***Official*** Australia in the West Indies 2012

[uvelocity]

hasn't bowled much.

passed out early last night so just watched the replay. well done fellas, above expectations for the season, agree with burgey above.

top catch from clarkey off roach too, wd on the 5fa and lyono bowled well too.

I know Clarke was annointed the next skipper eons ago, but I wonder who it was that made the call originally. Buchannan? Genius imo.

 

[Spark]

It was before he'd played a Test, wasn't it?

 

[uvelocity]

I can't remember what I had for breakfast.

 

[Jayzamann]

Pleasant surprise to read that the win takes straya to 3rd ahead of India in the test rankings.

awyea

 

[morgieb]

Tighter than I would like but a win's a win. 2-0 is a reasonable series for us.

 

[Valer]

For all the haters

Team records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Results on the board are where its at. I'm more worried about Pakistan.

This table is intresting tho... (from the end of the Ashes)

	       	  BAT	BALL	DIFF	% DIFF
Australia 	34.62	25.51	9.11	26.31%
Pakistan 	36.93	25.22	11.71	31.71%
England 	39.41	27.62	11.79	29.92%
South Africa 	38.75	25.53	13.22	34.12%
India 	        28.56	39.8	-11.24	-39.36%
New Zealand 	29.4	31.83	-2.43	-8.27%

 

[TT Boy]

How is it that Clarke only has 29 wickets in his career? It seems that he should have way more than that given the number of memorable performances he has given with the ball. Nearly every one of those 29 wickets have made a huge contribution to an Australian win.

Only bowls on square turners or against Indians (West or East)?

Fair effort from the Windies to actually weaken their side for the England series.

 

[Manee]

Only bowls on square turners or against Indians (West or East)?

Fair effort from the Windies to actually weaken their side for the England series.

I do hope Edwards and Rampaul find form. Those three (add Roach) may be able to Test England's batsmen.

 

[Ruckus]

I really don't know how much more Australia could do except not have the once every two decades loss to the South Sea Island Poms in Hobart.

I agree that it's unfounded to criticise the Australian teams performance post-Ashes - because, as you highlighted, the results really have been very good. But you still get the feeling that the team has perhaps overachieved a little...probably largely to do with the reasons Cricketismylife stated. There are still a fair few uncertainties in our team - many more than for SA and Eng - and because of that I think we are still a fair way off yet from knowing just how good or bad the team is.

 

[howardj]

I agree that it's unfounded to criticise the Australian teams performance post-Ashes - because, as you highlighted, the results really have been very good. But you still get the feeling that the team has perhaps overachieved a little...probably largely to do with the reasons Cricketismylife stated. There are still a fair few uncertainties in our team - many more than for SA and Eng - and because of that I think we are still a fair way off yet from knowing just how good or bad the team is.

Yeah, we've come a mile from where we were at the end of Ashes 2010, with the victories in SL and SA in particular very commendable. The captaincy of Clarke has also been very good. Question marks are there however over:

- Our batting, with Cowan in particular out of his depth. There's nothing in his FC history or Test record to date to indicate he's anything more than a seriviceable FC cricketer.

- Keeping, if Haddin (as Clarke indicates) comes straight back into the team. His batting and glovework in my view are not satisfactory

- The inability of our quicks to stay on the park. It's getting quite ridiculous that nobody can seem to string a full series together anymore. These guys are not playing any more cricket than past players, but are going down like flies.

I think the biggest worry however is the guys out of the team - Usman, Hughes, Marsh, Smith, Cummins and Pattinson. The first four have fallen off a cliff and are placing no pressure whatsoever on the likes of Ponting and Cowan. Meanwhile Cummins and Pattinson really need to get their bodies right. They've played so little FC let alone Test cricket, so I think it's unknown how they'll cope in the medium term. We really have unearthed two gems, so hopefully they can get back on the park and stay there.

 

[Ruckus]

Yeah I agree with all of that. The last point is especially important...we desperately need some solid batting depth.

Would put perhaps a half question mark over Warner as well. I think he'll overcome any technical issues he has and will be a key player for us in the future, but he definately still has some way to go yet. And if he does succeed in the longer term there's always the question of how long it will take before he reaches the level of consistency we need from him... because really at the moment, even though he has made two very impressive centuries, he also has a lot of nothing scores to his name. Reckon the success or failure of Warner in the longer term could well be the most important factor in determining which direction this team takes as well.

 

[Spark]

I wouldn't say Smith has fallen off a cliff tbf. He probably wasn't really good enough to bat in the top six in the first place.

 

[Spikey]

Probably?

But then he wasn't really picked for that. He was picked for sort of an batsman all rounder thing, which he wasn't good enough for. But I wouldn't say he's fallen off a cliff. Decent enough season with the bat, displayed leadership abilities not considered before. If other young batsmen had the season he had we'd be over the moon..

 

[Jager]

Probably?

But then he wasn't really picked for that. He was picked for sort of an batsman all rounder thing, which he wasn't good enough for. But I wouldn't say he's fallen off a cliff. Decent enough season with the bat, displayed leadership abilities not considered before. If other young batsmen had the season he had we'd be over the moon..

Agreed that Smith probably wasn't ready to represent Australia, but he did get dropped after a fighting, unbeaten half century if I remember correctly. His bowling is key to his re-selection, seeing as he did not bowl at all well in the tests he featured in. I genuinely like his batting though, and according to that article by Chris Rogers, it sounds like he is working hard on it- something I have heard the opposite about with Khawaja (who also needs to work on his fielding, I hear).

 

[burr]

Yeah, we've come a mile from where we were at the end of Ashes 2010, with the victories in SL and SA in particular very commendable. The captaincy of Clarke has also been very good. Question marks are there however over:

- Our batting, with Cowan in particular out of his depth. There's nothing in his FC history or Test record to date to indicate he's anything more than a seriviceable FC cricketer.

- Keeping, if Haddin (as Clarke indicates) comes straight back into the team. His batting and glovework in my view are not satisfactory

- The inability of our quicks to stay on the park. It's getting quite ridiculous that nobody can seem to string a full series together anymore. These guys are not playing any more cricket than past players, but are going down like flies.

I think the biggest worry however is the guys out of the team - Usman, Hughes, Marsh, Smith, Cummins and Pattinson. The first four have fallen off a cliff and are placing no pressure whatsoever on the likes of Ponting and Cowan. Meanwhile Cummins and Pattinson really need to get their bodies right. They've played so little FC let alone Test cricket, so I think it's unknown how they'll cope in the medium term. We really have unearthed two gems, so hopefully they can get back on the park and stay there.

Yes, I agree. While it's all been very impressive of late, I posted a while ago there's just not the same pressure for spots there was in the early to late 90s. Was listening to 5 live the other day and some ex-cricketer (not sure who - British) was talking about how great players can never get a chance to play test cricket over an extended period / in their prime. The example he used was Darren Lehmann. Makes you remember the days when the Aus second 11 (in terms of batting) was the close to if not the second best batting line up in the world. That's what we have to aim for.

However, surely Haddin's not coming back into the team. I assumed he was done. Never rated him and was pleased he'd finally found a way to disappear from the team.

 

[Burgey]

I agree with this and think that Aus are on the way up for sure. I still maintain that they arent quite at the level of England and South Africa, in non subcontinental conditions. England are a poor team on the subcontinent, but luckily for them they wont be playing Australia in the subcontinent, so I'd still back them. Beating West Indies with that lineup should be a given for any decent side (the side Eng lost to in 2009 was a much better batting lineup), so that's why I'm sounding a bit harsh in my appraisal of Aus in this series. Let's be honest this West Indies batting lineup is just embarassing; potentially they could have a top 7 of Gayle, Edwards, Sarwan, Bravo, Chanderpaul, Nash and Ramdin.

Instead we got a top 3 who are nowhere near test standard and are being played purely because they are young (I like Barath but he just hasnt done anything at all since his debut), a number 6 who simply isnt test standard, and a wicketkeeper who averages less than Jason Gillespie. Not exactly a big challenge for Australia.

No, but they will be by the next Ashes. Strauss will be lucky to still be around by then. We'll knock the Poms off and resume our rightful place at the top of the tree.

 

[Ruckus]

Pleasant surprise to read that the win takes straya to 3rd ahead of India in the test rankings.

awyea

Geez that's insane. It totally hasn't sunk in for me just how close we are to taking the number 1 spot again...only 4 points now separating us from SA/Eng. Given what has happened in the past couple of years it, it will seem quite surreal if it does happen sometime soon.

 

[Spark]

We've had a really good year tbf.

 

[KungFu_Kallis]

Geez that's insane. It totally hasn't sunk in for me just how close we are to taking the number 1 spot again...only 4 points now separating us from SA/Eng. Given what has happened in the past couple of years it, it will seem quite surreal if it does happen sometime soon.

Yeah no doubt mate. And then Warnie will make a Test comeback, Ponting will become a good bloke, the Wallabies will win the tri nations, and the war on terrorism will be over

 

[smash84]

haha....welll said