Cricket IV

[Multaniette]

It was a pleasure to be up in the wee hours of the morning and be able to follow three tests matches going on concurrently. 

How good is Chanderpaul? seriously. He's been averaging something ridiculous like 57 since 1999. He's proved himself against the very best, in swinging/seaming conditions, against sheer pace and crafty spin - I daresay, alongside Kallis and Ponting, he is the stand-out batsman of the decade. 

I nominally support Pakistan but I don't think I've ever wanted anybody to win a game as much as I did SA this morning when Duminy and ABD were batting. 'twas a brilliant test match and I would put it down as an all-time classic. 

Ultimately, I would blame the aussie bowlers squarely. Lee was tremendous in patches but he definitely needs to work on his sustainability. Siddle's inability at stopping easy run leakage is what hurt the aussie effort most, since the pressure never really built up during the second innings. 



Johnson's spell in the first innings was fast, furious and swoon-worthy. Smith's innings in the secon innings with a tennis elbow is worthy of a lot of applause as well. 

all in all, a great game of cricket - possibly the best I've ever watched (alongside chennai 99, st. john 2000 and the test match sri lanki won by one wicket against the saffies). 

PS: I swear Flintoff must be cursed. sustained brilliance but no reward. This is why statistics will never tell the true story. 

[delete this account pls]

It was a great match. I started the day feeling confident but worried, and grew more and more despondent as the day went on. When we got Kallis out I thought we were back in it, but our bowlers just lacked venom. I feel like Ponting should shoulder a lot of the blame as well. He's never been more than an average captain, and he looked completely out of ideas yesterday. He's also too defensive, our field settings should have been a lot more aggressive.

[IheartTesla]

Two matches where teams chased down totals in the vicinity of 400 must surely be highly unusual.

I'll agree with everyone who says Ponting is an average captain at best. When he had Hayden firing and McGrath/Warne in his team he didnt have to do much. But one of the tasks of the captain is marshalling what finite resources you have, and he seems to have dropped the ball on that one (no pun intended). His treatment of Lee in India was horrible for instance, and his obsession with slow over rates has got to his head. Dont know if that was a factor in the current series.

For those keeping track of the Ind-Eng series, how funny was it Yuvraj bowling the third over of the innings to KP? Thing is, it almost worked. Now that's captaincy :P

[sckma]

^yeh i missed the significance of that.. why yuvraj? is it because kp doesnt think highly of him?

[Jeor]

On the topic of Ponting's captaincy, his failings have only recently begun to show up. With Warne and McGrath in the side you can pretty much just be a conventional captain without much imagination; and I think Warne himself would also have been quite a creative addition to the side, as I'm sure he would have suggested more than a few things to the captain throughout the course of a Test match.

As it is, Ponting was to defensive in this match, and allowed far too many singles for what should have been a tense, nerve-wracking run-chase on a fifth day pitch. I think he's recognised that his current crop of bowlers aren't the all-time greats of McGrath and Warne and so has correspondingly lost faith in them and set fields for bad balls.

In general, apart from his mediocre field settings, he's also been less than inspired with his bowling changes. For instance, he brought Michael Clarke on to bowl before his frontline spinner, Krejza, on the fifth day of this Test match - beats me why on earth someone would do that. In the past couple of years or so he's also been too quick to pull bowlers after they had one bad over, even if they were only into their third or fourth over of a spell. I think in general this just points to a lack of support for his bowlers. Sometimes he pulls them too quickly, or sets defensive fields too quickly. He also doesn't set good fields for his spinners. Too often he has a long off or long on. I'm a firm believer in having both men up, and if you get lofted for a few boundaries, good on the batsman, but if he keeps on going he's going to get caught eventually (as Clarke and Symonds were with South African bowling).

As a captain Ponting has to learn to set fields for good balls, not the bad ones. The opposition will hit some boundaries here and there and sometimes bowlers will get carted. But if he sets defensive fields that allow singles everywhere he's not going to have the fielders there to catch the ball to get the batsmen out, and he's got very little chance of actually creating any pressure.

To be fair, I think Ponting's also suffering from the inexperience of his side. No doubt Warne and Gilchrist were excellent senior players to have as a captain and they would have had plenty of ideas, and Ponting's captaincy has only really been exposed the last couple of years since they've gone (with the exception of Ashes 2005). As it is his current senior players are Lee and Hayden, who don't strike me as innovative leaders. Hussey and Katich have some first-class captaincy experience, but their relative international inexperience means they're probably less likely to challenge Ponting's ideas on the field.

EDIT: On the other side of the coin, I'm a little miffed at the fawning over Dhoni's captaincy by the media. Cricinfo is waxing lyrical about how his defensive field strangled Pietersen and Flintoff, and over the past few months they've built his captaincy up to the extent that he's an absolute genius. I wonder how long it will take until someone criticises some aspect of his captaincy; even Mark Taylor and Stephen Fleming had their bad decisions.

[Horza]

Jeor: What makes Clarke-over-Krezja all the more bizarre is that Ponting had faith in him in Nagpur where he got absolutely shellacked in his first spell. Your point about the loss of Warne and Gilchrist is well made - they were Ponting's brains trust, and now he's left with Hayden out of that senior advisory team. I'm guessing if we don't win either of these series against SA we may well see Clarke leading us to England.

[Stubby]

I'm really looking foward to the boxing day match now. Being in Perth I got to see very little of this match - basically a few overs on the Saturday afternoon. I plan on plonking my butt down on the sofa about 8am boxing day with some drinks and left over ham sandwiches to watch the whole day's play.

I hope its just as absorbsing as this one was.

Edit: [url="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/22/2453087.htm"]Krejza dropped and Hauritz in squad - Hayden retained[/url]

[Jeor]

The Australian selectors have lost their brains. Krejza being dropped is absolutely ridiculous. In his second-to-last match he took 8 wickets against the Indians! And then after one bad match he's been dropped. He bowled much better than his 1/204 indicated, and managed to extract quite a bit of turn and bounce; most of the time he looked more dangerous than the pacemen. To replace him with Hauritz is basically to unsettle Krejza for no good reason, since Hauritz isn't really any better and is a like-for-like replacement.

Not that surprised to see Hilfenhaus included. They were bound to try out another paceman after the troubles getting 20 wickets in Perth.

[Stubby]

[quote name='Jeor' post='1627678' date='Dec 22 2008, 15.06']---[/quote]

I agree with all that.

Parochially, I was looking for more interest in Magoffin as an alternative opener - he bowls the type of line and legth that the Aussies would have been looking for on Sunday - but I cannot argue with Hilfenhaus's form. On another note, I note from some other press articles (about the state of the WACA wicket) that Graeme Wood is almost unrecognisable without the 'tache.... (link didn't work)

[Horza]

Damn, I was looking forward to Hauritz reappearing in 2012...

[Hereward]

A rather pathetic lower order display from England to match the rather pathetic top order display. Thank God for Pietersen and Flintoff. At least the bowlers are showing a bit of fight with the ball.

At this rate, next year's Ashes could be like the 1980s, two mid-ranked mediocrities battling out a tight series. :P

[IheartTesla]

[quote name='sckma' post='1627510' date='Dec 21 2008, 19.09']^yeh i missed the significance of that.. why yuvraj? is it because kp doesnt think highly of him?[/quote]

Yeah they both have a bit of a "thing" going on. England has picked out Yuvraj as their candidate for chatter, much like they did Ganguly back in the day. It seems all harmless banter, although afterwards KP claimed that Yuvi was a "pie-chucker" and purveyor of left arm filth. Yuvi responded by saying he was a better bowler than KP and offered him some bowling tips (claimed KP's action was useless). You have to read the news reports, its hard to describe it in context here.

It seems all in fun, but I dont know how seriously Pietersen is taking all this. He's the kind of guy who hates losing, so I presume he is hurting right now.

[Stubby]

I got a book of famous cricket sledges from my Secret Santa at work. The best new one I read was Adam Parore when Darryl Cullinan was facing Vettori. DV sent one past the bat and Parore said in his best Ian Healy voice:

"Bowled, Shane."

[Jeor]

And the other two Tests end in draws, although they always looked to be heading that way by the end of the fourth day. Dravid's century will stave off the drop for another few Tests but he's going to have to make some more runs soon, as I don't think this knock convinced too many people that his powers are back. And NZ's batting is improving, although that of course is partially due to the West Indian attack. Still, it'll be good for some of the new guys like Ryder and Flynn to rack up some runs and build up their confidence.

At this rate Hereward yes, the Ashes are going to be very interesting. ;) I'm rather pessimistic about our chances at this point in time. I'm sure we can rely on some people to perform in England (Ponting and Hussey come to mind) but none of them are bowlers. Johnson has wicket-taking ability but (as evidenced by this latest match where he took 11 wickets) he can't do everything, and he's yet to fully mature as a bowler. Much of our chances rely on Lee returning to form and/or Stuart Clark returning from injury as good as new.

[Paxter]

[quote name='Jeor' post='1628568' date='Dec 23 2008, 20.27']And NZ's batting is improving, although that of course is partially due to the West Indian attack. Still, it'll be good for some of the new guys like Ryder and Flynn to rack up some runs and build up their confidence.[/quote]

Yes, good series for McIntosh, Ryder and Flynn (all of them averaging over 40 in tests now), but it's still early days for these three. It is worrying though that some of the more experienced batsmen in the team (McCullum, How and especially Taylor) failed to perform against one of the worst attacks in world cricket. I'm looking forward to the one-dayers now, the first 10 or so overs of each innings should be pretty explosive with Ryder, McCullum and Gayle opening the batting.

[williamjm]

[quote name='Jeor' post='1628568' date='Dec 23 2008, 11.27']Dravid's century will stave off the drop for another few Tests but he's going to have to make some more runs soon, as I don't think this knock convinced too many people that his powers are back.[/quote]

I wonder if he's tempted to retire now, so he ends on some sort of high (scoring the century, India winning the series). Do India more high-profile series coming up that he'd really want to play in?

[Jeor]

South Africa have gone on and muffed the first session. Hayden got out again - poor guy - but Australia battled back and the pace attack from the Boks looked rather uninspiring. Then, the final over before lunch, Steyn suddenly finds something and bowls a brilliant over, Ponting edges one straight to slip and McKenzie drops a sitter. After the great fielding in the First Test, that was a crucial miss and would have changed the complexion of the game, because I feel Ponting will now likely go on to a big score.

McKenzie's going to feel under the pump now. He's the one guy who has really underperformed for South Africa. In the last Test all of the batsmen got in the runs except for him, and now he's dropped a catch. In a good fielding side he's the worst of the close-in fielders. De Villiers is obviously the best fielder in there, Duminy is very quick and handy at backward point, Smith and Kallis are probably two of the safest catchers and slippers in the team, which leaves Amla (who I don't really know about fielding-wise) and the bowlers, who are more likely to be in the less crucial positions of outfield or mid-on/mid-off.

One wonders whether Boucher is going to have a clanger this series; he's normally a very fine wicketkeeper but has a history of dropping a sitter once in a while.

[Horza]

That drop was sickening, even for a non-SA fan. McKenzie must have wished the earth would swallow him up - Steyn just looked dissappointed but I could see Duminy giving him a filthy...

[Jeor]

Yeah, McKenzie was the worst person to drop that catch, he's the most under pressure in the team. Plus Ponting is suddenly looking in great touch now, and my feeling seems to be right...he's on course for a century, and the drop has already cost 50 runs.

Hussey just out to Steyn; Steyn is starting to find some wickets. He was rather uninspiring in Perth and I was hoping some time this summer to see a masterful bowling performance from him, so maybe this will give him the confidence to keep on going. Hussey's been looking out of sorts lately.

And on the team composition...I really don't get this Hauritz for Krejza business. As well as the general uselessness of unsettling Krejza for another untried, inexperienced offspinner, Hauritz is also a worse batsman than Krejza. And the supposed reason was that Hauritz is more economical and a better defensive bowler than Krejza. When you can only get 14 wickets in a Test match, you don't make your bowling even more defensive...

[Horza]

[quote name='Jeor' post='1630467' date='Dec 26 2008, 14.12']Yeah, McKenzie was the worst person to drop that catch, he's the most under pressure in the team. Plus Ponting is suddenly looking in great touch now, and my feeling seems to be right...he's on course for a century, and the drop has already cost 50 runs.

Hussey just out to Steyn; Steyn is starting to find some wickets. He was rather uninspiring in Perth and I was hoping some time this summer to see a masterful bowling performance from him, so maybe this will give him the confidence to keep on going. Hussey's been looking out of sorts lately.

And on the team composition...I really don't get this Hauritz for Krejza business. As well as the general uselessness of unsettling Krejza for another untried, inexperienced offspinner, Hauritz is also a worse batsman than Krejza. And the supposed reason was that Hauritz is more economical and a better defensive bowler than Krejza. When you can only get 14 wickets in a Test match, you don't make your bowling even more defensive...[/quote]


Ponting will have a century, wether Clarke and Simmo can hang around is another question - the Saffers are angling and I'm not sure they've got the discipline to resist. 100% agree on the Krezja substitution - this is the same brilliant logic that lead Duncan Fletcher to play Ashley Giles over Panesar - but for the fact that Giles bats better than Hauritz.

Also, looks like the Huss has ahit a little form drop - how far will his average fall - mid-fifties? ;)



Tea Update: Well, Ponting made a century but didn't hang around - out lbw to Harris for 101. The game has turned back in SA's favor despite a strong batting performance from the captain. Clarke has been keeping his head down so there's still a chance of posting 400 but Symo is going to have to dig deep. Another good, tight Test is in the offing.