Saker rates attack as good as great Australians

[Jacknife]

Warne played some great knocks for Oz. At Sydney '06/07 (his last Test innings) he really did for England and did a lot to win that Test. Likewise at OT in '05 where his batting was important in saving that Test for the Crims.

Swann I feel has really under-achieved. A genuine talent, and a better bat than Broad, but has never really shown it for England for whom he's smacked the odd fun 20 or 30, but never hit the 80s or hundreds of which he's capable.

Tend to agree with that, he's got a obvious talent for batting but doesn't really knuckle down when out there. Obviously coming in at 10 he's often batting with Jimmy and his best option is to attack and get as many as he can but there's been quite a few times where he could have played a more measured innings and supported the set batsman but even then his way is to go down swinging.

Without doubt he should have scored a few more half centuries but I do remember a couple of very good knocks, one was in the 2009 Ashes at Lords where he supported Trott and hit 63 off 55. The other was in SA 1st Test where he smashed 85 off 81 to help England put a half decent total up.

 

[hazsa19]

Broad sometimes does my head in with the bat. So many ridiculous shots when hes played beautifully for 30 odd. His 'paddle-sweep' last week at TB

Both he and Swann also tend to get carried away by their ability. Sometimes they need to bat like tail-enders; block an over and allow the recognised batsman at the other end to build a total.

 

[Furball]

Nah, Broad and Swann just egg each other on like schoolboys. Their best partnerships have come when they've just decided "**** it" and utterly smashed the bowlers.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

I thought Gillespie was better than Lee at batting. Maybe I was wrong.

 

[Jacknife]

Nah, Broad and Swann just egg each other on like schoolboys. Their best partnerships have come when they've just decided "**** it" and utterly smashed the bowlers.

Tbh most of the time that's the best way for both those to play, good stroke makers but neither of them have the best defensive techniques, Broad especially comes a cropper when he starts playing sensible.

 

[zaremba]

I thought Gillespie was better than Lee at batting. Maybe I was wrong.

Fromm what I saw of them, they were Yin and Yang. Lee could hit the ball a bloody mile, whereas Gillespie was horribly dour. I'd say Lee was the better batsman but Gillespie was a blocker to be reckoned with. His Test double hundred is one of the most striking statistical oddities in the history of the game.

 

[uvelocity]

sorry don't really understand what you mean by landing it on one side of the seam?

landing him like this, but not quite so much angle

 

[uvelocity]

how many unbathed bowlers with a double ton?

 

[zaremba]

Just the one: Jason Gillespie. Do keep up.

 

[Cabinet96]

- Why is controlled inswing/outswing bowling like Anderson displays such a rare art...e.g. why can't Steyn consistently bowl an inswinger, despite obviously having mastered outswing? What more is there to it technically than just changing where the rough side of the ball is facing?

Not many bowlers can get their wrist in the right position to bowl both, it's a lot harder than it looks when you do it in a bowling action.

Anyway, whether or not one thinks Saker has a point, you'd back England's incumbent 8-11 to score more runs down the order, wouldn't you?

Indeed

 

[Agent Nationaux]

It's a rare talent who has a natural wrist position to swing the ball both ways. Amir was the latest.

 

[SteveNZ]

I remember Sir Richard Hadlee saying he had control over seam both ways. He was a wonderful bowler but not too sure about that...

 

[Ruckus]

landing him like this, but not quite so much angle

ah i see what you mean. yeah it's kind of interesting actually cause if you watch footage of McGrath bowling he often doesn't get the seam to be perfectly vertical, but rather sort off wobbling around the axis e.g. Glenn McGrath 5 wickets vs England 2005 Ashes - YouTube. I could see how that might actually make deviation off the seam a bit more likely (cause the ball is probably going to be hitting the pitch a slight angle like you picture above) and random (in terms of direction) when it does happen. Not sure if it's something he was doing intentionally though.

This ones an even better example: www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-YHaPJBqzw#t=1m04s

 

[vic_orthdox]

Stuart Clark used to have the seam doing that all the time.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I remember Sir Richard Hadlee saying he had control over seam both ways. He was a wonderful bowler but not too sure about that...

I've seen some fast bowlers who employ grips or alter little things which made seam movement in a certain direction more likely. I mean, you'd think it's impossible to have complete control over it because you're relying on how the surface responds to the ball, but the best practitioners do have some control over how to seam the ball about.

 

[Ruckus]

Stuart Clark used to have the seam doing that all the time.

Do you know if it's something that's done intentionally or taught to seam bowlers?

 

[Ikki]

I feel guilty watching McGrath post retirement and not appreciating just how brilliant that mofo was when he was doing the above day in and day out. An absolute master of his art.

 

[smash84]

I feel guilty watching McGrath post retirement and not appreciating just how brilliant that mofo was when he was doing the above day in and day out. An absolute master of his art.

awta

 

[uvelocity]

This ones an even better example: Glenn McGrath 5 wickets vs England 2005 Ashes - YouTube

yah bewdy. wrist is really ****ed towards leg, wobbles out with the emphasis on his middle finger. not an easy skill, i just loop it out, much easier.

 

[Son Of Coco]

I've seen some fast bowlers who employ grips or alter little things which made seam movement in a certain direction more likely. I mean, you'd think it's impossible to have complete control over it because you're relying on how the surface responds to the ball, but the best practitioners do have some control over how to seam the ball about.

I think the tendency a bowler has towards swinging it one way or another also follows on to seaming it one way or the other. I naturally seamed it in most of the time, but was shown how to get it moving the other way by a guy who used to play 1st Grade in Brisbane. His method was to split you grip a little with one finger down the side of the ball a bit, and when it came out you sort of dragged down as you let it go. His idea was that it either hit the seam and went away, or skidded straight on if it hit the smooth part of the ball. Worked pretty well actually, and I found that a large percentage of the time it went away from the batsman, sometime by a considerable amount. For me moving it away was much more difficult to control obviously. But, on a deck that was receptive to seam movement, the seam position I had naturally meant it would jag back pretty much any time I wanted it to.

In short, I agree.