Harsh. His intent made a difference. There are intangibles in this great game of cricket that are annoying to people like myslef as we cant measure them.
Nixon and Loye's cases should be a good lesson to the poor Indian selectors who always tend to ignore the claims of players >28. e.g. Hemang Badani, who i feel is an oustanding player, really fell a victim to the selectorial follies.
Why do you think so?
Do you feel Loye would not have provided the momentum?
I DO feel Loye would have provided the momentum, if he can sweep Brett Lee he can sweep anyone
I'd rather have Loye on the tour at the expense of someone else. Joyce had just found form with a century and some other decent scores before the World Cup. Strauss could well have been dropped but he's a quality batsman and a class about Loye.
Not really - I was cringing at the prospect of him trying it against McGrath and sure enough - it backfired badly (and very possibly contributed to his dismissal next ball).I DO feel Loye would have provided the momentum, if he can sweep Brett Lee he can sweep anyone
But that ended-up making little difference to the outcome. England still lost loads of games for ages with Loye (and Nixon) in the side, with those 2 contributing little. Then we managed 2 remarkable victories in the last 2 games with Australia's side weakening and, especially in the Second Final, us enjoying an unusually large advantage with the conditions.
Who hasnt got out against McGrath? He takes wickets for fun, so no suprise trying to sweep him led to a dismissal. Still the intent is terrific!
Even I can go out there with intent though - it takes batting ability to score runs. Unfortunately, even though I think Loye was much less of a one-trick pony than people make out, he had a glaringly obvious technical weakness to the ball moving away from him, which as a right handed opening batsman, is the worst possible weakness to have.
The point is about the brain - that sweep-to-a-seamer is a premeditated shot, so you can use your brain about when to play it.
Loads? They have played 7 times together and won 3 and lost 4. Since when was 4 games loads?
Also given that the first 4 were their first ever games at international level it can only be expected that they will not be superstars in their debut games.
I certainly don't write Gough off based on those 2 games, at all - I think it perfectly possible he'd have made some improvement had he not got injured. I was crying-out for him to be selected - I was enjoying Bresnan and co being hammered all over by Tharanga, Jayasuriya and co. - 'cos it enhanced his chances of a recall.Loads? They have played 7 times together and won 3 and lost 4. Since when was 4 games loads?
Given you write Gough off as he bowled badly in his last 2 ODIs (Im not disagreeing with the point but the use of a tiny sample size to justify it) then the fact that Loye and Nixon have won in the last 3 ODIs they have played together should have you championing them.
