***Official*** Sri Lanka in Australia

[The Sean]

A lot of my thoughts on Mr Cricket being reflected here. There's making up for lost time and then there's what he's been doing over the past couple of years. It's freakish.

A question that's been on my mind - how much more of this kind of thing does Hussey need to do before we stop thinking of his average as merely a statistical aberration?

 

[JBH001]

Tbh, I am not sure if we can see it as a statistical aberration anymore.

I mean how many years has he been around now? Getting into his third year of international cricket, right? Thats long enough to be found out and to be brought down to earth. He has played something like 30 innings and scored almost 2000 runs with what is it now? 8 hundreds? I really cant categorise it tbh, and I am not really sure if Hussey is good for the game....

 

[Laurrz]

agreed, in ODI's it is a 'statistical abberation' i recn coz of the not outs he gets (although it has 'fallen' to 50 odd i think)
but in tests i think its very legitimate

 

[Craig]

A lot of my thoughts on Mr Cricket being reflected here. There's making up for lost time and then there's what he's been doing over the past couple of years. It's freakish.

A question that's been on my mind - how much more of this kind of thing does Hussey need to do before we stop thinking of his average as merely a statistical aberration?

Ten - Twenty matches or in turn the next year or two and conditions and opposition must be a factor. Should Australia tour Pakistan (well 95% likely) then I guess runs there and whenever Australia go to India etc. I can't believe how a guy in the early part of this century struggled with WA (like having a CA contract for one year and not one the next) and now has some amazing average. He is yet to have a form slump either, but all credit for him I guess.

 

[Ikki]

Tbh, I am not sure if we can see it as a statistical aberration anymore.

I mean how many years has he been around now? Getting into his third year of international cricket, right? Thats long enough to be found out and to be brought down to earth. He has played something like 30 innings and scored almost 2000 runs with what is it now? 8 hundreds? I really cant categorise it tbh, and I am not really sure if Hussey is good for the game....

Looking at him in comparison to Bradman, and he still falls short. If Hussey ain't human, Bradman was God.

 

[Ikki]

agreed, in ODI's it is a 'statistical abberation' i recn coz of the not outs he gets (although it has 'fallen' to 50 odd i think)
but in tests i think its very legitimate

But really, look at the scores he gets not-outs on, very very impressive:

17, 32, 65, 31, 62, 46, 75, 21, 1, 88, 34, 25, 47, 23, 36, 30, 32, 46, 65, 29, 30 (all scores not-outs).

 

[JBH001]

Yeah, but that is one of my concerns with Hussey.

Not that he will surpass Bradman, but in cricketing terms he is close enough and far away from everybody else who has ever been (assuming he keeps this up in the next year or so). At the current time his avg is in the early 80s and while it may remain at that level, I think that he is still just wrong in some fundamental way.

Put it this way. I see cricket as one of the great levellers. Score a magnificent hundred against the best team in the world on debut and then get out for a first ball duck in your next match against a minnow side. Or a bowler bowling a great spell but with little reward. In the next test he merely bowls OK and somehow or the other cleans up, or has one bogey team or one bogey country against whom however hard he tries he keeps coming uo short (example Murali so far against Australia). Cricket in some fundamental way keeps you honest and keeps you real on the field of play. You might therefore have batsmen who have done better than most and go on to avg in the 50s or bowlers who similarly go onto avg in the low 20s. But beyond those lines it seems difficult to consistently progress, and that to my mind is how it should be. Hussey makes a mockery of that in regards to batting and I dont know if I like that very much. I admire Hussey very much, his talent, his skills, his application and joy in the game. But I think I can only tolerate one Bradman in the history of cricket...

 

[pasag]

A lot of my thoughts on Mr Cricket being reflected here. There's making up for lost time and then there's what he's been doing over the past couple of years. It's freakish.

A question that's been on my mind - how much more of this kind of thing does Hussey need to do before we stop thinking of his average as merely a statistical aberration?

Years and length of time is the most important thing for me as opposed to number of matches.

 

[pup11]

Even though i love Hussey and truly rate him as superb extraordinary player but to compare him with Sir Don is almost like disrespecting the great man, Hussey's stats are superb but ask him to maintain the same numbers by playing on uncovered pitches and there he would fail pretty badly like any other player from the modern era, Bradman is above every batsman to play the game and he is incomparable IMO.

 

[Ikki]

Even though i love Hussey and truly rate him as superb extraordinary player but to compare him with Sir Don is almost like disrespecting the great man, Hussey's stats are superb but ask him to maintain the same numbers by playing on uncovered pitches and there he would fail pretty badly like any other player from the modern era, Bradman is above every batsman to play the game and he is incomparable IMO.

I think the opposite. I think when you compare Hussey's relatively short success and that he STILL doesn't measure up to the Don, then you get a great kick in the teeth for even asking that question, realising how far and away the Don was/is ahead.

 

[JBH001]

Hmmm, maybe I should rephrase my last line of my last post to what I meant to say.

Viz: I can only tolerate one super-freak in the history of the game.

 

[The_Bunny]

I think the opposite. I think when you compare Hussey's relatively short success and that he STILL doesn't measure up to the Don, then you get a great kick in the teeth for even asking that question, realising how far and away the Don was/is ahead.

I dont think I could ever rate him next to Badman, if he keeps this up for 3+ more years or so I think he would have tyo be rated amongs the best batsmen ever, if not the second best of all time.

 

[Laurrz]

forecast not good for tomorrow (weather that is)

showers..

sunday monday tuesday all good though..but tomorrow is Saturday!! so it better not be lots of rain

 

[iamdavid]

Well certainly if he keeps this up and finishes his career with 60 odd tests and an average over 70, he will likely be regarded by most people as superior to Sobers, Headley, Hutton, Lara, Hobbs, Tendulkar, Richards, Ponting, Pollock or whoever else you want to throw up.
However I really dont see that happening, despite the wonderful player he is and the safe-as-houses nature of his batting, he must have a down-patch sooner or later.

 

[sideshowtim]

Well certainly if he keeps this up and finishes his career with 60 odd tests and an average over 70, he will likely be regarded by most people as superior to Sobers, Headley, Hutton, Lara, Hobbs, Tendulkar, Richards, Ponting, Pollock or whoever else you want to throw up.
However I really dont see that happening, despite the wonderful player he is and the safe-as-houses nature of his batting, he must have a down-patch sooner or later.

True. I hope he proves us all wrong though. Gotta remember he's still untested in a lot of subcontinental conditions.

England he should be fine in. Has carved up county there for years. It's the subcontinent I'm concerned about.

 

[Laurrz]

i am quite surprised how he's played Murali.. thought he would struggle the most

but yea subcontinent different thing altogether

 

[The Sean]

How come Ponting's not getting in on the act?

Maybe unlike Hussey Ponting has found out to be human?

He hasn't quite cashed the way some of his team mates have but I'd back him to get runs if we're in trouble at any point this summer.

And I think it says something for Punter's performances over the past few years that two innings of 56 and 31 are considered relative failures.

 

[silentstriker]

His FC record, unlike the Don's, merely great and not inhuman. He averages in the mid fifties in FC cricket and I'd look for his Test average to come down to around that point by the time he retires.

If he really was that great, he would have scored more in FC cricket. The Don averaged almost the same in FC cricket as he did in Test, showing it was more than a 'patch' he was going through. The Don had 28,000 FC runs in 234 matches at an average of 95 with 117 centuries. So we know his talent level wasn't overly exaggerated in Test cricket through luck or a purple patch.

Hussey is great in FC cricket (195 matches, average of 54), but he is nowhere near Bradmanesque and is really closer to most of the merely 'very good' batsmen of this era. Obviously, if his average is 90 after a decade of international cricket - then obviously his FC record is a moot point. I think a good reference point is found in his ODI average. After 32 ODIs, it was over a hundred, after 50 ODIs it was under 75, and now it is below 60. Something similar will happen in Test cricket, but depending on how long he sticks around, he may still end up with an average of 60+.

 

[silentstriker]

It is really amazing how ready the Australian players are when entering Test cricket. Next time an Indian selectors talks about the Test team as a place to 'groom' the youngsters, I am going to take a bat to their heads.

 

[JASON]

Maharoof Strike Rate 109.5 and climbing Average 60.75 and rising....will keep regular updates on both the above ...

Wickets per test 1.25 and falling....