MadAsHell

So I have to ask. Did anyone watch that abomination called fast 4 tennis on monday night?

Meanwhile did anyone see the West Indies World Cup Squad? No Dwayne Bravo or Pollard. http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-cricket-world-cup-2015/content/story/819677.html I tell you what, their first match in the World Cup is against Ireland. They could very well loose that match and miss the quarter finals. A sad state of affairs for a once great cricketing nation.

Was very humorous. Channel 10 must be re-thinking their microphone of players when on field every now and then. But it is good for the TV audience, outside the language that the kids get to hear.

World Cup Squad announced. http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-cricket-world-cup-2015/content/current/story/819681.html Pretty good squad and no real suprises. Same 15 I'd of picked except I wouldn't bother the risk with Clarke personally, save him for the tests, just like Rhino. If Clarke doesn't make the deadline given I hope they replace him with Wade as the spare batstsman/keeper. With no reserve keeper I'm nervous. What happens if 20min before the quarter final Haddin rolls his ankle and can't play? Don't really want Warner keeping for 50 overs and then expect him to have his usual impact with the bat. Wade showed in the RSA series that his keeping has improved a fair amount and his batting is solid enough to be a reserve batsman. Another can of worms that Clarke will impose is who will be left out of the XI when he's fit? From what I can see it'll be Finch or Bailey. Neither of whom deserve to be out of the team. My World Cup Best XI A. Finch D. Warner S. Watson S. Smith G. Bailey* M. Marsh +B. Haddin G. Maxwell J. Faulkner M. Johnson P. Cummins M. Clarke (reserve batsman. If unfit M. Wade: reserve batsman/keeper) X. Doherty (reserve spinner - Maxwell) J. Hazlewood (reserve pace bowler for Watson or Marsh: Maxwell or Faulkner can move into top 7) M. Starc (reserve death bowler for Cummins/Faulkner & like for like reserve for Johnson) With that XI we bat all the way down with Mitch batting at 10. Maxwell & Faulkner as finisheers at 8 & 9 will be the envy of every other team. For bowling Cummins & Faulkner as death bowlers, Maxwell covers spin, Johnson is the spearhead & Watson and Marsh can hold the middle overs together. Good variety with bowlers and a better fielding team also with Maxwell joining the fray.

Horrible first half hour of the game last night v Kuwait, but once they settled they played reasonably well for the 4-1 win and looked to unearth a couple of decent young players in Luongo & Burns. If they can knock off Oman on Tuesday then they're set to at least make the quarter finals. Just need to make sure they can avoid Japan for as long as possible. I'm just looking forward to watching my 2nd team for this tournament, North Korea take the field today!

You might be onto something there DL, It's a shame really, I remember 10+ years ago pretty much all the grounds had their unique nature and played slightly differently. Now they're all the same pretty much. Even the GABBA & WACA, although they still off a bit more bounce, after Day 1 he wickets there seem to flatten out. Melbourne & Adelaide from Day 4 the pitches slowed down a heap and the odd ball would keep really low. That seems to eb a thing of the past also. As for this match, just like Boxing Day, Australia don't deserve to win if they're going to waste the few chances we have on the flat wickets. We missed chances off Rahane & Kohli in Melbourne which cost us more then 50 runs to each batsman & the same thing has now happened in Sydney with Kohli & Rahul. Kohli wouldn't be such a thorn in our side if we could hold a ctach..... Oh for the days with Taylor, M. Waugh & Warne in the slips, S. Waugh at gully, Ponting in the point/cover area, Slater at mid on/off & McGrath down at fine leg!

Couldn't agree more. What's up with our curators preparing roads, especially when a side like India is out here who bat on them all the time??????

Yeah that papers are going with Starc in to replace Johnson and fair enough to. Would imagine Harris & Hazlewood will share the new ball and that Starc will be first change. Will be a real glimpse into the future with no Johnson or Clarke playing. Also saw in The Age today Chris Rogers has come out and all but said this will be his last test in Australia. Will be likely to walk away at the end of The Ashes. In fact looking at the future tours fixture, it'd almost be a chance for all of Rogers, Haddin, Harris & Watson to be walking after the Ashes. From there our next 14 Tests are against Bangladesh (2 away), New Zealand (3 home), West Indies (3 home), New Zealand again (3 away) & Sri Lanka (3 away) all of whom are on the weaker side of the ledger. It would provide some of our new/younger players to gain some experience against weaker sides before being exposed to the likes of South Africa, India in India and an Ashes Series. Will be interesting to see how they handle this next generational shift.

Yeah think we can agree to that Macca. And don't get me wrong, I don't think Lee was no good, I just didn't rate him as high as some others. Yeah Stoinis is a very promising young player, injured at the moment unfortunatly as I understand it. He's in the top 5 run scorers in the Shield so far this season with 399 runs @ 66.50 with 4 50's (top score of 99). He's batted top 3 the whole season so far, opened in his last match. He's also taken 3 wickets @ 56.33 which isn't anything spectacular, but it's more then Nathan Lyon has for NSW and equal with the likes of Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird, Xavier Doherty & Ben Cutting. Pretty sure he even opened the bowling (into the wind) in Victoria's Shield match against NSW.

Found his stats from that tour for those interested. 9 wickets in 5 tests @55.11 with an economy rate of over 4 isn't pretty reading. http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2001/AUS_IN_ENG/STATS/AUS_IN_ENG_2001_TEST_AVS.html

Not saying Lee was a bad bowler, far from it. But I always felt he was played well ahead of his time and was nursed through periods of under performance where others players wouldn't have because of his ability to bowl fast. I refer to the 2001 Ashes series as an example, where Fleming was cooling his ankles the whole time. The extra tests he received in my opinion no doubt allowed him to reach 300 wickets. For the 4th highest Australian Wicket taker, you have to go down to our 24th highest (Nathan Lyon) to find one with a worse bowling average. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/australia/engine/records/bowling/most_wickets_career.html?class=1;id=2;type=team Damien Fleming on the other hand was our last genuine world class swing bowler who was sadly cut down by injuries and Lee's fast tracking. 75 wickets in 20 tests @ 25.89 with an economy rate of 2.82. Was one of my favourites. But I agree that a 5th bowler in now required in our team. One of Watson, Marsh, Agar, Faulkner, Maxwell or Stoinis will always be in the mix IMO from here on in. Yeah Fawad has every right to feel hard done by, especially if Agar is picked as a specialist bowler and not a spinning all rounder. Fawad is clearly the 2nd best spinner in the country. As for Muirhead he lost his way at club cricket level to start the season, and has only taken 5 wickets in his openning three 2 day matches @35, but in the One Dayers took 10 wickets in 5 matches @ 22.40. He's playing with the Scorchers in the BBL, and from all reports he's getting his groove back. He's got Fawad & John Holland as competition in Victoria. He'd almost be better looking at moving to Tassie to break into their Shield team. But the competition here is probably good for him.

Or what was the superior IMO, McGrath, Fleming, Gillespie & Warne. But your right, I think the day of us playing 6 specialist batsmen & 4 bowlers is over unless we manage to land another McGrath/Warne type combo, which is once in a lifetime type stuff. A batman who can bowl at least 10-15 overs+ a day is now necessary, and I think is one of the things we've had over India in this current series.

Yeah Burns would be very hard done by to get dropped after 1 test. I'm thinking he's in purely as cover in case it's a turner. Then they may rest Harris with the Windies & Ashes tours in mind, or maybe even Johnson given there's still the tri series & World Cup ahead. Ease the work load on him maybe given the series is won.

Yeah I agree, I thought the reporting on the match was pretty negative. If Smith have of declared early and set India 340 off 80 odd overs and India chased them down he'd be howled down for an unnecessary declaration. I thought he should have declared maybe 6 overs earlier, but end of the day we don't owe India anything and we didn't need to win this test match in order to claim the series. India are the ones who needed to make the running and they opened the day with a defensive field.

Amazing on both fronts? Didn't see Agar's selection coming. Either they've lost patience with Watson and one of Marsh or Burns will bat at three with Haddin at 6 and Agar at 7 or maybe there's an injury to Lyon we don't know about and he's in as cover? Didn't see Dhoni's retirement coming, he's always only really cared about ODI & T20 cricket though, it hurts them for Sydney though as I don't rate Saha that much as his replacement. As for the result of the test I remember thinking at the end of the over where Australia were 7/301 that was when I though they should declare. Marsh was 85* & Harris on 21, would have given them 74 overs (with a few before lunch) compared to the 70 we ended with and would have set India 367 instead of 384. May not have made a difference at all, but a slightly less run rate with a few more overs may have been more of a carrot for India, but we'll never know. End of the day Smith didn't owe India anything and we've now won the series, so all is well.

To be fair Lyon's not the only one. Our fielding in this test has been below average. Rogers dropped Rahane not long before Tea which was poor, and let's not forget the three dropped catches in the 1st innings that cost us a total of 170 runs. As I type Kohli out 1st ball after Tea. Could be a result yet?

Early morning rain will mean the draw will be shortening in the betting no doubt. Will be interesting to see how Australia play it out from here depending on how long they're off the field.

Well done so far Shaun Marsh on a crucial innings, taking us some way to what is looking more likely then not a Test victory or draw. And I'll admit, I'm a Shaun Marsh knocker. Highest ever run chase at the G is 332, and we're now 326 ahead. I'm all for adding 20 odd runs in the morning in 5-6 overs and then declaring and setting India 350 in 90 overs, if they can manage that then well done to them. We've certainly left the door open with two bad dropped catches that cost us big (Rahane on 70 & Kohli on 88) and now this poor 2nd Innings batting display. We're just about enough ahead that I'm more confident then not. But the door is certainly wide open for India, that's for sure!

I don't mind if they loose a day's play. Suits us well actually.

Those dropped catches by Lyon & Watson really could come back to haunt us now. Even with a lead of 50 odd runs, if India knock us over for about 200 they are the ones then in total control, and after our batting in the 2nd dig at the GABBA I'm far from convinced we've got this. We're slightly ahead in the game, but it's still up for grabs. Well done to Haddin on his two great catches, Rhino for a great bowling performance and Nathan Lyon for moving into outright second for our all time leading off spin wicket taker, but I hope between Melbounre & Sydney a lot of work is done on our fielding.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/8231.html Orig played for Victoria but had a falling out with Darren Berry is what I'm led to believe (stand to be corrected) and headed to WA. Had a decent season or two but was never good enough for test level and am amazed he ever got a game. Agree re: Bracken. One of the best ODI bowlers we've had in the last 25 years IMO. And deserved more of a go at Test level.

Haha, sorry Macca. To be fair that was an unusal series (which ended in a 1-1 result) Steve Waugh's final series and our bowling line up at the time (McGrath, Gillespie, Lee & Warne) was significantly effected. McGrath was injured, Warne suspended, Lee missed the first two tests of the series & Gillespie the 3rd. Add to that Bichel was out of favour for some reason (only playing 1 test) and not sure what was going on with Kasporwicz, so MacGill played the whole series & the likes of Bracken & Brad Williams played several Tests each that series. Still I'll be more comfortable once India's first innings is over and we have a lead of 100+.

Haha, 2nd Test Australia v India @ Adelaide Oval 2003 Macca, Test cricket can produce strange results from nowhere. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64060.html Once we've either won or drawn this Test then I won't be concerned about what goes down in Sydney.

Lets hope Haddin putting down a regulation chance off Pujara won't come back to haunt us.

In that match McCullum made 195 off only 134 balls and NZ made over 400 on day 1. Since giving up the keeping he's turned himself into a world class batsman and is really leading NZ well. They're certainly a smoky for the World Cup and after the 2015 Ashes series they'll probably prove to be our most interesting opponents over the 14 Tests that follow, given apart from the 6 (return series) against them, we have 3 at home to the Windies, 3 away to Sri Lanka & 2 away to Bangladesh.