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***Official*** Sri Lanka in Australia

JBH001

International Regular
Well played Australia. Total domination and as always, when it counted.

I dont see any team challenging them at the moment, or even in the foreseeable future.

South Africa are frankly over-rated and I am expecting a 3-0/4-0 scoreline against India.

Its been the first series I have consistently watched for a while - and though my team got hammered I really enjoyed watching it. Not least because of the wonderful Australian batting (especially Hussey and Clarke) and bowling (Lee stands out).
 

pasag

RTDAS
Sorry to interupt :p

Was thinking, with these flat decks lasting 5 days, it's only a matter of time before a record score is chased down to win a match. SL came within the realms of possibility here and Shiv also came close against England not so long ago. I'd venture to say a lead of 500 will be chased down within the next 12 months, in my humble opinion.
 

sideshowtim

Banned
Sorry to interupt :p

Was thinking, with these flat decks lasting 5 days, it's only a matter of time before a record score is chased down to win a match. SL came within the realms of possibility here and Shiv also came close against England not so long ago. I'd venture to say a lead of 500 will be chased down within the next 12 months, in my humble opinion.
Yeah, agreed. 500 isn't as safe as it once was. Which is why I was incredibly edgy about the chase...
 

Johnners

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Why ? The guy just made 2 centuries IIRC against the quality of Bond , Martin and co..

Is that rubbish but Hussey's 2 centuries or Jacques 2 against Maharoof, Dilhara, Malinga and Murali much greater is it ? FFs...
Amla doesn't average 4000.94 like Hussey does either in case you hadn't noticed. The only batsmen in the Australian line-up Amla is better then is probably Symonds....
 

pasag

RTDAS
From a Sri Lankan point of view I wouldn't overreact too much really. You can't really go psycho as a fan when your team comes to Australia and goes down badly. It's not time for drastic changes nor knee-jerk reactions. Same thing with England over here last year, you just really can't read into these results too much. When England lost to India at home, by all means get the knives out, but not to the best side in the world on their home soil.

I really rate SL but as I've said before they rely too heavily on a couple of class players and if all of them are at their best they are unbeatable, but when one or two fails, there is no back up.

So many things went against SL some their fault, some not. They won the wrong toss, they lost their best bat before the first game, they had little preparation, they left out one of their best two pace bowlers in each of the two matches and dropped vital catches. To win against Australia in Australia you need all the little things to go right and even then you have no guarantees.

Anyways, was very happy to see the good naturedness between the two sides. No war of words between the two sides and the actions more or less doing the talking. The crowds no-balled abit unfortunately but it didn't seem OTT and there was no racism reported so that can only be a good thing.

One last point, perhaps a tad controversial, Murali taking 4-400 in the series means he's not the best since Bradman, a point I would have been willing to concede had he run through Australian line ups. He's still an all time great that would make my first XI but against the best in conditions that worked against him, he was made to look a mere mortal. He did bowl much better than his figures suggested though and this isn't to take anything much away from the champion at all.
 
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Matt79

Hall of Fame Member
One last point, perhaps a tad controversial, Murali taking 4-400 in the series means he's not the best since Bradman, a point I would have been willing to concede had he run through Australian line ups. He's still an all time great that would make my first XI but against the best in conditions that worked against him, he was made to look a mere mortal. He did bowl much better than his figures suggested though and this isn't to take anything much away from the champion at all.
Have to agree I'm afraid. I was hoping he'd do well here, and get the record, but didn't happen. I'm not sure to what extent he was below his best after a while out, but I'm afraid performances in Australia are now a real blot on his otherwise exceptional record. Just like Warne in India or Lillee in Pakistan, he'll have his champions who will point to the things that probably inhibited him in this series, but if he was ever going to right that perceived abberration, this was the time to do it. As Pasag said, still an absolute champ and will be a deserving record holder and one of the two best spinners in history, but yeah, a disappointment.
 

JBH001

International Regular
One last point, perhaps a tad controversial, Murali taking 4-400 in the series means he's not the best since Bradman, a point I would have been willing to concede had he run through Australian line ups. He's still an all time great that would make my first XI but against the best in conditions that worked against him, he was made to look a mere mortal. He did bowl much better than his figures suggested though and this isn't to take anything much away from the champion at all.
Matt79 said:
Have to agree I'm afraid. I was hoping he'd do well here, and get the record, but didn't happen. I'm not sure to what extent he was below his best after a while out, but I'm afraid performances in Australia are now a real blot on his otherwise exceptional record. Just like Warne in India or Lillee in Pakistan, he'll have his champions who will point to the things that probably inhibited him in this series, but if he was ever going to right that perceived abberration, this was the time to do it. As Pasag said, still an absolute champ and will be a deserving record holder and one of the two best spinners in history, but yeah, a disappointment.
I dont think Murali's underprepardness had anything to do with it. As he himself said in that interview on the 3rd day - he has bowling very well; and certainly much better than his figures suggest. And I agree with both your assessments - but if there was any team and country where he was to come a cropper then you could not ask for better than Australia in Australia. Also from a cricketing point of view I find myself strangely pleased that Murali did not do well (is it bad to feel that way?) as it shows Murali not to be a super-freak a la Bradman, but just another of those great players to grace the game who has his limits and who can be found out. Its great that cricket remains that way and is one of the reasons I love it so much.

Also, if he had done well in Australia it would have put an end to all the Warne v Murali arguments.
And who would ever want that to happen? ;) :D
 
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sideshowtim

Banned
These abberations that appear in these wonderful player's records are just that and not a lot should be read into them. Murali does poorly in Australia and Ponting has done poorly in India. I don't care. To me, they are proven in so many different conditions and over such extensive periods of time that small abberations such as their records in 2 countries shouldn't count for much, if anything. Murali is one of the best bowlers ever, and his record in Australia doesn't damage this. Just as Ponting's record in India doesn't damage his stance as one of Australia's greatest batsmen ever. Ponting has scored runs in tricky subcontinental conditions before, and Murali has taken bucketloads of wickets on flat decks against quality batting line ups before.
 

biased indian

International Coach
Have there been any time before when only one test match was played in December in australia......

Even though i think india is responsible for this thing..i think it will work aganist us.one place where india would fancy ther chnaces to aleast hold australia to a draw is a normal sydney wicket.but the way the fixture is we will be playing the second match there rather than the last...

any way hoping we will be able to hold them for a draw in atleast 2 games or may be win one.......

or may be anything better than 4-0 we have to be the second best test team in the world :)
 

sideshowtim

Banned
Have there been any time before when only one test match was played in December in australia......

Even though i think india is responsible for this thing..i think it will work aganist us.one place where india would fancy ther chnaces to aleast hold australia to a draw is a normal sydney wicket.but the way the fixture is we will be playing the second match there rather than the last...

any way hoping we will be able to hold them for a draw in atleast 2 games or may be win one.......

or may be anything better than 4-0 we have to be the second best test team in the world :)
Quite frankly, If we see pitches like we saw in Brisbane and Hobart we'll probably get 4 draws. If we want some results, we should prepare pitches that have a bit of green in them. Plus, let's give the batsmen a bit more of a challenge for once!
 

Matt79

Hall of Fame Member
These abberations that appear in these wonderful player's records are just that and not a lot should be read into them. Murali does poorly in Australia and Ponting has done poorly in India. I don't care. To me, they are proven in so many different conditions and over such extensive periods of time that small abberations such as their records in 2 countries shouldn't count for much, if anything. Murali is one of the best bowlers ever, and his record in Australia doesn't damage this. Just as Ponting's record in India doesn't damage his stance as one of Australia's greatest batsmen ever. Ponting has scored runs in tricky subcontinental conditions before, and Murali has taken bucketloads of wickets on flat decks against quality batting line ups before.
Agreed, by and large. That said, its therefore nice to see those abberations corrected when players get the chance, so you don't have to have 15 pages of arguments from some Statsguru jockey in a few years time about how the player in question is actually mediocre because of them :p
 

Laurrz

International Debutant
These abberations that appear in these wonderful player's records are just that and not a lot should be read into them. Murali does poorly in Australia and Ponting has done poorly in India. I don't care. To me, they are proven in so many different conditions and over such extensive periods of time that small abberations such as their records in 2 countries shouldn't count for much, if anything. Murali is one of the best bowlers ever, and his record in Australia doesn't damage this. Just as Ponting's record in India doesn't damage his stance as one of Australia's greatest batsmen ever. Ponting has scored runs in tricky subcontinental conditions before, and Murali has taken bucketloads of wickets on flat decks against quality batting line ups before.
which makes McGrath pretty awesome :D :D

btw, v happy with the 2-0.... a bit of dejavu with us playing India again with a big streak... gonna be a ripper of a series i reckon.. always is when Aus/India are playing

great knock Sangakkara... will be interesting to see how he goes v England... incredible form
 

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