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Cricket 30: World Twenty20 and beyond


ljkeane

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Oh boy, an absolute bloodbath out there.

I know it's overcast conditions but this time Australia have decided to collapse without the obligatory opening stand from Warner, 5/17 is ridiculously pathetic.

And that's even considering Smith ran down the wicket to elbow Philander and took him out...hopefully Philander is okay and will be able to return. Smith couldn't have meant it but it's a real bad look if the Australian team benefits from it, especially when Philander had figures of 3 wickets for as many runs.

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Bowled out for 85 before tea. What a debacle.

I think it's well and truly time to acknowledge that the Australian team is just plain out weak. The Sri Lankan loss can't be blamed solely on subcontinental conditions and home ground advantage, it's just really that the Australian team is not up to the job.

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I haven't been able to watch any of the series in Australia but, to be fair, it doesn't sound like particularly Australian conditions in Hobart. They've struggled for a while with the ball moving sideways.

It's getting a little interesting in India.

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Pretty awesome start to the series for England - along with most others I couldn't see past a 5-0 defeat after the Bangladesh tour. Anyone think that Cook was a little unambitious in his declaration?

ETA: That Ansari bloke bowls absolute pies. Surely England can find better than that!?

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16 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Good stuff from England by the looks of it. Everything will be ez-mode after those Bangladeshi pitches :P

It's rumoured the pitch for the next Test will be giving significantly more assistance to the spinners than the first Test's pitch, if that's true I wouldn't be surprised to see England's batting collapsing again.

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Yes that was dire from Australia. Probably their worst performance at home in decades - at least they put up some form of resistance in previous losses to South Africa and the Ashes loss in 2010-11.

Most Australian fans seem a bit shellshocked by this performance, but the signs were certainly there in Sri Lanka (particularly on the batting side):

  • unreliable and unstable opening batting combination
  • inability to stem the flow of wickets when a partnership gets broken
  • overreliance on Smith, Warner and Starc
  • underperforming spinner
  • inconsistent batting from the all-rounders (incl. Nevill)
  • few contributions from the tail

I think I'd stick with Nevill, Burns and Ferguson for the Adelaide test, but I'd drop Voges and Lyon (bringing in a young bat like Patterson, Bancroft or Maddinson and SoK).

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1 hour ago, Paxter said:

Yes that was dire from Australia. Probably their worst performance at home in decades - at least they put up some form of resistance in previous losses to South Africa and the Ashes loss in 2010-11.

Most Australian fans seem a bit shellshocked by this performance, but the signs were certainly there in Sri Lanka (particularly on the batting side):

  • unreliable and unstable opening batting combination
  • inability to stem the flow of wickets when a partnership gets broken
  • overreliance on Smith, Warner and Starc
  • underperforming spinner
  • inconsistent batting from the all-rounders (incl. Nevill)
  • few contributions from the tail

I think I'd stick with Nevill, Burns and Ferguson for the Adelaide test, but I'd drop Voges and Lyon (bringing in a young bat like Patterson, Bancroft or Maddinson and SoK).

The tail contribution has been pretty horrid. Typically they do a lot better. And going forward they have to do significantly better. Look at England and South Africa, they have pretty quality tail these days and England's tail have saved them quite a bit in recent times.

I think they should stick with this current pathetic lot. They won't learn anything from being dropped all the time and going back to facing lower quality bowling attack on domestic tournaments or nets. The series has been decided already, and it's not like they have any face to save. So just give them more time against quality bowling and see if they can respond.

Edit: and if they can't respond, time to pick a different lineup in the next series.

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Awesome stuff. Philander, Rabada and Abbott were superb. It was not looking too good when Steyn got injured but the pace attack really put their hands up in the absence of our premier fast bowler. Hopefully they can continue as Steyn is expected to be out for at least 6 months. Abbott especially has grabbed his opportunity as he probably wouldn't have even been called up had Morkel been fit. Our batting lineup looks solid except for the opening partnership which continues to be unreliable.

Australia's vulnerability against a swinging ball was laid bare once again. The battling lineup has become a bit of a soft touch. If Warner and/or Smith don't get amongst the runs, there is no one else who you can reliably count on which results in the high probability that the side gets dismissed cheaply. Australia's problems against swing and seam in recent years has been quite surprising and I'm wondering whether that has anything to do with the change in the types of pitches we have seen in Australia in recent years - largely flat tracks with little to no movement off the seam or through the air.

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I think that analysis is spot-on Consigliere - Australian batsmen have had it easy both on Shield and test match pitches over the past few years. Coupled with the increased emphasis on T20 batsmanship, this has seen a deterioration in some of the core test batting skills: leaving the ball, batting for long periods, being able to withstand quality spells and waiting for lesser bowlers to come into the attack.

Having said all of that, this series loss is as much to do with SA's brilliance as Australia's ineptitude. Every member of the SA side (possibly with the exception of Cook) has contributed and they have really shown the Aussies how to play.

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12 minutes ago, The Winged Shadow said:

What surprises me is how bad Voges has been doing this series (and a bit in SL series). You can generally count on him to be a decent anchor. But he has been dreadful. Like a typical West Australian......(:box:)

Voges' test career averages:

  • vs NZ: 99 (5 tests)
  • vs WI: 542 (5 tests)
  • vs everyone else: 20 (10 tests)

'Nuff said.

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@Paxter - Yeah, the soaring popularity of T20 cricket is definitely a factor in addition to limited overs cricket in general being geared to favour batsmen. As a result, deficiencies in technique become less apparent (and less relevant) due to a huge amount of cricket being played on batting friendly surfaces.

In saying that, overall, T20's influence on Test cricket has been a positive one - gone are the days where a four or five match series ends 1-0/0-0 with a bunch of drawn snoozefests. Batsmen are willing to take more risks and less willing to just hang around which has resulted in quick run scoring as well as increased the chances of picking up 20 wickets. These days we generally end up with a winner unless the match is severely affected by adverse weather.

From an Aussie perspective, I think what has been most disappointing is not a series defeat but the manner of defeat. There has been a lack of fight and the moment Australia came under sustained pressure, they meekly capitulated. "Lack of fight" and "meek" are attributes that one would never even remotely associate with Aussie cricket. I think Lehmann is going to make a few changes for the 3rd Test.

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