***Official*** Australia in Sri Lanka

[Outswinger@Pace]

Dougeh for Mitch though.

Dougeh!

Dougeh.

AWTA. Mitch has to go, mate. He is like a capricious mural artist and that's a luxury that this Aus side cannot seem to afford at this stage.

Injuries permitting my ideal attack would be Harris, Copeland, Siddle and Lyon. With Doug, Hauritz, Pattinson and perhaps Hilfenhaus in the squad.

 

[Spark]

AWTA. Mitch has to go, mate. He is like a capricious mural artist and that's a luxury that this Aus side cannot seem to afford at this stage.

Injuries permitting my ideal attack would be Harris, Copeland, Siddle and Lyon. With Doug, Hauritz, Pattinson and perhaps Hilfenhaus in the squad.

inb4SpikehHasAnAneurysm

 

[Scaly piscine]

Deeply concerned about SL cricket though. Not so much the players themselves but the attitudes on show.

Mussey getting snowed under by oversized cheques aws

Yep. Sri Lanka batted themselves out of that game somewhat. To use up two days to score 473 isn't really acceptable in that situation. You have to be looking at scoring around 5 an over once you've got a platform established - go after the second new ball. Mathews innings was a disgrace. You have to think of it as what would we look to score at if we're chasing a total down in the 4th innings. Would a team look to score something like 250 off 50 overs or 300 off 60 on the final day, particularly on a relative flat pitch and you're 1-0 down in the series? Of course they would. They probably wouldn't get it, but they'd have a go. To potentially turn that into something like 170 off 5 overs because you fannied about is just atrocious. Obviously that didn't happen in this game but it could have happened. With faster scoring there would have been more pressure on Australia as well.

 

[Spark]

Yep. Sri Lanka batted themselves out of that game somewhat. To use up two days to score 473 isn't really acceptable in that situation. You have to be looking at scoring around 5 an over once you've got a platform established - go after the second new ball. Mathews innings was a disgrace. You have to think of it as what would we look to score at if we're chasing a total down in the 4th innings. Would a team look to score something like 250 off 50 overs or 300 off 60 on the final day, particularly on a relative flat pitch and you're 1-0 down in the series? Of course they would. They probably wouldn't get it, but they'd have a go. To turn that into something like 170 off 5 overs because you fannied about is just atrocious. Obviously that didn't happen in this game but it could have and with faster scoring there would have been more pressure on Australia.

A tweet from Malcolm Conn summed it up nicely: "malcolmconn Malcolm Conn
#cricket #ausvsl Angelo Mathews batted 404 min for his 100 in a game SL need to win. Clarke 202 min in a game Aus needs to draw #leadership"

It was just an appalling lack of match awareness, and really poor stuff from a touted future captain.

 

[pup11]

I'm still more concerned about the batting tbh. Really, the bowlers have done all they could have and with the arguable exception of periods Day 3 here and Day 4 in the second Test, they've filled and often exceeded their brief. I'm more concerned about the way in which batsmen constantly contrived to throw away good starts to idiotic shots - Watson, Ponting and Clarke (before today) being the main culprits. We can't afford to do that vs. Steyn and Morkel.

Australian batting historically has never been a model of consistency tbh, there have been numerous occasions when our top-order has caved in on perfect batting tracks because of their attacking nature sometimes guys like Tugga or Gilly used to bail us out of trouble sometimes they couldn't, yet because we had such a good attack these sort of flaws used to get masked.

In recent times there have been instances when we have scored in excess of 400 runs in the first innings and yet we either have lost or have drawn those games, so basically until we put together a more potent bowling attack that its capable of taking 20 wickets in all conditions our chances of becoming a a pretty good test side will remain bleak.

 

[uvelocity]

It's a wierd situation for them, in the presentation dilshan was 'very happy' with everything. Is Mendis truly injured or is it politics?

 

[Spikey]

now that the siddle-hilf-mj combo of mediocrity is over i'm happy with the bowling. don't think the bowling line-up is settled at all mind you.

 

[Spark]

Australian batting historically has never been a model of consistency tbh, there have been numerous occasions when our top-order has caved in on perfect batting tracks because of their attacking nature sometimes guys like Tugga or Gilly used to bail us out of trouble sometimes they couldn't, yet because we had such a good attack these sort of flaws used to get masked.

In recent times there have been instances when we have scored in excess of 400 runs in the first innings and yet we either have lost or have drawn those games, so basically until we put together a more potent bowling attack that its capable of taking 20 wickets in all conditions our chances of becoming a a pretty good test side will remain bleak.

I don't see how you get that concern from this series though. Aside from here, bowling SL out within a reasonable timeframe was not a problem. It's hardly fair on the bowlers to expect them to take 20 wickets against a good batting lineup on a good pitch and leave enough time to score 400+ runs when a day and a half is lost to the weather. And yet they almost did.

 

[Jayzamann]

Glad to see the game saved, was following on my phone at work periodically.

Was it really necessary to come out and bat two overs, rly?

Anyway, great guns for Clarke, so close for Hussey.

 

[Spikey]

A chat with hirsute, obdurate, literate Ed Cowan | Cricket videos, MP3, podcasts, cricket audio at ESPN Cricinfo

pretty fun listen this. 'round 20 minutes they start talking about the batting order and how they should start over, and Jarrod Kimber talks about a 'boring top 3'. That is, Watson moving down and getting some blockers up there which is an interesting idea. 1. Usman/Hughes 2. Hussey 3. Marsh? He didn't throw Hussey up there mind you, But still. listen to it ****s

 

[Spark]

^^^ That's quality btw.

 

[mono]

congrats to the aussies for a very professional performance. And thanks for visiting SL.

 

[robinjr]

wonder what Kumar said to Clarke to piss him off so much.might be something about Bungle!

 

[Lostman]

0-3-8 SL's post Murali record.

Dilshan said he was happy with the team's performance, so they obviously seemed to have some kind of plan in place.

The validity of the plan however...

All the batsmen just batted scared in the whole series with SR~40, the team needs some real leadership with a proper coach/captain ASAP.

 

[Lostman]

Well played by Australia and especially Clarke, great captaincy and a wonderful innings at Galle.

 

[Xuhaib]

0-3-8 SL's post Murali record.

Dilshan said he was happy with the team's performance, so they obviously seemed to have some kind of plan in place.

The validity of the plan however...

All the batsmen just batted scared in the whole series with SR~40, the team needs some real leadership with a proper coach/captain ASAP.

don't worry you have Pakistan next Herath turns into Murali against us.

 

[Spikey]

they won't be a single result in that series but there'll be one 300 scored

 

[Lostman]

don't worry you have Pakistan next Herath turns into Murali against us.

Haha Steyn couldn't knock out the Pakistan batting lineup in UAE, Herath's chances are ~0%

 

[Agent Nationaux]

If Pakistan beat Sri Lanka 1-0 in the series then they overtake them in the Test Rankings.

 

[BlazeDragon]

That's why I said Australia deserved to win at least 2-0. They obviously outplayed Sri Lanka in the series.