***Official*** Big Bash League

[uvelocity]

1. Abbott
2. Hauritz
3. Coyte
4. Faulkner
5. Lee
6. Hogg (maybe too high?)
7 NEV
8. Starc
9. Rimmington
10. Nannes
11. McDermott

pick copes behind the sticks

here comes the rain, see I wasn't full of ****

 

[Crazy Sam]

If CA plan on expanding they better figure a way to get smarter managers as the buying from the Thunder has been deadset shocking.

In fairness they put most of their money into Gayle and Warner, probably expecting them to be there the whole time and one of them to tee off in each game. Aussie selectors pretty much destroyed that notion.

The batting otherwise is horrendous. Two keepers who haven't proven much at state level in your top 6 is a worry.

 

[Sylvester]

Even if they had Warner it would be unlikely they would be able to go all the way. Allowing for some failure from both you would still need 5 round robin wins out of 7 plus 2 wins in the final. So expecting them to perform 7 times out of 9 is asking a heck of a lot.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

The Heat looking really good here to push their NRR up, and possibly get into the semis if Strikers beat Stars.

 

[Sylvester]

Khawaja trying to get some Shield practice in.

 

[uvelocity]

bearing in mind stars will need to beat strikers, reckon they will drop white?

 

[Spikey]

In fairness they put most of their money into Gayle and Warner, probably expecting them to be there the whole time and one of them to tee off in each game. Aussie selectors pretty much destroyed that notion.

The batting otherwise is horrendous. Two keepers who haven't proven much at state level in your top 6 is a worry.

I reckon they thought about the chance of Warner not being there



And so got Hughes....

Both NSW sides letting Jaques go to Hobart was a major blooper. From there, the call to sign Edwards made little sense considering he has left halfway through it. This is really the biggest blunder here, because he was a key pillar of the side and yet he's pissing off halfway through it, and they haven't replaced him! Actually they haven't replaced Hughes either...But on the whole the bowling has been surprisingly good. I mean over the course of the league Coyte, Abbott and Doran have performed really well and cost very little. Doran in particular was a really ballsy signing that has worked out. Although only getting one front line spinner was silly. Bollinger getting injured has really stretched it though. The batting has of course proven to be a horror show. Cruickshank, Butterworth and Philpson were probably make or breaks for the team and all of them have sucked. D. Smith as captain was a horrible move. Literally no idea why they didn't just go with Gayle.

For a team that construction was so radical it's been so conservative. They pushed Abbott up the order one team, it worked, and didn't try it again despite it being a huge problem. The same people who kept on failing there were kept they. In part because it's for the past 2-3 matches been a 16 man squad. Another example - they kept on using fast bowlers at the end despite Doran always having one left over. At least give a shot...

 

[Spikey]

Really, not replacing Edwards and not replacing Hughes were the two biggest errors made.

 

[Spikey]

dan smith hitting that 185 kinda ****ed them over btw

 

[benchmark00]

Zip it ****.

 

[Crazy Sam]

Hayden laying into the Thunder lol. Would've liked to hear a few sledges at the bats... probably doesn't want to be seen to be sledging a young, recent test player :P

 

[Spikey]

nah ****


The thunder deserve to be criticised for some of their selections, but without knowing the salary cap hits, Coyte, Abbott and Doran are among the signings of the tournament imo. It's just the bad signings were worse than good signings great...

 

[Prince EWS]

nah ****


The thunder deserve to be criticised for some of their selections, but without knowing the salary cap hits, Coyte, Abbott and Doran are among the signings of the tournament imo. It's just the bad signings were worse than good signings great...

They just took too many punts on players of that sort of quality; they were never all going to pay off.

That said, Cruikshank aside (and Smith I guess, but he was picked on RC form more than his grade form), tapping Sydney Grade Cricket actually worked out pretty well in general. What didn't work was bringing over out of favour cricketers and T20 misfits from other states - I'm looking at you, Philipson and Butterworth.

 

[uvelocity]

this guy was in Hey Dad!

 

[Spikey]

still think once hughes quit and kurtis patterson rejected the contract they should have called mail. he would have done a better job than...well no-one, in the end

 

[uvelocity]

why did patterson say no?

 

[Prince EWS]

still think once hughes quit and kurtis patterson rejected the contract they should have called mail. he would have done a better job than...well no-one, in the end

Apparently the whole point of Sibanda coming out here to play grade cricket was to try and replace Edwards when he went home, but then the Thunder said nah so he went back to Zimbabwe and tried to become re-eligible for the tour of New Zealand (which didn't work out).

 

[Prince EWS]

why did patterson say no?

Wanted to focus on real cricket.

 

[Spikey]

U19 Champs.

 

[Spikey]

Apparently the whole point of Sibanda coming out here to play grade cricket was to try and replace Edwards when he went home, but then the Thunder said nah so he went back to Zimbabwe and tried to become re-eligible for the tour of New Zealand (which didn't work out).

you had better not be joking bro. do not joke with me on this. if they rejected Sibanda...oh man.