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Cricket 33: ODIs Still Aren’t Proper Cricket Edition


Paxter

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Devastating day for India, the most one-sided in the series so far. They'll be relying on random weather to bail them out now but thankfully the rain hasn't had much of an impact on this series in general. I've really enjoyed watching the series and it has been quite close for most of the time. As Pax points out, India have shot themselves in the foot a few times.

England have a few real positives to take out of this. Moeen's spot as the first spinner should be safe for a while and Buttler has shown himself to be a  batsman with genuine Test ability. Curran's lower-order batting has been good although he'll probably want to solidify his bowling stats. One still wonders how England will go when their faithful opening bowling partnership of Anderson/Broad hang up their boots...there are a few bowlers around but it's going to be hard to replace them.

India have a few more question marks. Good to see Pujara back among the runs, but the rest of the batting order is a bit frail. Neither of the openers (Rahul and Dhawan) have made an impact (though Rahul is on the cusp of a half century with one last chance) and Pant hasn't made a score. The big positive for them is that the seamers have bowled really well as a unit; Bumrah has been the pick of the bowlers and Sharma and Shami have contributed consistently. Vihari looked good in his first innings.

And great to see Cook get a century in his last Test and a well-deserved sendoff for reputedly one of the nicest guys in cricket. Glad he was able to call it on his terms.

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12 hours ago, Jeor said:

Neither of the openers (Rahul and Dhawan) have made an impact (though Rahul is on the cusp of a half century with one last chance) and Pant hasn't made a score.

I think you've managed to do the opposite of a Commentator's Curse here, although India probably wish the two of them hadn't waited until the final innings of the series to score an impressive century. When they were still together in the final session it was even starting to look like an unlikely run-chase could be possible, but no matter how well a batsman is playing a ball pitching well outside leg and hitting the top of off stump is going to be hard to defend.

The big positive for them is that the seamers have bowled really well as a unit; Bumrah has been the pick of the bowlers and Sharma and Shami have contributed consistently

I think it's definitely the best Indian bowling attack I've seen in English conditions, they were relentless at times.

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1 hour ago, williamjm said:

I think you've managed to do the opposite of a Commentator's Curse here

I had no idea my powers were so strong! A century from each of them, hah. Glad they did manage to salvage their tours somewhat. It was always going to be hard for whoever followed Dhoni as wicketkeeper, but hopefully this buys Pant some time in the team so he can get a clear run. Another failure and his place would have been in jeopardy.

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Never thought I'd ever say this: I kinda feel sorry for The Big Show.

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The omission of Maxwell from the squad to face Pakistan surprised many on Tuesday, with the coach Justin Langer's official explanation being that Maxwell (seven first-class centuries in 59 matches) did not make big scores consistently enough. However he was overlooked in favour of Travis Head (seven centuries in 70 games), Aaron Finch (seven in 76), and Marnus Labuschagne (four in 35), all with inferior records in terms of hundreds per first-class match.

How can you say someone is not scoring enough hundreds when they have a better proportion of hundreds to innings than other selected batsmen?

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It's clear to me that Maxwell is being kept out of the team for non-cricketing reasons. He reputedly had that feud with Smith (although Smith is now not on the team or selection) but I wonder if that's indicative of something else that the selectors have against him.

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17 hours ago, Jeor said:

It's clear to me that Maxwell is being kept out of the team for non-cricketing reasons. He reputedly had that feud with Smith (although Smith is now not on the team or selection) but I wonder if that's indicative of something else that the selectors have against him.

I agree. But I feel for Maxwell, because he (and the public) keep getting told that it is for cricketing reasons only. Langer was on SEN with Gerard Wheatley yesterday saying: "He needs to score more hundreds, it's as simple as that."

This is insane stuff really from a slightly unhinged Australian setup. They could get mauled by Pakistan next month (or, at least, I live in hope!)

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1 hour ago, Paxter said:

I agree. But I feel for Maxwell, because he (and the public) keep getting told that it is for cricketing reasons only. Langer was on SEN with Gerard Wheatley yesterday saying: "He needs to score more hundreds, it's as simple as that."

This is insane stuff really from a slightly unhinged Australian setup. They could get mauled by Pakistan next month (or, at least, I live in hope!)

Do we have any batsmen that fits that bill? lol

It will be fun to see Australia coming up against a Pace attack that is better than theirs (considering the injury to Aussie pace lineup). Don't think that happens all that often!

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1 hour ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Do we have any batsmen that fits that bill? lol

Ha yeah true. And even worse was Langer comparing Maxwell to Smith and Warner. Not a single batsmen in the current Australian batting ranks is comparable to those two players! What he should be doing is comparing Maxwell to the batsmen who got selected ahead of him (e.g. Labuschagne).

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Woohoo! I entered the ICC World Cup public ballot and have received two tickets to the Australia vs South Africa game at Old Trafford in early July.

Guess I'm going to be planning an England trip then (with my dad, who's also a cricket nut). Now to see if I can get some tickets for a Wimbledon ballot and then I could kill two birds with one stone on my bucket list...

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Oh dear. Things just getting worse for Langer as it now emerges that he double counted international and domestic hundreds when comparing Maxwell's record against Smith's and Warner's. A pretty minor stuff-up in the scheme of possible gaffs, but it does illustrate the slightly crazy atmosphere that has engulfed the national side.

Meanwhile, some interesting stuff is unfolding in Pakistani cricket. Inzamam has been accused of using his influence as national selector to get his son selected in a Pakistan junior team. You'd think he might have to pull his head in a bit here - there was already speculation about whether nepotism might have played a role in the selection of his nephew (Imam-ul-Haq) in the national team. 

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On ‎9‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 7:33 PM, Raja said:

And then things took a more sinister turn as Moeen alleged that an unnamed Australian player called him 'Osama' in the 2015 Ashes. According to Lehmann, the seemingly inarticulate Australian actually said 'part timer.'

Umm. Yeah. Sure.

The domestic cricket season formally kicked off in Aus yesterday with the Vics just about claiming victory over Qld in a 50-over match. Maxwell starred with 80-odd for Victoria...not good enough!

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Another rather insipid Pakistan performance against India. On the bright side, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and even Hong Kong all performed pretty well in the tournament. Bangladesh just managed to edge Afghanistan in the last over of last night's match. 

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Somehow Bangladesh squeaked into the final! Afghanistan deserved it more. 

Separately, I'm pretty annoyed this week at the PCB's decision to play no specialist spinners in Pakistan A's upcoming match against Australia. So much for the vaunted 'spirit' of the game. And look, I know Pakistan isn't the first side to do this - they are all culpable (including Australia). But I am sick of this reverse arms-race where every country competes to see who can select the weakest side in warm-up games, thereby denying touring teams any decent preparation. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

A few stray observations:

  • Pakistan's decision to go spin-light in the tour match backfired somewhat, as the Pak A team managed to play the Aussie batting lineup into form. Lyon also picked up a big bag of wickets. 
  • With an unfortunate injury to Renshaw while fielding at short leg, it's possible that Australia could play four (!) debutants in the Dubai test (Head, Finch, Neser and Labuschagne).
  • Pakistan don't look in particularly great shape themselves - a lot will depend on the performance of the returning Yasir Shah. Amir has been dumped after a poor Asian Cup. 
  • Cricket Australia has appointed an insider (a former board member) as its new CEO. Hardly the kind of leadership choice you'd expect if CA was dinkum about transforming the culture of the Australian game.
  • Another hard day at the office for West Indies test attack. Their team looks pretty awful at the moment - I wouldn't be surprised if Ireland or Afghanistan could knock them off in a test match.  
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