• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

*Official* First Test at the Gabba

Son Of Coco

Son Of Coco

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Bun said:
What a dreadful test match pitch.
Click to expand...
Don't think it's that bad. You need to give the ball a chance to hit the cracks more than once every two overs though.

Would look more at how some of the bowlers have bowled than at the pitch.
 
robelinda

robelinda

International Vice-Captain
Harris and Bollinger if both fit should be in the 13 for Adelaide. Forget a bloody spinner, even a guy like McDonald (if fit) wouldve done a much better job with the ball than our hopeless 'spinners'. Stuart Clark even at his old age would be good. Been disgusting how many rank woeful balls we've bowled, or the stacks of just useless balls that havent threatened at all. Stuart Clark would bowl stump to stump, Hilfenhaus has been bowling wider and wider of off stump.
 
Spark

Spark

Global Moderator
robelinda said:
Harris and Bollinger if both fit should be in the 13 for Adelaide. Forget a bloody spinner, even a guy like McDonald (if fit) wouldve done a much better job with the ball than our hopeless 'spinners'. Stuart Clark even at his old age would be good. Been disgusting how many rank woeful balls we've bowled, or the stacks of just useless balls that havent threatened at all. Stuart Clark would bowl stump to stump, Hilfenhaus has been bowling wider and wider of off stump.
Click to expand...
Agreed with this.
 
vcs

vcs

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Mitch should be dropped for that moustache alone. It's a crime on humanity to inflict that thing on the audience. :laugh:
 
Johnners

Johnners

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Blocky said:
The abnormality here is that England haven't been throwing the wickets away to Mitchell Johnson and what ever spin bowler Australia have since Warne. All other sides have been doing that and they've stopped doing it this series.

You've got batsmen who aren't performing who stay in the side (never happened in the last 15 years for Aus) and a captain who has no idea on how to captain a side that doesn't have McGrath and Warne doing it all for him.

In my view, Australia are entirely freaking lucky to A: Reduce England to 260 in the first innings and B: Have a partnership between Hussey and Haddin which put them so far ahead.

Realistically, there aren't too many positives to take from this except Hussey, Haddin and Siddle. There are huge question marks around Doherty, North, Johnson and lingering concerns around Clarke, Ponting's captaincy and whether Hilfenhaus is good enough at this level.

When have Australia had so many doubts about their side? Their best hope is that they find a new age Allan Border to rebuild it.
Click to expand...
I'm under no illusion that there isn't doubts about this side. After this match, North absolutely shouldn't be there, and neither should Hilfenhaus. The only concern about Clarke should be his back, if it's fine, he'll score runs in Adelaide of that I have no doubt given the form he displayed in his last FC match. Pontings captaincy won't be that much of an issue if his bowlers actually do what they're supposed to. Doherty, question marks indeed, but no more or less than there would be from any other spinner that they seemingly pick from the lottery.

As for Johnson, see my post a few pages back. Calls for his head are premature imho. If he fails spectacularly in Adelaide, i may see it differently, but dropping him now would be a huge mistake for mine.

It's one thing to talk about making changes etc, but honestly, there's a total of about 2/3 players available for selection who have the potential to make this team better. Bollinger for Hilfenhaus definitely needs to happen, and would be a definite improvement. North has to be dropped, but can we honestly say that Usman/Smith are going to instantly improve the team. Whilst I hope they can, and think they probably would to a small degree, I'd be pleasantly surprised if they managed to average much more than 40 for the first part of their career.

Bottom line is, Australia isn't as good as it once was because we simply don't have the cattle.
 
pasag

pasag

RTDAS
It's times like this I appreciate the fact I worked for a long time on reducing my emotional divestment in cricket. If this had happened a few years back I'd probably have topped myself.
 
Spark

Spark

Global Moderator
pasag said:
It's times like this I appreciate the fact I worked for a long time on reducing my emotional divestment in cricket. If this had happened a few years back I'd probably have topped myself.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm much more of an individual-performances guy than I used to be.
 
Andre

Andre

International Regular
Have a bowl Punter! Or Katich, or erm, someone. Buy a wicket - what we are doing ain't working.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Top