Australian Discussion (Final Squad Announced Post #82)

[vcs]

Made that runout against SA as well. I think that was the first time I properly took note of him.

 

[Spark]

Holds the record for most sixes in a WC or in a WC innings doesn't he, with some extraordinary assault vs. NZ IIRC. He was great - although probably very much surplus to requirements, the way the top order was going.

 

[four_or_six]

Hussey is back... looks like he means business!

 

[stephen]

Made that runout against SA as well. I think that was the first time I properly took note of him.

True. That runout really turned the match and set the tone for the series.

I honestly think though that Smith will have more of a role to play that Watto did in that series. However, looking back on it, Watto was awesome in the last WC.

 

[four_or_six]

Sorry if this was posted somewhere before, but I just came across Binga's diaries. Oh my goodness, I never thought Krejza would be a James Blunt fan.

Swanny's diaries it ain't.

 

[Nate]

Not sure why I feel compelled to embrace my sorrows...

Why Australia's Squad will bomb out of the World Cup

Ricky Ponting - Coming back from an injury. Was in horrendous form all summer, looked scratchy despite the scores in the warm-ups. Pushing way too hard at the ball. FAILURE

Michael Clarke - Still hasn't corrected his technique and footwork. Gets stuck between occupying the crease and belting everything. Will run-out himself and a team-mate. At least once. Will probably make runs at some point to kill my life. MEH

Doug Bollinger - Y so tired? Can't seem to sustain his pace throughout a game. Has invaluable experience in India. Will pick up key wickets while going for runs. MEH

Callum Ferguson - Lost his penis in the backyard. Will make runs though. SUCCESS

Brad Haddin - Australia's funny man will make a bunch of low scores and have one or two successes, struggling early on. Will be flawless behind the stumps. MEH

John Hastings - Relatively untested. Canny with his cutters. Don't think he'll be horrible, but he won't pick up many wickets and will most likely be dropped after the World Cup. FAILURE

Dave Hussey - Would rather have Precambrian in the middle order. What a stupid selection. Can bowl offies though, my bad. FAILURE

Mitchell Johnson - Spare me. Offers nothing on Indian wickets. Had a terrible summer. Will somehow gun it the entire tournament. SUCCESS

Jason Krejza - Has all the tools to succeed in the spinner's role. Key will be consistency and changes of pace. By all reports is a bit of a knob. May well prove me wrong. But won't. FAILURE

Brett Lee - Will be the only good thing about our World Cup. Please don't get injured Brett. Or I'll injure you. SUCCESS

Tim Paine - Nerves will get the better of him I reckon. Will get caught on the crease and edge a few behind. FAILURE

Steve Smith - The opposite of Paine. Backs himself, won't get scared on the big occasion. Will make quick runs, take wickets, field like Rhodes and make passionate love to TumTum's sister. SUCCESS

Shaun Tait - What a muppet. Can't bowl in India. Might pwn an associate n00b or two. Will withdraw from the tournament halfway through with menstruation issues. FAILURE

Shane Watson - Is it too much to ask him to carry us again? Think it's time for him to fail unfortunately. His bowling will be ineffective in Indian conditions. MEH

Cameron White - Reckon he'll come up with the goods. Could well be our leading run-scorer. Can't go worse than when he played as a specialist bowler frbs. SUCCESS

Verdict - Will scrape our way through to the semis before finally being eliminated. It will be a World Cup to forget for Australia, with massive questions asked about Ricky Ponting's place in the Australian Team.

Haha, judge away. Mostly spot on, but White was a shocker. We will assume I was being sarcastic.

It's a pity this had to happen, but I'm glad tbh. We have the wrong people in charge, which results in the wrong players in the side. Our system and our priorities are unclear and not working, and I really hope now the change we so desperately need can begin. We don't even play 50 over cricket in Australia frbs!

Well done Brett Lee on a wonderful campaign, and career.

Surely all the 'Australianism' talk is now utterly dead.

 

[Nate]

Worth noting also that Ponting's 100 tonight was our sole ton of the World Cup. Also, no bowler took five wickets in an innings.

 

[howardj]

Haha, judge away. Mostly spot on, but White was a shocker. We will assume I was being sarcastic.

It's a pity this had to happen, but I'm glad tbh. We have the wrong people in charge, which results in the wrong players in the side. Our system and our priorities are unclear and not working, and I really hope now the change we so desperately need can begin. We don't even play 50 over cricket in Australia frbs!

Well done Brett Lee on a wonderful campaign, and career.

Surely all the 'Australianism' talk is now utterly dead.

Youre a good good man.

Sit tight.

The way forward will be chartered once my Ashes Aftermath - Australian Cricket Under the Microscope paper is released (1 May).

 

[Nate]

Still not convinced on Clarke btw.

Clarke against Zimbabwe, Kenya and Canada - 167 runs @ 167.00 (S/R 109.87)
Clarke against New Zealand, Pakistan and India - 66 runs @ 33.00 (S/R 63.46)

Just sayin'.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Was definitely "Ashes" Clarke today.

Anyway, obviously must suck to be knocked out, but best thing for Oz in the long run. A world cup win would've muddied the waters re the captaincy.

Can't be any reason to keep Punter short of Clarke being a bit of a prick now and there are other options available.

 

[howardj]

Knocked out virtually at the first stage.

Has been a dismal campaign, with the only notch on our belt being NZ (a team that recently got whipped in a series against Bangladesh).

No point saying that we were unlucky to draw India either. We drew them because we finished so low in our pool.

 

[Ausage]

Yeah not buying the whole "we shouldn't have played India" thing. Aside from the fact we were the third best team in group A if you want to win the thing you have to be prepared to beat anyone. End of.

In the end we just weren't good enough. Batting wasn't good enough (so sick of saying that) and the bowling was bipolar. All as we expected/feared.

 

[stephen]

Yeah we really cannot complain having lost two in a row.

My complaints more center around the fact that we only had 3 games against teams that were any kind of challenge. No Sri Lanka, no South Africa, no England and no WI games all make for a dull campaign.

 

[Spark]

Still not convinced on Clarke btw.

Clarke against Zimbabwe, Kenya and Canada - 167 runs @ 167.00 (S/R 109.87)
Clarke against New Zealand, Pakistan and India - 66 runs @ 33.00 (S/R 63.46)

Just sayin'.

Rough to group NZ in there when he was not out, and Pakistan he was second top scorer. Will take the point though, he looked absolutely odd yesterday.

It is extremely rich to say that he's not in form when he scored four half centuries in four completed innings then had one failure though.

 

[pup11]

Rough to group NZ in there when he was not out, and Pakistan he was second top scorer. Will take the point though, he looked absolutely odd yesterday.

It is extremely rich to say that he's not in form when he scored four half centuries in four completed innings then had one failure though.

You always have something positive to say about him but the fact of the matter is he just isn't a man who delivers on the big ocassions.

He obviously knows how to fill his boots when things are going well, as his overall test and ODI record would suggest, but he just doesn't have the pedigree of a Ponting, Tugga or AB to come out and deliver in big games or inspire confidence into his troops like all good leaders do, that's why he would always remain a good player but would never reach the pedestal of greatness.

Moving on I agree with others that we Aussie fans have nothing much to complain about, eventhough I'm devastated with us getting knocked-out but there is no doubting the fact that we just failed to adapt to the conditions and we failed to get the make-up of our side right through the tournament which in the end hurt us really bad.

We just didn't use our resources smartly enough and the horses for courses approach we often keep talking about was totally missing here.

For some weird reason we played Hastings in every ODI game leading upto the worldcup yet he wasn't picked for a single game, when you would have thought the these conditions would have suited his bowling to the 'T'.

Tait playing 4 ODI'S in the matter of just 9-10 days, David Hussey and Ferguson not being considered despite Smith and White not doing much were just few of the basic errors of our campaign.

One more thing to come out of this worldcup is that Jason Krezja should never come anywhere near an Australian side, if as a spinner he can't bowl decently on that dust-bowl then he really doesn't deserve to play international cricket, think Smith would have done a much better job then him on that pitch.

 

[Sylvester]

Once again the selectors persisted with a batsmen far too long when he should have been dropped earlier. Again they picked bowlers that were inconsistent although to an extent their hand was forced with the injuries. Selections were again a shambles, Hussey not being picked, Doherty not being picked as Hauritz's replacement even though he was fit to play for Tassie soon after.

 

[social]

No matter how big a shambles CA is in, I think it's fair to assume that Ponting had a big say and he needs to accept a fair share of the blame

Having said that, we have just an "average" team that was largely unsuited to the conditions and that was proven in this tournament

 

[pup11]

No matter how big a shambles CA is in, I think it's fair to assume that Ponting had a big say and he needs to accept a fair share of the blame

Having said that, we have just an "average" team that was largely unsuited to the conditions and that was proven in this tournament

From what I have read and heard Ponting couldn't have been more unhappy about the make-up of the squad, Mussey was a good inclusion but Ponting was pretty vocal that in terms of the balance of the squad he definitely didn't want him as a replacment to Bollinger.

Our fast-bowling trio wasn't bad despite being slightly down on discipline but we very let down in big way becuase of the lack of having a decent spinner or two, a spin bowling combination of Smith and Hauritz in the middle order would have gone a long in giving our attack a lot more penetration.

 

[Spark]

You always have something positive to say about him but the fact of the matter is he just isn't a man who delivers on the big ocassions.

He obviously knows how to fill his boots when things are going well, as his overall test and ODI record would suggest, but he just doesn't have the pedigree of a Ponting, Tugga or AB to come out and deliver in big games or inspire confidence into his troops like all good leaders do, that's why he would always remain a good player but would never reach the pedestal of greatness.

Not going to argue with the general gist of that ("not being as good as Ricky Ponting or Allan Border" is not the world's harshest criticism) but given that so many people are willing to completely forget or ignore anything useful, positive or important that he's ever done - and there are more than enough examples of that to go around - I think that I'm doing a useful service by injecting some ****ing balance into the debate every once in a while.

Lee was outstanding. Johnson was pretty good - deserved better reward yesterday - but Tait was absolute trash.

 

[social]

Not going to argue with the general gist of that ("not being as good as Ricky Ponting or Allan Border" is not the world's harshest criticism) but given that so many people are willing to completely forget or ignore anything useful, positive or important that he's ever done - and there are more than enough examples of that to go around - I think that I'm doing a useful service by injecting some ****ing balance into the debate every once in a while.

Lee was outstanding. Johnson was pretty good - deserved better reward yesterday - but Tait was absolute trash.

How many times did Johnson beat Yuvi outside the off stump?

Really, really began to piss me off towards the end