Did Burgey just watch Cassablanca or something? He's made half a dozen references to it in the last two pages. One of the best movies of all time and the one old movie my wife can stay awake through.
Really disappointed in the batting effort today. Marsh and Wade should be dropped. Neville has to come back for the home summer. Wade just isn't cut out for this level. Maxwell padding up probably cost us 50+ runs in the end too, which could have been enough to defend but it's hard to blame the guy who scored over twice the runs of everyone else.
Very disappointed with the last six overs. Yet again India have seen off the tricky period before stumps unharmed.
Really the main difference between the two sides has been that India has found ways to change things when things have gone against them. There has always been someone to put up their hand and do the hard yards. Australia has not found that. We've carried too many passengers. Warner, M Marsh, S Marsh and Wade have all been ordinary. Renners out, Smith out all out has been the order of service for this series (which is a nice change from Warner out, Smith out all out as it was prior to this summer). Handscomb has been very disappointing. Outside his one decent innings he's looked a million bucks but batted like a millionaire. I'm not advocating dropping him because he's a part of the future. M Marsh has a pathway back into the side (make a thousand runs in a season) but S Marsh should be let go for good. He's too injury prone and we don't have another subcontinent tour this side of his 35th birthday.
Going forward the boys can look back at this series as both a missed opportunity and a learning experience. I don't want to blame the 20 year old kid, but if Renshaw had have gone on and hit a ton on day two at Bangalore we'd almost certainly have won that match. He missed out, Marsh missed out, India clawed their way back and have been playing better cricket ever since.
Cummins has been immense with the ball. You couldn't ask a guy in his situation to do more. He's such a talent and if we have a glimmer of a hope of defending the 86 runs tomorrow it's really on his back. Hazlewood has been disappointing again in the subcontinent. He hasn't been bad, in fact he's been very good, just not his "future-ATG" self.
Warner seriously has to take a lot of the blame for this series loss. He has been terrible with the bat and has looked like the junior partner to Renshaw for the whole series. Needs a long look in the mirror. "It's just the way he plays" which is to say that he is **** when the ball isn't coming onto the bat. He's way behind Hayden in the top Australian openers of the last 20 years battle. He's behind Langer too come to think of it.