Nasher

Glad I'm not the only one to appreciate Dom's great hair.

I also trust him to win the ball. Doesn't matter if it's inside or out, he puts himself in the right place. On current output I'd trade pick 2 for Tyson alone. The fact that we ended up with Salem as well is nothing short of exceptional. So happy.

Yep, I saw that one and commented on it in the game day thread. Those things are very pleasing to see; I realise that if we had scored from that stoppage he wouldn't have taken much of the credit, but it was crucial. A lot gets said about players being able to shake a tag, well it surely helps when your other big bodied mids (like Dom) stand in the tagger's way every now and again. It doesn't seem like a hard thing to do, and yet we haven't seen a lot of it from our team in recent years. This is what the best midfielders do: play for each other. Awesome to see.

Same. I was expecting a developing midfielder, not an instant gun.

Interesting that in the article on the MFC website, Roos again reiterated that we would not have taken Kelly had we held on to pick 2. I suspect they wanted Salem and took the view that he'd still be there at 9. If that's the case, we got Tyson basically for nothing. Sounds pretty rosy. Since we'll never know the truth, I choose to believe it

By most of the literature I read.

Was told we were getting a classy forward, with question marks on size and pace. Was not expecting a gun midfielder who knows how to find the ball and make the right decision every time. So happy with this selection so far.

How long have you been working on that one mono? :D

I can.

How about Evan Gulbis for Tassie? 229 runs in the first (and only) innings and 4/7 bowling in the second innings. This guy has had the weirdest career - started out playing for Victoria as a batsman who could bowl a bit (batting at #3), came to Tassie as a bowler who can bat a bit (batting at #8), has done virtually nothing at Shield level with either the bat or the ball, then produces *that*. Amazing stuff. Apparently his score is the second highest ever first class score from a #2 after Wasim Akram scored 257 against Zimbabwe in 1996.

Well done on even bothering to respond. I wouldn't have. Needless to say, one who calls Clarke a "soft whimpish sort" after Clarke was 92 not out and facing the sort of barrage he got from Morkel is showing where their comprehension skills are at.

Indeed. Did anyone notice that India just lost a Test series to New Zealand? Other than McCullum's 300, I haven't paid any attention to it. Not sure what to make of it at face value.

Haha, that second innings is the strangest looking scorecard I've ever seen. Someone obviously forgot to send Maxwell the memo, and why did half the tail bat in the top order?

Wade is Jeremy Howe's cousin.

Paine has been in poor form with the bat, but he's such a long way ahead of Wade with the gloves that I'd still prefer the former.

Back to the present day - what happens if Bailey scores a century in the second innings?

Andy Flower was Zimbabwe's one and only genuine Test quality batsman. He must have been fiercely loyal to his country, because he could happily have slotted straight in to the South African side and enjoyed some Test success. His record in a garbage team is outstanding.

Number of Test nations notwithstanding, I still think it's not common. South Africa, who we'd all agree are a strong cricketing nation, their last regular keeper was Mark Boucher who averaged 30. Since they rejoined the Test circuit, AB is the first Test class batsman/wicket keeper they've had. Because of the small number of Test nations (and the even smaller number of quality ones), you'd have to look at the "next best" from each nation to really be able to draw a conclusion. In Australia, the cupboard is completely bare for keepers who bat at Test quality. These are the first class averages of the first choice wicket keepers of each state: MS Wade (Vic) - 39.00 - but he is known to be a rubbish keeper TD Paine (Tas) - 31.7 PM Nevill (NSW) - 38.6 CD Hartley (Qld) - 31.8 TD Ludeman (SA) - 24.1 SM Whiteman (WA) - 35.04 Prior you're right on. Jonny Bairstow (clear second choice keeper) has a first class average of 43, but hasn't looked near it in his 13 Tests to date. Ian Healy had a Test average of 27. You couldn't forge a Test career as a batsman alone with that kind of record. If that doesn't meet the definition of "modest batsman" I'm not sure what would. I suppose I expected that after Gilchrist, we'd start to see far more wicket keepers who could bat in their own right come through the system world wide. It hasn't happened to the degree I thought it would.

I agree, but it's hardly a huge pool, is it? Modest batsmen who occasionally pull out a big innings in the Prior, Wade, Ian Healy mould are more the norm.

Nevill's first class record is pretty good, better than I expected. Probably a silly question, but why are wicket keepers who are genuine Test quality batsmen in their own right, so rare? I'm assuming it's borne out of a combination of spending a lot of energy keeping, and spending most of their careers batting in the lower-middle order for that reason, so they get less focus than other batsmen in terms of coaching and practice. When was the last time we saw a keeper stroll out at number 3 in a Test?

I agree P-man. Any criticism of Haddin in particular is absolutely laughable. Since his return he's arguably become the world's premier keeper-batsman, with genuine first rate contribution from both aspects. AB de Villiers is the only close rival IMO. I couldn't be more pleased with his game. The criticism levelled at he and Lyon is just a classic case of people allowing their preconceived views to cloud their assessment.

Who comes in if Harris doesn't come up? Pattinson and Bird have both been playing in the BBL, but I'd want to see them play some four day cricket first. I'd have thought Doug the Rug would be next off the rank, given his early Shield form.

The common thread was that we batted well and scored a shit tonne of runs. The link between that and batting first is tenuous and based on nothing but circumstantial evidence.

Because those conditions were those conditions and these conditions are these conditions? With tosses, you can't take a strategy that worked on a pitch on the other side of the country and blanketly apply it to a pitch with different properties and conditions. As captain it's Clarke's job to determine when batting conditions will be at their best. Obviously he thought they would be at their best at the end of the game. I'll wait to see how the chase goes and how the pitch plays on day 5 before passing judgement. It seems a tad premature to slam the decision to bowl first two days in to a Test.

That was a bloody amazing spell of bowling.