titan_uranus

I reckon they always planned to play him in Hobart, but I reckon now they'll be considering a replacement for the NZ tour. Next test after Hobart is on March 19.

Oh. My. God. I hate England so much. Another last-gasp draw. That man Onions saves the day again. Bloody Collingwood drops the anchor again. South Africa fail to get the last wicket again. In other news, we've named an unchanged line-up for Hobart. As I suspected would be the case since it is a dead rubber, North gets one final chance. I suspect if he fails again he won't be on the plane to NZ. If Katich is fit, though, it's possible North could be dropped, but the likelihood is that Katich won't be fit and Hughes will open again. The lack of wickets is troubling, but most commentators thought he was our best bowler in the first innings in Melbourne. Possibly the unluckiest bowling innings I've ever seen. But of course, as you say, close enough is not always good enough, and with Ben Hilfenhaus eventually coming back Siddle's going to need some wickets soon.

Amazing Test. It seems that Sydney brings the best out of both teams and makes for an exciting finish. Maybe a tied Test next year? Nonetheless, we still have problems that need addressing. North is at the top of the list, but Ponting and Clarke are in form ruts and Siddle has 6 wickets in 4 Tests (but we can excuse him thanks to his batting). As for Pakistan, well, one of their bowlers is going to be hard done by when Aamer comes back. I think it will be Sami, who only got 3, 2 of which were bat shots (Hughes and Ponting). But he still bowled well. And Kamran has brought back all the negativity surrounding his keeping. Since he's not giving anything with the bat, he mightn't be around when we play the return series in June (in England).

If anyone out there needs convincing that Test cricket is the premier form of the game look no further than this match. One team chooses to bat in iffy conditions and gets rolled by a team supposedly a lot worse than it. That team then fights back, first with the ball, then with the bat, only to slip away again. But just when the Test looked gone, a fighting 9th wicket partnership provides hope, and 3 wickets before tea leaves the contest even. Great stuff. My view on this is that whoever we bring in couldn't do any worse than North. White's had a taste of Test cricket (and tough cricket it was too, in India in 2008) and is in good form for Victoria. He is a natural leader, possibly could develop into an Australian captain. He's also only 26. Furthermore, he fields at slip, and he can bowl part time wrist spin (which at the moment couldn't be that far behind Stephen Smith's). He's the best option at the moment, and he should take North's spot in Hobart. Siddle needs a few wickets in this innings, just to keep his place secure. He's bowling just OK at the moment, very unlucky in the 1st innings in Sydney, but only 6 wickets in 4 Tests this summer. Not enough. With Hilfenhaus probably back for the NZ tour, he needs to improve.

Gonna need this last wicket real quick this morning. Then Watson and Hughes will have to set a massive platform. Watson is the only member of our top 7 that is in any sort of form. This could be a defining innings for Hughes, Ponting, Hussey and North.

Time to drop North. Not good enough. His big scores come only when he comes in with runs on the board. When he comes in with the team in trouble he invariably does nothing. We can't keep someone like him at 6 when he isn't contributing. Hughes was dropped in better form that North is in right now. I mean, that shot he played to get out yesterday, just hanging the bat well, well outside off stump, was atrocious. Time to go. Replace with Cameron White, George Bailey, maybe Andrew McDonald, promote Brad Haddin, maybe drop Watson down the order (prefer not to though). Maybe even drop Hughes down the order (his style might suit lower order batting more than opening, but I highly doubt that would ever happen). And he just dropped an absolute sitter. This is Ponting's second bad read of a pitch in 6 months (the first being the Oval in the Ashes). I think he's the only person in the world that would have batted yesterday. These days, Test cricket is more about taking 20 wickets than making lots of runs. IMO, the captain at the toss should be thinking, 'when is it going to be best to bowl on this pitch', rather than bat. Everyone else knew that Day 1 was going to be the best time to bowl. Bad call, Punter. Also, Mohammad Asif = world's best pace bowler. No question. Also, Chris Rogers should have opened, not Hughes. Current form puts Rogers above Hughes.

Think of it as this: Ponting is declared unfit. Hughes is brought in, and it's close to certain that he will open. The choice is clear: Katich or Watson moves. By sending Watson to 6, the selectors IMO send a message to Watson, along the lines of 'yes, we could have left you at the top, or moved you to 3, but we choose to move you to 6'. That's what I meant by punishment.

Hilfenhaus looks set to miss the rest of the summer now. Not good. But at least that keeps Siddle in the team... OK, but then you say: So you're OK with Watson being moved down the order... If Ponting doesn't come up (which I think he will), then Hughes comes in. Unless the selectors want to try something drastic, they're going to move either Watson or Katich out of the opening positions and play Hughes as an opener. I would have thought that Watson, to ease the load on him with his bowling, would be a prime candidate to move down the order. Incorporated into that is a bit of punishment for his antics.

Good article from Ian Chappell about the current standings in Test cricket: http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/440349.html

It may be bizarre but it's not ridiculous. Certainly not something anyone would have thought would happen, but maybe the change of city and the removal of pressure as a high draft pick might spark his career. I doubt it though.

I reckon a good way to punish Watson would be to demote him down the order in the event that Ponting can't play. Drop Watson to 6, bring Hughes in. And there's going to be a massive decision with regards to the pace bowling line up. It seems that Hilfenhaus and Siddle will be fit for Boxing Day. But Bollinger was almost man of the match in Perth. I'd play Siddle and Bollinger, and ensure that Hilfenhaus gets properly fit and plays some cricket for Tasmania.

51 runs with 1 wicket remaining. Should be an interesting session. You'd think we'd take the wicket pretty quickly, especially if Johnson and Hauritz have gotten better. Johnson especially. As for Boxing Day, there are a number of possibilities. One is to bring in Hughes, and drop Watson down to 6, pushing North to 5 and Clarke to 3. I think this might be the outcome. Another option is to play Hughes and drop Katich to 3. Unlikely I would have thought. We could also bring in George Bailey or Cameron White to 6, North to 5 and Clarke to 3.

7/520 declared. 5 runs short of breaking the record for highest score with no century. Still, it's the biggest Australian score ever without someone making a century. Haddin played beautifully. The only bad shot he played was the one he went out to. It will be interesting to see how we bowl to Gayle after Adelaide. Hopefully McKay gets some success.

This continual failure of our batsmen to make centuries is becoming a bit worrying to me. Not because I'm desperate to see 100s, but it shows a lack of concentration or application, and it robs the team of momentum and the chance to dominate even further. However, Katich's dismissal just lenghtens the list of near-misses in Test cricket over the last month. Some of the cricket recently has been amazing. The NZ-Pakistan series was close, and thus exciting, the India-SL ODI was amazing, the Windies have put up more fight than most imagined possible, and the first day of the RSA-England Test was a close battle. Agree. Smith is not even close to being a Test-quality bowler. He's a batting all-rounder at the moment. Krejza and McGain are well in front of him. If we want a leg-spinning all-rounder we should pick Cameron White. 3 bowlers? They've got Anderson, Broad, Onions and Swann. That's 4... However, Anderson's got a knee problem, Onions has pulled his calf, and Broad was seen doing a lot of stretching in the field. We may well see Collingwood and Trott continue bowling their part-time nothings if those injuries are serious.

I think I'm the only person to think this way, but anyway... A number is a number. When you come to the club, you are given a number. I don't understand why we need to have players continually changing around. Why does Warnock need to move from 37? Why did Jurrah, Wonaeamirri and Martin all change their numbers? Why do Blease and Strauss need to move? If players are given high numbers when they first arrive at the club, they should keep them for their career. If the club doesn't like having star players wearing high numbers, they shouldn't give them out in the first place. I can think of plenty of reasons why numbers shouldn't change, the least of which is it makes a little bit of confusion early on in the season when you can't see who's who because they've all changed their numbers from the previous season. But I can't think of one good reason why players need to change numbers. Blease should stay 46 (or whatever he is). Jurrah should have stayed at 48, and I can't see any reason why we need to move Warnock from 37 to 1.

Why? If we want him, we can have him. But we prefer MacDonald.

Yes, whoops to WYL and JJC. Victoria has just won by 6 wickets. Brilliant stuff. If White can get some continued success for Victoria he might get another chance at Test level, but as a middle order batsman rather than a spinner. He is only 26 and has leadership abilities that far outweigh Michael Clarke.

The PSD seems close to meaningless now to me. I reckon OOC/delisted players should all be forced into the PSD. No ND nominations. Then you'd have more interest. Plus it could well get more trades done in trade week.

Wonaeamirri doing his hamstring again is a bit of a concern. But I'd prefer him to be re-injuring his hamstring than his knee. If that makes sense.

Members of the team didn't want him as captain any more, and he got [censored] off and left the team when they went to NZ. Then he didn't play domestic cricket, so the PCB didn't consider him for their tour here. Really disappointing. He averages 50.09 in Tests and secures the no. 3 spot. Quite unbelievable, really. Carrying the bat isn't exactly something easy or common. The amount of 90s scored of late, and that stat, make this one of the most interesting cricket seasons of late (even if some of the matches haven't been as interesting as others). Absolutely brilliant cricketer, is Vettori. There's basically nothing he can't do. Mind you, he was dropped on 97. Almost lengthened the list. Incidentally, Victoria requires 79 runs off 36 overs with 7 wickets in hand to beat SA today. Would be a remarkable result if it happened. And it would co-incide with Tasmania beating WA in similar fashion (declaring behind on 1st innings, only to chase down the target on the 4th day).

Their scorecard reads 44*, 9, 6, 0, 0, 0. 3 consecutive ducks from the middle order. They need Younis Khan back so badly. And he's not in the squad to tour Australia. Mind you, they way we've been bowling to the Windies, there's no stopping the Pakistanis from finding some form here.

Merchandise brochures can be sent on their own, can they not? And since this only goes to members (I assume), it's not much of an advertising campaign. That's a fair point, the Almanac does provide information on our list. But the Almanac is a while away yet. I was suggesting that the yearbook could be sent out in another 2 weeks, hopefully providing enough time to get an article or two about our draftees into the magazine.

As per usual, this publication disappoints me. Why did we get it now, with nothing on our draftees? I for one don't see a pressing urgency to get the yearbook now. I'd much prefer to wait a few more weeks to ensure that there was enough time to get some stories about our new draftees into the magazine before it went to publication.

Want: 1. Melbourne 2-14. The rest 15. Hawthorn 16. Collingwood Realistically: St Kilda Western Bulldogs Hawthorn Geelong Adelaide Collingwood Brisbane Essendon Carlton West Coast Melbourne Sydney North Melbourne Fremantle Port Adelaide Richmond

Congratulations to the Windies for playing probably their best Test cricket in 5 years. Dwayne Bravo really sets their team up. That performance would usually get BOG honours, but it's hard to go past an opener who carries his bat and makes 164 (with the next highest score being 27). And an under-pressure captain to boot. With Siddle unlikely, and Hilfenhaus still out, a pace spot opens up. If the selectors are desperate to ensure we win, they should pick Stuart Clark. But if they want to choose someone with an eye to the future, they should pick Clint Mackay. Hauritz should not be guaranteed his spot in Perth. On our tour of South Africa we played McDonald instead of a spinner and we won 2-1 on pitches that didn't take spin too well. Perth doesn't take spin too well. I'd be inclined to bring McDonald pack. His medium pacers are better than most give him credit for, and he did little wrong in South Africa. I'd be telling Hauritz to go back to NSW and get some wickets. The two big worries in the middle order are Hussey and North. Hussey gets one last Test. Another failure and it will probably be time to look at a replacement. Callum Ferguson couldn't have done his ACL at a worse time. Maybe George Bailey? Or, of course, we could drop Watson down the order and open with Hughes/Jaques/Rogers (one of whom may be brought in anyway if Katich doesn't come up). Batting Watson at 5/6 would also help him bowl more overs. As for North, he has a major problem of making tiny scores, interspersed with 100s. He also seems to do a lot worse when he comes in at a critical point, rather than when we're cruising. I'm not convinced that he's the answer at 6, despite his 3 centuries. Continual sub-20 scores hurt. My team for Perth: Watson Katich (subject to fitness) Ponting Hussey Clarke North Haddin McDonald Johnson Mackay Bollinger