*Official* West Indies In Australia

[pasag]

Really nice ball to get Paine. Fell asleep after that on the couch and dreamt Ponting got a century. Was disappointed when I woke.

 

[Xuhaib]

"I'll expose Yousaf in next 24 hours" - Malik

The cat fight rolls on

 

[inbox24]

Pretty poor batting. Time to rest Clarke and bring back D. Hussey already for goodness sake.

 

[Johnners]

Really nice ball to get Paine. Fell asleep after that on the couch and dreamt Ponting got a century. Was disappointed when I woke.

 

[Sir Alex]

Clarke goes after another "selfish" knock. Did all the hardwork and yet threw it away when he had to give back the dots he consumed.

 

[shivfan]

So the people "in the know" suggest that Gayle has had an influence on picking the side, and it's no surprise if the damn selectors couldn't even be bothered to make the trip to Australia.

Did it occur to you that SPringer and Williams might be out-voting Gayle?

Good to see Hinds and Sammy in the side. Roach deserves a rest, because we don't want him to overdo it in these ODIs, and get injured, now that he's the spearhead of the attack. Good to see these two selectors finally saw sense, and dropped Morton for Hinds....

On this pitch, where WI will be chasing a smaller score on a wicket that offers more to the bowlers, personally I would rather have seen Nash there instead of Dowlin or Simmons, but I guess we can't have everything!

 

[Nate]

I can't stand James Hopes as a cricketer. Yuck.

Four overs left, we're picking up singles, and Johnson, Hauritz and Harris are all still to come. Gaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

 

[Johnners]

Hopesless*

 

[WindieWeathers]

Did it occur to you that SPringer and Williams might be out-voting Gayle?

Good to see Hinds and Sammy in the side. Roach deserves a rest, because we don't want him to overdo it in these ODIs, and get injured, now that he's the spearhead of the attack. Good to see these two selectors finally saw sense, and dropped Morton for Hinds....

On this pitch, where WI will be chasing a smaller score on a wicket that offers more to the bowlers, personally I would rather have seen Nash there instead of Dowlin or Simmons, but I guess we can't have everything!

It still doesn't mean Gayle hasn't had an influence Mike , quite frankly most of your excuses have been speculative, while i've dealt with the hard facts, firstly Gayle's comments about "giving the guys a chance" and also the reports about him and coaches picking the side,

 

[inbox24]

This is what happens when you have too many orthodox players in the middle order and it's been a problem since South Africa last year. These middle order stodgers put way too much pressure on the finishers at the end who should be slogging to get 'bonus' runs not to get a par score.

To this effect Australia should permanently drop:

Voges
Marsh
Hopes

Voges has no consistency and is totally unproven, and neither does he have age on this side. Marsh is basically like Clarke but opening the batting and allowing the opposition to dominate early and put pressure on the batting for the rest of the innings, whilst Hopes is not even jack of all trades. And rest Clarke, whilst bringin in:

D. Hussey
Warner
Hodge even

Warner could be quite a versatile player by arresting the rot in the middle order, or get us off to a flyer like Sehwag. David I feel can be a bit slow in scoring during really trying conditions (as witnessed against SA last year), but if he's allowed to stay in, he can really turn a match with big hitting.

Even Jaques could do better than most of these guys.

 

[shivfan]

Two wickets to Rampaul in this over....

So far, he's deserved his retention, hasn't he?

Gayle does not have a vote in choosing the squad, which is ridiculous, IMHO. His comments to the press are neither here nor there, because we all know captains have to come up with PR platitudes from time to time. Clearly, he was in no mood for these platitudes when the team he didn't want for the second ODI failed with the bat again, and that's what it boils down to....

It's well known in Jamaica that Gayle is good friends with both Hinds and Nash, and would want both of them in a weak side like this. That is hardly speculation....

Here, he seems to have got half his cake. Hinds, but no Nash.

 

[_Ed_]

Haha, Harris. That was awesome.

 

[thierry henry]

Can't believe Australia got bowled out for 225 by one of the worst ODI bowling attacks I've ever seen assembled.

Smith/Rampaul/Sammy/Pollard/Miller takes me back to Franklin/Styris/Oram (when he'd hardly even bowled in domestic cricket)/McMillan/Walker bowling for NZ against Zimbabwe in 2000/01- that attack was so bad it's stuck in my memory all this time.

 

[Stapel]

Too bad about that messy last over, but this was a decent bowling effort. If only Chris Gayle shows a bit of himself, the Windies should win here. Even without a proper Gayle knock, there is a good opportunity.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Two wickets to Rampaul in this over....

So far, he's deserved his retention, hasn't he?

Gayle does not have a vote in choosing the squad, which is ridiculous, IMHO. His comments to the press are neither here nor there, because we all know captains have to come up with PR platitudes from time to time. Clearly, he was in no mood for these platitudes when the team he didn't want for the second ODI failed with the bat again, and that's what it boils down to....

It's well known in Jamaica that Gayle is good friends with both Hinds and Nash, and would want both of them in a weak side like this. That is hardly speculation....

Here, he seems to have got half his cake. Hinds, but no Nash.

so you're saying that you know more than the people in the know who claim Gayle has had a say in who plays in the side? ok Mike

As for Rampaul, he was going so well until the last horror show over , that might just come back to hurt us in the end, hopefully our damn "captain" will stand up this time and get his own game in order, if he fails again then further questions have to be asked about his captaincy of the side.

 

[_Ed_]

Smith/Rampaul/Sammy/Pollard/Miller takes me back to Franklin/Styris/Oram (when he'd hardly even bowled in domestic cricket)/McMillan/Walker bowling for NZ against Zimbabwe in 2000/01- that attack was so bad it's stuck in my memory all this time.

Styris opened the bowling in that series, didn't he? Remarkable.

 

[Ikki]

Surprised at the optimism; Windies to get bowled out for <200. You heard it here first

 

[Nate]

To this effect Australia should permanently drop:

Voges
Marsh
Hopes

rest Clarke, whilst bringin in:

D. Hussey
Warner
Hodge even

Voges and Hopes don't make Australia's first eleven. And to criticise them after today, where Voges batted as a makeshift opener and Hopes made 30 off 34 seems to make little-to-no sense. And Darsh didn't even play today, but no surprises there.

Hodge has retired from Internationals. Dussey has had a much longer run in ODIs than Voges and has "proven" to be a failure. Not to mention he's two years older than Voges. Suggesting Warner should play is the closest you have ever gotten to making a good point, but then again, he's averaging 24 with the blade after 8 innings this season.

 

[thierry henry]

Styris opened the bowling in that series, didn't he? Remarkable.

I distinctly remember that attack from one particular game, which was the game we lost at Eden Park.

There may have been other bowlers but I'm 99% sure that those 5 all played. Actually, Walker may have been a sub fielder??

Anyway, the defining features were (a) Styris taking the new ball, (b) just-turned-20 BATTING ALL-ROUNDER Franklin taking the new ball, (c) McMillan as a frontline bowler, (d) Oram bowling inaccurately at 120kph as he was essentially a non-bowler at that time.

 

[Stapel]

Surprised at the optimism; Windies to get bowled out for <200. You heard it here first

Well, I just woke up. And after hearing Colin Croft saying the pitch is quite spicy......, I might have to change my mind.