Macca

Nathan Lyon bowled very well and we looked a different team out there today. Very competitive and good to see. Maxwell bowled ok as well and he should have had another wicket (a stumping) The track is really playing some tricks and if we can set India anything above 200, it might be enough. The ball is turning quite a lot and the quicks are getting some variable bounce. We need to bat with some real intent once we finish off their 1st innings. Ojha bowled really well for them and he is such a classical bowler to watch. He deserved so much more than the one wicket he got in our 1st innings. He could be quite a handful in our 2nd innings (along with all their other bowlers, Ashwin and Jadeja especially) The match is set up for a great finish and we've got a real chance to push for victory. It was great to see some good old fashioned Aussie fight out there today.

I like Bailey as well and the selectors may decide to go with a more 'seasoned' player or 2 for the Ashes. Our middle order needs to be strengthened so George could fit the bill. You do need a good blend of experience and youth in order to win. Cummins would add a lot if he comes up. That extra pace would be vital and he's certainly got it. Klinger and Rogers have a stack of runs behind them. To wrest the Ashes back from England we'll need to bat big or at least better their batting. I reckon we might take at least 1 batsmen who is not in India to England ... one young batsman or one more seasoned. Or one of each. There is nearly always a surprise selection or 2 - it's almost a tradition! We may also take 6 quick bowlers to fit in with the rotation policy. Alternatively, we could always call up another quick at short notice. Harris and Hilfenhaus could come into the reckoning as well but it's the batting that remains a concern. I'm always reminded that anything can happen in sport. Cricket and the NFL are 2 sports where things can change dramatically in a short space of time. If you've got 2 or 3 players who suddenly excel, it can make a huge difference to a teams performance (imagine if we could add Ablett, Pendlebury and Cotchin to our midfield group right now - leaving off the last 3 players on our list) Whilst I'm not confident about wresting back the Ashes in England, it wouldn't surprise me if we did wrest them back. Fingers crossed on Cummins and Fawad Ahmed, TD ! If we can bowl England out cheaply enough on a consistent basis, then we've definitely got a chance.

The reality is that apart from Clarke, the rest of our batsmen struggle against quality spin bowling. Our performance in India has been poor. Now our blokes have to cope with quality seam bowling on decks that could seam around a bit. Swann and/or Panesar will provide a handful as well. We are going to have to bowl exceptionally well and our batsmen will need to post some big scores in the forthcoming Ashes. Big centuries are required and Cowan, Hughes, Watson and Warner need to start converting their starts. (that's if they all play). We need a no.6 batsman as well. Our batting line-up in England could include 1 or 2 other batsmen not currently in India. If Watson is bowling then he's good value and we will probably need a 5th bowler in England. Henriques' bowling in England could be effective but can he bat in the top 6? He impressed in his debut and he should be given more opportunities. Wade should bat at 7. Smith seems to have come back a better player but it's difficult to judge him on an overall basis. It remains to be seen whether he's improved against quality seam bowling. Khawaja is another player who has a nice technique and just needs some more opportunities. Our side is far from settled and touring the subcontinent hasn't helped things at all. A lot will depend on how the selectors view things. They could wield the axe or they could understand that the tours are vastly different and pick the squad accordingly. England bat a lot better than our blokes and that's where the advantage lies. Plus their spinners are far superior to ours. We can match them in the fast bowling stakes. We need to get a lot better and that can happen. '89 was a great example of how things all came together. Fawad Ahmed could prove to be a factor if he's available and picked. Given that there is usually at least one draw in an Ashes series in England, we'd possibly have to win 3 Tests in England to regain the Ashes. 2 wins might do the trick but then there would have to be 2 draws. Can we stop England from winning more than 1 Test in a 5 Test series in England?

They may as well try and smack a few. Trying to hang around against these 3 spinners on this track ain't gonna work. If we lose 4 - 0, is that the 1st time since 1969/70 in South Africa? We lost 5 - 1 to England in 1978/79 but that was during the WSC years. Bob Willis described our team then as our 3rd eleven! (Lambs to the slaughter was an aptly named book by Graham Yallop) Some of the dismissals today have been embarrassing.

Not a bad squad 'TD'. Possibly find room for a Doolan or a Burns though - maybe both. Might be a surprise pick or 2 - there often is. The squad will no doubt be dubbed "The worst to ever tour". Think I'm right in saying the last time that happened was in 1989. The 2005 squad were favoured to win and the 2009 team had high hopes as well (We'd cleaned up England 5 - 0 in 2006/07) 1989 remains as one of my favourite ever series and the 4 - 0 series win came as a complete surprise. It all came together in the batting. Who knows how this 2013 squad will fare? I'm not confident but you never know. I was of the opinion that Cummins wasn't going to come up for England but would be ecstatic if he was fit and firing for the Ashes. We're quite well off for seamers so that area of our team is probably not the main concern. Let's hope that Fawad Ahmed is ok to go. Our batting is a major worry and it looks like we're in all sorts again in this Test (currently 5 - 118). The wicket is already giving up a fair bit of spin. Ojha and Ashwin are again looking mighty dangerous.

Here's one for the politically minded ...Haven't had a chance to have a look at it yet but have heard some very good reports. It's available on netflix but there may be other sources ... A UK version was made way back in 1990 starring Ian Richardson. Not sure how closely related the 2 shows are but some critics have compared the new version quite favourably. ... House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey

Have only watched four so far ... Alec Baldwin, Michael Richards, Larry David and Ricky Gervais. Found all of them to be very funny. The Michael Richards one was very honest and quite moving. He touches on life after that 'nightclub incident'. The show isn't for everyone but the fans of Seinfeld will probably quite like it. It's tricky finding good new comedy these days. It's there if you look hard enough. I never miss Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, Real Time With Bill Maher and the 'Tonight' shows are always good for a laugh. Conan, Letterman, Leno, Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Kimmel can all have their moments. Jimmy Fallon is very very talented and his show is good fun. All last week he had Justin Timberlake on and their 'History of Rap 4' was fantastic ... here it is (from last week) .... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8wfWO06yp8

Not sure if anyone has stumbled across "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" yet but it's a must view. I only came across it a couple of days ago and have watched ep4 (Alec Baldwin) and ep9 (Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks). The show stars Jerry Seinfeld and he brings along a "Classic car" for each show. Wonderful comedy ,,, the humour is very quick and slick so it's easily revisited. 10 episodes in the 1st series and each episode goes for between 10 and 20 minutes. Youtube has all of the episodes up. (I believe) Here's the Alec Baldwin bit ... Larry David, Whoopie Goldberg, Michael Richards and Ricky Gervais also feature in the other shows ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1u7A3sEnPY

Why not? ... Arthur would consider Hussey

There is a strong chance that Watto will captain the side if Clarke is ruled out of the next Test with a back injury. Pup looked to be batting with fair bit of discomfort today. Regardless of whether Clarke is ruled fit to play, Shane will most likely be in the line-up. ... Howard, Watson to meet in India ... Australian vice-captain Shane Watson's and Cricket Australia high-performance boss Pat Howard have smoked the peace pipe We're now 8 for 143 and heading for another defeat. Most likely a heavy one Edit : Now 8 for 176

Kobe didn't play today. (L.A defeated the Kings) The Lakers are at Phoenix tomorrow then have a 4 day break before they're at home to the Wizards. Kobe had some 'choice' words to say about Dwight and his ability to be able to play with injuries. It was along the lines of "This is L.A and you have to step up" (I'm paraphrasing). Boot on the other foot? (no pun intended) Don't get me wrong, Kobe can say what he likes - he's earn't that right. Just an observation. Wonder if Howard will fire back - me thinks not! ... Kobe Bryant Challenges Dwight Howard to Play Through Injuries

Maybe he's setting himself up to knock up some quick runs to set them a target. Haven't picked anything up from the commentators. Hughes is getting on with it, but he usually bats like that anyway. We would have to get about 200 in tomorrow morning's extended morning session. Big ask. They may end up bowling us out cheap to save us the trouble. Ashwin is looking dangerous and Ojha will be wanting to get amongst it. It could also be that they decided to give Hughes and Smith a good go at it. Or Delhi belly?? Or the Mohali equivalent of Dehli belly ...

Fair enough, there's possibly a bit in what you're saying. By the way, I have heard that story about the yacht ... I reckon I'd be straight on it. The choice between a smelly, dank, darkened change rooms with some semi warm beer and some pretzels at the SCG, or a fully laid on spread of crayfish, champers and with lots of nice ladies is an easy one in my eyes. Yes James, we'll see you there ... just give us 10 minutes or so !

Fair enough. He's a very aggressive player and he batted like he'd done it a hundred times before. I reckon we're going to see more of this same type of player in the future. You'd normally expect a 27 year old with 6000 first class runs behind him to be a bit more circumspect in his 1st Test appearance. It seems that we're seeing more and more new players inclined to play their shots - right from the word go. Might be a different story when Dhawan has to face up to Steyn and co. in South Africa later in the year. He might still bat just as aggressively. That is one of the toughest tour's in World cricket. And the Proteas are flying.

The bit I've highlighted is our major point of difference 'dl' . I've never had a problem with Clarke apart from a few years ago when he went through a bit of a form slump. I have no real issue with him and you might have - that's why we disagree. You may well be right, by the way. Mine is just an opinion. It is however, ok to agree to disagree. We're not privy to the inner sanctum so we can only really make judgements by what we see on the field. I read Clarke's piece in the paper the other day and was impressed. If other, factual information to the contrary comes to hand (with regards to Clarke) then I'm happy to change my mind. I still believe that the suspensions to the 4 players was too heavy handed. From what we can gather, that was more of a coach/player issue. Clarke may have been put into an uncompromising position on that issue, for all we know.

This innings has been quite something ... he has played good proper cricket shots all around the wicket. Fantastic debut !! 173 n.o off 146 balls. And he has already made a bit of name for himself in the IPL. Another example of how the super short version can help the longer version. There will be more like Dhawan. We have already seen 392 runs today with more than half an hour to play.

Well, it was inevitable that the NFL might bring this rule in. It's difficult to imagine the impact such a rule change will bring. There is no doubt the League is peering into the future with regards to concussions, litigation and other related issues ... ... NFL may prevent runners from lowering their heads into tacklers

Well done to Michell Starc. Still a great knock from a number 9. Unlucky not to get a ton but Starc has shown great determination and commitment and we ended up with quite a few bonus runs as a result. Played some nice shots. He's given his Country a real chance. Let's hope he bowls well. Smith looked a lot better as well. He has tightened up his technique. 92 is an excellent return, all things considered. He is possibly only in the team because of the suspensions. Well done to him for grabbing his opportunity. Good footwork and you can see that he has worked really hard on his game. Still looks a good batting track and we're going to have to bowl well to keep them in check. At the beginning of the match we'd probably have taken 408 as a 1st innings total.

Put it this way dl, if I was representing my Country at Test level, I would want to do the very best that I could possibly do. Couldn't give a rats toss bag about the backroom stuff - zero interest. At this level you need to just get on with it. I've seen many a player lose focus at suburban sport level. But I've seen many who never lose focus. People of character will always shine through. Those looking for excuses should be disregarded. You and I saw a fair bit of the Demons in the 70's. Even though we were a poor team, we could nearly always rely on Alves, Wells, Flower and Hardeman to play well and put in. Those 4 never gave it in, at least not in my eyes. Laurie Fowler was another who gave his all. I expect the same from all our Test representatives. It's the Country's best XI. It's an enormous honour just to play one game. We should at least expect absolute commitment - every time. This also extends to prep work but I'm specifically talking about the match situation in this instance. A professional sportsperson at this level should have the ability to block out all distractions all of the time. If he or she doesn't have this quality then they're not cut out for big time sport. I just hate excuses and always will do. Reasons make more sense to me. Our Test team needs to unearth some stars. We're clearly not a great team and those who think that this particular team can reach no.1 status in the World need to reassess their appraisal.

NSW look like winning their match to go to 29pts (thus eliminating SA from the Shield final). If there is an outright result in the WA/QLD game then the winner would progress to the final. It's almost certain that neither team can make the final if there isn't an outright result. WA look like securing 1st innings points so they have progress to 28pts (so far) Tasmania need to win outright to make the final so we can expect a sporting declaration. The Vics probably need to win outright to make the final (and host it), so we might see some fireworks on the last day. "It's all happening" Shield Table before the last round Scores in the last round (look to the right when opening this page for 'domestic scores') Edit : Just starting the 3rd day in the 3rd Test in Mohali. It's 9.00am local time - a cup of tea and some toast and then you're out there! Raining in Tassie - must be frustrating for both teams.

Well it's all said and done dl, these blokes are playing for their Country and are professional sportsmen. Regardless of whether our players are happy, sad or whatever, they've got a job to do. The bloke who is holding the bat or bowling the ball has a responsibility to himself to perform well for the Team. Same goes for fielding and catching. A captain or a coach can't make you play better once the heat is on. Prep work is vital of course but they'd be doing plenty of that. To me cricket is in a lot of ways a game of technique - like baseball, golf and tennis. Our blokes are simply lacking in that area. They're 'ok' or 'alright' but this is Test cricket. To be a great team you need great players. Role players can fit into a great team. I know it sounds harsh, but I was dissatisfied that Warner or Cowan didn't go on and make a big hundred. We may well have been 5/320 at stumps instead of 7/273. At this level you are expected to go on and make a hundred once you're well set and past 60. The blokes who failed don't get off the hook either, but there are usually one or two 'failures' even when a team posts a big score. The best players go on with it. It's interesting that the last time we had major issues with our batting (on an ongoing basis) was the mid to late 1980's. Our line-up in those days included quite a few young players in Marsh, Boon, Jones and Steve Waugh alongside the captain (Border). Taylor joined up with this crew later on, and then we turned it all around in 1989 with a 4-0 drubbing of England. We also won the World cup in '87 with a lot of these players. (looking back, that World Cup win could be viewed as a precurser) Ponting, Mark Waugh and quite a few other young batsmen kept being added and the end result was that we were no.1 in the world from 1994 to 2008/09. This is aside from the bowling, of course (which went along a similar path) Who amongst Warner, Cowan, Khawaja, Smith, Maxwell, Hughes, Watson and Henriques are going to take us back to the top (alongside Clarke). Or are there other young players who are yet to emerge who will help take us back to the top. Doolan? Maddinson? Burns? Keath? People may make complaints about the Sheffield Shield in that the competition isn't producing young star batsmen but I believe that will happen with time. The Shield is still a tried and true method and even though it can't pull a crowd, the Shield competition is still very competitive and will continue to be the life blood of our Test team.

Good start but then we struggling again. Going from 0/139 to a stumps score of 7/273 is just not good enough. We've won the toss 3 times now but it hasn't helped us. It doesn't seem that any of our batsmen can consistently get set on these tracks. We don't play spin well at all (apart from Clarke) Some of our batsmen look good for a while and then get caught at the crease. One of Cowan or Warner should have gone on and made a big one. Smith has looked ok on his return and has batted with good intent and has hit the ball well. If the tail can hang around with him he might get a decent score. The way they've talked about this track, we've missed out. At least 400+ could have been expected. It will be interesting to see how we bowl on this wicket.

Test cricket won't die. Not in the near future anyway. Who knows 30 or 40 years down the track? T20 may enhance Test cricket much like one-day cricket has (re scoring rates). Young blokes with talent today are going to bat with more and more intent to score quickly. It stands to reason with the riches on offer in t20. What if we regularly started seeing teams score 350 - 400 a day in Test cricket? With wickets falling at regular intervals? That's a good days entertainment ... Test cricket is still very popular here and in England. South Africa being strong helps the cause but it's India that might hold the key. If they can return to being a strong nation worldwide then that's got to help. The BCCI have got to make it attractive for the public to go to the games. Doesn't help when they often only sell 5 day ticket packages. The crowds in India used to be huge. It could be that in the future we might end up playing South Africa, India and England in Test cricket over a 3 year cycle instead of a 4 year cycle. In most people's eyes the Ashes is the 'biggie' and it is a big money spinner. As it is, we're playing England home and away over a 6 month period this time around and we're back there again in mid 2015. I do share your concern a little bit, but what can you do to stop t20? The public love it, the players like playing in it and they get handsomely paid. And the TV networks pay big money for the rights (ESPN paid 900 hundred million dollars for the rights to the IPL for 10 years - that's a lot of money) Ch9 look like getting on board with the Big Bash. Edit : You've got to wonder about the disciplines, the coaching and how the players generally prepare for games in the IPL and the other Leagues. It may or may not be that professional. If it isn't that 'professional' then there may lie the problem. Clarke and Arthur may want things done a certain way and that way may clash with the other team's professionalism in the other forms of the game.(specifically the t20 team's in the various League's)

Well we've got 3 forms of the game and the one that is by far the most lucrative overall is t20. And t20 can offer far more opportunities to make top dollar. There is big big money to be made in the IPL, Big Bash, English, South African, West Indies, New Zealand and even the Bangladesh Leagues. I heard Brad Hodge say a couple of years ago that he was playing in 6 x t20 Leagues. He would no doubt be getting quite well remunerated in all or most of these League's. There's even a League in New York. People can complain about t20 but it's only going to get more popular in my opinion. I can't see it's progression being curtailed. Many may not 'like' it but it probably won't make a scrap of difference. Already the West Indies Board are struggling to find dates to play Test cricket. A lot of their players are in demand for all the t20 Leagues. It doesn't help that they get paid a pittance to represent the Islands at Test level. I don't profess to know what the solution is but it's rather difficult to contain something that is becoming widely popular the world over. I much prefer to watch Test cricket but I do find t20 to be quite 'entertaining'. However, my overall view is more an observation on what is actually happening. You've now got a version of the sport that is packaged up into a far more 'convenient' 3 hour time span. With loads of action. It's no surprise to me that it's wildly popular. As I said, I have no idea how the relevant authorities and boards are going to manage it all. One thing I do know - money talks. Michael Clarke in the last few days made mention of the IPL as if it might be an intrusion or a distraction and I don't doubt him for a minute. However, Clarke himself could be playing in the IPL this season for a figure of $400,000 (for 6 weeks work) Ponting is playing for the same amount - $400,000. M Hussey, Johnson, Watson, Henriques are all signed up on nice deals. Maxwell is getting a cool million - wow !! Nice work if you can get it Or as Rickie Lee Jones once sang - "Easy Money" ! ps ... The IPL starts in 3 weeks. Other Test players who are involved are Warner, Hughes, Haddin, Harris, Marsh, Smith, Pattinson and Hilfenhaus. Along with Clarke, Maxwell, Watson, Henriques and Johnson, that makes up a fair slice of our available Test players. Normally these players could be expected to 'freshen up' before the Ashes campaign. Not so with the changing face of cricket.

Couple of big moves involving the 49ers, Vikings, Seahawks and the Ravens ... ... NFL notebook: Boldin, Harvin are sent on new routes