*Official* First Test at Trent Bridge

[3703]

Anyone drawing the comparison with brisbane last series should stop to save themselves the heartache. That aussie side last time comprised the worst attack ever assembled. Crocked Hilfenhaus, crocked Bollinger, Xavier Doherty, random cameo from Michael Beer, and the leader of the attack....bowls to the left, bowls to the right.

If the series continues like this it's going to be an absolute cracker

 

[hendrix]

OK, I've paid you your dues (and Sidds) but you really need to stop using the rankings in your case for the Big Heart........Jimmy > Sidds. Fact.

Pay everything else you said though.

that was 1/8 bullet points.

the rankings are about form, and Siddle deserves to be above Anderson.

 

[Philhughesisbes]

I'd like to see how many English boundaries were scored off balls pitched up. Australia really did put it up there..it might have seemed profligate at times but they'd take 215 AO every single time this series.

As far as Agar goes, I don't think it's such a bad idea throwing kids into high pressure situations. The key thing is to stick with them once the series is done with regardless of how they go. If you think they have talent, you have to stand by them through the growing pains.

Disagree completely , the ashes is not the time †o be experimenting.Agar is certainly a talent but that's just setting a young guy for failure.Poor selection from Australia.Also I thought Harris or Bird should have been picked ahead of Starc.

 

[Jono]

I stopped reading after the But....

Siddle against England has:
6/54
6/75
5/21 and now
5/50
+ a Test hat trick.

Say what you like about his failures on occasions to take a wicket, but doubting his ability to run through England, must surely be put to rest now.. Only the 5/21 really was one of those 'got a bit lucky' sort of 5 fa's, but in saying that, when you only go for 21 runs, you can't really discredit it so much as its not as though he did a Starc and went from 1/120 to 5/124 or something.

this is some serious posting. n00fers is dominating this thread.

Everyone needs to bow down asap.

 

[Spark]

IMO, it's a mental thing as he seems to lack patience

Take his bowling to Root as an example

Root stays legside, doesn't move his feet when playing "forward" and plays with an angled bat.

That should be a walk in the park for someone with Starc's attributes as all he needs to do is to keep it fullish around off stump and any movement either way will do the rest.

However, rather than keep it simple, he chops and changes between over and around the wicket, short and full, etc

He is making the typical young bowler's mistake of trying to get a wicket every ball and that is purely mental

Mm agree. Patto slightly guilty of this as well.

In these conditions, all you need to be doing is getting six forward defensives. If you're doing that in conditions which are moving, you're bowling alright.

 

[Dan]

The more I think about it, the less convinced I am by the Agar selection.

If he goes well and guns it in the third innings, we're set - but if he underperforms early on, 10 Ashes Tests is not a sequence of matches through which selectors are likely to back kids based on potential, and if he goes after a couple of Tests it will have dented his confidence severely.

Unless he proves himself as clearly better than Lyon in the second dig or at Lord's with some good performances, I can't help but feel that we've put a promising young kid into an awkward situation. Although if he thrives, he should be absolutely set in stone as a selection for quite a while; performing early on in the biggest series he is ever likely to play has to count for a huge amount.

 

[Adders]

that was 1/8 bullet points.

the rankings are about form, and Siddle deserves to be above Anderson.

I know it was 1 of 8 points, I said I agreed with his other comments....did you miss that part??

Your opinion on the rankings, mine is different.

 

[Spikey]

Jarrod Kimber: Batsmen reveal Australia's pain | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo

This left Australia only with the eager, technically-flawed, fidgety Smith.

When your team is 22 for 3, this is not the man you want coming to the crease. Smith is many things, but he's not John Wayne or Steve Waugh.

What Smith lacks in technical ability he does make up in three key areas. His eye is phenomenal. He could spot a raccoon a mile off on a foggy night in a dense forest. His confidence is remarkable. For a player that everyone else has written off, Smith just refuses to believe he isn't good enough. And then there is his fight. There is a bit of the mongrel in him.

Early on he played a ball to point that his hips were playing to fine leg and his bat was playing to midwicket. The England slips needed drool buckets. Somehow he survived Anderson. He punished Finn every time he made a mistake. And he decided to greet Graeme Swann by putting him back into his own members stand

Smith scored over half of Australia's runs at a strike rate of 74 and looked as likely to make a fifty as any batsmen on the day. Yet, there will be Australians who wake up, check the scorecard, see that fact, and assume they're heaving a weird dream which will probably end with ants coming out of their hand.

England only made 45 more than they did that first day at the Gabba, but at the end of that first day at the Gabba Australia's batting entrails weren't scattered all over the floor like today.

You may not believe in Steve Smith, and he's given you plenty of reasons not to, but Darren Lehmann does. And it appears like everyone believes in Darren Lehmann. Darren Lehmann didn't just pick Steve Smith, he batted him at five: a proper batting position.

It was probably a decision on blind faith, and when only one of your batsmen average over 36, blind faith and the cult of Darren Lehmann is all you have.

What a man to have blind faith in though

 

[Ruckus]

But isn't that exactly what the Siddle sceptics did due to a few quiet warm up matches with the ball (he did score his maiden first class century in the warmups).

Well I dunno what others said. Before the match begun I said this:

Fortunately the inevitable selection of Siddle isn't a shocker by any means, and I expect him to do at least a serviceable job. I just think it's a pity that we could have potentially gone in with a really threatening attack if we made some other selections. It's not every day you can do that, and I think it could be a mistake given we need to throw absolutely everything at England.

The real problem for me though, and much bigger than Siddle, is the very likely selection of Starc. If he happens to have an off day, then there will be a lot of pressure on Siddle and Pattinson to get it right. And that's not what you really want with one bowler who isn't in the best form and another who is extremely inexperienced, especially in English conditions.

So yeah, nowhere have I said Siddle is a **** bowler. In terms of his form, I wasn't being short-sighted either - I hadn't been that impressed by Siddle for some time before the practice matches. At this stage (assuming he doesn't bowl poo in the second innings), that's something I'll plain out admit I was wrong about though, because so far his form has looked very good. My argument was based off there being better alternatives to him available. So put simply, if he outbowls Bird in this series (assuming Bird gets some games), then I'll taste it and taste it hard.

 

[Ruckus]

christ just watching the highlights, that was an absolute gem from Anderson to Clarke. Totally unplayable. Did anyone see replays of the Rogers dismissal? Looked slightly iffy in real time. Did he challenge?

 

[Burgey]

Jarrod Kimber: Batsmen reveal Australia's pain | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo



What a man to have blind faith in though

I actually thought Smith played the ball later than most yesterday. Certainly at times he looked awkward, but so did everyone really. Not like he was the only bloke from either side who played and missed. He doesn't seem as leg side of the ball as he was previously, but then again it was early hours of the morning when I woke up on the lounge and began watching again.

I sometimes think when we've had a generation which picked up the line early and just hit through it, that when we see guys play late like Smith (and Root) did yesterday there's all sorts of oohs and ahhs, when really they're just playing for late movement. It often makes you look hurried or ungainly, but it's preferable to playing an elegant drive at the inital line of a ball then turning around to see you've been castled.

 

[Burgey]

christ just watching the highlights, that was an absolute gem from Anderson to Clarke. Totally unplayable. Did anyone see replays of the Rogers dismissal? Looked slightly iffy in real time. Did he challenge?

Yeah he challenged it and it was out - umpire's call on leg stump. I thought it was leg sidish when I saw it live because of the angle from around the wicket, but it was definitely hitting on replay and confirmed by Captain Pearce.

 

[Ruckus]

yeah so deceptive, really just looks like its gonna miss leg

 

[ajdude]

reckon rogers just wanted to pass his old high score and be done with it

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Rogers could have been better, but he was playing well up to that stage.

 

[Ruckus]

reckon that was so predictable from Watson. Has a few warm up matches where he smashes around some trundlers for some fairly big run-a-ball scores, then comes into this with false confidence thinking he can replicate it and ends up being too reckless.

Not sure what the heck Cowan was doing either. Was either really nervous and just had a brain explosion or thought he would try and be a hero. Not good enough though whatever the reason.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Watson injury concern

 

[Ruckus]

I just can't comprehend how Watson can get himself injured after 4 overs of bowling.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

I just can't comprehend how Watson can get himself injured after 4 overs of bowling.

It's a leg injury, what's his usual injury? Back or shoulder or something?

 

[Handsome Harry]

I just can't comprehend how Watson can get himself injured after 4 overs of bowling.

He's made of glass.

It's a leg injury, what's his usual injury? Back or shoulder or something?

Calf is the usual thing.