*Official* First Test at the Gabba

[Spark]

What an excellent day for England! Always watching it expecting an imminent clatter of wickets to fall in a cluster, but the guys that got in went on and didn't leave it to anyone else. Shame we couldn't assert ourselves like this in the first dig, but that's cricket.

Australia's attack probably didn't show us too much that we don't already know. Hilfenhaus will get some movement with the new ball and will generally be in and around a decent area, Johnson it would be overly harsh I think to say he's a liability, but his skipper is clearly lacking some faith in him. Doherty looks a little flat in flight and didn't get much spin, but neither did the best spinner in the world. Siddle was wholehearted yet lacked the edge of the first innings, and Watso got it up on a good fullish length but didn't get any movement and was reasonably pedestrian.

England had to keep their patience and concentration, yet were allowed to score pretty comfortably throughout the day. When Trott joined Cook it was vital another partnership grew, and so it did at decent pace aswell. The natural worry is Cook and Trott together and the runs drying up, but Cook was already well set and Trott got into his stride quickly.

On Ponting's captaincy, I think we all know he was spoilt with his side in the past and this would now be a real test of skills. He is a bit of a ball follower, and will find it difficult without those bowlers that can change a game with a wicket or work accurately to a plan and dry the runs up completely. I doubt there was a massive amount more he could do today, it's a good deck with three very good batsmen getting in and set.

He could have not given away so many ****ing singles at square leg and thereabouts

 

[GotSpin]

On Pontings captaincy for the day, I think if he'd just had a midwicket in place instead of guys on the boundary for the hook he would have done a much better job. The field was relatively attacking all day and he was always looking for wickets, regardless of instances in which he was ball following. Although he kept changing his plans, it was more in response to the inability of any of our bowlers to bowl a consistent line and length for any duration. Other than the midwicket area, I find it a bit harsh to overly criticise Ponting today

 

[pup11]

Who says there is a plan?

Haha... well that's a possibility as well, but even today having a 7-2 field for Hilfenhaus seemed like plan albeit a poor one....

 

[Prince EWS]

As I said you can't expect Hilfenhaus to stop the flow of runs and take wickets at the same time, which is what Ponting has been asking of him right since he made his debut in the 09 Ashes.
The other quicks apart from Bollinger have all been guilty of leaking runs and not bowling to the plan and Hilfenhaus has been the one filling in their overs, pretty sure if both Bollinger and Hilfenhaus play as the part of the same attack one would see improvement in Hilfy's wicket taking capacity and that would also raise the potency of the Aussie attack, 2nd innings at Mohali is a good example of this.

Meh you can spin it any way you like. You could just as easily say that Johnson's been trying too hard to bowl magic balls and get breakthroughs because Hilfenhaus bowls over after over and innocuous crap that never takes wickets. Now that's probably bull****, but then so is the theory that Hilfenhaus isn't taking wickets because Johnson isn't.

Fact is, the role of both bowlers it to take as many wickets for as little runs as possible. Both of them have done a terrible job of that in this match but Johnson's done a better job over it across his career than Hilfenhaus. Hilfenhaus has had two good series in his career - both in conditions ideally suited to his bowling, one of which against a ridiculously bad batting lineup, and neither of which he actually managed to take a five wicket haul in. Aside from that he's had a poor debut series in South Africa, an ineffective series in India which everyone raved about and one game against the West Indies at home in which he got injured. Oh and this game. He has no credit in the bank in Australia or indeed in anything other than the most swing-friendly conditions in the world.. unlike Johnson who has had countless good series in this country. I think Hilf's a good bowler and I don't really like bagging him, but he's over-rated on here based on what he looks like when he bowls (and I've explained why it's deceiving before).

 

[Spark]

It's huge for England to pull a game back like this - the 143-5 to 481 is not important - we already knew they could bowl Australia out - we didn't know they could bat all through day 4 and just lose one wicket

Bollocks IMO. A 300+ run partnership is anything but "not important" whatever the circumstances. We have problems, but so do you.

 

[GotSpin]

Think Hilfenhaus needs much more of a circle field rather than stacking the cordon. He's at his best when he bowls it quite straight while moving it either way.

 

[Spark]

Think Hilfenhaus needs much more of a ring in play rather than stacking the cordon. He's at his best when he bowls it quite straight while moving it either way.

Agreed. Looked so pedestrian when he was bowling a "corridor" line well outside off.

 

[Goughy]

So assuming this test ends in a draw who would the MotM be? Hussey or Cook?

Has to be Siddle. Unless it all changes tomorrow, hundreds have come in bunches but only Siddle ripped the heart out of a side. Throw in the hattrick and anything else would be criminal.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

He could have not given away so many ****ing singles at square leg and thereabouts

Agreed, mid-on seemed almost redundant for all the flicking across the line.

In that regard, if Hilf had spent the day just swinging the ****ing thing back into the pads and doing the requisite pitching up he would have gotten a tidy haul.

 

[pup11]

Yeah and still had 2 bats at the crease and an allrounder to come so it wasn't as if we were through to the tail.

Also this is the ground you always win at so not winning here is a blow to you.

I think it just says you don't rate your team enough, England just needed to make one more breakthrough after Australia were 5 down and they would have been bossing the game all the way through.
The fact that from that position you guys allowed two blokes, one who was playing for his career and one who was playing a test after ages to put up a 300 plus partnership would definitely go down as a missed opportunity.

 

[Prince EWS]

Has to be Siddle. Unless it all changes tomorrow, hundreds have come in binches but only Siddle ripped the heart out of a side. Throw in the hattrick and anything else would be criminal.

Had not even considered that because of the state of the game. Fair call. Would seem odd to give the MOTM award to a bowler in a drawn game on a pitch that wasn't particularly flat, but he was awesome. If he takes 0/100 in the second innings I might need to re-think, though.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Think Hilfenhaus needs much more of a circle field rather than stacking the cordon. He's at his best when he bowls it quite straight while moving it either way.

This, a thousand times this. Bowlers, and certainly swing-dependent ones, need to make the batsman play while secure in the knowledge that they won't get worked off their pads for two singles every over.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah, the last thing Hilfenhaus needs is more encouragement to bowl wide outside off. He does that enough as it is.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

I think it just says you don't rate your team enough, England just needed to make one more breakthrough after Australia were 5 down and they would have been bossing the game all the way through.
The fact that from that position you guys allowed two blokes, one who was playing for his career and one who was playing a test after ages to put up a 300 plus partnership would definitely go down as a missed opportunity.

We would have made said breakthrough if the umpire had given the stonewall lbw.It happens.The thing is you had a 200+ run lead and have only taken 1 wicket in over a day.I know which side will be happier right now and it isn't Australia.

Anyway no point carrying on this argument,we will agree to disagree and await day 5 and see what happens.

 

[pup11]

Meh you can spin it any way you like. You could just as easily say that Johnson's been trying too hard to bowl magic balls and get breakthroughs because Hilfenhaus bowls over after over and innocuous crap that never takes wickets. Now that's probably bull****, but then so is the theory that Hilfenhaus isn't taking wickets because Johnson isn't.

Fact is, the role of both bowlers it to take as many wickets for as little runs as possible. Both of them have done a terrible job of that in this match but Johnson's done a better job over it across his career than Hilfenhaus. Hilfenhaus has had two good series in his career - both in conditions ideally suited to his bowling, one of which against a ridiculously bad batting lineup, and neither of which he actually managed to take a five wicket haul in. Aside from that he's had a poor debut series in South Africa, an ineffective series in India which everyone raved about and one game against the West Indies at home in which he got injured. Oh and this game. He has no credit in the bank in Australia or indeed in anything other than the most swing-friendly conditions in the world.. unlike Johnson who has had countless good series in this country. I think Hilf's a good bowler and I don't really like bagging him, but he's over-rated on here based on what he looks like when he bowls (and I've explained why it's deceiving before).

Lets agree to disagree then, my view is Australia's attack would receive a huge boost if Dougie and Hilfy share the new ball.
Also lets not forget that Hilfy is not in this test side on potential or anything, he was destroying domestic batting line-ups a bit like someone like Copeland doing is doing right now.

 

[four_or_six]

Haha... well that's a possibility as well, but even today having a 7-2 field for Hilfenhaus seemed like plan albeit a poor one....

Michael Holding was doing his nut when Watson had the 7-2 field, and said if his captain had asked him to bowl to that, he would have given him the ball and told him to do it. It didn't go on long in that case, a couple of balls later Watson called Ponting over and the field was changed.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

What are Copeland's FC figures at the moment? Just curious.

 

[Goughy]

North took more wickets and scored more runs than Johnson tbf. Based on the evidence of this Test he should be batting eight as the spinner in Adelaide.

That logic has worked before for Aus

1st Test: South Africa v Australia at Johannesburg, Feb 28-Mar 4, 1997 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[pasag]

We would have made said breakthrough if the umpire had given the stonewall lbw.It happens.The thing is you had a 200+ run lead and have only taken 1 wicket in over a day.I know which side will be happier right now and it isn't Australia.

Anyway no point carrying on this argument,we will agree to disagree and await day 5 and see what happens.

Yeah, you're happy today, we were happy yesterday, you were happy the day before that and we were happy the day before that. We each won two days, it's been more or less even. Anything else is spin.

 

[Prince EWS]

Lets agree to disagree then, my view is Australia's attack would receive a huge boost if Dougie and Hilfy share the new ball.
Also lets not forget that Hilfy is not in this test side on potential or anything, he was destroying domestic batting line-ups a bit like someone like Copeland doing is doing right now.

State Averages

Copeland - 17.26
Johnson - 29.29
Hilfenhaus - 29.82

Don't see it, tbh.