West Indies in Australia

Re: West Indies in Australia

Yeah, I take exception to that remark also. Let's not get into an argument over who knows what about the game, let's just say the equation was much more than mathematically possible.

Record chase or not, the challenge was there, and it was not unrealistic. The deck held no horrors, nor did the attack. Overall, we'd have had to bat at a strike rate of .68 for a day - around the same as Bravo, Watson and Haddin did during their earlier contributions.

As Eddie and Caesar alluded to: fortune favours the brave.

Lions, they gave up the chase well before Ponting went out. That meant we had wickets in hand, and as you said there's always a chance when that's the case. Fantasizing about having another 35 overs to play with is futile. We batted slower than them in both innings ... five days was plenty to achieve a result with those scores.

Boris, I'm very disappointed in your summary. Of course I realise we are not the power we were a few years ago, but these guys want to be, and I would suggest it's almost "unAustralian" to commend a batsman of Hussey's standing on "doing well to make the draw happen". It sounds like we had our backs against the wall against a formidable opponent, which is far from the truth.

It was set up to be a very good game. The last two days were anticlimactic, and both teams should take the blame for squandering an opportunity to try and make more of the match.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

Love it how the West Indies have 3 tons and a 90 compared to our 0 tons and a couple of 90s, 80s. Showing us boys a thing or two about concentration and application.

Watson just infuriates me or it may be the selectors persisting with a bloke who shouldn't open the batting in front of other state level cricketers.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

That's right, and they're the ones who are supposed to be unable to cut it anymore in the longer version of the game. Plus, Chanderpaul & Sarwan haven't even got started yet.

I've said most of all there is to say about Watson already. He has talent, and he's staying in one piece. The rest of the story is a worry.

He seems to have trouble keeping his emotions in check. Something Ian Chappell picked up on years ago. An almost meaningless wicket can be cause for sheer exultation. A bad ball or near miss and the world's at an end. He goes out, they put him on suicide watch. He nears a milestone, he hears voices. I think one of those voices got him a little bit ahead of himself and he spent most of Saturday night "visualising".

Having said this, he has been batting well. More is going to be demanded though, and it won't be easy keeping it up, especially once we face world class attacks and he has to go in after bowling at the end of a hot day. Put him at 6 and bring in a specialist - one who opens for his state at least.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

All I was asking from the run chase, which doesn't matter now anyway, but not to have gone out there so defensive from the start. With wickets in hand you can have a little crack at going for about 4 an over after the first 10 overs are up. Then reassess every hour to half hour and see whether it is feasible or not then make the decision or not whether to keep going if you have the wickets to do so. But its over with and either way IMO the result would have been the same because the batsman tumbled a little batting defensively.

Sober Symonds;379452 said:
Boris, I'm very disappointed in your summary. Of course I realise we are not the power we were a few years ago, but these guys want to be, and I would suggest it's almost "unAustralian" to commend a batsman of Hussey's standing on "doing well to make the draw happen". It sounds like we had our backs against the wall against a formidable opponent, which is far from the truth.

It was set up to be a very good game. The last two days were anticlimactic, and both teams should take the blame for squandering an opportunity to try and make more of the match.

That is what I was doing. I said it wasn't like an Australian to play for a draw from the get go early in the post. But I was replying to another post talking about Hussey and I thought he was batting better than he had been, mostly because he was playing at about a 30% strike rate for most of the time. If you want me too I will include everyone else in there but Hussey and North held up some time even though they both scored lowly.

I don't mind the outcome of the match. Just seeing the Windies get the better of Australia on most occasions was good enough for me.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

Ok, but I'm not going to hail the achievements of accomplished strokemakers hanging round for long periods to obtain a draw when the situation was not so forbidding.

I have to join you in your thoughts that a West Indian victory was an exciting prospect! That would be good for cricket, if bad for the Australian team.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

Sober Symonds;379482 said:
I have to join you in your thoughts that a West Indian victory was an exciting prospect! That would be good for cricket, if bad for the Australian team.

I have to admit it... I was barracking for them after 5 wickets were down :eek:

As was said in the channel nine commentary this afternoon, Gayle thought with the quality of all his players they would be able to make 3rd or 4th on the ICC rankings list, but they didn't work together as a group.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

Sober Symonds;379452 said:
Yeah, I take exception to that remark also. Let's not get into an argument over who knows what about the game, let's just say the equation was much more than mathematically possible.

Record chase or not, the challenge was there, and it was not unrealistic. The deck held no horrors, nor did the attack. Overall, we'd have had to bat at a strike rate of .68 for a day - around the same as Bravo, Watson and Haddin did during their earlier contributions.

As Eddie and Caesar alluded to: fortune favours the brave.

Lions, they gave up the chase well before Ponting went out. That meant we had wickets in hand, and as you said there's always a chance when that's the case. Fantasizing about having another 35 overs to play with is futile. We batted slower than them in both innings ... five days was plenty to achieve a result with those scores.

Boris, I'm very disappointed in your summary. Of course I realise we are not the power we were a few years ago, but these guys want to be, and I would suggest it's almost "unAustralian" to commend a batsman of Hussey's standing on "doing well to make the draw happen". It sounds like we had our backs against the wall against a formidable opponent, which is far from the truth.

It was set up to be a very good game. The last two days were anticlimactic, and both teams should take the blame for squandering an opportunity to try and make more of the match.

I really don't know where you are coming from? Despite what the media has been saying, this West Indies team has a decent batting lineup at full strength and in favourable conditions which suit their style of play then their batting can prosper. Earlier this year they beat England, something we were unable to do.

Gayle, Chanderpaul and Bravo would have serious claims to make most international teams, at least the first two. At the end of the day Gayle's hundred was probably the difference between the two sides, if we had got Gayle early in the 2nd innings then we could have easily have been chasing a target of around 200.

I can live with that, a quality player held us at bay. People make it sound like these guys are bunnies.

When your chasing 330 off 80 overs you don't go out there and start blazing. You bat normally until a certain time period and then plot our next move. A realistic target would have been 2/180 at tea, and then launch with wickets in hand in the last session.

To ask a team to go out and score at 4+ an over for the entire innings is a massive ask, especially on a 5th day wicket, for us to achieve that we really would probably need a Ponting special.

I'm happy with the draw, I also realise that the Windies are a lot better then people give them credit for, therefore Im not going to jump up and down at the fact we didn't beat them by an innings and 300 runs.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

I'm not having a go at the West Indies batting in any way. Their bowling is a different proposition, and for that matter we should have taken them on today.

On the whole, we should fancy ourselves as being able to beat them here every time. Nor am I talking about going out there all guns blazing from the outset. That sort of stuff can come later if you build the foundations, which didn't happen either way. Yes we did need a special from someone, but I only saw Katich make the effort. At least he went out with a win in mind. (Any chance of a Hussey "special" once we lost Punter? No, best to shore up your stocks for the selection argument!)
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

For ****s sake, do you think we could have ONE FRIGGING THREAD ON THIS FORUM that doesn't turn into a pissing contest over England's quality or lack thereof?

LtD, check your PMs.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

It was a legitmate response. The argument being put forward was that Hussey would 'cash in' on poor attacks (ie, West Indies, Pakistan) and then fail against the so called 'good' attacks (England this time next year).

I argued against that idea, yet my post was deleted.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

How bout we move onto the next game.

Any selection changes for either team?

I would like to see Dowlin back in.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

eddiesmith;379652 said:
Australia have named an unchanged squad so should be McKay debuting if Siddle doesnt pull up

Just a slightly off topic question here, why does a home side need to pick a squad? Everyone is in the country and is much less of a hassle to fly from Sydney for example to Perth than Sydney to London.

Is there a need to be pulling players out of domestic games to sit around as thirteenth man?
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

They dont, they name a 12 and thats it with the Aussie team usually choosing a spare bowler as 12th man as they are the most likely to break down at the last minute
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

eddiesmith;379666 said:
They dont, they name a 12 and thats it with the Aussie team usually choosing a spare bowler as 12th man as they are the most likely to break down at the last minute

Oops, my bad. Thought I counted 13 in the squad.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

Both sides are dropping like flies at the moment. Siddle is out, Hauritz is in serious doubt with a finger problem. Clint McKay will make his test debut with Siddle out with Brett Geeves coming into the squad who will be the drinks man for this test. Steven Smith, the young spinner from New South Wales has been added to the squad in case Hauritz doesn't pull up.

West Indies have their problems too with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Adrian Barath also suffering from injury. It is looking more likely that those two will not play which would see Travis Dowlin and Narsingh Deonarine replace those two in the playing eleven.

Teams rocked by injury doubts | Cricket News | Australia v West Indies 2009/10 | Cricinfo.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The selection of Steven Smith is just awful, a guy who has played a handful of first-class games and averages 75.18 with the ball should be nowhere near the test side. The selectors may be looking to the future but this guy is far too young and too inexperienced to be getting a look in. Jason Krejza must have done something bad to not even be in consideration for the team.

The weather looks very good for the entire duration of the test with the exception of Saturday with there is a small chance of thundery shower. It will also be warm to hot so the pitch will have a chance to bake in the sun, my prediction is that the pitch will be tough to bat on come days four and five with some significant cracks to appear as the game progresses.

Weather:

Wednesday: Mostly sunny, morning haze, 26
Thursday: Sunny, windy morning, 30
Friday: Sunny, windy morning, 35
Saturday: Thundery shower risk, 36
Sunday: Partly cloudy, 32
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

Hopefully the inclusion of Smith is for experience and they are going to go down the all quick route, no need for spinners on the WACA

As for Krezja, hard to know what he did wrong other than slaughtered too all parts of the WACA and cost them the series last year whilst showing he cant take wickets if it isnt turning sideways... I really cant work it out either :D

Although I do hope something goes wrong at Perth airport and he is stranded in Perth for the test, as much as I want the Victorian batsmen to hit him too all parts of Newcastle, our bowlers wont get him out and it will be another NSW bore draw
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

Ljp86;380687 said:
Both sides are dropping like flies at the moment. Siddle is out, Hauritz is in serious doubt with a finger problem. Clint McKay will make his test debut with Siddle out with Brett Geeves coming into the squad who will be the drinks man for this test. Steven Smith, the young spinner from New South Wales has been added to the squad in case Hauritz doesn't pull up.

West Indies have their problems too with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Adrian Barath also suffering from injury. It is looking more likely that those two will not play which would see Travis Dowlin and Narsingh Deonarine replace those two in the playing eleven.

Teams rocked by injury doubts | Cricket News | Australia v West Indies 2009/10 | Cricinfo.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The selection of Steven Smith is just awful, a guy who has played a handful of first-class games and averages 75.18 with the ball should be nowhere near the test side. The selectors may be looking to the future but this guy is far too young and too inexperienced to be getting a look in. Jason Krejza must have done something bad to not even be in consideration for the team.
Probably 2 years too early and would have to be youngest leggie to debut for us but did you see the 117 kph flipper he beat warne with in that t20 in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago? Windies notorious weak players of legspin. Check out warnes first class record before his debut. Also his early test record. Nothing to write home about yet he went on to be the greatest bowler of modern era and one of our best legspinners after Grimmett and O Rielly of course. Give some young blokes a go.
 
Re: West Indies in Australia

Watson looking good with a fifty after the early let off. Crowd seems pretty decent for a work day also, would've been nice to get there myself.
 
Back
Top