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The New and Improved Cricket Thread© - Now Roadblock Free!

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Zvonimir Boban

Banned
Seriously tempted to fly to Melbourne in time for the Boxing Day Test...

What's the place like? Anything to do away from the cricket or is it a boring shithole?
 
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bobnowhere

Member
It's pretty funny that Brad Hogg at 45 is still the best short form spinner in Australia. It's also pretty damning on our current spin stocks.
 
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Zapages

Member
So much favoritism by the Umpires for the home side.

What folks at ESPN Cricket Info are saying about this:

1.10pm Brydon says they are now covering the whole square. Must be expecting more rain. Don't know what that does to the 1.15pm inspection
"I'm glad we lost 10 minutes of play so that we could sit here and watch the covers come back on after lunch. Just play when you can - it's quite simple.." Well said, Dean. Don't walk off until it gets heavy enough to leave. New ball, old ball, close to new ball, close to lunch... doesn't matter.
Although I must reiterate - as I said earlier - this is not definitely a consequence of Smith's chat with Gould. We don't know what was said and heard there, but ultimately we have lost 10 minutes. Ten minutes that Pakistan wouldn't have minded playing
Jeff: "I rather imagine the umpires consulted Smith on the catering and if they would be risking underdone pork, seafood or poultry by taking an early lunch."
1pm The session timings, meanwhile, have gone bonkers, and I have no idea when it will be tea and when it will be stumps. I suppose with 15 minutes lost so far, we can go 45 minutes into overtime, which should mean we can play till 6.15pm, provided there are no more rain breaks. Speaking of which, the covers are still on and we are not resuming this second session on time. There will be an inspection at 1.15pm
Given how it is not raining - not enough to not inspect the conditions at any rate - it makes the early lunch look sillier. They could have easily played on for 10 minutes when they did go off
Brydon Coverdale confirms he can see a very light drizzle at the MCG
12.55pm Welcome back. A lot of reaction to the early lunch shenanigans.
Akib: "I suppose Pakistan would be well within their rights to stay in the pavilion until it's bright and sunny and all the clouds go away... in case it "might rain". .. same way umpire decided they should take an eary lunch.. because it "might rain"... utterly preposterous and shambolic... are england, india and Australia just making the rules up as they go along now??"
Steve: "As an australian supporter, I'm not at all impressed with odd decisions coming from the umpires in this series (this early lunch, playing extra time under lights in 1st test). They at least give the appearamce of unfairly favouring the home side. It's not cricket as I'd wish it to be."
Aoun: "I find this early lunch really unfair and disappointing. Clearly Smith didnt want new ball to get wet so he spoke to umpires about early lunch. Weather conditions are part of test match and you just have to deal with it. He should have kept bowling with old ball till its official lunch time. If I was captain of Pakistan team, I would have a chat with umpire and tell them that if you are OK to take early lunch then I would take tea now as I dont want my batsmen to bat in overcast conditions? Why favor one team. Not fair..."
12.20pm Smith and Ian Gould have a chat during the over break. Then Gould has a chat with S Ravi. And we are taking early lunch. That's a little weird. They are coming off early predicting rain? Either way, it works for Australia who were in a spot. Should they take the new ball and risk its getting wet in this outfield? Should they wait for lunch and let Pakistan milk more runs over the next 10 minutes? Then a little chat - and I am not suggesting this early lunch is definitely a direct consequence of Smith's word with Gould - and we walk off, saving Australia the dilemma. Mickey Arthur, the former Australia and current Pakistan coach, is not happy with all this. We have a mild drizzle on, but this is not strong enough to take players off. Suppose Australia have got away with this conundrum. They should have been asked to play through these 10 minutes, and should have been asked to make a decision if they want to take the new ball or not
Part of reason why Australia have been desperate is because there has been no wicket in this session. Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq have batted beautifully to add over a 100 for this partnership. Azhar has scored a hundred, and is on his way to notching 1100 for 2016. Shafiq has played another old-fashioned Test knock, starting off slowly and then cashing in on tired bowlers. We will be back at 1pm
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bobnowhere

Member
Doesn't look promising for the rest of the day.

Cricket.com.au is streaming a Ponting vs. Gilchirst young talent game leading into the BBL tonight. Steve Waugh's son is playing as is Will Pucovski, the later is very highly thought of and a likely future test cricketer. Young Waugh does a very good impression of Steve's wobbly medium pacers.
 
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bobnowhere

Member
leng jai said:
Stopped watching, what happened? Probably a bit late since they're probably gonna score 500 now.
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Warner may or may not have very very faintly gloved one through the the keeper. Given not out on the field the 3rd Ump ignored what was likely a no ball, found a faint mark on the glove that wasn't really there and pretty much relied on a very soft sound at about the time the ball went past.

If you are going to rely on the field ump first then there was no where near enough evidence to overturn the not out. Maybe if it was given out and Warner had reviewed you could say the decision could have been upheld.
 
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Zvonimir Boban

Banned
bobnowhere said:
Warner may or may not have very very faintly gloved one through the the keeper. Given not out on the field the 3rd Ump ignored what was likely a no ball, found a faint mark on the glove that wasn't really there and pretty much relied on a very soft sound at about the time the ball went past.

If you are going to rely on the field ump first then there was no where near enough evidence to overturn the not out. Maybe if it was given out and Warner had reviewed you could say the decision could have been upheld.
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Well, apart from the fact that it wasn't a no-ball because part of his heel was clearly behind the line and Warner knew he had gloved it and was halfway to the boundary before the third umpire had made his decision.
 
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Rezbit

Member
Test cricket is just a fabulous game. A game which totally looked like it would just dawdle to a draw with 2 big innings and rain delays. Looks like Pakistan put the cue in the rack too early...whoops!
 
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hamchan

Member
We've had two fantastic test matches in a row. This sport sure is good you guys.

Also farewell to young Nic Maddinson. Wonder who will get called up now.

Faulkner, Agar, Mitch Marsh again?
 
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bobnowhere

Member
Australia really won this with their run rate. With plenty of rain around and predicted they went at 4.39 for 600+ runs. That's brutal batting. Pakistan sat back after their good first innings and just assumed they couldn't lose with the weather in play.

hamchan said:
We've had two fantastic test matches in a row. This sport sure is good you guys.

Also farewell to young Nic Maddinson. Wonder who will get called up now.

Faulkner, Agar, Mitch Marsh again?
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Even though it's hard to change a winning team, it's probably time to to rethink 6 again. In Sydney they will probably want a batter who can spin, brings Head and Maxi into play. In India they might look at someone like Cartwright, MMarsh or Henriques as a third seamer at 6 so SoK and Lyon can both play.

Then there is 7. Wade has done nothing at all with the bat, has looked average with the gloves and his sole contribution seems to be forcing "Nice Garry" into the national lexicon.

Antiwhippy said:
Holy crap starc.
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He comes Starcy to take all your stumps. Good to see him in One-Day mode at the end.
 
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bobnowhere

Member
Maddinson and Sayers out, Agar and O'Keefe in.

Can't imagine any possible combination where Agar, SoK and Lyon all play at once. Either Cartwright (6) and SoK and Lyon or Agar (6) and Bird and Lyon.
 
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legend166

Member
Smith now averages over 60. After his first 11 tests he was averaging 29 with no hundreds. The next 38, averages 72 with 17 hundreds.

And unlike our last great batsmen (Clarke), his overseas record is actually great too. Looking to be our best batsman since Ponting quite easily.
 
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bobnowhere

Member
Australia XI for Sydney: David Warner, Matthew Renshaw, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith ©, Peter Handscomb, Hilton Cartwright, Matthew Wade (wk), Mitchell Starc, Steve O’Keefe, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon
 
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legend166

Member
I'm glad they didn't rest Hazlewood & Starc. Not a terrible team on balance although who the heck knows if Cartwright is actually any good.
 
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bobnowhere

Member
Wow! Only the 5th time in History, a century before lunch on the opening day. Nothing silly either, just quality shots.

Also this is the the first time since the very first test series in 1876-77 that Australia have played 4 overseas born players. Renshaw (England), Khawaja (Pakistan), Cartwright (Zimbabwe) and SoK (Malaysia).
 
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bomma_man

Member
bobnowhere said:
Wow! Only the 5th time in History, a century before lunch on the opening day. Nothing silly either, just quality shots.

Also this is the the first time since the very first test series in 1876-77 that Australia have played 4 overseas born players. Renshaw (England), Khawaja (Pakistan), Cartwright (Zimbabwe) and SoK (Malaysia).
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Between this and Smith refusing to walk what do we have left to be self righteous about :(
 
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hamchan

Member
Yeah good on Renshaw with his first test 100! Pretty hype for a 20 year old.

He's exactly the sort of opening batsman the Australian team needed. Someone to complement Warner on the other end with the exact opposite style of batting. I'm glad that he stuck with his natural play of taking it slower even while Warner was being beastly.
 
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bobnowhere

Member
Started off pretty slow almost sub 20 rate but he's now over 50. Perfect. At times it looks like he's been playing test cricket for 10 years.
 
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Rezbit

Member
Maddinson was obviously a large miss but Renshaw and Handscomb look like great selections. Players that value their wicket, can lock it down but also swashbuckle. Cartwright will be the interesting one now, get the feeling Mitch marsh and also even Faulkner are lurking about.
 
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