*Official* Australia in Sri Lanka 2016

[theegyptian]

I thought the modern theory was to play with bat in front of pad against spin. Just shows how tough it is when losing. Everyone's got an opinion on how you should be playing and invariably they are all contradictory. Hard to block out (or take the good advice) all the well intentioned but contradictory advice when it's all going wrong.

 

[viriya]

Maybe but one good player of spin wouldn't have made a difference. When Australia won in '04, it wasn't just because they kept Murali out, they also made the other spinners a non-event (Herath included). This time 'round, the Aussies haven't been able to even keep out any of the SL spinners. Just been too good.

Actually herath only played the last test in that series and that too after playing his last test 5 years before (dharmasena played his last test in that series). He actually secured his place permanently over the likes of Chandana by taking 4 wickets in the final innings. It was too little too late to impact the series at that point though.

 

[Top_Cat]

I know, I watched the game and the series and it really makes no difference to what I said. He took 0 in the first and was nurdled around by Lehmann and Katich in the second, much like the current lot should be doing, before he took a couple of cheap ones at the end i.e. he bowled well but his contribution was made a non-event.

That's how you succeed in cricket against good players who are playing well instead of just letting them maul you, you find a way to stay in the contest. The current Aussie bats don't know how to stay in the contest against someone who's sending down good stuff against them.

 

[viriya]

I know, I watched the game and the series and it really makes no difference to what I said. He took 0 in the first and was nurdled around by Lehmann and Katich in the second, much like the current lot should be doing, before he took a couple of cheap ones at the end i.e. he bowled well but his contribution was made a non-event.

That's how you succeed in cricket against good players who are playing well instead of just letting them maul you, you find a way to stay in the contest. The current Aussie bats don't know how to stay in the contest against someone who's sending down good stuff against them.

Oh I agree with your point, just that Herath was pretty irrelevant in 2004.. it was Chandana + Dharmasena + Zoysa + Vaas mostly.

 

[Gob]

Been out spelunking and base jumping with friends. What did I miss?

 

[sunilreddy]

Australia missing Mark Benson, Steve Bucknor, Bruce Oxenford badly..

 

[Shady Slim]

Australia missing Mark Benson, Steve Bucknor, Bruce Oxenford badly..

darrell hair

 

[Spikey]

I almost made a thread that would have just been requesting the likes of TopCat, Vic, PEWS, Spark etc to explain what's going wrong because half the time it feels the implication of "lol australia can't play spin" is that they can't handle the big turning ball and all that stuff when its basically the opposite. that mallet article hardly helps things

 

[Shady Slim]

I almost made a thread that would have just been requesting the likes of TopCat, Vic, PEWS, Spark etc to explain what's going wrong because half the time it feels the implication of "lol australia can't play spin" is that they can't handle the big turning ball and all that stuff when its basically the opposite. that mallet article hardly helps things

as you could have inferred in my thread about overrated/underrated, there is a misnomer around the big play and miss

theoretically let's say sandakan pitches a googly on off and it's s big turner that beats the bat completely because the batsman covered the stumps

that isn't a great thing because it doesn't threaten, it makes the batsman look dopey but it doesn't threaten at all

ball of the century notwithstanding the best spinners in tests are the ones that can control spin and vary their spin as well as other factors, and get it to do just enough to hit the stumps or just enough to take the edge

 

[Top_Cat]

I almost made a thread that would have just been requesting the likes of TopCat, Vic, PEWS, Spark etc to explain what's going wrong because half the time it feels the implication of "lol australia can't play spin" is that they can't handle the big turning ball and all that stuff when its basically the opposite. that mallet article hardly helps things

Just to be clear, though, I love Rowdy. Bloke's a gentleman and any spinner worth his salt should at least listen to him for technical reasons alone. I just wonder how much cricket he's watching recently.

 

[Jono]

Australia's non ashes away embaassments don't get the attention. There is no blowtorch. They'll come home and smack Pakistan and everyone will think it's all fine.

Basically have become the India of the 90s.

 

[morgieb]

Australia's non ashes away embaassments don't get the attention. There is no blowtorch. They'll come home and smack Pakistan and everyone will think it's all fine.

Basically have become the India of the 90s.

What's worse is that we've been wayyyyy worse in the subcontient than England. At least in all the away Ashes defeats we've been competitive, I can't say the same thing about our most recent Asian endeavours.....

 

[Top_Cat]

Yes, yes, but what does this mean for the next Ashes?

Who cares if they can't play spin anyway, England's best spinner is a part-timer. Use your feet and get to the pitch, that's all there is to it.

 

[Spikey]

I think it gets attention, it just doesn't get analysis beyond "lol they can't play swing/spin" and then they talk about shield players from the 90s

 

[Spark]

I almost made a thread that would have just been requesting the likes of TopCat, Vic, PEWS, Spark etc to explain what's going wrong because half the time it feels the implication of "lol australia can't play spin" is that they can't handle the big turning ball and all that stuff when its basically the opposite. that mallet article hardly helps things

I actually don't think the amount of turn in the pitch is that relevant at all, though obviously big turn scares and confuses them. It's the pace of the pitch which is the fundamental problem, they're so used to just hitting through the line of the ball on quick decks that they just don't know what the **** to do when they have to manufacture the pace themselves.

 

[NUFAN]

So the Test starts on Saturday. Normally I would complain about that but with the way we are going its probably for the best.

I genuinely don't know what XI we will pick. Starting to think that we may just go Holland out Marsh in. We don't want to overburden Starc though, Voges and Marsh may have to bowl more.

 

[Midwinter]

Could keep the same team as the previous test, with the idea of giving them more experience playing in the conditions.

Apart from Starc Warner, Smith and Neville everyone else has done as good or as bad as each other.

The paucity of spinners means it is important to try get Holland up to the standard required before the team next goes to India, therefore he should play.

(Unless the coaching staff has KPI's to meet of course. )

 

[Starfighter]

"Time to to take punt on young gun Swepson after spinner too loose and one paced in Sri Lanka" - Mallett
Exactly the kind of thing I think we should avoid, just taking chances on guys who've had one or two good performances. Also Mallet's description talk of the action this series makes me think he hasn't seen much of it.

 

[Burgey]

Another article bagging the bowlers when we're getting rolled for 100. Insane.

 

[artvandalay]

I know the major discourse in this thread has been about Australia's prowess against spin but this Sri Lankan team does look better than the one both india and pakistan beat.