**Official** Tour Matches

[Johnners]

Lee!

McDonald 4 tests over Lee lololol.

 

[Burgey]

Great stuff Lee. Clark the man for the tight bowling role.

Beware judging Johnson on this effoert. It's his first bowl of more than 4 overs since the SA tour ffs. The bloke's quality and his prep is clearly geared to Cardiff, not Worcester.

Must be the 4 quicks now. Feel for Haurie, as I don't think he bowled complete pap. Would be nice to see him bowling after a few wickets. Big ask for a finger spinner first session day 2 at 0 for a fair few.

Still think umpire Evans is MOTM at this stage.

 

[Top_Cat]

Clark to get dropped, and they'll play Hauritz.

Yarp.

Well, I said Lee would have to bowl the house down in the warm-ups to get a Test spot, well, there's no house any more. Suspect he'll take the new-ball with Siddle.

 

[inbox24]

Nah, Ponting and Co think Johnson is a god and would never take the new rock away from him after his SA trip.

If Hauritz plays, expect to see a repeat of McGain's debut in South Africa. If McDonald plays I hope Hilditch gets deregistered (or whatever they call it) as a lawyer and fired as a selector.

In a sick and perverse way, I really do want both Hauritz and McDonald both to play so that we can get absolutely trounced and there may be the possibility of a selection panel and policy revamp. Short term loss for long term gain. Imagine a team like this:

Hughes
Katich
Ponting
Hussey
Clarke
North
Haddin
McDonald
Johnson
Haurtiz
Lee

 

[Burgey]

Nah, Ponting and Co think Johnson is a god and would never take the new rock away from him after his SA trip.

If Hauritz plays, expect to see a repeat of McGain's debut in South Africa. If McDonald plays I hope Hilditch gets deregistered (or whatever they call it) as a lawyer and fired as a selector.

In a sick and perverse way, I really do want both Hauritz and McDonald both to play so that we can get absolutely trounced and there may be the possibility of a selection panel and policy revamp. Short term loss for long term gain. Imagine a team like this:

Hughes
Katich
Ponting
Hussey
Clarke
North
Haddin
McDonald
Johnson
Haurtiz
Lee

Mate, I don't want to sound like a complete prick here, but are you Bob Willis?

 

[duffer]

As someone who always stuck to my guns regarding Bing , last night was awesome. He looks like he's back, Poms better get ready.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Yeah I agree, I think he can safely be picked for the 1st test now! Last night was exactly what I thought we should see from him before he was picked.I'd like to see Clark pick up 5 in the second innings now so we don't even think about playing Hauritz (unless Hauritz picks up the other 5 of course...)

 

[Son Of Coco]

Lee!

McDonald 4 tests over Lee lololol.

Clapo has a joint account with Scorpiogal and I claim my 5 pounds.

 

[Burgey]

Disappointed not to see Nath's "Hey Johnson, Why No Inswing?" pic last night.

See what you can do tonight please mate.

 

[tooextracool]

Tec's insistance that regularly bending the ball both ways is the sole mark of a good bowler gets tired.

Nope rate 2 of his teammates, Clark and Siddle and neither are known for bending the ball around. You have to look at the style of bowler Johnson is. He bowls wide off the crease and hes a slinger. Generally slingers kiss the surface and therefore swing for them is a valuable asset because their style of bowling renders them ineffective when it comes to getting seam movement (as opposed to their bang it in counterparts).

When bowling to right handers, Johnson without swing cannot get the ball to come back in enough to threaten the stumps. His only other weapon, is the off cutter, which guess what goes wider still. That is just basic fact.

 

[Top_Cat]

Nope rate 2 of his teammates, Clark and Siddle and neither are known for bending the ball around. You have to look at the style of bowler Johnson is. He bowls wide off the crease and hes a slinger. Generally slingers kiss the surface and therefore swing for them is a valuable asset because their style of bowling renders them ineffective when it comes to getting seam movement (as opposed to their bang it in counterparts).

When bowling to right handers, Johnson without swing cannot get the ball to come back in enough to threaten the stumps. His only other weapon, is the off cutter, which guess what goes wider still. That is just basic fact.

Nah, Johnson's primarily a seam bowler, the consistent swing is another weapon but generally he's always been about hitting the seam. When he does that regularly, he's awfully tough to play. Ask all the Saffies how their bat splices are doing. Don't think I really need to explain Graeme Smith's two broken fingers either. All from hitting the seam. It's only when Johnson has been experimenting with different arm angles/release points, he's been more round-arm and kissed the surface, etc.

Allied with, it would appear he's much quicker than he looks.

 

[pasag]

Australian fast bowlers get built up and then spat out so quickly. One good game and they're the best bowler in the world, one bad game and they're crap and overrated. Some perspective needed plz.

 

[Nate]

Disappointed not to see Nath's "Hey Johnson, Why No Inswing?" pic last night.

See what you can do tonight please mate.

I suck!

 

[tooextracool]

Australian fast bowlers get built up and then spat out so quickly. One good game and they're the best bowler in the world, one bad game and they're crap and overrated. Some perspective needed plz.

Yeah couldnt agree more. I can remember a time not long ago when Brett Lee was rated the best fast bowler in the world on these very forums and now hes being compared with a lowlife like Hauritz and McDonald.

Now of course Johnson is apparently the best fast bowler in the world, attack revolves around him, one man show etc. Seriously, the guy has potential, but hes not even close to being the best in the world, and I dont care how many of Smith's arms he breaks.

 

[scorpiogal]

Australian fast bowlers get built up and then spat out so quickly. One good game and they're the best bowler in the world, one bad game and they're crap and overrated. Some perspective needed plz.

Fickle. They're all fickle.

 

[pasag]

Johnson is the best batsman in the world though

 

[Son Of Coco]

Yeah couldnt agree more. I can remember a time not long ago when Brett Lee was rated the best fast bowler in the world on these very forums and now hes being compared with a lowlife like Hauritz and McDonald.

Now of course Johnson is apparently the best fast bowler in the world, attack revolves around him, one man show etc. Seriously, the guy has potential, but hes not even close to being the best in the world, and I dont care how many of Smith's arms he breaks.

The fact was someone was going to miss out potentially in Cardiff if Hauritz bowled well. Again, I think you have confused comparing someone with someone else to the fact that they were competing for spots in the First Test (Lee and Clark only had to show some form after coming back from injury). Hauritz has removed any problems with his efforts so far, and Lee has played himself into the test with a good showing last night so most of the problems have solved themselves.

If you can show me where anyone said that Hauritz or McDonald are as good a bowlers as Lee is when they're all in form though I'll be happy to backtrack.

 

[tooextracool]

If you can show me where anyone said that Hauritz or McDonald are as good a bowlers as Lee is when they're all in form though I'll be happy to backtrack.

Its not about whos the best bowler when they are all out of form. Yes so Lee when hes bowling poor is not very good, but the fact that when hes bowling well he can be very good is what separates him from that bunch. That McDonald might be 'marginally' better than Lee when Lee is bowling rubbish doesnt mean that you throw him into the side ahead of Lee. The difference between Lee and McDonald is that Lee has the potential to step up a few gears and bowl like he can, McDonald doesnt.

If Lee IS a better bowler than McDonald/Hauritz then pray tell me why were those 2 even in contention for his spot in the test side?

 

[Son Of Coco]

Its not about whos the best bowler when they are all out of form. Yes so Lee when hes bowling poor is not very good, but the fact that when hes bowling well he can be very good is what separates him from that bunch. That McDonald might be 'marginally' better than Lee when Lee is bowling rubbish doesnt mean that you throw him into the side ahead of Lee. The difference between Lee and McDonald is that Lee has the potential to step up a few gears and bowl like he can, McDonald doesnt.

If Lee IS a better bowler than McDonald/Hauritz then pray tell me why were those 2 even in contention for his spot in the test side?

McDonald's not marginally better than Lee if Lee is bowling poorly, there's enough difference that I'd pick McDonald every time if Lee was bowling absolute **** (edit: I'm not saying I'd only pick McDonald by the way, but that's who we're talking about here). Mainly because, when Lee bowls badly not only doesn't he get wickets, he goes for thousands too. If Lee took a couple of wickets in each innings on average and didn't go for many runs everyone would say he's bowling pretty well.

I agree though that Lee can do significantly more damage if he's bowling well.

It's about who's the best bowler on their current form. Lee's performance last night means he's the one to pick. I'm happy to see him bowling well too. I certainly wouldn't prefer to have McDonald there.

The reason why they were in contention was that Lee and Clark were coming back from injury, they weren't sure how they would go, and Cardiff is supposed to be slow and turn. Add to that the fact that Lee's been very poor in England in previous series. It doesn't take a lot of working out really. It's easy to say in hindsight now that Lee's performed well that they should never have been in contention. But at the start of the tour that's how it stood.

 

[Johnners]

Australian fast bowlers get built up and then spat out so quickly. One good game and they're the best bowler in the world, one bad game and they're crap and overrated. Some perspective needed plz.

AWTA so much.