***Official*** Top End Series

[FaaipDeOiad]

India A home with 8 balls to spare.

More positives to take from this match for Australia, with Watson having a pretty good game all round, and Dorey having an impact. Hodge continues his good form too. You'd have to imagine that with some better batting lower in the order Australia might have won, but the fact that they went from 4/182 after 40 overs to all out 213 was the deciding factor.

Still a worry that Jaques, Cosgrove and Birt all failed, obviously. Hopefully the next performances will be better.

 

[Xuhaib]

More proof that OZ will not dominate international cricket in the coming years.

 

[Scaly piscine]

More proof that OZ will not dominate international cricket in the coming years.

Not really, it wasn't a particularly young Australia A side and you won't see many of them going through to be regular Australia players anyway. Then you've got players like Tait who if (big if) they do ever sort themselves out will go from rubbish to world beater.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

More Indian batting beginning to flourish by the looks of it, and the spinners are coming along nicely. I hope there won't be the same problem they had a few years back, when they had heaps of batting talent lounging around in the A team, and rather than gradually flowing into the full side, it just sat there and stagnated.

 

[adharcric]

Good to see Gambhir still scoring runs despite being dropped from the national side. Also, Venu leading from the front and Chawla continuing his excellence are pleasing sights. Dhawan, Uthappa and Sharma are the men to watch with the bat: they are young and talented and if they can dominate Aus, Nzl and Pak bowlers abroad, that'll instill a lot of confidence. The form of RP Singh is also crucial and it seems he turned in a better performance last night, giving up four runs an over. The extras remain an issue.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Not really, it wasn't a particularly young Australia A side and you won't see many of them going through to be regular Australia players anyway. Then you've got players like Tait who if (big if) they do ever sort themselves out will go from rubbish to world beater.

I'd say it's also worth noting that in losing both the matches so far, it's been the batting that has been the real problem, whereas in reality it's the bowling that Australia should be concerned about for the future. With the likes of Jaques, Cosgrove and so on coming through, there's plenty of decent batting talent. As such, my main interest is how the likes of Tait, Dorey, Hilfenhaus and Johnson perform, much more than Birt, Jaques, Cosgrove, Hodge and so on, who I already know are quite capable.

 

[Smudge]

oh my gosh James!!!? have you not been following domestic cricket for the last 2 years!?
Te ahu Davis plays for Northern. He was in the NZ U19 team a few years ago and he bowls mid 140 k's.

He's even a member of this forum.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

o rly? make him post or something Volters.

 

[Xuhaib]

He's even a member of this forum.

Oh yeah i remember one of his post. It wasnt the most incoherent peice of writing.

 

[Nate]

NZ 'A' playing two matches in one day? Advantage or disadvantage? Well batted by Hodge and Haddin was sublime. Dorey and Johnson were simply outstanding in the opening overs leaving the Kiwis with no way to win.

 

[Haddin]

Haddin's dismisal was strange. He was bowled a beamer, then thinking he had a free hit, he tried to hit it out of the ground, and he was caught...

 

[Nate]

Haha, unfortunate. 22 off that Hopes over. Good to see.

 

[Nate]

Close-ish match, Australia regain some advantage with Watson`s wicket. Hopefully he and Cullen can finish it off.

 

[Nate]

They do just that, good win.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

NZ 'A' playing two matches in one day? Advantage or disadvantage? Well batted by Hodge and Haddin was sublime. Dorey and Johnson were simply outstanding in the opening overs leaving the Kiwis with no way to win.

Different teams. New Zealand A White and Black.

Anyway, another good effort from Watson it seems. He has 6 wickets in the 3 games so far, and a few runs too. Hodge and Haddin in form with the bat again, while Cosgrove and Jaques struggle.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Watson seems to be hitting some form, good to see.

 

[thedarkmullet]

Now kiwis can whip out the split talent pool excuse.

Just imagine a combination GREY team for New Zealand

 

[AussieDominance]

Watson seems to be hitting some form, good to see.

Watto has always had the telent just needs to use it the right way

 

[Smudge]

o rly? make him post or something Volters.

This is his profile

 

[James]

This is his profile

I think this smiley describes it pretty well.