Cricket

[royce67]

Clearly these last two tests should have been played in the sporting capital of Australia (arguably world?) as mooted at the time. All this unreliable and wet weather and rain delays is going to cost us a 5-0 Pyrrhic Ashes victory.

In Melbourne, we make sure it hardly rains at all during playing hours.

Perfect weather here from 11-6 aka proper cricket hours.
Can't help it if the umps misapply the playing conditions as I outlined a few days ago.

 

[leon]

Perfect weather here from 11-6 aka proper cricket hours.
Can't help it if the umps misapply the playing conditions as I outlined a few days ago.

No idea what you posted a few days ago. But relax. thought it was pretty clear I am kidding around. Spot the smilies.

 

[royce67]

No idea what you posted a few days ago. But relax. thought it was pretty clear I am kidding around. Spot the smilies.

Leon, I'm fully aware you were joking and I don't require *smile* smilies. Don't take yourself so seriously.
To elaborate, my post was in relation to the (mis)application of poor playing condition rules by the umpires.

 

[leon]

Leon, I'm fully aware you were joking and I don't require *smile* smilies. Don't take yourself so seriously. Ok but you seemed to do just that.

Anyone who knows Melbourne knows it has fickle weather. However, far more reliable than Sydney - 16 days of test cricket lost over recent years.

Somehow this got all screwed up; my initial sentence in response got deleted, but it was to the effect that you seemed to be the one taking yourself seriously re a throwaway line: '(mis)application of poor playing condition rules by the umpires.'

 

[23.21.159]

Well the green top has settled down quickly..must have been sweaty under the covers.
Aussies should have sent in the tail before Smith .
Looks like it will now be a high scoring game and the grass should prevent it breaking up.
Aussies will need 300 plus. Green looks very good finally..what a handy player.
Root will have a lot of bowling to do.

I thought this at the time, too.
Would have been a gutsy call.
Bradman did this in the second innings at Melbourne in 1936/37, even opened with #9, #11 and then #10 from the first innings, and then he and Fingleton put on 346 for the sixth wicket.

AUS vs ENG, England tour of Australia 1936/37, 3rd Test at Melbourne, January 01 - 07, 1937 - Full Scorecard

Get cricket scorecard of 3rd Test, AUS vs ENG, England tour of Australia 1936/37 at Melbourne Cricket Ground dated January 01 - 07, 1937.

www.espncricinfo.com

 

[TigerMasochist]

Green looks very good finally..what a handy player.

Young fella starting to look like he's putting all the little bits together into the total package.
Batted very well against India last summer, but couldn't buy a wicket.
First few tests against the Poms chipped in nicely with important wickets off limited bowling opportunities, but couldn't scrounge a run.

Runs have started to flow again in his last couple of innings n wickets are still coming so it looks like he'll be a ripping player.

Pity he got sucked in by some short stuff n a leg side field before he got his hundred, he's got some fearsome beast mode when he loosens the shoulders.

 

[Leysy Days]

Reading back through the thread a lot of over reaction to the pitch.

Test batsmen should be tested on the first morning of a test.

This pitch also promotes good stroke play. Curator looks to have done a good job.

BTW India are a bunch of sore losers.

 

[tigerman]

The transformation in Heads batting has been impressive.
At times a couple of years ago he was flat out hitting the ball off the square. He has obviously evaluated his game, worked on a few things and is now reaping the rewards, good on him.

 

[bigwow]

Thought the Poms ran out of ideas in the middle session, and by the end of the day, Wood's bowling with no slips, and men on the boundary, admittedly he was bowling crap, and got a cheapy when Green holed out. Lucky it rained, or they'd be playing for free again, they were so far behind the over rate.

 

[Streak]

Thought the Poms ran out of ideas in the middle session, and by the end of the day,

Was amazing really.

They had us 3 for 12 doing the one thing they haven't done all series, starting the day bowling a consistently good length just outside off and holding catches. Simple stuff.

Then Head and Labuschagne decide to counter attack.

The Australian bowling attack would have been licking their lips at the prospect of the batsmen playing shots in those conditions. They would have stuck to the plan knowing that the mistakes and chances would come.

But England, no. A couple of boundaries and they go defensive. It is like the team focus is to prevent runs at all costs.

The end result is I think Australia is firmly in control now.

If the conditions today are similar to yesterday, and our tail wags in to an hour or so of the second session, things could get very ugly very quickly.

The English should also be very thankful that Starc is out there, not Hazlewood. Which is not a knock on Starc, but imagine an attack of Cummings, Hazelwood, Boland and Green with conditions like it was yesterday.

 

[TigerMasochist]

Was amazing really.

They had us 3 for 12 doing the one thing they haven't done all series, starting the day bowling a consistently good length just outside off and holding catches. Simple stuff.

Then Head and Labuschagne decide to counter attack.

The Australian bowling attack would have been licking their lips at the prospect of the batsmen playing shots in those conditions. They would have stuck to the plan knowing that the mistakes and chances would come.

But England, no. A couple of boundaries and they go defensive. It is like the team focus is to prevent runs at all costs.

Reckon Labschange n Head did a brilliant job of taking control off the Poms. One of the commentators made mention of the positioning of the two at the crease which simply threw the Poms off their bowling.
Was reasonably early in their pairing and Labuschange was batting out of his crease n coming forward playing off the front foot at every opportunity n Head was batting opposite, on the crease and playing off the back foot. Every time they took a single n rotated strike the bowlers were having to adjust the length they bowled n it completely stuffed them.
Will be watching with interest once the Poms come in to bat, while the pitch was green as yesterday there didn't really seem to be any demons in it so it'll be fun to see if we can get to about 350 n then seriously mess with their bats.

 

[bigwow]

Was amazing really.

They had us 3 for 12 doing the one thing they haven't done all series, starting the day bowling a consistently good length just outside off and holding catches. Simple stuff.

Then Head and Labuschagne decide to counter attack.

The Australian bowling attack would have been licking their lips at the prospect of the batsmen playing shots in those conditions. They would have stuck to the plan knowing that the mistakes and chances would come.

But England, no. A couple of boundaries and they go defensive. It is like the team focus is to prevent runs at all costs.

The end result is I think Australia is firmly in control now.

If the conditions today are similar to yesterday, and our tail wags in to an hour or so of the second session, things could get very ugly very quickly.

The English should also be very thankful that Starc is out there, not Hazlewood. Which is not a knock on Starc, but imagine an attack of Cummings, Hazelwood, Boland and Green with conditions like it was yesterday.

I reckon Green will bowl well here, movement and bounce.

 

[bigwow]

Starc & Cummins sucked into dumb shots.

 

[tigerman]

Starc & Cummins sucked into dumb shots.

And Green yesterday.

 

[bigwow]

And Green yesterday.

Surely Wood's taking the p1ss now.

 

[tigerman]

Surely Wood's taking the p1ss now.

It's been a magnificent 100 by Wood, off only 17 overs too.

 

[leon]

Starc & Cummins sucked into dumb shots.

The spinner, Lyon, showing the bigger fast bowlers how to go about it. Great to see Wood hit for 3 x 6. Has hit more at Bellrive than Ponting!

 

[bigwow]

It's been a magnificent 100 by Wood, off only 17 overs too.

Think Leach got there faster earlier in the series.

 

[bigwow]

The spinner, Lyon, showing the bigger fast bowlers how to go about it. Great to see Wood hit for 3 x 6. Has hit more at Bellrive than Ponting!

Not hard, he knows every balls is going to be short, he's in postion before Wood lets the ball go.
Just shows how dumb Wood is.

 

[tigerman]

Boland is no Bunny

The spinner, Lyon, showing the bigger fast bowlers how to go about it. Great to see Wood hit for 3 x 6. Has hit more at Bellrive than Ponting!

Punter was a favourite of mine, but didn't have a great record at Hobart.