***Official*** Australia in England (The Ashes)

[archie mac]

oh yes of course, i can see it now. australia lose 16 wickets, had a fresh batsman at the crease, and if it werent for katich would quite conceivably have lost the game with more than half a day to spare, and you say that they saved the match with ease. brilliant that.
and of course its impossible for a wicket to turn and still be a draw isnt it? i mean if a dead flat wicket takes turn on the last couple of days and ends up a draw, we must assume it didnt turn, because the result says so.

Okay will explain it to you again; Australia were going the 'tonk' towards the end, chasing a ridiculous target, set by the Indian captain. They probably felt sorry for the crowd, after a complete joke of a Test where the game was loaded in favour of the batsman.
So those last couple of wickets were gifts (Gilly & Waugh).

I can't remember a Test in OZ where the spinners could not at least turn the ball by day 4. So your slow turn was nothing special, it was normal. So not a turner, a joke.

I have even mentioned men from Mars, just to try and give you a hint, that people are sick of hearing about TURNERS, but hear (deliberate word) we are again.

 

[social]

Not that I've got any examples in mind, but I'd have thought it possible that an opening batsman could be weakish against spin, or, like Alec Stewart, unable to play it coherently until he's been in for a couple of hours and got 50 on the board.

Cheers,

Mike

Quite right, but at the end of the day Alec Stewart played over 100 tests and averaged less than 40.

 

[social]

i think this post right here signifies how reliant people are on averages. it might take you a very long time, and after watching a hell of a lot more cricket for you to realise that the average is just a number, to be totally dependent on something like that is absolutely foolish. if you ever did manage to use even the average correctly, youd see that gilchrist;s average falls down to the low 30s when he plays quality spin bowling, or more significantly hes had about 3-4 successes and half a dozen miserable failures on turners.

And you'd also see that the centuries that he's scored have virtually all been in the first innings of the first test of each series AND have been the major catalyst for Australian victories in those games.

Given the above, Id say that Gilchrist, in conditions that dont favour him, makes major contributions to Aus victories in a third of the games he plays.

There are probably, what, 6 players in history that can make that claim.

What a bum! Drop him immediately.

 

[social]

you really are a joker arent you?
i ask you, how many times has ponting faced a quality spin bowler on a turner?
hes been fortunate enough to do so very rarely, and when he has, hes failed miserably on more than half of those occasions. to claim that this player, who was made out to be a complete novice against harbhajan and kumble is 'very good', is hilarious, but dont stop yourself, despite my avatar, i enjoy the odd joke once in a while.

His overall average against India exceeds 50.

He has dominated every spinner from every country in all conditions bar India for 88 tests.

During that time, he's scored nearly 7000 runs at 56.5.

I think that there's more than enough evidence to state that he's an exceptional player of ALL types of bowling.

Oh, hold on, he did have the gall to criticise one of the worst wickets produced for test cricket in recent memory. And, gasp, that wicket was in India.

That changes everything!

He's crap! Drop him immediately!

And given the fact that your poster-boy Dravid criticised the same wicket, he should be consigned to the same scrap-heap.

BTW, please dont trot out your tired old argument about Rahul averaging over 40 in every year of his test career in an attempt to save him. Averages dont cut it hear at CW.

 

[pskov]

Quite right, but at the end of the day Alec Stewart played over 100 tests and averaged less than 40.

But a very good average of 46.7 in the 51 matches he didn't keep wicket. His average when keeping wicket of 36 is pretty damn good for any test keeper not named Gilchrist.

 

[marc71178]

Quite right, but at the end of the day Alec Stewart played over 100 tests and averaged less than 40.

Under 40 by a couple of runs.

He also, having played so much, didn't have the luxury of only playing in the recent bat-friendly condiditons.

 

[archie mac]

But a very good average of 46.7 in the 51 matches he didn't keep wicket. His average when keeping wicket of 36 is pretty damn good for any test keeper not named Gilchrist.

His average or so stacks up well against some of the most capped players in the England side during his playing days. (Atherton & Hussain)

 

[Scallywag]

Flintoff along with Thorpe have a very poor record against spin bowling.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Flintoff along with Thorpe have a very poor record against spin bowling.

Flintoff I'll give you. Thorpe, however...

 

[Dydl]

Flintoff I'll give you. Thorpe, however...

Yes......

Any justification?

 

[marc71178]

I think Neil would like to know what basis he has for saying Thorpe can't play spin.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

So, thoughts about the chances of Tremlett making the test side on the back of his current form? With Jones under a bit of an injury cloud and not doing anything particularly special in tests as yet, if Tremlett comes to the ODI squad and has a great series, will Jones be under threat?

 

[wpdavid]

So, thoughts about the chances of Tremlett making the test side on the back of his current form? With Jones under a bit of an injury cloud and not doing anything particularly special in tests as yet, if Tremlett comes to the ODI squad and has a great series, will Jones be under threat?

Tremlett would have to do pretty well in ODI's to displace Jones at this stage, and I'd be surprised if it happened. However, it's not so hard to envisage him featuring in the Ashes at some point if one of the others goes down injured and Jon Lewis turns out to be just another county trundler.

 

[Scallywag]

Flintoff I'll give you. Thorpe, however...

Warne and Murali have taken Thorpes wicket 17 times and Kumble has had success against him aswell.

 

[marc71178]

Tremlett would have to do pretty well in ODI's to displace Jones at this stage, and I'd be surprised if it happened.

I can't see Jones being displaced just yet.

 

[marc71178]

Warne and Murali have taken Thorpes wicket 17 times and Kumble has had success against him aswell.

But at what cost?

 

[Pratters]

I can't see Jones being displaced just yet.

Jones is just 26 and why do you think he may be displaced in some time (get the feeling you think that when you said just yet)

 

[Neil Pickup]

Thorpe v Sri Lanka 49.92; Thorpe in Sri Lanka 45.20
Thorpe v Pakistan 51.61, Thorpe in Pakistan 56.80
Thorpe v India 35.37, Thorpe in India 42.50

He's one of the strongest players of spin in the England team.

Ricky Ponting has been dismissed 14 times by Gough and Vaas...

 

[tooextracool]

Warne and Murali have taken Thorpes wicket 17 times and Kumble has had success against him aswell.

and i thought warne was the only joker.....
and you heard it here first, hayden is an absolute disgrace against spin, because kumble, harbhajan and vettori have dismissed him 14 times.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Further to that, Thorpe's average when dismissed by Warne: 46.44 (9)
When dismissed by Murali: 27.57 (7)
His two major nemeses have been Walsh (41.40/10) and Ambrose (34.33/9)
His lowest averages are Kenny Benjamin (7.66/3) and Allan Donald (7.33/3)