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*Official* First Test at The Gabba

Spark

Global Moderator
The only chance of a win was to get Clarke cheaply though.
Right yeah but whatever your plan, the way you do that is by bowling constantly at him. Letting Clarke get off strike with ease is basically the opposite of that.

This isn't a criticism of the "let Clarke keep the strike" tactic, ftr, which I thought was interesting and at a minimum would have been noticed by Clarke. This applies more to that period between the rain break and lunch where England just lost all the control they'd built up beforehand.

EDIT: Looking through, it seems that most of what I'm talking about came off Swann and Tremlett. I guess Broad and Anderson were finishing their spells at the time...
 
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GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Yeah the execution to him wasn't so effective though, Broad wasn't getting the angle right I suppose.

Strauss reckoned the match situation helped Clarke cope with it better though
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Yeah the execution to him wasn't so effective though, Broad wasn't getting the angle right I suppose.

Strauss reckoned the match situation helped Clarke cope with it better though
Yeah certainly. It's what I was saying beforehand though - the short-ball tactic to Clarke, while it might work, is extremely double-edged. The teams who have tried it in recent years have found it either works (like England have until today) or they get absolutely clobbered (South Africa - and what happened today), as if you get it wrong/Clarke fights it off, he gets set very quick and he automatically goes into a very aggressive mindset.

It's probably worth persisting with because other than bowl left-arm pies at him, no one else has found a way of stopping him scoring bazillions in recent times, but it comes with its fair share of risk. The real danger - and why I describe this as a "frightening" hundred - is that Clarke is capable of runs when not in peak form. But today looked he looked as to peak form as anything we've seen this year, and you can ask Morne Morkel what that looks like.
 
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Cabinet96

Hall of Fame Member
EDIT: Looking through, it seems that most of what I'm talking about came off Swann and Tremlett. I guess Broad and Anderson were finishing their spells at the time...
Yeah I think Broad bowled one over after the rain then it was Swann and Tremlett. Found it weird given the 15 minute break and the fact that neither Anderson or Broad had bowled that many overs.

Wouldn't be surprised if Cook just felt they'd missed the chance and Clarke was set. It was probably the case.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Yeah I think Broad bowled one over after the rain then it was Swann and Tremlett. Found it weird given the 15 minute break and the fact that neither Anderson or Broad had bowled that many overs.

Wouldn't be surprised if Cook just felt they'd missed the chance and Clarke was set. It was probably the case.
Yeah he's reminiscent of peak-Ponting in that once he gets to about 25 you may as well give up, tbh, and hope he misses a straight one. Unless you have some irritating left-arm darter in your side...

E: On a completely different note, is anyone slightly concerned about Jimmy? Looked kind of pedestrian today and yesterday IMO apart from one over to Warner, and wasn't that much better on Thursday from what I saw. Sure, not his kind of deck/conditions but still surprised to see how little zip he was getting off the surface.
 
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zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
Well played again, Australia, completely monstering this England team. I exclude Warner from that praise because, hundred or not, being a complete dick is being a complete dick.
 

91Jmay

International Coach
Rankin would at least give us some pace, a dimension we lack. The only way we can get back into this series is if Australia let us back in by playing badly.

Which means we do still have a chance, because we shouldn't forget that they aren't a very good team.
 

OverratedSanity

Request Your Custom Title Now!
I don't understand the extreme pessimism from the England fans. Yeah they've been outplayed comprehensively but it's way too early to be saying that the only way back for England is for Australia to drop the ball. Nah, all they need to do is play better, especially bat better and more sensibly.... Which they obviously can do


Well played again, Australia, completely monstering this England team. I exclude Warner from that praise because, hundred or not, being a complete dick is being a complete dick.
I don't know about that really. Warners comments didn't seem anything that nasty if you read the whole thing. The tweets are misleading... While his comments were silly, I don't think he went overboard or anything
 
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fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I don't know about that really. Warners comments didn't seem anything that nasty if you read the whole things. The tweets are misleading... While his comments were silly, I don't think he went overboard or anything
He did when he took a swing at Joe Root last summer - pretty sure that is what is being referred to
 

grecian

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Is Overton in Oz, he's got pace to burn, could do with Compo coming back in, and a proper batter-keeper like Jos.

I do like to use England poor performances to plug Zummerset people.
 

Woodster

International Captain
Another day that was tough to watch, worse still was that we all knew what was coming. A massive target set and a couple of dismissals before the close, and another worrying mode of dismissal for Trott.

Earlier though I thought Warner and Clarke were outstanding. The bowlers must shoulder some of the responsibility but ultimately it's so much easier for the likes of Warner and Clarke to go out there and be positive against the likes of Swann and co., when they've already got a pretty unassailable lead. Both were positive, I don't blame Cook for giving Warner singles early in Clarke's innings so we could let Broad have a go at him, it didn't go on for too long and it was worth the risk. Clarke just countered well and looked in excellent touch.

No surprise to me that Warner has been giving out after he's got himself some runs, he seems the sort of bloke to be chirpy while his team's on top and he's scoring runs, but I'm taking nothing away from how he batted today, positive, full of intent while also being very solid.

On these pitches our bowling attack is focused mainly on containing, we don't have the Johnson type bowler to go on the attack and when the opposition has a massive lead I think we look unsure exactly what we are trying to achieve with the ball.

On the batting front Carberry was unlucky the ball rolled back onto his stumps, and I think a separate thread is needed for Trott's issues right now (if there isn't one already).
 

foggytuch73

Cricket Spectator
Them aussies always gobbing off id like to see england fight fire with fire.

Lets go bodyline with them gobby arsebandits lets put em proper under the cosh:@
 

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