What is it with the Australian selectors and freakin' Simon Katich???????????

[sqwerty]

How the hell can the selectors justify selecting him in ODI's game in, game out????
We're the world champs, we've got the best middle order by miles yet the selectors are determined to pick this dufus to get us off the slowest possible start and then try and bat through the innings (which he never does because he always gets out when he's about to start playing a few shots).

Talk about regressive in our thinking. When we won the world cup all the batsmen just went out there and blazed away and everything was sweet. Now suddenly we feel we need someone to come in and open like in the Geoff Marsh era when a good start was considered 0-35 off 10.

I'm sick to death of watching Katich bat though last night I was enjoying it when he was 2 off 30 balls because I wanted to see him keep on playing dot balls so he could play himself out of the side once and for all.

I don't care if that pitch wasn't conducive to quick scoring!!...at least turn the strike over you useless so and so !!!

Nice enough bloke though.

 

[howardj]

Yeah, it's silly.

Why do we suddenly need an anchor like Katich?

Did we have a player trying to play such a role in 1999 or 2003? No

It's almost like the selectors are just being contrary for the hell of it.

On second thoughts, any weird ideas/selections in the Australian team, I always trace back to John Buchanan. He'd probably call Katich's selection 'thinking outside the circle'.

If only Katich could hit outside the circle.

 

[Jono]

On second thoughts, any weird ideas/selections in the Australian team, I always trace back to John Buchanan. He'd probably call Katich's selection 'thinking outside the circle'.

If only Katich could hit outside the circle.

LOL... nice.

 

[pasag]

It makes sense in theory that when you have guns like Gilchrist and Ponting blazing away at the top, you also have a rock to support them. Especially when with abit of bad luck, their do or die styles can see a sudden collapse, in theory, Katich could play a slow and respectable match winning innings and save the game. He hasn't really been doing this though but then again, we haven't really needed him to. However I would like to see him kept till the Champions Trophy, if he stuffs up there, perhaps being dropped would do him good. But wait untill then imo.

 

[archie mac]

It makes sense in theory that when you have guns like Gilchrist and Ponting blazing away at the top, you also have a rock to support them. Especially when with abit of bad luck, their do or die styles can see a sudden collapse, in theory, Katich could play a slow and respectable match winning innings and save the game. He hasn't really been doing this though but then again, we haven't really needed him to. However I would like to see him kept till the Champions Trophy, if he stuffs up there, perhaps being dropped would do him good. But wait untill then imo.

I can see the logic, but if he is not going to rotate the strike then he is hindering not helping. The final was a disgrace, if he going to stay he must find a way to score singles.

 

[C_C]

on that note, Morton played 34-odd balls for a duck. Does anyone know what is the longest duck(most balls played) in history ? either form of cricket would be sufficient.

 

[Dasa]

It's interesting to see Katich's strike rate...when he first started opening, it was around the high 70s, and now it's down below 70.

 

[Dasa]

on that note, Morton played 34-odd balls for a duck. Does anyone know what is the longest duck(most balls played) in history ? either form of cricket would be sufficient.

In Tests, the record is Geoff Allott's 77 ball (101 minute) duck against South Africa.
Morton's 34 ball duck is a record for ODIs.

 

[C_C]

IMO, in today's cricket, a strike rate of atleast 70 is required of a batsman wanting to be an ODI opener...a strike rate of 66 means going at 4 an over. Thats the bare minimum average st/r for even a hopeless opener.

 

[C_C]

In Tests, the record is Geoff Allott's 77 ball (101 minute) duck against South Africa.
Morton's 34 ball duck is a record for ODIs.

77..that too a tailender...holy smokes.
How did he do that ?
I cant imagine being a tail-ender and facing 77 balls without scoring as a tailender...thats mindboggling - didnt even 'misblock' or 'mishit' a ball for a single somewhere in the field!

Thanks for the info,Dasa.

 

[Mister Wright]

Yep Katich has to go now. Enough is enough. Anyone who is still defending his position in the side has lost all credibiliity IMO.

 

[sqwerty]

It makes sense in theory that when you have guns like Gilchrist and Ponting blazing away at the top, you also have a rock to support them. Especially when with abit of bad luck, their do or die styles can see a sudden collapse, in theory, Katich could play a slow and respectable match winning innings and save the game. He hasn't really been doing this though but then again, we haven't really needed him to. However I would like to see him kept till the Champions Trophy, if he stuffs up there, perhaps being dropped would do him good. But wait untill then imo.

yes but any of the Australian batsmen can play a sheet anchor role if they need to.

The openers need to go in there and play their shots. If things go bad and we're 2-20 or 3-30 odd then Clarke, Hussey, Martyn, whoever can all play the sheet anchor role (and score at the same time!).

Wasn't there a game last season when we were about 5-50 and we got about 350? something like that I think

There's been no need for sheet anchors in one day cricket ever since Sri Lanka changed the way the game was played all those years back........especially in this Australian side with the depth of batting they've got.

Then again hopefully Gilly will be back and they can just pick an opener from Jaques, Watson, Hayden, Katich....I'd even throw Haddin in there.

But I know who they're going to go for.........hence the title of this thread.

 

[James]

77..that too a tailender...holy smokes.
How did he do that ?
I cant imagine being a tail-ender and facing 77 balls without scoring as a tailender...thats mindboggling - didnt even 'misblock' or 'mishit' a ball for a single somewhere in the field!

Thanks for the info,Dasa.

Have a read of our interview with Geoff Allott. It covers this.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

As I said in the other thread, the reason Katich is (or was) still being picked is that he was consistently making runs and doing the job that was required of him in the side. The tri-series that just finished was his first bad series since becoming an opener, and he was the highest runscorer in the VB Series. Obviously he was being told to play a stablising role, and you can't fault a guy who does what he's asked to do and makes plenty of runs in the process.

Obviously he's had a couple of poor games in a row now, and if he continues to underperform he'll be dropped. I think he'll still be there in the CT, but whether or not he makes it any further than that will depend on how he goes in that tournament.

 

[Dasa]

Some more stats on Katich:
As an opener, he's made 1156 runs from 1734 balls - that's exactly 4 runs per over.
However, since the VB Series, Katich has averaged 33.63 opening while scoring at only 3.62 runs per over (60.26 runs per 100 balls).
A criticism of Katich has been that he eats up too many deliveries without making many runs which puts pressure on the other batsmen to score quickly. Interestingly, when Katich doesn't pass 50, he scores at 3.56 runs per over (59.59 runs per 100 balls) which somewhat supports that theory.
Also interesting to see that Katich score much more quickly when batting down the order - at 5.25 runs per over (87.50 runs per 100 balls) although he averages only 28 when not opening.

It's quite a rarity to see such a slow scoring batsman in international cricket these days, much less opening. The only comparable batsman would be Boeta Dippenaar, but he has a much higher average of 44.37 while scoring at a similar rate to Katich.

 

[sqwerty]

Some more stats on Katich:
As an opener, he's made 1156 runs from 1734 balls - that's exactly 4 runs per over.
However, since the VB Series, Katich has averaged 33.63 opening while scoring at only 3.62 runs per over (60.26 runs per 100 balls).
A criticism of Katich has been that he eats up too many deliveries without making many runs which puts pressure on the other batsmen to score quickly. Interestingly, when Katich doesn't pass 50, he scores at 3.56 runs per over (59.59 runs per 100 balls) which somewhat supports that theory.
It's quite a rarity to see such a slow scoring batsman in international cricket these days, much less opening. The only comparable batsman would be Boeta Dippenaar, but he has a much higher average of 44.37 while scoring at a similar rate to Katich.

....and this is in the best side in the world !

Get rid of him

 

[Nate]

If you want to know my views on Katich, just check the DLF thread, I`ve whinged about him more than enough.

Regardless of his batting, he`s a pretty good fielder and a good bloke.

 

[Langeveldt]

Katich is one of those "shocking picks for good sides" that baffles me, rather like Sajjid Mahmood playing test cricket for England, Robbie P playing ODI's for South Africa..

If I was Matt Hayden i'd be fairly irate at Katich's inclusion, the guy lacks out and out talent.. And doesn't Aussie cricket have guys like Cosgrove who could do more damage at the top of the order?

 

[Johnners]

Sure does.... *cough*Phil Jaques*cough* on fire last season, all county season and during the top end tour. He may not've scored big in the DLF cup but he is IMO a far better ODI batsmen than Katich

 

[Arjun]

What has Matt Hayden done wrong that he's not a regular in ODI's anymore? He's surely more productive than Katich, isn't he?