titan_uranus

Johnson and Bollinger! Beauties! 3/23 after 7 overs, Tendulkar's gone. Edit: 4/24! And Dhoni was actually out, but wasn't given due to a lack of an appeal. What a start! Edit 2: Now 5/27!!! This is fantastic!

Yeah that was some match. I got a score at about the 30 over mark, when Hussey and Hodge had gone, and I didn't think we had a chance. I'd never even heard of Aaron Finch. 7 first choice players unavailable. Victorian cricket is so strong at the moment.

I think it evens things out, frankly. Quite a few blunders of late, but the way they've managed to get decent, international-quality players over to India on such short notice, and ensure that the team's stability hasn't fallen apart, deserves credit.

What an amazing match. 175 to Tendulkar, and India loses. How would you feel? White and McKay leading the charge for Victoria. White's innings was the first typical White innings we've seen in a while. 5 sixes. If we get up and win this series it will highlight the strength and resilience of Australian cricket. Probably 6 or so of our first-choice XI aren't available for selection.

Definitely should have got the call up before Henriques, and should play once he's over there. Good fill in for Hopes. Hodge has the ability to come back in and make runs, but I guess the selectors will use this somewhat easier summer to look at new talent. I would just like to see Hodge (and Rogers, for that matter) get some recognition from CA for their continual dominance in the Sheffield Shield. Possibly Hughes back to open and Watson into the middle order.

Michael Clarke's no certainty for the First Test in Brisbane on November 26: http://www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/...ory/433004.html Possibly an opening for Hodge to replace him in the middle order?

No they're not. They're going nowhere and don't deserve to be playing Test cricket. Very true. And sad. Give it up WYL. The idea that every captain should bat first 100% of the time is just out-dated and wrong. As RR said, Waugh could have bowled first on roads and still had a result.

Well then you wouldn't make a very good captain.

I'll agree with that. Our choice of opening batsmen in ODIs seems to be slightly haphazard. We've had something like 8 different opening partnerships since January. Should be Watson and Haddin IMO. As for spinners, Hauritz is doing very well in limited overs cricket at the moment. He'll start in the First Test, but if he doesn't perform, I dare say the selectors will be keeping an eye on Krejza, who seems to me to have worked hard on bringing his economy rate down. Why is Hussey playing in India? Because he's our best batsman at the moment, that's why! Have a look at his form. 4 ODIs, 3 50s. Continues to anchor the innings, especially when we lose a couple of quick wickets. He's doing a fine job. His spot in the Test team is under threat, but his century at The Oval will probably keep him in in Brisbane. No runs there, and he'll likely be chopped. What did Hayden playing too long have to do with it? Hughes was just coming off completely destroying the world's best bowling line-up in foreign territory. That's a pretty good formguide and preparation if you ask me.

Johnson was rubbish. I don't understand why Siddle only bowled 5 overs, whereas Ponting kept bringing Johnson back on. Good bowling performances from Bollinger and Watson (who surprised me with his ability to get the ball to hit the pitch). I'll bet there were a few nervous Aussies when Harbhajan got going though. More crap. In Tests yes. But in ODIs, the pitch doesn't always break down to the extent that there's a definite advantage to batting first. Add to that the fact that bowling in the second innnings can be difficult if there's dew around (which there has been), and there becomes a case for bowling first.

Rogers, Hodge, McDonald all made centuries vs South Australia. Victoria is such a strong team. It'd be nice to see one of them get back into the Test side.

Lee is out of the India ODI series: http://www.cricinfo.com/indvaus2009/conten...ory/432176.html This scheduling is beyond a joke now. Why we have to play 7 ODIs now is beyond me. I think the Champions League wasn't originally meant to be directly before this series, but still, right before a home summer, having been away since basically late February, it's nonsense.

Manou has been called up to replace Paine: http://www.cricinfo.com/indvaus2009/conten...ory/431967.html The article says that Marsh is likely to open with Watson. I guess that means Manou will bat at 7 or thereabouts.

Ridiculous comment. Ponting's hands were tied. Hilfenhaus is terrible at ODIs. Simply terrible. Why he got a game in front of Bollinger will remain unknown I guess. Shocking call from the selectors. Hilfenhaus has never shown anything at ODI level. So outside of Hilfenhaus we had Siddle, who did OK, Johnson, who always leaks runs, and was probably injured, and Watson, who is also pathetic. Without Brett Lee and Nathan Bracken our bowling line-up has taken a massive hit. Both games we've seen it. Don't know what the states are of our injured players, but we need Lee and Hopes back as soon as possible. Marsh opens in place of the injured Paine, the new wicketkeeper (Hartley?) will probably bat at 7. Bollinger in for Hilfenhaus. Lee in for Johnson if fit. Hopes in for Marsh. Open with Hopes or Hussey if need be.

Amazingly tense finish to what should have been an easy win. In the end we only won by 4 runs. Kumar and Harbhajan tonked us around, 20 runs off the second last over. Siddle, who'd been crap most of the time, held his nerve in the last over, but Watson cracked. Why wasn't Lee used?

Time for another seven ODIs, this time against India. Woohoo. With Ferguson out, and Marsh available for selection, I'd be opening with Watson and Marsh, push Paine down to 6, and bring White up to 4 (absolute waste of talent when he bats at 6. He showed vs England at 3 how good he is). Edit: Well, they've actually started. 2/108 after 20 overs. Voges gets Ferguson's spot, Paine opened (and made a good 50). White's batting at 4, which is good to see.

Great news Two Sheds. We're all behind you.

All true, but I don't rate our batsmen much behind the NSW batsmen, yet most of us struggled to get in. Bowling obviously had a part to play, and NSW are lucky to have so many international standard bowlers (Bracken would be there too if he wasn't injured), but with Hodge, Hussey, White, McDonald, Quiney and Blizzard in the team, we should have done better (not necessarily a win, but not as bad a loss).

Insipid batting performance (and a not so good bowling performance either, save for McDonald) and we've been knocked out of the tournament in the worst possible way against the worst possible opponent. We lost 3 matches in the tournament. Have a look at the openers' (Quiney and Hodge) contributions in those losses: vs Wayamba: Quiney 0, Hodge 44 vs Cape Cobras: Quiney 0, Hodge 0 vs NSW: Quiney 0, Hodge 0 That's 3 ducks in 4 innings for our no. 1, and 4 ducks from our openers in the past 2 matches. Can't win with form like that. In contrast, Hughes and Warner are on fire.

Seemed to bowl well vs Bangalore last night, but T20 isn't much of an indicator with regards to Test cricket. I still think Krejza's a chance, if he sustains that kind of bowling through the Sheffield Shield.

This could be promising: Jason Krejza bowling for Tasmania v South Australia in their Sheffield Shield match. 1st innings figures of: 29-9-70-4. Pretty good. Looks like he's worked on his economy rate (2.41)

Well the only spinner we'll be facing now is Daniel Vettori. Well done NZ for beating the talented but unpredictable Pakistan, who had them on the ropes until NZ used their batting powerplay (which is how all team should be using them, don't just wait until the last 5 overs). Should be a good contest, but you'd back us in to beat NZ.

What a batting performance from Watson and Ponting! Supreme stuff. Sticking it to the Poms again too! I think Pakistan will beat NZ tonight, and I think they have the ability to beat us in the final. I'm not sure what it is, but we seem to struggle against Saeed Ajmal (the off-spinner). And they have a few good bastmen too (Mohammad Yousuf is a star). Absolute joke. From those nominated, Strauss should have won. But Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers should have been nominated. Read in The Age today that the South African players boycotted the event (amongst a lot of other players). Good on them. Those awards are token pieces of rubbish.

We should be able to beat England, but they're in better form now than 2 weeks ago. Watson's lucky Clarke's injured. He made 3 consecutive ducks before that match, and despite his bowling, I don't think his batting is good enough at the moment to keep opening.

Massive congratulations to Clijsters for winning the US Open. Fantastic person, great tennis player. Can't think of a better person to beat both Williams sisters and go on and win. Also looking forward to Federer-Del Potro, which I get the feeling could be a little lop-sided. It's a pity Nadal couldn't make the final, even though he's injured. Federer-Nadal matches always provide great spectacles.