The cricket thread

Heartfeltdawn · June 2015

It's pretty hard to find a number 3 who has got the ability to attack and to defend. Hashim Amla did it very well for South Africa but is now batting at four since taking over the Test captaincy. Kane Williamson is the obvious standout at 3 in both attack and defence. Pujara had a terrible 2014 for India and his place went to Rohit Sharma. Clarke can't go three, Voges is better down the order, and that only leaves Smith. Considering how far Steve Smith has come with the bat, he may well make a good fist of the number 3 slot.

scrumhalf · June 2015

I wouldn't judge much from the Aussies' game against Kent. Kent's performance in non-one-day cricket this season has been poor. Managing to score more than 200 twice in a game really doesn't say much for the Aus bowling.

Heartfeltdawn · June 2015

scrumhalf said:

I wouldn't judge much from the Aussies' game against Kent. Kent's performance in non-one-day cricket this season has been poor. Managing to score more than 200 twice in a game really doesn't say much for the Aus bowling.

There's plenty to judge there. You're right that Kent have been poor this year but that means the performance of Harris for instance gets some perspective. It also makes Fawad Ahmed's performance look even worse, and that Watson wasn't given a single over against them.

If you saw Mitchell J in the West Indies, he didn't have much rhythm. He looked very jerky, quite shuffly coming up to the crease. From the footage I saw he had better rhythm. With Harris still finding his way back, you'd say the Aussies will go with a two Mitchell/One Hazlewood attack if they only want three out and out seamers.

crunchman · July 2015

Looks like Harris is out:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2015/content/story/892931.html

Presumably Mitch, Mitch, and Hazlewood as the fast bowlers then.

scrumhalf · July 2015

Could be Siddle instead of Hazlewood.

crunchman · July 2015

Either way, neither of them are as good as the 2013 version of Harris. Not sure we will ever see that again though. It's very rare for a fast bowler not to have declined by Harris's age.

Mitch (Johnson) is at the age where his performance could fall off a cliff as well. From what I've seen he's lost 3mph or so since the last Ashes. I'm not sure he's quite the threat he was. With his style of bowling I don't see him being able to carry on at a high level into his late 30s like McGrath did.

I think a lot will depend on the younger players in the series. If the younger fast bowlers step up for Australia, then England could struggle, but on the other hand if players like Stokes, Wood, and Lyth step their game up a level for England then they could be very good.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

scrumhalf said:

Could be Siddle instead of Hazlewood.

No chance. Since making his debut against India, Hazlewood has 24 wickets in 5 Tests at 19. In that same time period in ODI cricket, he's played 7 games, 9 wickets, at 23 with an economy rate under 4 runs per over. It would be an act of supreme madness to drop him and bring in Siddle, madness on the same level as England picking Darren Pattinson all those years ago.

crunchman said:
Mitch (Johnson) is at the age where his performance could fall off a cliff as well. From what I've seen he's lost 3mph or so since the last Ashes. I'm not sure he's quite the threat he was. With his style of bowling I don't see him being able to carry on at a high level into his late 30s like McGrath did.

Harris was interesting in that he did perform older as he wasn't burnt out in his younger days. With Big Mitch, it's all about his run up. Remember the Champions Trophy in England not so long back? That was the tournament when the proper MJ came back. When the run up rhythm is right, then he's a real force. Steve Finn is the same, Bob Willis likewise. Those quite big explosive actions need the run up working perfectly. Lawks, Dilley too now I come to think of it.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

No Bairstow. Boo!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/33346761

crunchman · July 2015

I see Finn is back.

jpttaylor · July 2015

Sky Sports reporting that Ryan Harris has retired with immediate effect.

Can't say I blame him - his body must be shot to pieces. I'd say it makes England's job a bit easier in the Ashes, but if anything it just forces them into selecting Johnson, Stark, Hazzlewood and Lyon with the option of including Siddle.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

When Phil Hughes died, there was a lot of comment about how it suddenly woke people up to the fact that there is danger and pain as a batsman. Short boundaries, true wickets, and bats with a bigger sweet spot had made the game easier. Bowlers on the other hand know all too much about pain. Seldom do you have batsmen undergoing the sort of operations that Graham Onions or Dennis Lillee underwent. Knee injuries are commonplace, injections and cortisone likewise. I had to quit the game after a horrific knee injury (think Simon Jones but worse. Ironically when I went in for surgery in October 2005, he was in the room next to me having surgery on the ankle that kept him out of the final Ashes Test. We had our surgeries on the same day, spent the night recovering, and then he popped his head round the door whilst I was watching cricket on television. Very nice chap indeed and far easier to face than the day he bounced me in a representative game!). I can think of several bowlers from my old minor county peer group who had back and knee injuries, a couple of bad shoulder problems. The batsmen on the other hand got off fairly lightly.

Ryan Harris was a superb bowler. His performance in the Cape Town Test was sensational. You could see he has limping back to the start of his run up. People talk of bravery in cricket normally from a batting perspective but Harris was as courageous as any batsman I've seen that day.

A big loss for Australia.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

NB: I am surprised that they've called Pat Cummins into the side. He hasn't played a first class game for nearly two years. I can only presume James Pattinson still has hamstring problems.

scrumhalf · July 2015

Even at club level I've had my share of injuries. People have only ever seemed to acknowledge ball impact injuries in cricket rather than the damage caused by schlepping up and down trying to bowl people out.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

scrumhalf said:

Even at club level I've had my share of injuries. People have only ever seemed to acknowledge ball impact injuries in cricket rather than the damage caused by schlepping up and down trying to bowl people out.

Exactly.

On the batting front, another Bairstow ton today. When someone is on form as he is and when they've won a game for England as he did, they should be in that damn side.

iseverynamegone · July 2015

I was just sat reading that on BBC app.

form of him life .

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

Going by the ECB website with the latest updated averages, at 1807 BST tonight, his County Championship season record read:

6 games, 9 innings, an average of 106.29 with 4 centuries including a double century.

It's sad looking at the bowling averages though. Check out the poor spinners at the wrong end of the table. There's some more than decent spinners in there. If you pull Rashid and Jeetan Patel out of there, there's really very little at the right end of that table.

http://i.imgur.com/bRMw2wo.jpg

iseverynamegone · July 2015

Nice piece in (insert paper I was reading) about how spinners are just bitches in the CC at the moment . And pretty much world wide since Warne and Murali retired (and yer Man there in Pakistan had to start bowling legally:-)

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

They are. As a former leg spinner it makes me sad to see how the slow bowling department has gotten so threadbare. No doubt in my mind that T20 cricket has been partly responsible.. Short boundaries and true pitches contribute. Bats with absurdly big sweet spots are a huge part of it. A much larger sweetspot and the thicker edges means you don't need to time the ball as you did before or to have the same balance at impact. Just swing hard and swing through and BANG more times than not you are safe.

When players became fitter and stronger and clubs developed beyond recognition in golf, changes were made. Holes were lengthened. The rough was left as proper rough at some courses. Even with the huge length balls could go, greenkeepers could regulate scores by having tough greens (one reason why Augusta generally still plays hard). In cricket, we've had none of that. Bats have gotten easier to hit sixes with (one of the best articles on the matter came from asking some Australian batsmen at the time), pitches seldom offer much for bowlers in limited over games, and the boundary has gotten smaller and smaller.

For the slow bowler, who faces wet wickets until June, it's a sodding nightmare.

scrumhalf · July 2015

As someone who was known to have a go at off-spin when bowling with a hangover I agree. Cricket (certainly the limited-over form) is now becoming a sport where the role of bowler is becoming subsidiary, possibly even to fielding.

The balance between bat and ball needs to be reset, but I fear it won't be becasue sixes are "entertainment" and bowling maidens is "boring".

I Found some Derek Underwood stuff on youtube the other day, I shudder to think what would happen to him these days on shirt-front blam-oramas.

I'm not suggesting that we flip things round the other way and allow the more chucking variety of spinner, but bats need to be the subject of the legislators.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

Absolutely. The clampdown on the chuckers is a very good thing, although there are still those who get away with it (Jack Taylor for Gloucs the other night against Surrey in the T20 was outrageous). That same game saw Tom Curran a young guy with some potential, coming from a CC match where he'd obliterated Gloucestershire a few days earlier in the CC with 7 for 20. Come T20 time, his first overs featured three slower balls under 50mph. He disappeared for 13. None of the immaculate line and length and pace that had gotten him those wickets in the CC. T20 doesn't breed great bowlers as the ICC rankings suggests

S. Badree	WI	782
2	S.P. Narine	WI	760
3	S.M.S.M Senanayake	SL	712
4	R. Ashwin	IND	697
5	Imran Tahir	SA	662
6	Shakib Al Hasan	BAN	661
6	M.A. Starc	AUS	661
6	S.L. Malinga	SL	661
9	K.M.D.N. Kulasekara	SL	655
10	Shahid Afridi

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

Blah. Ashwin is the best out of that lot, Starc could be something special in the future but the like of the chuckers in Narine and Senanayake and the non-spinner in Badree... double blah.

Gassage · July 2015

New Aussie ODI kit has been released today.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jul/07/batsman-dies-hit-cricket-ball-chest-bavalan-pathmanathan-manipay-parish-sports-club

I haven't seen anything about whether he was struck as the striker or as a non-striker yet.

scrumhalf · July 2015

England win the toss and bat first.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

Shane Watson. Shane Watson. Shane Watson

)

crunchman · July 2015

Apparently some of the balls are already getting through to Haddin on the 2nd bounce. If the batsmen can be patient then it's probably odds on for a draw.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

One down and that's a great ball. Moving into Lyth in the air, cuts away off the pitch, Lyth plays it a bit too square, Warner takes a good low catch... that's why Hazlewood is in the side and should have been even if Harris had been fit.

crunchman · July 2015

Oh Dear....

Getting out to Lyon???

Bairstow in for Bell please.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2015

There will be no dissing of Nathan Lyon in this thread. For too long Australia treated their spinners like crap post-Warne. Lyon's got a decent record and does the job for Australia. Underestimate him at your peril. That was a classic Lyon delivery to get Cook. The way that ball drops than bounces with the overspin looked fabulous on the frame by frame reply.

Very good progress by the Yorkshire boys. Mystifying the amount of idiots on Twitter saying England deliberately got the groundsman in Cardiff to produce a slow low wicket. It's Wales, what else are you going to get there?

joneve · July 2015

GODBLESS Joe Root and Gary Ballance! Averted potential disaster with some sublime cricket.

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