How many runs will Alastair Cook score in the 2013/14 Ashes?

[Adders]

That last paragraph is tosh, sorry.

Never seen you appologise for your own tosh posts........why are you appologising for someone elses??

 

[Spark]

This isn't a case of McGrath vs Atherton. The bowling was tight but Harris aside just required time at the crease to solve. Cook doesn't care about his strike rate yet some of the deliveries he went after were one day wide full deliveries and leg side ones. Cook isn't usually bothered about being starved of runs. That's why I believe his poor form was 60% and disciplined bowling was 40% of why he was neutered.

For a player so comfortable on the backfoot, the extra bounce on offer will let Cook use his strengths and hinder the bowlers in finding a full enough length rather than settling at back of a length.

I'm honestly amazed at this post. It's like you've stumbled across some alternative cricket reality where full lengths are short and balls outside off stump are actually pies.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

I'm sorry, but I think it's the Aussie crowds who are living in an alternate cricketing reality here.

 

[Spark]

Spare me. Nationalistic bragging aside, there is actually an objective reality out there and the idea that a world-class batsman such as Cook, coming off reasonable Test form could fail to reach a hundred in a Test series in conditions which did not overly favour seam bowling - and then for the quality and tactics of the opposition bowling was minor in making that happen, is just outlandishly, manifestly illogical. And especially so given how blatantly obvious it was to everyone who paid actual attention to the cricket on show what the bowlers were doing.

This is not rocket science here, people have been saying that this is the way to bowl to Cook for years. If that interrupts your special narrative about how amazingly superior your cricket team is at everything then so be it.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

I don't think we're amazingly superior.

But there's a huge vibe about here that seems to suggest the issues of 10/11 can be completely forgotten.

Remember when Ali still thought he was the greatest all the way into the early 80s? Completely ignoring the fact he'd lost it twice over. That is Australian cricket.

Hubris, grandstanding, wishful thinking and flat-out reality denial.

For the sake of the sport I hope this doesn't happen, but I bet Australian cricket is one heavy ashes defeat away from near-implosion.

 

[Spark]

Your reading comprehension skills need a lot of work.

Hint: no one says that Australian cricket is great or that we're favourites (and even if they were - people have predictions about actual cricket that will be played, how amazing). We are saying that our bowlers executed good plans to Cook and stifled his scoring. BUT NO AUSTRALIAN CRICKET IN CRISIS!!!1!!!

Look, I have absolutely no interest - and this forum in general has no interest - in a nationalistic bull**** war over whose "nation" as a whole is better/worse or which nation's "cricket" as some amorphous entity as some enormous societal edifice in on the verge of collapse. I'm interested in talking about cricket. Y'know, this sport where bowlers bowl and batsmen bat.

(This obviously doesn't include banter, but if you're taking that seriously then, well... first line holds)

 

[GIMH]

I'm interested in talking about cricket. Y'know, this sport where bowlers bowl

Not sure it's the right verb for some of Mitchell Johnson's stuff OMG AMIRITE

and batsmen bat.

But not for very long if they're Aussies OMG AMIRITE



Sorry Mark Hughes mate, couldn't resist.

 

[Burgey]

Nah look, it's the bowling full thing to Cook that's not getting the credit. And especially with McDermott back coaching. Unless Yuvraj Singh plays for England, they'll bowl full, and if they don't they'll be doing it wrong.

 

[Howe_zat]

That last paragraph is tosh, sorry.

If you don't say it like you mean it, it doesn't count

 

[Furball]

Nah look, it's the bowling full thing to Cook that's not getting the credit. And especially with McDermott back coaching. Unless Yuvraj Singh plays for England, they'll bowl full, and if they don't they'll be doing it wrong.

I love that McDermott actually got someone to alter the pitch map graphics to con his blokes into bowling fuller.

 

[Spark]

I love that McDermott actually got someone to alter the pitch map graphics to con his blokes into bowling fuller.

Haha, really? That's magnificent

Not sure it's the right verb for some of Mitchell Johnson's stuff OMG AMIRITE



But not for very long if they're Aussies OMG AMIRITE



Sorry Mark Hughes mate, couldn't resist.

wac

 

[Furball]

In addition to pressing his case in words, McDermott did it with statistics and footage. Tellingly, he requested a change to the team's video analysis parameters, pushing the "good" and "full" lengths on CA's bowling graphics closer to the bat by about a metre to further encourage deliveries that could swing and catch the edge of a probing bat.

Daniel Brettig: How Craig McDermott has got Australia's bowlers to pitch it up | Specials | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Daemon]

That doesn't mean he changed the graphic for where the actual deliveries pitched (not that anyone said he did that specifically), he just moved the line that demarcates a good/full length further up. Not really conning anyone tbf.

 

[Furball]

That doesn't mean he changed the graphic for where the actual deliveries pitched, he just moved the line that demarcates a good/full length further up. Not really conning anyone tbf.

Yeah it is. It means that when his bowlers land it in what everyone else sees as the good length zone, when it comes to analysing their day an Aussie bowler will look at his pitchmap and see a bunch of deliveries as being short of a length and he'll go away thinking 'I need to pitch it up more.'

 

[Daemon]

Yeah it is. It means that when his bowlers land it in what everyone else sees as the good length zone, when it comes to analysing their day an Aussie bowler will look at his pitchmap and see a bunch of deliveries as being short of a length and he'll go away thinking 'I need to pitch it up more.'

Then they haven't been looking at their pitchmaps often enough to notice something's off, in which case yeah, they've been conned.

 

[andyc]

Yeah it is. It means that when his bowlers land it in what everyone else sees as the good length zone, when it comes to analysing their day an Aussie bowler will look at his pitchmap and see a bunch of deliveries as being short of a length and he'll go away thinking 'I need to pitch it up more.'

TBF it's a bit of an indictment on the bowlers' intelligence isn't it? Like instead of just telling them to ignore whether the computer program said it was 'full' or 'good,' McDermott had to actually change the system so that they could finally understand it and get a sticker on their tests.

 

[Furball]

TBF it's a bit of an indictment on the bowlers' intelligence isn't it? Like instead of just telling them to ignore whether the computer program said it was 'full' or 'good,' McDermott had to actually change the system so that they could finally understand it and get a sticker on their tests.

Nah I just think it's a genius way for McDermott to get his troops bowling fuller.

 

[Jono]

Its both.

 

[Son Of Coco]

I don't think we're amazingly superior.

But there's a huge vibe about here that seems to suggest the issues of 10/11 can be completely forgotten.

Remember when Ali still thought he was the greatest all the way into the early 80s? Completely ignoring the fact he'd lost it twice over. That is Australian cricket.

Hubris, grandstanding, wishful thinking and flat-out reality denial.

For the sake of the sport I hope this doesn't happen, but I bet Australian cricket is one heavy ashes defeat away from near-implosion.

If we're forgetting about the bowling in the last series then we might as well extend it past the series before that. The issue we have this time is injuries to our frontline bowlers, which may mean we are less effective with the ball (in all likelihood it will). The issue in 10/11 wasn't that the series was in Australia, it was that we performed very, very poorly with the ball. England also batted very well, but bowling both sides of the wicket never ends well anywhere.

Some of the suggestions here hinting at the bowling in England not being a real factor in some of England's players not doing as well as they could have are just completely clueless.

 

[Captain_Cook]

Some of the suggestions here hinting at the bowling in England not being a real factor in some of England's players not doing as well as they could have are just completely clueless.

Coco, what is your explanation for Clarke's poor series (187 aside it was a bad series for him)? Did England bowl well to him? Was he a bit out of form?

I would say a bit of both just as is the case with Cook. If you Aussies claim to have found Cook's achilles heel, we can say that we've found Clarke's because he could only get a century on a road and Australia are supposed to be preparing bouncy wickets. God help Michael Clarke...