Pakistan in Australia

[eddiesmith]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

My apologies, I mistook your highlighted statistical analysis of a tried hack with a better batting average of a whole 3 percentage points in batting over a young kid who has never been acclaimed as an all-rounder as some sort of signature.

Again, my sincerest apologiess, and enjoy living in Victoria.

Young kid? Thats an interesting way to describe someone older than Cameron White

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

My apologies, I mistook your highlighted statistical analysis of a tried hack with a better batting average of a whole 3 percentage points in batting over a young kid who has never been acclaimed as an all-rounder as some sort of signature.

Again, my sincerest apologiess, and enjoy living in Victoria.

Gold.

Eddie will love that.

 

[Sober Symonds]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

I was impressed with how the Australians fought back to win the game after a disastrous couple of days, Pakistan had them for the first couple of days, just couldn't capitalize on their chances though.

...though I have to admit, I would have liked to go to the deciding day of the series at Hobart

Credit must go to Australia, on the surface it seemed a miraculous victory. I don't really think it's amongst their greatest though. Let's face it, the opposition are terrible. Capable of some good bowling, at times, that's about it. They lost it, hook, line and sinker.

Whilst the result was hailed as a victory for cricket, I'd give it a B. Certainly better than if we'd just smashed them, but a real boon for Test cricket would have been a Pakistan win. Think of what that would do for their cause. A hell of a lot more than it's done for ours, which is gloss over some glaring errors and weaknesses.

As you say, it would have made a great scenario for Hobart.

This is the break that Hussey needs that I have been talking about for ages.
When a player is out of form almost always they get a brilliant ball or have a brain fade, even though they just played four stunning cover drives for four, they mess up something simple, a spectacular catch is taken, some inhuman bowling is performed and they are sent back to the pavillion. Just seems like one long line of bad luck on the batsman's behalf. Obviously when you are in touch you can keep those brilliant deliveries out, and keep your concentration.
I hope I'm not saying this permaturely, but I think Hussey is back.

Congratulations to Siddle out there too. He did almost as big a job as Hussey had to, and showed some real guts.

I don't know if repeatedly leaving or missing balls on your stumps is all that much to do with luck. That has been central to his form slump. He surely has even used up all his referrals after making the world's first "pair" in that regard. He'll be right now, I suspect, as was always going to be the case.

Easy on the Siddle plaudits, Boris. I might suspect you are being sarcastic!!!

It is premature. Lets put some perspective on this innings - even ignoring the 3 drop chances, we are talking about an innings where the bowlers only strategy against him was to attempt to get him off strike. They did not attack Hussey at all, spread the field far and wide for him and basically bowled balls to entice the singles. In that situation, as long as the tail stays with him (which Siddle did) it would be amazing if he DIDN'T score a century.

Agreed entirely. If he had to work for his wicket and his runs, it would have been diifferent. He has relied almost entirely on his get out of jail pull shot, such has been his plight.
But, we can't argue with his figures now, unfortunately.

 

[Boris]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

Credit must go to Australia, on the surface it seemed a miraculous victory. I don't really think it's amongst their greatest though. Let's face it, the opposition are terrible. Capable of some good bowling, at times, that's about it. They lost it, hook, line and sinker.

Whilst the result was hailed as a victory for cricket, I'd give it a B. Certainly better than if we'd just smashed them, but a real boon for Test cricket would have been a Pakistan win. Think of what that would do for their cause. A hell of a lot more than it's done for ours, which is gloss over some glaring errors and weaknesses.

As you say, it would have made a great scenario for Hobart.



I don't know if repeatedly leaving or missing balls on your stumps is all that much to do with luck. That has been central to his form slump. He surely has even used up all his referrals after making the world's first "pair" in that regard. He'll be right now, I suspect, as was always going to be the case.

Easy on the Siddle plaudits, Boris. I might suspect you are being sarcastic!!!



Agreed entirely. If he had to work for his wicket and his runs, it would have been diifferent. He has relied almost entirely on his get out of jail pull shot, such has been his plight.
But, we can't argue with his figures now, unfortunately.

Not sure you guys (SS and Gandalf) completely understand what I am getting at.

Hussey has been playing terribly of late. Missing or leaving straight balls, continuous edges, there is no way for the might of trying I could defend him and say he has been playing just fine.

They are out of form and make it seem like a normal delivery is the best ever bowled, and that was what I was getting at with the 'bad luck' stuff. Sorry for and misconceptions.

Some out of form batsman, though, need just a touch of luck to help themselves out of the situation. Slater was like this, he had the trouble with getting out early in the innings. If there was one dropped catch, then he would capatalise and make a big one, and bring himself out of a slump.

Time in the middle is the only sure fire way to get yourself out of a bad run. If you get out early every innings, it's not going to help. So now that Hussey had three dropped catches in one innings it allowed him to stay out there much longer than perhaps he should have. That time in the middle may be able to force that fine line between 'in form' and 'out of form'.

Hayden, Ponting and Martyn have this 'style' of getting back in form. Hayden had an innings as I mentioned that he had 4 dropped catches from that sparked his 'return' and blasted away 5 successive years of madness.

Whether or not Hussey gets that sort of thing out of this is up to the imagination at that point, but I was thinking out loud considering he looked so much better on the fourth day.

 

[Sober Symonds]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

As I said, I think he will be right for another couple of years after this. He works too hard at his game to let it slip away again just yet.

I stand by my call that he should have been relieved of his post during or after last year's Ashes series, but that's history now and you & I have argued it to the death.

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

I think everyone knows that Australia (test arena) isn't the side they were, we have glaring weaknesses and faults, but so do a lot of other teams. We rely too much on Ponting and we collapse to often.

The bowling is capable of hitting the heights but also equally capable of bowling rubbish.

We won the SCG test from a position that meant almost a certain loss, why try and devalue the achievement?

It was a great win, but we all know that the team still has a lot of work to do.

 

[Boris]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

The most thing though with that last Test, is that it was very entertaining and fast paced. Things were always happening.

I think that is the most important thing with Test cricket, the moment it isn't entertaining anymore is the moment that the public will turn off it. And that isn't what is wanted.

Whether the last Test is a dead rubber or not it still better be just as hardly fought.

 

[Sober Symonds]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

We won the SCG test from a position that meant almost a certain loss, why try and devalue the achievement?

It was a win, a come-from-behind win, and a series-clenching win. In terms of value however, I don't believe it ranks up there at all. If you think at all about the events throughout the Test, it is quite obvious Pakistan threw it away more so than anything Australia did to win it. I find it hard to argue beyond the basic notion that Kamran Akmal lost the game for Pakistan, plain & simple.

It required character. Australia showed some - as they would be expected to do. Pakistan showed none. They are so fragile, seemingly unable to tough it out when things get tight.

A far more meritorious (or truly "great") win would be against a formidable opponent when players other than your No.10 bat have performed out of their skins.

 

[Kram81]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

A far more meritorious (or truly "great") win would be against a formidable opponent when players other than your No.10 bat have performed out of their skins.

Pity the number 10's bowling performance was shithouse.

 

[Sober Symonds]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

Pity the number 10's bowling performance was shithouse.

I wouldn't expect anything other than a dismissive comment like that from you.

Can't argue with his figures, even if he bowled well without luck in the first innings. If only your bloke could catch at 1st slip, it might have been a different story.

 

[Boris]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

It was a win, a come-from-behind win, and a series-clenching win. In terms of value however, I don't believe it ranks up there at all. If you think at all about the events throughout the Test, it is quite obvious Pakistan threw it away more so than anything Australia did to win it. I find it hard to argue beyond the basic notion that Kamran Akmal lost the game for Pakistan, plain & simple.

It required character. Australia showed some - as they would be expected to do. Pakistan showed none. They are so fragile, seemingly unable to tough it out when things get tight.

A far more meritorious (or truly "great") win would be against a formidable opponent when players other than your No.10 bat have performed out of their skins.

I agree with the notion.

Don't want to take anything away from the win. It was a great match entertainment wise, but not performance wise. There wasn't much performance wise that makes it a truly great Test. Fun to watch though.

The players wouldn't have gotten much confidence out of it. In the same way that you can get confidence from the team losing, as an individual, you can lose confindence from a team win if it was filled with errors.

Still, those errors are part of cricket, and that makes it a great game that one error can lose you a match 5 days later.

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

Australia were behind the 8 ball from day 1, that batting was disgraceful, watching a review on foxsports a few days ago confirmed it.

Still, to get into a position to win the match deserves credit, coming from 200 behind doesn't happen often to win.

These games can be the making of teams, and certain players.

I think on the whole we are heading in the right direction, people are acting as if Pakistan and the West Indies are useless hacks.

West Indies beat England 1-0 last year, while Pakistan won the T20 world cup and got to the semi's of the champions trophy.

Kaneria is probably the best spinner in the world, Asif is world class in the right conditions.

People need to give the other team credit as well.

 

[bushie]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

Yes, it is rhetorical, but I would have loved to have seen that young left handed quick who made our boys jump in the first test,( name escapes me), on that first day pitch and seen what would have happened

Different result in my fantasy world..

 

[Sober Symonds]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

Me too. In order for us to see Pakistan give it their best shot, they would need to have Aamer and Younis in that side. They can't afford the weak links they are carrying.

I don't want to take credit away from Australia, I'm just pointing out that the Pak's lost it more than anything, and it's as simple as the catches Kamran dropped. He may as well have kept with a set of woks.

My thoughts were posted prior to the tour ... Pakistan are not world-class at this stage. I honestly don't know that they've been this short of Test standard before. One decent batsman, and perhaps 3 or 4 reasonable bowlers. Kaneira is alright but there are better. They have talent, and can show glimpses, but let's face it, that's not enough.

It is irrelevant how well they've done in other forms of the game. They don't have to concentrate for as long or apply themselves as is required in Test match cricket. I think that gets overlooked too easily. Australia have set the standard for so long because of the ability to maintain a level of performance over 5 days. That's what it's about.

 

[Caesar]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

Still, to get into a position to win the match deserves credit, coming from 200 behind doesn't happen often to win.

See, to me it wasn't Australia getting in a position to win, it was Pakistan getting in a position to lose.

These games can be the making of teams, and certain players.

Eh, I guess I kind of see where you're coming from. It was certainly validation for the Australians maintaining a positive frame of mind throughout the match, and will probably serve them well next time they're in a tough situation by helping them remember that a win is possible no matter how improbable it seems.

But at the end of the day, who can come out of this match feeling satisfied and looking good? Hauritz, definitely. Hussey, I guess - a century's always great but being dropped 3-4 times says a lot about how he played.

That's about it. The only other definite positive was that I was kind of impressed with how clever some of Ponting's field placings were.

Honestly, that's probably the top Test match of all time I've watched where the quality of the game was so massively inversely proportionate to how nailbitingly exciting it was.

 

[Sober Symonds]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

Well put. That's pretty much my take on it as well.

 

[Ljp86]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

Katich has been passed fit to play. The only change to the Australian line-up looks to be Katich for Hughes.

Pakistan look as if they will replace Kamran Akmal with Sarfraz Ahmed to make his test debut.

The weather is looking rodinary at this point. The first two days should be fine but Saturday, Sunday and Monday look as if there will be some rain about.

Katich cleared to play third Test | Cricket News | Australia v Pakistan 2009/10 | Cricinfo.com

Intikhab says Sarfraz will play | Cricket News | Australia v Pakistan 2009/10 | Cricinfo.com

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

See, to me it wasn't Australia getting in a position to win, it was Pakistan getting in a position to lose.


Eh, I guess I kind of see where you're coming from. It was certainly validation for the Australians maintaining a positive frame of mind throughout the match, and will probably serve them well next time they're in a tough situation by helping them remember that a win is possible no matter how improbable it seems.

But at the end of the day, who can come out of this match feeling satisfied and looking good? Hauritz, definitely. Hussey, I guess - a century's always great but being dropped 3-4 times says a lot about how he played.

That's about it. The only other definite positive was that I was kind of impressed with how clever some of Ponting's field placings were.

Honestly, that's probably the top Test match of all time I've watched where the quality of the game was so massively inversely proportionate to how nailbitingly exciting it was.

Mostly I agree, the game wasn't the highest quality - but that doesn't really worry me. We could live to we're 100 and not see a series of the quality of the Ashes in 2005. So what?

At the end of the day you have to be in the position where you can put some pressure on other team - that means if your trailing by 200 doing whatever you can to make the other team bat again.

A lot of the time you will need fortune to go your way, and we had a fair share of that, but as I said you have to be good enough to get into that position.

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

Me too. In order for us to see Pakistan give it their best shot, they would need to have Aamer and Younis in that side. They can't afford the weak links they are carrying.

I don't want to take credit away from Australia, I'm just pointing out that the Pak's lost it more than anything, and it's as simple as the catches Kamran dropped. He may as well have kept with a set of woks.

My thoughts were posted prior to the tour ... Pakistan are not world-class at this stage. I honestly don't know that they've been this short of Test standard before. One decent batsman, and perhaps 3 or 4 reasonable bowlers. Kaneira is alright but there are better. They have talent, and can show glimpses, but let's face it, that's not enough.

It is irrelevant how well they've done in other forms of the game. They don't have to concentrate for as long or apply themselves as is required in Test match cricket. I think that gets overlooked too easily. Australia have set the standard for so long because of the ability to maintain a level of performance over 5 days. That's what it's about.

No it isn't irrelevant how they have gone in other formats of the game. Performing in ODI's at least shows they are capable at performing the basics of batting and bowling.

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Re: Pakistan in Australia

Did anyone see the coin toss on Ch 9?

Apparently Ponting made a smart arse comment to Nicholas.

Ponting won the toss and batted and then said to Nicholas "you happy with that decision "

Classic, someone youtube it.