Champions League CLT20 4 Returns to south africa

[aussie1st]

Watson being recalled but to Australia by the end of the week. With Henriques stepping up that is not a huge blow although like Australia there could be problems in the middle order. Smith at least should move higher and probably Henriques.

 

[sifter132]

I thought I was old fashioned, but apparently not...I'm AGAINST this idea of bringing Watson home! He's only going to get one shield game in anyway (Nov 2-5), a game he could play whether he played out the Champions League or not. Instead they're talking about giving him games in the Futures league or for his club? I think he'd be better off at the CL myself.

Plus there is the mental effect. Cricket Australia are worried about Watson's health, so won't that flow into Watson's mind where he might start worrying about his own health? You don't want doubts to start entering a guy's mind. Let him keep playing I say. And maybe he might help Sydney Sixers get a couple of million dollars in the process...

 

[War]

The Champions League although i'm watching it mainly to see how a few upcoming AUS talents are playing (mainly because AUS domestic competition isn't shown on tv). Is a useless tournament in global calendar and really should not be playing anyway.

The SA test series is far more important, so if Watson is sent home, its not a big deal in the larger scheme of things.

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Did you watch De Kock yesterday?

Ye he looks good. For reasons you already stated, its sad that a certain selection policy has prevented him or Kuhn from being in SA test squad to Australia instead of Tsolikele.

 

[Epic]

4 IPL teams, 1 down, 3 to go.

 

[Haarithan]

Following KKR's defeat to Auckland tonight, IPL sides have more number of losses (25) than wins (24) in the history of CLT20.

If they left it to me, I'd allow no more than one auto qualifier from the IPL for next season's CLT20. Even Pakistan has a better win% (50) than India (48.9) now, although they've played only 2 games, and both being the qualifying games (both being Sialkot Stallions).

 

[Gaurav_7]

What a joke of a tournament! Hardly have seen a ball so far. They're killing it! BPL, BBL, SLPL, IPL, CLT20, year after year! What more now? I can't really be bothered with these now. And, there's seriously not enough passion to watch matches in which India plays nowadays tbh. It seems players hardly bother about it. It just isn't the same feeling like earlier. Thanks to these bullshite leagues (especially CLT20, IPL is so close too).

 

[MUFC1987]

The problem is he is not even the Lions first choice keeper! Tsolikele is and our stupid selectors will keep on choosing a 32 year old keeper and overlook young De Kock because merit is not first on the list with selection criteria. That is why KP and Trott left and many others will do so.

Personally, I haven't seen enough of him keeping to know how good he is, so picking Tsolekile may be the better option as far as I know, but for me, his batting will get him far. He's got a great opportunity to get into the side as a batsman on merit and then develop his keeping as he goes, much like de Villiers really. I don't think fast tracking him into the ODI and T20 sides would be a bad idea really.

 

[1iram1]

If they left it to me, I'd allow no more than one auto qualifier from the IPL for next season's CLT20. Even Pakistan has a better win% (50) than India (48.9) now, although they've played only 2 games, and both being the qualifying games (both being Sialkot Stallions).

The bad thing if the IPL teams get knocked out is that they will add more IPL teams next season.

 

[cricketaddict]

Following KKR's defeat to Auckland tonight, IPL sides have more number of losses (25) than wins (24) in the history of CLT20.

If they left it to me, I'd allow no more than one auto qualifier from the IPL for next season's CLT20. Even Pakistan has a better win% (50) than India (48.9) now, although they've played only 2 games, and both being the qualifying games (both being Sialkot Stallions).

I am sick by this useless tournament too but what I find amusing more is how you keep all these stupid stats and post it here . Useless tournament and I find you more useless spending your time on bashing this Indian teams and keeping record of them. Go do something productive, go to England watch some matches there

No hard feelings man, just I find silly when you say its a useless tournament and you keep every damn stats of it

 

[Epic]

I am sick by this useless tournament too but what I find amusing more is how you keep all these stupid stats and post it here . Useless tournament and I find you more useless spending your time on bashing this Indian teams and keeping record of them. Go do something productive, go to England watch some matches there

No hard feelings man, just I find silly when you say its a useless tournament and you keep every damn stats of it

Well that's where you've got it all wrong, not all of us are against a 'champions league', we just want to see actual champions play it.

 

[Aalay]

Well that's where you've got it all wrong, not all of us are against a 'champions league', we just want to see actual champions play it.

Well it's not only you, all of us want to see that. Though, it is not happening right now so that does mean that we are against it, right?

 

[Epic]

Well it's not only you, all of us want to see that. Though, it is not happening right now so that does mean that we are against it, right?

I suppose so...

 

[Haarithan]

I am sick by this useless tournament too but what I find amusing more is how you keep all these stupid stats and post it here . Useless tournament and I find you more useless spending your time on bashing this Indian teams and keeping record of them. Go do something productive, go to England watch some matches there

No hard feelings man, just I find silly when you say its a useless tournament and you keep every damn stats of it

Just so you know, I haven't watched any of these games thus far (barring KP's brief stay against KKR, and the de Kock - McKenzie partnership against MI).

Keeping tabs on the individual teams' stats doesn't at all have anything to do with not watching the matches though (I merely check the scores following the conclusion of the games). Plus I had a piece to link Harsha Bhogle to, on how to make the CLT20 a better tournament (quality over quantity), so I had to update these stats time and again. Hope that answered/cleared all your queries.

The bad thing if the IPL teams get knocked out is that they will add more IPL teams next season.

Sad but true.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

No i won't give it a break. As an AUS fan i will always speak when the AUS selectors make crap decisions. With regards to T20 selections and the way AUS schedule T20s ever since the 2009 T20 W-Cup - the selectors have have always done a poor job.

It is a total injustice to the amount of good T20 players AUS have (many who have dominated in the IPL) - so you could ignore all these major selection faux pas all you want my friend - i won't.

AUS selectors did not do a good job. The individual brilliance of Watson prevented AUS poor selections from being exposed sooner, which included:

- picking Bailey as captain

- Not picking experienced proven T20 bowlers like Nannes and Bollinger in the squad to back-up young stalwarts Cummins and Starc.

- Dropping Dussey for idiotic reasons leading up to the tournament

- Not giving the two most impressive players from the Big Bash last year in Mtichell Marsh and Travis Birt not given more opportunities this year in T20 to push a claim for the final squad?

- Picking Doherty in the final squad when he has been bowling crap all year. While inversely for some strange reason not playing Hogg in all T20s all year leading up to this tournament expect the final 2 games vs pakistan in UAE

- Not giving Finch more game time in T20s this year, after he never failed to impress all year.

I clearly said in that post that Henriques "was not on the radar before the T20 cup". But rather was highlighting his performance as a potential future t20 player going forward.

I want M Marsh to be better a FC cricket as well. But i don't see how him playing in the T20 W-Cup would hamper that progress. If their is such objection to his playing T20 cricket at the moment, are you opposed to him playing in the Champions League at the moment?

AUS batsmen like all non-subcontinent teams will always have an achillies heel facing spin in the sub-continent. Its a historical problem. The same way how Asians struggle on bouncy pitches in the western world.

Just before the T20 W-Cup AUS had great practice in the UAE winning an ODI series in the UAE, facing high-class spin.

Fact is even if M Marsh, Finch, Birt and D Hussey was picked part of the batting line-up. Nor if Nannes, Harris or Bollinger was part of the world cup bowling attack - AUS may not have won done better/won the world cup.

However they went out of the tournament with not picking anything close to their best XI/squad - which is the disgusting thing.

Bailey was a skipper choice like Clarke - and with Clarke we got to the final of the last WorldT20. I don't think Bailey should be there, as Warner is a fixture I'd give the captaincy to him, but I'm not as dirty on him as some are as apart from the choice of Doherty in that last over against the Windies, I'm not sure there's much he did wrong.

Doug Bollinger's record at domestic T20 is ok, it's not brilliant and it's not as good as Mitchell Johnson's international record though and he wasn't in the picture. I assume they have decided to move on from Nannes as he's in his late thirties. And anyway, our bowlers did well overall. The issue was always going to be with the batsmen.

David Hussey was pretty ordinary in the BBL and his last 2 years at international level T20 have been nothing to write home about either. He's not in his brother's league as regards performing under pressure and he's not great against spin. Mediocre spin yes, he can clobber it, but decent spin he's about as good as most Aussies. Not very.

Aaron Finch I agree with you, I have never been able to understand why he was not given another chance.

Travis Birt has had 3/4 international matches already and done nothing.

Very glad to see Mitch Marsh not in the squad or it would have been 3 months of T20 and about 1 of first class cricket till the end of Jan for him. He's a kid, needs to be working on discipline and technique, not trying to slog every ball that comes his way. There's nothing that can be done about him playing in the Champion's League as he is practically the backbone of the Scorchers' line-up. But he was coming out of injury and so was probably only a real outsider anyway and he needs to be playing as much Shield cricket as possible at this stage in his career.

Doherty had a very good BBL, the only other spin choice was probably Beer. I wouldn't have taken him but he has a lot of experience now at international level and the cupboard is pretty bare.

Selectors are not choosing teams so that they will lose but to listen to some of the fans you'd think that's exactly what they were doing.

 

[War]

Bailey was a skipper choice like Clarke - and with Clarke we got to the final of the last WorldT20. I don't think Bailey should be there, as Warner is a fixture I'd give the captaincy to him, but I'm not as dirty on him as some are as apart from the choice of Doherty in that last over against the Windies, I'm not sure there's much he did wrong.

In 2010, Clarke was carried throughout that entire tournament. Clarke was essentially keeping out Shaun Marsh who was killing it in the IPL for Kings XI Punjab.

The other 10 players of the 2010 team that reached the final were in perfect form, thus the T20 batting deficiencies of Clarke was masked.

Bailey selected like Clarke back then was an unnecessary decision based on "captaincy" credential foolishness. Giving Finch or Birt time in the last year to see if they could perform in t20's leading up to the tournament would have been a smarter decision.

Doug Bollinger's record at domestic T20 is ok, it's not brilliant and it's not as good as Mitchell Johnson's international record though and he wasn't in the picture. I assume they have decided to move on from Nannes as he's in his late thirties. And anyway, our bowlers did well overall. The issue was always going to be with the batsmen.

Doug Bollinger has been one of the leading bowlers for Chennai Super Kings who has been the best team in IPL since the tournament inception.

Nannes should have always been the spearhead bowler in the AUS T20 team, as one of the leading t20 bowlers in the world. Age is just a number for him and people tend to forget that unlike most 36 years old, he doesn't have the miles in his legs given he took up cricket serious @ age 29.

He is still bowling quickly as swinging the ball as he showing in ongoing champions league.

A lot of people were complaining about the AUS bowling attack looking very light in the world cup, especially when Christian was playing in some of the earlier games. Surely if Cummins/Starc/Watson was being partnered by Nannes or Bollinger the bowling attack would have been much stronger?

AUS selectors have always undervalued Nannes anyway. They were dumb enough in the 2009 tournament to not recognize his abilities and make him go and play for Holland.

David Hussey was pretty ordinary in the BBL and his last 2 years at international level T20 have been nothing to write home about either. He's not in his brother's league as regards performing under pressure and he's not great against spin. Mediocre spin yes, he can clobber it, but decent spin he's about as good as most Aussies. Not very.

As i mentioned below. AUS have treated t20 internationals very much like exhibition matches in the last 2-3 years with regards to team selection and scheduling. Which in a way explained why aus were ranked below ireland going into the world cup, although the ranking system are usually faulty.

I'm very sure if you check that stats of all AUS T20 players since the 2010 tournament, many players will have similar poor stats to Dussey including guys like Watson and Warner.

During the same period Dussey was doing very well in the ODI team and doing well in domestic t20 league world wide as usual.

I don't know what makes you think Dussey was ordinary in the last BBL. He averaged 40 in that competition.

Dussey is not perfect vs spin yes, but he should never have been axed from the T20 side leading up to tournament. He was simply made a scapegoat for Bailey's illegitimate presence, lets not run away from that fact.

Travis Birt has had 3/4 international matches already and done nothing.

Birt had 3 games in the past and look ordinary. But then he had a very good 2012 big bash and got a singular game vs India last summer. Surely on the back of that form, he should have been given a run in the t20 side all year during the t20's Australia played in the Caribbean, England and UAE to see if he could translate that big bash for on to the international stage before the world cup?

Very glad to see Mitch Marsh not in the squad or it would have been 3 months of T20 and about 1 of first class cricket till the end of Jan for him. He's a kid, needs to be working on discipline and technique, not trying to slog every ball that comes his way. There's nothing that can be done about him playing in the Champion's League as he is practically the backbone of the Scorchers' line-up. But he was coming out of injury and so was probably only a real outsider anyway and he needs to be playing as much Shield cricket as possible at this stage in his career.

Cummins hasn't played red ball cricket in a long time as well and has been playing heads of T20 cricket and i don't hear any talk of that potentially messing up his test match bowling skills.

So i don't see how all that T20 cricket at this "kid" age was ever going to affect M Marsh's, long format game in the future.

I reckon the real reason Marsh hasn't been picked was because of that discipline issue he had in july - Australia Cricket News: Australia news: Mitchell Marsh sent back home after night out | ESPN Cricinfo

had a very good BBL, the only other spin choice was probably Beer. I wouldn't have taken him but he has a lot of experience now at international level and the cupboard is pretty bare.

Doherty's BBL form became irrelevant moths before the world cup. He was bowling crap after the west indies tour and that ability he showed in the bbl to be a tight new-ball spinner was gone.

No spinner other than Hogg should have been in the main squad.

Selectors are not choosing teams so that they will lose but to listen to some of the fans you'd think that's exactly what they were doing.

Of course no selector ever picks a squad in his mind to make Australia loose matches. They will always think that they are acting in the best interest for the national team.

However as the recent Andrew Hilditch tenure showed, sometimes they can become horrifically delusional and keep making awful decisions which will cost teams series.

Ranking system don't make sense in cricket, especially the one's for T20s. But in a strange way, AUS being ranked below Ireland in t20s before the world cup was reflection of bad selection t20 policies/t20 scheduling various AUS selection panels have had in the last 3 years.