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Cricket XX - Debutants Balls


Stubby

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Yeah, as an Aussie I'll be glad not to see Bresnan.Tremlett and Onions are serviceable bowlers but they don't offer the same sort of batting depth, and if an injury happens to some of those, we've seen the backup bowlers aren't quite ready yet for Test cricket.

I feel sorry that Kerrigan wasn't given a bowl again. That may well be his last chance, or at least for a good long while. 8 overs and 0/53 while being selected as a bowler isn't exactly a sparkling debut.

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Well, at least he has a decent first-class record behind him. Without that (e.g. if that happened to Agar) he would be on the outer for virtually forever and the selectors wouldn't touch him.

There was rumour that Swann was going to be retiring after the Australian Ashes. If that's true, it would be a big blow to England but also a boost to people like Kerrigan (and even our old friend Monty).

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Well, at least he has a decent first-class record behind him. Without that (e.g. if that happened to Agar) he would be on the outer...

Bryce Mcgain springs to mind...

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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.

To be fair, this is the first Test I've been to where it's been a real issue for me. The Barmy Army can be annoying, but I realised yesterday that they actually exercise a reasonable amount of restraint - and variety - by comparison. I suspect that The Ashes TM and the associated hype has attracted a more partisan type of fan and with it the rather more boorish sense of rivalry you see when England are playing Germany at football. Against most opponents, it won't be such an issue.

ODIs and T20s are a different kettle of fish, of course, but I haven't been to many.

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Graeme Smith?

Steve Smith

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.

To be fair, I didn't see anything like what Adelstein described when I went. I mean, there was some mild sledging between the supporters, but no racial abuse. And I thought the vocal supporters, trumpets, and fancy dress brought a good atmosphere, especially when the match hit its typical lull during the afternoon session. That said, we weren't sitting in the middle of the Barmy Army -- we were about 90 degrees down the venue from them. It's likely less tolerable if you're in the middle of it. :dunno: Or maybe I just go to too many sporting matches where fistfights are the norm, and cricket seems delightfully civilized in comparison. Seriously, I'd take those supporters any day over those you find at a footy match or, gods forbid, a hockey game.

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Steve Smith

I stand by my earlier assumption!

To be fair, I didn't see anything like what Adelstein described when I went. I mean, there was some mild sledging between the supporters, but no racial abuse. And I thought the vocal supporters, trumpets, and fancy dress brought a good atmosphere, especially when the match hit its typical lull during the afternoon session. That said, we weren't sitting in the middle of the Barmy Army -- we were about 90 degrees down the venue from them. Maybe it's less tolerable if you're in the middle of it. :dunno:

I feel I should clarify in defence of the Barmy Army - these weren't BA guys (they were directly across from me) but a group of (evidently Chelsea) fans there on their own. The Barmy Army, while not exactly models of polite decorum, tend to be slightly more imaginative and judicious in their chanting, and much better at building beer snakes (incompetent beer snake construction was what led to the incident of racist abuse).
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I stand by my earlier assumption!

I feel I should clarify in defence of the Barmy Army - these weren't BA guys (they were directly across from me) but a group of (evidently Chelsea) fans there on their own.

Ah, yes. I can see how that would go awry. As you said in a later post -- they were likely going less for the sport and more for the chance to drink deep of the nationalist posturing. NCAA helmetball has just that problem. At least half of the spectators are there simply to get into drunken verbal or physical altercations with supporters for the other side. They give not one single fuck for the actual game being played in front of them, even if they declare themselves dedicated helmetball fans.

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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.

I don't think Australia really deserved to lose that match, since they'd only been forced into giving England a chance of victory by the state of the series and the weather conditions, so ultimately a draw is a fair result but it is a bit frustrating the way it happened.

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.

They haven't confirmed that he'll miss the next Ashes, but I get the impression that even if he is fit by then he wouldn't have had any match practise.

There was rumour that Swann was going to be retiring after the Australian Ashes. If that's true, it would be a big blow to England but also a boost to people like Kerrigan (and even our old friend Monty).

Kerrigan's problem might be that there are several other young spinners on the fringe of the England team such as Danny Briggs, Scott Borthwick and Adil Rashid. He'd be particularly hoping that Borthwick or Rashid don't manage to get established in the England team because they could play as all-rounders and the England selectors have had a bit of an obsession with trying to find leg spinners in the past couple of decades.

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Ah, yes. I can see how that would go awry. As you said in a later post -- they were likely going less for the sport and more for the chance to drink deep of the nationalist posturing. NCAA helmetball has just that problem. At least half of the spectators are there simply to get into drunken verbal or physical altercations with supporters for the other side. They give not one single fuck for the actual game being played in front of them, even if they declare themselves dedicated helmetball fans.

Hang on, is there seriously a sport called helmetball??

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Amazing innings by Finch. Twenty20 is a great spectacle, although I admit I still can't get into it quite as much as Test cricket.

Harris apparently out for 6-8 weeks though. Hope he'll be alright for the Australian series, he was by far our best bowler in England.

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England have made a decent start here. Started to pick up a lot of boundaries, pitch looks pretty good for batting. Every time I see Hales I wonder why he hasn't been picked up by more T20 franchises around the world. Think he'd do well in the IPL and Big Bash and would be relatively cheap compared to some of the other overrated age old options.

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195 is a good score by England. I don't think we're going to chase that down - it's easy enough to get massive scores batting first like we did in the first game, but it's much harder batting second.

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