Personal Cricket Statutes

[Richard]

With the amount of List A cricket played every year and Afzaal avges 35.33.

If 35.33 with 1 hundred and 20 fifties in 85 innings is one of the best OD batsmen in England, then God save England.

Yes, God save us.
The reason I won't believe England are undergoing a renaissance in ODIs, despite South Africa's willingness to cave-in last summer and Pakistan's customary baffling selection, is because of this precise fact.
Very few players in England, either batsmen or bowlers, have good List-A records, and more of them than not that do have no chance of being around in 2007 (Knight, Hick, Ealham, Mullally, Croft, Thorpe, Hussain, Caddick, Gough). Afzaal's record did used to be a little better than that, too; look at his 2003.
England's ODI picks since 2003 have included the like of:
Richard Johnson, Rikki Clarke, Michael Vaughan, Vikram Solanki, Ian Blackwell, Jamie Troughton, James Kirtley, Anthony McGrath, Andrew Strauss, Gareth Batty, Stephen Harmison and Kabir Ali. None of these have domestic records that suggested to me they would be successes. And very few have been to date, and for those that to date have I believe that will change.

 

[marc71178]

There is no reason to be quick, take wickets and be econmical.

No, slow bowlers who are unthreatening and concede shedloads are much more useful!

 

[Neil Pickup]

I think Craig wanted a semicolon rather than a comma.

The joys of punctuation.

 

[Eclipse]

Good good.
I wonder, given that you know so much about Australian players, whether you could tell me if Michael Slater smokes?

I dont know I have not meet Slater other than very breifly.

I dont think he does I may be wrong but I know he was a bit of a gym junkie for a while and supposedly obsessed with fitness so I would doubt it.

Were did you get the idea Lee smoked anyway??

 

[Craig]

No, slow bowlers who are unthreatening and concede shedloads are much more useful!

Were you being sarcastic?

 

[PY]

Were you being sarcastic?

Yes he was being sarcastic but you put a comma instead of a semi-colon as Neil explained so it was a mis-understanding I think.

 

[Craig]

My turn:

1, Flintoff is a immensly over-rated bowler.
2, Greame Smith is a good batsman and a execellent captain.
3, The Gatting ball is over-rated
4, Flat lifeless batting decks are boring.
5, Matt Inness is a good bowler.
6, Ashish Nehra is immensly over-rated.
7, Fidel Edwards ihas the potential a very good bowler with a very good record.
8, Ronnie Sarwan has the potential to average over 55.

 

[bennyr]

3, The Gatting ball is over-rated

I agree, "Ball of the century" is a huge call - and by that measurement the ball is definitely over-rated.

But I was watching that ball on the telly when it happened, and when you consider that Warne had all sorts of media pressure on him about how he would perform in England and for his first test delivery in England he comes up with that - it deserves it's place in history.

 

[Richard]

2, Greame Smith is a good batsman and a execellent captain.

I'd say the other way around. And I'd swap excellent for "all-time great potential".

 

[Richard]

I dont know I have not meet Slater other than very breifly.

I dont think he does I may be wrong but I know he was a bit of a gym junkie for a while and supposedly obsessed with fitness so I would doubt it.

Were did you get the idea Lee smoked anyway??

I heard it from a fellow poster on a forum. Same place I heard Slater, Franklin and someone else did. And everyone knows Warne does, despite being sponsored to give-up 3 years ago.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Graeme Smith is incredibly over-rated and his bottom handed grip will prove to be fatal for his Test average so long as people bowl in the right place to him.

Love his attitude, though.

 

[Richard]

Heard anything about his innings today?
And noticed how long his current technique has worked for?

 

[Neil Pickup]

Fed short balls and ones on the pads? Suited him somewhat.

And there are plenty of tales of people whose techniques suited lower levels but couldn't cope with the step up in the long term.

 

[Swanny]

I'm not sure how you could tell when you said you were following the game on Cricinfo Neil?

I thought this about Smith, he didn't look that good once England worked out were to bowl at him. But then again hes only a young man and many people his age are said to be 'good prospects', hes already scored a stack of runs against decent opposition.

 

[Neil Pickup]

I'm not sure how you could tell when you said you were following the game on Cricinfo Neil?

Text comms saying "another one on the pads" and wagon wheels with 60-70% of the runs square of the wicket.

 

[Swanny]

Ok then I didn't know it went into that much detail. Still not sure I could judge a game/innings if I didn't actually see it.

Still you would have expected the West Indies to have ;earnt from the way England bowled at him in the first 2 tests.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Neil is right. Vasbert Drakes got a couple on a fuller length just outside offstump and beat his a couple of times. In fact, Drakes bowled a few potential wicket balls today. He beat each batsman at least once.

 

[luckyeddie]

The West Indies definitely bowled to Smith's strengths for much of his innings.

I heard one strange comment - it is alleged that, beforehand, one of the commentators asked Brian Lara what he thought of Graeme Smith. The reply was "I don't know - I've never seen him bat!"

Frankly, it looked like it too.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

I don't think that Brian Lara was unprepared for this Test match, the bowlers weren't fully prepared. Also, I have a strong suspicion that the West Indies team does not watch video and statistics (wagon wheels etc.) of their opponents before hand. If they do, I can't believe that bowlers with such apparent talent could be so incredibly (for lack of a better word) stupid.

IMO Lara tried his best as a captain today, but it's just one of those days when things just didn't go to plan. The commentators were suggesting that, had the West Indies batted first, it would have been a much better start to the series in that it may have given them the spark to play with confidence.

This pitch is as flat as any and if the West Indies are to collapse on it and be bowled out twice in this game, it will be their fault, not the pitches (unless massive cracks appear).

 

[Mr. P]

Yes, God save us.
The reason I won't believe England are undergoing a renaissance in ODIs, despite South Africa's willingness to cave-in last summer and Pakistan's customary baffling selection, is because of this precise fact.
Very few players in England, either batsmen or bowlers, have good List-A records, and more of them than not that do have no chance of being around in 2007 (Knight, Hick, Ealham, Mullally, Croft, Thorpe, Hussain, Caddick, Gough). Afzaal's record did used to be a little better than that, too; look at his 2003.
England's ODI picks since 2003 have included the like of:
Richard Johnson, Rikki Clarke, Michael Vaughan, Vikram Solanki, Ian Blackwell, Jamie Troughton, James Kirtley, Anthony McGrath, Andrew Strauss, Gareth Batty, Stephen Harmison and Kabir Ali. None of these have domestic records that suggested to me they would be successes. And very few have been to date, and for those that to date have I believe that will change.

Blame it on county cricket.