**Official** 5th Test at Sydney, 3-7 Jan 2025

[Burgey]

That’s such a massive wicket right on lunch

 

[Bahnz]

Want to see Smith get to 10k.before Lunch

Which day?

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Looks tough for the Aussies to get out with a lead

 

[Bahnz]

Such an insanely fun series.

 

[SkyBlue]

Looks tough for the Aussies to get out with a lead

They're scoring pretty quickly. I think a lead is more or less likely

 

[Daemon]

Smith played that like Khawaja. Should’ve been on the front foot.

 

[social]

McSweeney's only 25 and I don't think he's been cast aside forever.

Beyond that there's Ollie Davies but he's having quite a poor season so far after being moved into the top 4, which is a bad sign. Jayden Goodwin (son of Murray) is only in his only 20s and he's having a good start to the season but when I'm mentioning someone who averages low 30s the cupboard is pretty bare.

Henry Hunt is another one

11 fc hundreds with 3 this season already but he’s very inconsistent and only averages 34

 

[cricman]

BCCI have spies on top of the sightscreen

 

[Spark]

Smith played that like Khawaja. Should’ve been on the front foot.

Pushed hard at it too, which is unlike him

 

[SkyBlue]

How much are star sports paying Mark Nicholas? He sounds more like an Indian cheerleader than a commentator

 

[Skyliner]

Terrible that Smith got out because he was distracted by somebody over by the sightscreen.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Such an insanely fun series.

Especially when you want both to lose.

 

[Spark]

The good thing for Aus is that this thing doesn't show any meaningful signs of flattening out so a one-innings shootout should still be viable, if they can make it that

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Yeah and I think these sort of players are the ones being most hampered by the poor pitches. Kellaway probably would've started developing more release shots and an attacking game on the more balanced Shield pitches of the late 90s and early 00s. When a 100-ball 25 is basically a par contribution to his team and trying to rotate the strike or invent boundaries is so likely to just get you out for <10, the former what you're going to incentivise him developing to keep his spot as an emerging player.

I'm not really worried about the pitches hurting Davies for example but Kellaway, Goodwin and McSweeney would be different players if we had more variety across the country with some more batting surfaces domestically. I wonder how much the Sheffield Shield points system that basically treats draws as losses is incentivising what we're getting from the groundsmen too.

The irony is that what produces the best test players is not the same as what sort of cricket is most entertaining at international level. Flat pitches, big scores, lots of draws actually seems to make better players. Batsmen get lots of time in the middle, bowlers have to develop more tools.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

How much are star sports paying Mark Nicholas? He sounds more like an Indian cheerleader than a commentator

Funny that, he was always an Aussie cheerleader when working for them...

Arse.

 

[Daemon]

Especially when you want both to lose.

This is like me in the Ashes. Maximum waahhhh is always fun as a neutral.

 

[Bahnz]

Bumrah's been off for a while now...

 

[Prince EWS]

Henry Hunt is another one

11 fc hundreds with 3 this season already but he’s very inconsistent and only averages 34

Yeah Hunt is a good call. Had a bit of a horror run for a while but back in form this season and still only 28. Probably a half decent chance to replace Khawaja next summer if they don't want to shoehorn McSweeney back into opening again.

 

[Spark]

The irony is that what producing the best test players is not the same as what sort of cricket is most entertaining at international level. Flat pitches, big scores, lots of draws actually seems to make better players. Batsmen get lots of time in the middle, bowlers have to develop more tools.

many people have been saying

 

[flibbertyjibber]

The good thing for Aus is that this thing doesn't show any meaningful signs of flattening out so a one-innings shootout should still be viable, if they can make it that

Also it may be best to bat on on day 3/4 if it dries out a bit.