustrating. Well, I guess that's the price you pay for such a lacklustre opening game. Our NRR took a hit because of that game, and despite beating CSK and thrashing the two other sides easily, we're out of the tournament. I maintain that we're the best team there. At least the most well-rounded.

Hopefully the Warriors from Sth Africa beat the Super Kings (or better yet, it rains), so we qualify for the semis. And it would be against South Australia, too. Our form is dramatically on the way up, with 3 wins in a row after that early loss. It would be kinda hard to swallow for the team I reckon to finish 3-1 and not make the next stage.

I reckon Hazlewood and Starc are two promising young bowlers (both NSW by the way). George too. I reckon they're all better than Pattinson atm. That's one option. The other would be for Hughes to open, Watson to shift down the order and North to go away. White's batting is getting to the point where he doesn't need his bowling to be considered for selection. Actually, it is at that point. He is a better batsman than you, and presumably the selectors, are giving him credit for. Definitely a batsman who bowls. At the moment his bowling isn't good enough to get him selected as the spinner in front of Hauritz.

To move on from the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Pakistan, the squad for our two tests in India has been announced: Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke (vice-capt), Doug Bollinger, Peter George, Nathan Hauritz, Josh Hazlewood, Ben Hilfenhaus, Phillip Hughes, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Marcus North, Tim Paine (wk), Steven Smith and Shane Watson. Hughes was named, a good thing IMO. I hope he gets a game somehow (would it be too much to ask for North to be dropped?) and makes some runs, I still reckon he's going to be a good player and thus should be getting time in the team.

Let's be honest about what's happened at Lord's. Mohammad Amir is 18. He earns something like $35,000, where for any other country he'd earn in the hundreds of thousands. A man offers him money to do nothing other than bowl a few no-balls. Not to deliberately drop a catch, or give a wicket away, or try not to take wickets. Just to bowl 2 or 3 no-balls. Sure, it's the wrong thing, and it's corrupt, but in my mind it's not match-fixing per se. Outside of those no-balls he did what he was expected to do, which was to take wickets. He did take 6 of them. Match-fixing is one thing. Bowling no-balls is another, and whilst it's corrupt and wrong, and he should be punished, I see the kid's reasoning. Hopefully we don't over-react to this if this is all he is guilty of, and he can learn from this mistake and continue what will be a fine career. This is, of course, separate to the possible (and likely) rigging of the Sydney test. Amir didn't play in that Test, but I would be fairly confident that the Pakistanis threw that match for money. Possibly Salman Butt fixed the Hobart match, too. But I want to defend Amir until I'm proven wrong, I think he is just too young to fully understand what he did and he is poor enough to do what is asked of him for extra cash.

Read this: 184, 169, 26, 22, 21, 13, 13, 10, 10, 10, 6, 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 The scores of all the dismissed batsmen in this test. It's really hard to work out exactly how Broad and Trott managed to make those scores, when in every other partnership the ball has dominated.

One of, if not the, best ball I've seen since the Gatting ball was from Swann to Farhat in the recent Test. You can see it in the video in this article: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/the-english-ball-of-the-century-20100810-11wcb.html?autostart=1 The two can't really be compared as the bowling styles and circumstances were quite different but Swann's is still a beauty.

Averages since the end of the Ashes (thus the series against the West Indies and Pakistan at home, New Zealand away, and Pakistan in England): Katich - 61.93 Clarke - 57.46 Watson - 46.87 Hussey - 44.26 Ponting - 40.05 North - 30.26

On the whole not a bad post, and I agree with your team. I'd be shifting Watson down the order for the Ashes and playing Hughes. Yes, he struggled in last year's Ashes against the short stuff, but surely he's worked on that by now. Too talented not to be in the side. Watson's batting is OK, his bowling is now a lot better, and if he's going to be bowling considerable amounts of overs he shouldn't be opening the batting, it's a bit too taxing for someone with his history of injuries. I'd look to dropping North, who just doesn't stand up when the team needs him. As replacements for Hussey and Ponting I can think of no better pair than White and Ferguson.

If this doesn't shut JJC and WYL up nothing will. You've got to say Ponting's haunted by Edgbaston of 2005. How much more do the conditions need to be tailored to bowling for him to bowl first? It's 27 tosses in a row now that Ponting's batted first. Pakistan's bowling unit is the best in the world, bar none. Asif, Aamer and Gul together work wonders with the ball, and Kaneria's not hopeless as a leggie. Beats ours by a long way. They'd be a top 2 or 3 team if they could find some decent batsmen. Salman Butt's OK, Umar Akmal is good, but the rest are fragile at best (of course, they're batting fine now...). Johnson's fallen a long way from South Africa last year. With Siddle on the way back, he's the one that needs to start taking wickets IMO. Hilfenhaus is a genuine swing bowler who's at least taking wickets, and Bollinger at the moment is bowling a much tigher line and length. Johnson eases the pressure with too many loose deliveries. I'd have Siddle back in the side (as soon as he's fit), so someone has to go. Edit: A good article: http://www.cricinfo.com/pakistan-v-australia-2010/content/current/story/468343.html

Well maybe if some other people cared to contribute to the discussion... I'm also quite bored without uni. It's amazing how during the exam period I can find a million different ways to procrastinate but as soon as the exams are over there seems to be nothing to do except post repeatedly about cricket. Meanwhile, North's taken 6 wickets. He's on the Lord's honour board. How odd. 11 of the 20 wickets we took went to Watson and North, so there's still work to be done with our bowlers. Johnson and Bollinger were largely ineffective.

Pakistan 1/114 chasing 440 for victory. We were bowled out for 334 with Hilfenhaus (yes, Hilfenhaus) making 56 not out (quite unbelievable really) and Bollinger making 24 (his highest score as well). You'd think that 440 is too much for Pakistan but they've got a good platform, and when the sun comes out at Lord's and the ball stops swinging it's a good batting track. Steven Smith will need to add to his tally of 1 wicket if the swing isn't there. Since the start of the Australian summer Katich has made 8 scores between 79 and 99, with two centuries. That's both a model of consistency and a frustratingly poor conversion rate.

We're now 4/100, after bowling Pakistan out for 148, after they bowled us out for 253. We were 2/97 but Gul got Clarke and Hussey in consecutive balls. Watson took 5 wickets. Ponting made a duck in what will likely be his last innings at Lord's, so he never made it to 50 at that ground. Provided we get something from North, Paine, Smith and Johnson, as well as Katich who's 49 not out, we should be able to get the lead up around 350 which should be too much for Pakistan.

9/229 at stumps on Day 1 at Lord's. An OK total given the tough batting conditions, but we were at one stage 2/171 with Katich and Clarke batting well. But Asif got Clarke off the last ball before tea and we lost 6/58 in the third session, North making another duck, Paine 7, Smith 1 and Johnson 3. Johnson's batting has fallen apart since the tour of South Africa last year. Hussey's still there, and we saw in Sydney that even with a tailender he can forge out a decent innings so if Bollinger hangs around we could push past 250. Either way it's not a great total but Pakistan's batting line-up is fragile at best and we have Hilfenhaus back who should thrive in these conditions. An interesting stat I saw in the cricinfo commentary is that, in a combined 11 Tests, Ponting, Tendulkar and Lara have a highest score of 54 at Lord's.

Bangladesh beat England! Yay for Bangladesh!