***Official*** VB Series 2006

[Langeveldt]

What a mediocre aussie lineup, its like they have got bored of winning so have told Buchanan to be a duss (although he seems fine at doing that anyway) and picked some very random lineups

 

[open365]

The Aussie selection policy smacks of arrogance to me,you should play near enough your best team every game,not undermine the opposition and the competition like this,

New Zealand rugby team can do it.but Australia cricket can't.

 

[Tom Halsey]

The problem with the Aussie selection is that since The Ashes they've thought big changes are necessary. They're not - they were still a very good team, that happened to get beaten by a very good team. The changes have made them into merely a good team.

 

[marc71178]

NZ is a seamers paradise though, not suited to their spinners and their batsmen wouldn't enjoy it.

IIRC it's not just been NZ they've struggled in though to be honest.

 

[marc71178]

Geez Louise, how quickly form can turn. A week ago, SL were the international whipping boys and people were wondering out loud whether they were even going to be competitive in this series. Now they're the form team and doing everything well; bowling, batting and fielding and about to take a bonus point off the Aussies. Brilliant stuff.

Is it more indication that the Australian bowling back-ups are pretty weak?

 

[Burpey]

Is it more indication that the Australian bowling back-ups are pretty weak?

If the selectors picked decent back-ups (Kasper, Gillespie, Bichel) then we wouldn't have that problem.

 

[Nate]

I pray for the day that soon i'll be seeing this OD team on the field:

Jaques
Gilly
Punter
Marto
Roy
Pup
Mr.Cricket
Watto
Bing
Dizzy
Pigeon
Hoggy - sub

Bracken`s average of 17.6 at an economy of 3.4 in this series not good enough? Or is it his ODI bowling average of 22?

Haha, just having a dig at you mate, I remember the good old days when Gillespie could bowl.

 

[Tim]

NZ is a seamers paradise though, not suited to their spinners and their batsmen wouldn't enjoy it. In the WI they're far more likely to get slowish flat wickets - not sure that they'll turn that much but they're clever bowlers so they may be able to pin batsmen down.

errr...you obviously didn't watch the NZ/S.L series then. NZ pitches are getting more batsmen friendly as every year passes now.

 

[Prince EWS]

absolutely, but in some cases some of the main players i.e Gilly, pigeon, Ponting, Lee could be rested alternatively but rotation in batting line-up should not be done. I hope Jaques opens on thursday unfortunately for Katich he will have to make way for good at the top of the order & Marto goes back to 4 & STAYS their.

I pray for the day that soon i'll be seeing this OD team on the field:

Jaques
Gilly
Punter
Marto
Roy
Pup
Mr.Cricket
Watto
Bing
Dizzy
Pigeon
Hoggy - sub

BTW is Gilchrist returning for thursday game in adelaide or sundays game in perth?

Why exactly do you insist on naming your lineups with the players' nicknames?

 

[Blaze]

Why exactly do you insist on naming your lineups with the players' nicknames?

He thinks he is mates with them.

 

[Nate]

Haha what makes me laugh is the number of matches Aussie has slept through.

 

[Nate]

There weren`t heaps of positives last night for the Aussies, but one has to be Haddin`s batting. Hopefully he can crack 50. Does he get to play in anymore matches? If I`m right, I think he gets the one in Adelaide and that`s it.

And bring Jaques back!!

 

[JASON]

Does it suggest that he has had an injury for a long time then?

Or should we reserve judgement until the end of the series, see where he's at by then.

The man is getting on in terms of his age and he certainly suffered a form Slump . How else do you explain his consistent poor scores in India .( In 6 ODIs )
To add to this he hid from the selectors his shoulder dislocation or lack of recovery until they found out.

Both these cast him in poor light at the time , particularly as SL were getting a real hammering in India. In NZ he got dropped after his failure in the first ODI and I suspect even though we were told he had dislocated his shoulder again, my gut feeling is that the selectors decided he had not recovered from his shoulder dislocation adequately and probably kept him out of the remaining three games.

Obviously that rest has done him quite a bit of good. There is also some suggestion he was going thru a marital breakup as well and the stress from that was also complicating his form slump.

Anyway for SL's sake I hope his current form continues and the selectors use him judiciously .

 

[JASON]

Damn I love it when I'm right about who the key bowlers are. Great to see Bandara doing well and he had Clarke nailed for LBW early on; very unlucky to miss out on that one.

Bandara definitely bowled well apart from that one over he got clouted for 15 runs.

Even Murali got clouted in one particular over particularly when the fielding started falling to bits and some misfields ended up as 4s.

You could see Murali getting p*ssed off then and shouting to his fielders !

Yesterday was a great day for Atapattu's captaincy but one mystery to me is his failure to use Dilshan.

 

[Nate]

Haha Murali looked so evil when he was yelling at his slip.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Haha, Jason manages to extract some negatives from last night. CW salutes you!

 

[JASON]

What a catch Murali!!! Very good captaincy by Atapattu.

Murali showed what a great fielder he is with the amazing catches he pulled off . While Dilshan again showed his prowess in fielding with the brilliant Runout.

Clarke was involved in 2 run outs (not that he is to be blamed for these) but to run out Hussey for a duck was an absolute waste . While Roy's runout again was due to the Aussie batsmen underestimating the SL fielding .

This was not a full strength Aussie line-up (without McGrath) and the strange Captaincy of Ricky Ponting in failing to take Dorey or Hopes off - even as they were getting carted over after over by Sanath and Sanga - leaves a lot of questions in my mind. Likewise the failure to have Brad Hogg the only genuine spinner in the original XI was very odd.

These to me cast a real shadow over the SL win over Australia. **Damn should be happy we have won , without getting so damn petty **

I suspect Aussies will come back in Full strength for the Australia day clash in Adelaide to celebrate the day with a thumping win over SL.

Will the Aussie selectors go back to the experience of Gillespie over Dorey ?

The list of Aussie cricketers not in the VB squad is worth mentioning here -
Hayden, Bevan, Gillespie, Warne, Lehman , Gilchrist, ........ trying hard to remember others .

 

[JASON]

Haha, Jason manages to extract some negatives from last night. CW salutes you!

Just my usual self ,trying my best to be pessimistic as possible .

 

[mikeW]

Hodge into the team replacing Ponting

http://cricket.com.au/default.aspx?s...splay&id=36339

 

[Burpey]

Hayden, Bevan, Gillespie, Warne, Lehman , Gilchrist

Kasprowicz, Bichel, MacGill, Watson ... don't get me started on this