*Official* England in Australia (2 T20 & 7 ODIs)

[Spark]

Random thought occurred to me, I reckon Australia is one of the easiest places in the world to chase in ODIs. Unless it is played on a lively track such as the WACA, you never feel confident even if you post 290.

India is even easier. We posted about 290 recently, India got it in a canter.

Mind you that was with a second (or third) string attack.

 

[Spikey]

Still don't understand why Smith got sent in and don't quite understand the anger at Clarke's innings.

 

[Furball]

Jeez, some of the people running down Clarke have nfi about cricket.

Perfectly timed chase.

Watson played reasonably well I spose...

Nothing wrong with Clarke's innings if he kicks on and finishes unbeaten and strikes at 85+.

But if you're going to strike at 63, you can't just get out and leave the guys behind you to do the work.

 

[Spark]

Still don't understand why Smith got sent in and don't quite understand the anger at Clarke's innings.

Of all the batsmen left to come Smith was probably the best during a PP tbh. Hussey is a finisher, but we weren't looking for a finisher, and White takes a while to find his timing. Smith is the kind of batsman who can go hitting from ball one.

 

[Jono]

Benchy would defend Clarke if he went at 35 strike rate.

 

[pup11]

I realise that, and if you look back on the thread you'll see that I didn't think this was a good innings. Just not the work of the devil as has been made out here.

His job was to get singles and in the latter half of the innings he did that OK - not superbly, but adequately. His SR actually looks much worse than it ends up being because he was appalling for 15-20 balls or so, but then once set started to work the singles properly.

You will note that Watson wasn't exactly steaming ahead during that period either when he did get the strike.

Isn't that what I'm saying as well, he is appalling for the first 15-20 balls he plays in mostly every OD innings of his, which means every time he comes out to bat he just halts the momentum of the innings.
That's all okay.... but the bigger problem is that he doesn't have any big shots to improve his appalling SR as his innings progresses, and that has been pretty much the case with him over the last 2-3 years.

 

[Spikey]

but we didn't really need someone to smack it around. 7 an over at that stage was easy as someone pointed out above. if watson was the one who got out i could understand it but to me it was just a waste of a wicket

(and in any case i back mj to do it better than smith)

 

[Spark]

Isn't that what I'm saying as well, he is appalling for the first 15-20 balls he plays in mostly every OD innings of his, which means every time he comes out to bat he just halts the momentum of the innings.

Yeah that's fair, and that's the main problem with this innings, not his lack of boundaries when Watson was middling them something scary on a bigass ground.

That's all okay.... but the bigger problem is that he doesn't have any big shots to improve his appalling SR as his innings progresses, and that has been pretty much the case with him over the last 2-3 years.

Well we didn't get a chance to see that today, so I don't see what that has to do with this innings.

 

[Spark]

but we didn't really need someone to smack it around. 7 an over at that stage was easy as someone pointed out above. if watson was the one who got out i could understand it but to me it was just a waste of a wicket

(and in any case i back mj to do it better than smith)

I guess we just wanted to get the best use of the PP. I'd have sent in Mussey myself, but meh, he came in one over later anyway. No harm done, really.

 

[TumTum]

(and in any case i back mj to do it better than smith)

Lee tbh. Smith is too unorthodox for his own good (misses out on balls where batsman could play a normal cricket shot) and MJ is either hot or cold (mostly cold).

 

[Ausage]

Of all the batsmen left to come Smith was probably the best during a PP tbh. Hussey is a finisher, but we weren't looking for a finisher, and White takes a while to find his timing. Smith is the kind of batsman who can go hitting from ball one.

I haven't seen as much of Smith as some others, but every time I've seen him really try to force the issue with the bat he looks completely toilet.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah that's fair, and that's the main problem with this innings, not his lack of boundaries when Watson was middling them something scary on a bigass ground.

Watto did have to risk his wicket as a result of Clarke's innings though. Those shots he played off Yardy, plus the one he skied that landed safely wouldn't have been necessary if Clarke hadn't been running sooo far below the RRR.

 

[Furball]

twenty twenty cricket.

Pretty sure cricinfo did a recent analysis that suggested Clarke was one of the best ODI batsman of all time.

4 years ago he was the best in the world at eliminating dot balls and keeping the scoreboard ticking along, and could launch the ball into the stands if he needed/wanted to. Played a brilliant knock against South Africa in the group stages of the last WC. 4 years ago he would walk into an ODI World XI.

Since then he seems to have lost all the attributes that made him such and excellent batsman. I think his numbers in the last year or so are actually pretty good from memory though (apart from his SR), if he can find a way to fix that then he's an excellent asset for Australia.

 

[pup11]

Yeah, apart from Yardy, Bresnan, Swann and Shahzad, who have all proven they can get some runs, there isn't much batting there at all.

But tbh it was down to KP to push on, and for Bell and Morgan to support him.

Apart from Bresnan, the rest have hardly done anything of note in LO games to be really considered as handy lower order batsmen.

 

[Spark]

4 years ago he was the best in the world at eliminating dot balls and keeping the scoreboard ticking along, and could launch the ball into the stands if he needed/wanted to. Played a brilliant knock against South Africa in the group stages of the last WC. 4 years ago he would walk into an ODI World XI.

Since then he seems to have lost all the attributes that made him such and excellent batsman. I think his numbers in the last year or so are actually pretty good from memory though (apart from his SR), if he can find a way to fix that then he's an excellent asset for Australia.

His SR last year was pretty good, 80+ IIRC. Still not fantastic though, nowhere near his best.

I haven't seen as much of Smith as some others, but every time I've seen him really try to force the issue with the bat he looks completely toilet.

Played a few brilliant little cameos at the close in England last year IIRC.

 

[Spark]

Watto did have to risk his wicket as a result of Clarke's innings though. Those shots he played off Yardy, plus the one he skied that landed safely wouldn't have been necessary if Clarke hadn't been running sooo far below the RRR.

If those sixes against Yardy was because of Clarke's pressure on him then Clarke should start blocking everything when he's bowling IMO. Nothing gave me more enjoyment than seeing him get hammered tonight after seeing him constantly do well against us doing nothing more than darting length balls at middle stump. ****s me to tears.

More seriously though, yeah, fair point if Watson isn't playing an ATG innings. He probably won't get away with it next time, but tonight he did.

 

[Burgey]

Watto did have to risk his wicket as a result of Clarke's innings though. Those shots he played off Yardy, plus the one he skied that landed safely wouldn't have been necessary if Clarke hadn't been running sooo far below the RRR.

Fact is, Aussie supporters have been spoilt for a long time by having Ponting waltzing out at three in a situation like tonight, and keeping things ticking from the get-go.

 

[Spark]

Oh, and it's difficult to claim that ODIs are/should be dead when matches like this are on offer.

 

[Furball]

Fact is, Aussie supporters have been spoilt for a long time by having Ponting waltzing out at three in a situation like tonight, and keeping things ticking from the get-go.

But Clarke from 4 years ago would have done it, and would have done it better than Ponting.

 

[Ausage]

Oh, and it's difficult to claim that ODIs are/should be dead when matches like this are on offer.

AWTA. You'll never see a knock as impressive as Wattos in a T20 imo.