*Official* Third Test at Edgbaston

[Howe_zat]

 

[GIMH]

Only refund washout I've ever had was Edgbaston 09. Freddie slayed Johnson everywhere the next day as well

 

[Uppercut]

The forecast is getting worse and Edgbaston's drainage is a bit ****. Might be spending much of tomorrow watching Australia.

 

[Uppercut]

With a bit of grass on the pitch it could be yet another massive, massive toss too. You have to fear for India if they lose one of these.

 

[hazsa19]

The forecast is getting worse and Edgbaston's drainage is a bit ****. Might be spending much of tomorrow watching Australia.

The forecast has been showing light rain for most of the week, now it shows light rain shower.

And Edgbaston's drainage is fine.

Btw i'm trying to convince myself more than anything, i'm heading there tomorrow and I hate watching rain

 

[Stapel]

Point I tried to make even in my earlier post is that he gets out that way even in India.. For some reason, people don't notice that.. It is just the way he plays and while he does give chances, if it is his day and he gets away with not nicking them or a few drops, he can make hay. Obviously, all this applies when he is match fit which he obviously isn't at the moment.. But still kinda daft to suggest he will have NO impact on the series if he was match fit.

Well, we might never find out...

I am looking forward to Sehwag vs top-form, swinging the new ball, in English conditions, English bowlers.

Sehwag can be a tremendous asset, but I really don't know he can be (even if match fit) in England with the current England attack. Pity, that is.

 

[Themer]

The forecast has been showing light rain for most of the week, now it shows light rain shower.

And Edgbaston's drainage is fine.

Btw i'm trying to convince myself more than anything, i'm heading there tomorrow and I hate watching rain

Saw the weather forecast and Birmingham should just about be fine tomorrow, possibly some very light showers. Thursday doesn't look to clever at all though.

 

[Top_Cat]

I see you say this a lot and it's always good to read because people seem to ignore it. Looking at only the delivery that gets a batsman out surely ignores the fundamental principles of cricket?

Would imagine that if you look at a batsman who can't play the short ball, he has a fair few yorker dismissals, for example?

Tactics around the wicket ball are absolutely the difference between playing grade cricket and playing Test cricket. It's why I get irked when I see people go after a batter for chasing a wide one and/or give the bowler no credit for the wicket because it wasn't a peach of a ball; if the bowler has spent the past hour putting the batter on the defensive, finally thrown the wide one and it's gotten a wicket, that's good bowling. Just because Sehwag wasn't out to a spitting leg-cutter every time has nothing to do with whether he was undone by good bowling (which he was, as UC said).

Put it this way; you will not play even 1st grade cricket if your only tactics are 'bowl a killer ball'.

A fairly good example on CW was Harmison's to Clarke in '05. People went on and on about how Clarke missed an obvious slower-ball, was so slow he had time to adjust, etc. It, however, thoroughly misses the point; Clarke had been pushed right back by an over of splice-jarring, WI-style nasty ****. Most hot-headed quicks (i.e. Brett Lee) would have thought "Yeah, got him in trouble here. TIME TO BOWL AN EVEN QUICKER ONEEE." or "Be conservative, bowl a tight one to finish the day on a good note." But Harmi had the balls to slip in a sucker-punch. Considering the emotion of the moment and the whole day which had led to it (Freddie's batting/bowling, Australian collapse, small-ish total to chase), was a staggeringly unexpected move but if you just saw highlights you'd think "How the **** did he miss that one?"

 

[Top_Cat]

The reason why I mentioned that Sehwag being out on the drive (no matter who caught it or where) is telling is because it's a great example of how a bowling side can, if they're good enough, turn a strength into a weakness. Sehwag's drives are money shots for him and he goes for them early. Just stopping a strong driver from playing the shot won't get them out, though. Your tactics need to be more evolved than that.

One example; a batsman who's sweating on the drive is looking for several things to be right with themselves and a series of mental tick-boxes might look like this; 1) head still and over the bat-handle, 2) feet in position, 3) eyes on the ball all the way down, 4) bat through the line and following any movement, 5) hit hard enough to reach the boundary. A batter might spend a few balls or a few overs looking to tick all those boxes until they feel in the groove enough to play it. Now, if you just bowl to stop them scoring, they'll eventually tick all those boxes so that the to-do list is simplified to 'wait for the right length' i.e. only one thing to look for. Makes things far simpler which is bad news as a bowler.

One thing you can do as a bowler is to make it so, when you give a batter a ball in their pet area, they have to tick a bunch of those boxes all at once which drastically heightens the chance of a mistake. If you're really good, you can add to the mix a component to the ball which makes it look like the ball is in the batter's pet area but isn't quite (maybe a bit of movement away from the bat). You get the batter looking for something which isn't quite there which gives you, the bowler, more control of the options a batter has than they have.

That's just one example, though. The point is that limiting your tactics to 'bowl killer ball' or 'bowl to their perceived weakness' is fairly unsophisticated cricket, especially since even grade cricketers will put good balls away. Because we're talking about Test batters here, they just won't work for long anyway. There is a time to bowl the killer balls (if you can) and developing a sense of that is obviously incredibly important. But, most of the time, you have to think deeper than that and learn to turn strengths into weaknesses, which means you have more control over when they're able to exercise their skills than they do (conditions play their part here, of course) or, better yet, induce in them a weakness they never knew they had.

Even guys with the ability to bowl killer balls more often have to learn all this. Shaun Tait is basically Wasim Akram without any consistency or smarts. Not a surprise who's done better for themselves at all levels of the game.

 

[marc71178]

Looks like there'll be a fair bit of rain tomorrow, and more on Thursday.

Bugger.

Are you sure about that? The forecast I just watched had it as being overcast but next to no rain all day, bowl first conditions IMO so watch Dhoni win the toss and Ravi gets to sit in the changing room all day.

 

[Burgey]

Does this match start on Wednesday? That's a bit odd isn't it?

 

[GotSpin]

He received an email from the mods informing him that, basically, they don't like him. They included a link to six or seven posts, only one of which could be deemed infractable but which was dealt with on the spot by our match thread moderator (he called Cevno a moron). Other posts included a reference to Tendulkar failing under pressure and calling SS a ****** in jest. He was awarded 20 infraction points in one go and banned for three months although for some reason the mods are only saying one month, which means its either dodgy as **** or they don't have a ****ing clue what they are doing (I personally think both, to be fair).

Infractions were brought in to make things transparent, but it's clear that this place is as inconsistent as ever. All the mods that voted for this decision and all the other ****ty ones lately need to ask themselves some serious questions. Yes, Furball is a mate, but anyone who thinks he is the first guy who comes to mind when it comes to people wrecking the forum atmosphere is deluded.

I have plenty more to say on this issue but I eagerly look forwards to some power-crazy moderator wiping my post like it never happened.

Furball isn't the only guy whose been on the ****ty end of these decisions lately, but I've not seen the mods target someone like this in a while. Probably since they tried to perma sledger just before the 09 Ashes.

Handbags at dawn mate?

 

[smash84]

well said TC. Good point

 

[Burgey]

I don't mean any disrespect to any Brums on here, but I drove through Birmingham once and, well, it's a bit of a non-event isn' it?

 

[benchmark00]

Handbags at dawn mate?

Yeah, what a joke. Furball has been trolling all the way through this series, and before. Was bound to catch up with him.

 

[FBU]

The reason why I mentioned that Sehwag being out on the drive (no matter who caught it or where) is telling is because it's a great example of how a bowling side can, if they're good enough, turn a strength into a weakness. Sehwag's drives are money shots for him and he goes for them early. Just stopping a strong driver from playing the shot won't get them out, though. Your tactics need to be more evolved than that.

One example; a batsman who's sweating on the drive is looking for several things to be right with themselves and a series of mental tick-boxes might look like this; 1) head still and over the bat-handle, 2) feet in position, 3) eyes on the ball all the way down, 4) bat through the line and following any movement, 5) hit hard enough to reach the boundary. A batter might spend a few balls or a few overs looking to tick all those boxes until they feel in the groove enough to play it. Now, if you just bowl to stop them scoring, they'll eventually tick all those boxes so that the to-do list is simplified to 'wait for the right length' i.e. only one thing to look for. Makes things far simpler which is bad news as a bowler.

One thing you can do as a bowler is to make it so, when you give a batter a ball in their pet area, they have to tick a bunch of those boxes all at once which drastically heightens the chance of a mistake. If you're really good, you can add to the mix a component to the ball which makes it look like the ball is in the batter's pet area but isn't quite (maybe a bit of movement away from the bat). You get the batter looking for something which isn't quite there which gives you, the bowler, more control of the options a batter has than they have.

That's just one example, though. The point is that limiting your tactics to 'bowl killer ball' or 'bowl to their perceived weakness' is fairly unsophisticated cricket, especially since even grade cricketers will put good balls away. Because we're talking about Test batters here, they just won't work for long anyway. There is a time to bowl the killer balls (if you can) and developing a sense of that is obviously incredibly important. But, most of the time, you have to think deeper than that and learn to turn strengths into weaknesses, which means you have more control over when they're able to exercise their skills than they do (conditions play their part here, of course) or, better yet, induce in them a weakness they never knew they had.

Even guys with the ability to bowl killer balls more often have to learn all this. Shaun Tait is basically Wasim Akram without any consistency or smarts. Not a surprise who's done better for themselves at all levels of the game.

Very interesting. There is also a time for the bowler to be aware when the batsman loses concentration, a near run out or after a run out, after a batsman gets a milestone, something bothering them behind the bowlers arm etc.

 

[Pothas]

Was a little worried that this match might not even happen this time yesterday so it would just be bloody typical for it to be ruined by rain now. Anyway really hope we win the toss and bowl, cannot see Sehwag making any runs but it will be bloody great if he does, either ways is good to see him back. Going to be Jimmy's turn to take the headlines tomorow.

I just know Sachin is waiting for day one at the Oval so I can see him get his 100th ton.

 

[Athlai]

Yeah, what a joke. Furball has been trolling all the way through this series, and before. Was bound to catch up with him.

This.

A couple posters have just been deliberately posting bile to annoy people and for the most part they've all been English supporters.

 

[TT Boy]

Birmingham - West Midlands Weather Forecasts | Maps | News - Yahoo! Weather

Lovely.

 

[Howe_zat]

Great posting from Top_Cat.