Cricket XX - Debutants Balls

[Slick Mongoose]

Release the hounds.

[brAnthelAstgreenseer]

That ended terribly. I think it would have been a draw anyways if they carried on.

[Xray the Enforcer]

And now for the talking heads.

[Alex.]

WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT

[Hereward]

That ended terribly. I think it would have been a draw anyways if they carried on.

5 an over with 5 wickets in hand? Don't think so.

[brAnthelAstgreenseer]

5 an over with 5 wickets in hand? Don't think so.

Any more wickets and i think the England coaching staff would have told them to be safe first.

[Xray the Enforcer]

I wonder if that Faulkner kid will see more Test matches, or if they'll keep him strictly for the one-day format.

[Hereward]

Good question. I was impressed, but I don't know if they can go with Smith and Faulkner in the same team.

[Xray the Enforcer]

We're talking about their bowling prowess, not how punchable you think their faces are. ;)

(and besides, you got two fists and no Ponting)

But yeah, I wonder if Smith will edge that out.

[brAnthelAstgreenseer]

Australia's main problem is spin bowling,they have to get someone decent in there.Lyon should have bowled well today the pitch was in his favour also his team had put some runs in to give him a chance .

[Hereward]

No-one's face is as punchable as Smith's. Except Warne.

[Alester Florent]

No-one's face is as punchable as Smith's. Except Warne.

Graeme Smith?

That ending was shit. After all the effort Australia went to to give us a game to watch, to be denied by red tape was ridiculous. It went from being a sparkling advert for Tests to a pretty decent demonstration of what's wrong with them.

I was even more annoyed that the (football) fans* two rows behind decided that justice would be served by booing Clarke endlessly, given that he did more than anyone to give us a match to watch in the first place.

As to whether England could have done it, who knows. But they were going at more or less the required rate and it certainly seemed like they could. The atmosphere was amazing; it took a truly heroic effort by the light meter to dispel that.

*These guys were a feature of the day. Their witty banter with the players was truly spectacular, highlights including:

"Na-than, Na-than, Na-than <repeat 8 billion times>"

"Nur nur nur nur nur nur nur" (even more enjoyable since it drowned out a PA announcement a few overs from the fatal light call which, from what I could catch, sounded like important information about close of play).

"Chelsea Chelsea Chelsea"

"Nathan, you suck dick"

and last but by no means least, racist abuse of a fellow fan inconvenienced by a poorly-planned collapsing beer snake, which saw three of them hauled off for questioning and one of them apparently banned.

Neanderthal hooting and stupendously crappy ending aside, the rest of it was rather good.

[Arataniello]

A double whammy of suckage at the end there, with the BBC iTunes coverage cutting off at 7.30pm UK time due to " right restrictions" and then the bureaucratic farce at end to the game, which we furriners had to miss because the Beeb couldn't recognise the fact the cricket was running over its allotted time slot.

Would have dearly loved to hear Aggers et al talking through the absurdity of the conclusion to this last game, which should have been a nail- biting finale, but in the end was just ridiculous.

[williamjm]

People like Agar need to tear up the first-class scene before they displace Lyon. Just like I argued in relation to the batsmen in the last thread, we mustn't throw bowlers in too early, especially spinners. Let them have at least one really successful season in first-class cricket. In no way was Agar's first-class career adequate for the Test team (34 wickets in 13 matches at an average of 36) and it showed.

I would agree in general, although I think Lyon had just as little First Class experience before his Test debut and he's turned out to be Australia's best spinner since the Warne/McGill era.

The rule about not giving the batting side the option of staying on is shit.

I don't understand why this changed, the batsmen have a much bigger disadvantage/prospect of danger in bad light than the fielding side so I think the old system of giving them the option of going off made more sense.

Common sense here surely? ffs. ICC need to get this sorted out

The ICC and 'common sense' aren't often seen in the same sentence together, unfortunately. I think it would be unfair to blame the umpires who are just trying to enforce the rules they've been given, but I agree the ICC should do something.

I wonder if that Faulkner kid will see more Test matches, or if they'll keep him strictly for the one-day format.

It's difficult to judge his batting, since he was being asked to play aggressively and take risks in this Test, although he First Class record suggests 7 might be a bit high for him at the moment. His bowling seemed decent, but Australia do have plenty of seam bowling options and several of them are useful batsmen so he might not be a frequent member of the team.

[delete this account pls]

Graeme Smith?

That ending was shit. After all the effort Australia went to to give us a game to watch, to be denied by red tape was ridiculous. It went from being a sparkling advert for Tests to a pretty decent demonstration of what's wrong with them.

I was even more annoyed that the (football) fans* two rows behind decided that justice would be served by booing Clarke endlessly, given that he did more than anyone to give us a match to watch in the first place.

As to whether England could have done it, who knows. But they were going at more or less the required rate and it certainly seemed like they could. The atmosphere was amazing; it took a truly heroic effort by the light meter to dispel that.

*These guys were a feature of the day. Their witty banter with the players was truly spectacular, highlights including:

"Na-than, Na-than, Na-than <repeat 8 billion times>"

"Nur nur nur nur nur nur nur" (even more enjoyable since it drowned out a PA announcement a few overs from the fatal light call which, from what I could catch, sounded like important information about close of play).

"Chelsea Chelsea Chelsea"

"Nathan, you suck dick"

and last but by no means least, racist abuse of a fellow fan inconvenienced by a poorly-planned collapsing beer snake, which saw three of them hauled off for questioning and one of them apparently banned.

Neanderthal hooting and stupendously crappy ending aside, the rest of it was rather good.

Oh god, this reasonably new development of the raucous cricket fan has pretty much ensured I won't go see test matches live anymore. I can handle it in a rugby league match that's over in 80 minutes, but I can't take it for 6 fucking hours straight. Even watching on TV, the crowd noise is so incessant I normally mute the damn thing.

[delete this account pls]

No-one's face is as punchable as Smith's. Except Warne.

You will not harm a fake hair on his beautiful weird messed up head.

[Stubby]

I like how they give a consolation prize player of the series now, by giving one to teach team and then the overall one.

Bell deserved it.

Is Bresnan going to be fit to come down here over the summer?

[sh_wulff]

The ICC and 'common sense' aren't often seen in the same sentence together, unfortunately.

Unless there is a "totally lacking in" between those words!

[Jeor]

Farcical end to a farcical series.

I don't think England can complain about being denied a victory though. It was an artificial ending with the Clarke declaration, and for the entire match England had been trying to kill off the game with a draw, so it's not as if they were robbed of victory here.

[Alex.]

I like how they give a consolation prize player of the series now, by giving one to teach team and then the overall one.

Bell deserved it.

Is Bresnan going to be fit to come down here over the summer?

Pretty sure I read that Bresnan will be out for a while, so probably not which is a shame for us. Would have been a more than useful player to take on tour.