Australia in the West Indies

[el-capitano]

Australia in the West Indies

Aussies held to draw in Jamaica

RAIN prevented Australia from making a winning start to their tour of the West Indies with the tourists left just 31 runs short of victory when bad weather forced an early end to their three-day tour game.

With the first Test beginning at Sabina Park on Thursday, Australia looked set to record a comfortable victory against a Jamaica XI but were forced from the field at 1-65 with more than 90 minutes left to play when rain lashed the ground.

Simon Katich capped off a man of the match performance by scoring an unbeaten 37 today after top scoring with 97 in the first innings and taking six wickets with his part-time spinners.

Jamaica XI 1st Innings 297

Australia 1st Innings 396

Jamaica XI 2nd Innings 194

Australia 2nd Innings 1/65

Looks like the Kat is making a good stride to trying to maintain a test spot with Clarke out for one test. 97 & 37* plus wickets with his bowling, when Clarke gets back maybe it might be time for Andrew Symonds to start looking over his shoulder????

 

[D.K]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

Clarke as always going to be replaced by Katich. His form warrants the selection in the side and good luck to him.

All West Indies vs Australia test series discussion held in here, the australian forum and the west indies forum

 

[Jolldo87]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

With the possibility of Hayden not playing who would open the batting. I guess they could either go with Katich, Hodge or Hussey. Personally i would like to see Hussey. That's where he started his test career and there is no reason he can't open again.

 

[D.K]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

Hayden out, Katich and Hodge to play!

News article will be posted on the Australian board.

1am start to the first test, a right up courtsey of another guy or maybe one we write will be placed in here later tonight hopefully.

Go the Aussies

 

[Jolldo87]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

A very different to usual australian lineup. Still shouldn't change the result, just the margin.

 

[Ljp86]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

First Test - West Indies vs Australia at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica

The first test is not far away with Australia going in as hot favourites to win the series. Not many have given West Indies a chance but they are better than they seem and I reckon they can give Australia a few worries here on their home turf.

There's a number of changes for both sides with each team missing a couple of key players. Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden is out injured and Michael Clarke is on compassionate keave after his fiancee's father died recently of cancer. Simon Katich will open the batting at the top of the order with Brad Hodge to bat at number five with Hussey moving up to four in Clarke's absence. Brad Haddin also makes his test debut with Adam Gilchrist now retired from international cricket. Some of you may recognize Brad from the one-day side where he was a semi-regular fixture.

For the West Indies, Chris Gayle is still injured so Devon Smith and Brenton Parchment will open the batting for them with Ramnaresh Sarwan to take over the captaining duties. The Windies have a debutant, Amit Jaggernauth will play his first game of test cricket here at Sabina Park. Jaggernauth is an off-spinner, still relatively young at 24 and his stats are very impressive at first-class level, 36 matches played with 157 wickets for an average of 21.46!! I'm surprised Jerome Taylor isn't playing for the Windies, he was in good form earlier in the year.


West Indies XI: Devon Smith, Brenton Parchment, *Ramnaresh Sarwan, Runako Morton, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, +Dinesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards, Amit Jaggernauth

Australia XI: Phil Jaques, Simon Katich, *Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, Brad Hodge, Andrew Symonds, +Brad Haddin, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Stuart MacGill


The pitch is looking rather interesting, one half is full of grass while the other half is completely bare so it looks as if there may be some inconsistent bounce at times during this match but it should be good to bat on early on.

Australia have won the toss and will bat.

 

[eddiesmith]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

Wow what a suprise, Katich has nearly 3 years away from test cricket and is still as shit as he was back then

 

[Ljp86]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

Katich started well but he's out now. Full and outside off from Edwards, Katich reaches and goes for the square drive but it goes straight to Darren Sammy at backward point.

The Kat is out for 13 and Australia are 1/18.

Ricky Ponting is the new man in.

 

[Ljp86]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

Edwards again!! This time it's Jaques who's out. Edwards gets Jaques LBW, Edwards lands it on a length and Jqaues can only jab at it and he's trapped in front. Ball was hitting the top of middle stump.

2/37 with the departure of Jaques. Hussey is the new man in, Ponting is 11 not out.

 

[Jolldo87]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

Australia 3/245 with 23 overs remaining in the day

Ponting 134*
Hodge 26*
Hussey got 56

Not sure what Hodge was averaging before this game but now he is averaging over 62 in test matches.

 

[D.K]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

4/340 for the day

Ponting hit 158
Hussey 58
Hodge 54*

Great start from the boys

 

[eddiesmith]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

Australia 3/245 with 23 overs remaining in the day

Ponting 134*
Hodge 26*
Hussey got 56

Not sure what Hodge was averaging before this game but now he is averaging over 62 in test matches.

58, so even when he goes out his average should probably go up

Looks like Australia might need to send an SOS to England for Rogers to join the side with talk of Hayden not playing at all this series and Katichs failure, unless Clarke or Hussey is going to open?

Funny how everyone wanted Katich and complained about Hodgeys inclusion yet he is the one making the runs

Tried to watch it last night but fell asleep watching Hussey

 

[el-capitano]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

That's unfair on Katich.

He was meant to be playing that cushy number 5 position until Hayden crocked it again. And because he's better than Hodge they chucked him into opener, on a green top, where he outscored and outpaced the emcumbent opener in Jaques.

Katich has better technique and temperament than Hodge, and its a pity he had it wasted by putting him in opener, while Hodge got to bat near the end of the day with an old ball and a tiring fielding team.

I only hope that the Kat gets some runs second dig to shut up the naffs who dont understand!

 

[Ljp86]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

58, so even when he goes out his average should probably go up

Looks like Australia might need to send an SOS to England for Rogers to join the side with talk of Hayden not playing at all this series and Katichs failure, unless Clarke or Hussey is going to open?

Nah, not yet. It was only one innings and Katich was looking okay until he played at that wide one. If Hayden is still injured then Kat will probably play the second test, however if he fails in that test then the selectors may start to ask questions.

That's unfair on Katich.

He was meant to be playing that cushy number 5 position until Hayden crocked it again. And because he's better than Hodge they chucked him into opener, on a green top, where he outscored and outpaced the emcumbent opener in Jaques.

Katich has better technique and temperament than Hodge, and its a pity he had it wasted by putting him in opener, while Hodge got to bat near the end of the day with an old ball and a tiring fielding team.

I only hope that the Kat gets some runs second dig to shut up the naffs who dont understand!

You're right, it's unlucky for Katich that Hayden got injured otherwise he would have been in the middle order. Unfortunately for him, he was thrown in at the deep end.

He seemed to be going okay until he played that shot although he was almost out first ball.

4/304 after day one, a good start. Day 2 promises to be a good one.

 

[el-capitano]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

Carrying on from my point about Hayden- is it getting to the time for him to give it away. He's not any younger, and seems to miss a game or two every recent series through a different injury every time. As much as I like him, maybe its time to go?

 

[Ljp86]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

Carrying on from my point about Hayden- is it getting to the time for him to give it away. He's not any younger, and seems to miss a game or two every recent series through a different injury every time. As much as I like him, maybe its time to go?

Would be a hard call to drop him. He seemed to do okay in the IPL Twenty20 comp and there's no reason to suggest he isn't earning his place in the side.

I suppose it all depends on how he goes this series should he play. If Hayden has another decent series then I see no reason to drop him even though he is the oldest member of the side. If he has a poor one then I'm sure there'll be a few with the knives out once he gets back to Australia.

 

[el-capitano]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

I was talking more on the fact that we have to shuffle players in and out for him because he's injury prone these days and can't have a settled team, rather than his form as such.

If a younger guy can play almost all games and be close to Hayden's average, wouldn't that be better?

 

[eddiesmith]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

They dropped their only decent opener outside the team from the contract list so they obviously dont plan on pushing him anytime soon

 

[iamthehighway]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

That's unfair on Katich.

He was meant to be playing that cushy number 5 position until Hayden crocked it again. And because he's better than Hodge they chucked him into opener, on a green top, where he outscored and outpaced the emcumbent opener in Jaques.

Katich has better technique and temperament than Hodge, and its a pity he had it wasted by putting him in opener, while Hodge got to bat near the end of the day with an old ball and a tiring fielding team.

I only hope that the Kat gets some runs second dig to shut up the naffs who dont understand!

pfft watched katich last night and all he wanted to do was hit every ball for 4clearly a man under pressure for his spot all he was trying to do was look good and make fast runs. he's foot work was shocking e.g. why he nicked this first ball and almost went out for a golden. he'll be dropped next game if he doesnt make runs in the secong dig thats if the second innings in needed which i doubt australia will make 500+. for another opening batsman if hayden is not up and going recon m clarke or hussey or even hodge could do the job.

 

[eddiesmith]

Re: Australia in the West Indies

That's unfair on Katich.

He was meant to be playing that cushy number 5 position until Hayden crocked it again. And because he's better than Hodge they chucked him into opener, on a green top, where he outscored and outpaced the emcumbent opener in Jaques.

Katich has better technique and temperament than Hodge, and its a pity he had it wasted by putting him in opener, while Hodge got to bat near the end of the day with an old ball and a tiring fielding team.

I only hope that the Kat gets some runs second dig to shut up the naffs who dont understand!

Only chance Katich has of getting a 2nd innings is if Ponting decides to rest his bowlers or is on the Katich bandwagon and wants to let him make some runs to keep his spot

He was thrown up to open because thats where he played his ODIs for Australia and thats where he succeeded in the tour match. As for Haydens injury, that might be the only way he gets another test, this would have been a definate one off if not for Haydens injury so cant complain about it, a decent player makes the most of his opportunities and besides its not like he was thrown in there last minute with no preparation

Nah, not yet. It was only one innings and Katich was looking okay until he played at that wide one. If Hayden is still injured then Kat will probably play the second test, however if he fails in that test then the selectors may start to ask questions.

I dont know, the Katich fan club believe its unfair he is made to open, would hate for his low, low average to plummet even more batting out of position , but I didnt think he looked that good at all, looked like the under pressure Katich rather than the slow, boring, succesful Katich