Commonwealth Bank Series Feb-Mar 2011/12

[angryangy]

This could be a close one... or are Sri Lanka already out of it?

 

[midgetwars]

Australia cannot win with Matthews in.

 

[aussie1st]

Bowlers just continue to do the business even when things were going SL way.

 

[Sedition]

Those same bowlers that Jayawardene said were bringing us down? Yeah, handy 13 runs you made there Jaya, maybe just focus on the cricket next time so you'll stop embarrassing yourselves.

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Speaking of embarrassing yourself, check me out

 

[angryangy]

Still can't pitch it up at the death

 

[Sedition]

C'mon runout...

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Prasad would've been gone with a direct hit there.. no sliding of the bat and foot in the air.. terrible running.

 

[midgetwars]

Jeez, Can't the aussie bowlers bowl the sri lankans out EASILY??

Matthews is like the saviour for sri lanka. But not this time thankfully.

 

[aussie1st]

This is where we could get McDermott into the mix, he looks like a guy that could bowl at the death. Starc is always a risk at the death.

 

[Sedition]

Lucky escape in the end. Should've finished them off a lot quicker after having them 7 for like 100. Bonus point shouldn't matter in the end, we'll be cleansweeping the series anyways.

 

[jacobfelix]

Aussies won by 5 runs... I stopped following the match when they were 9 down....Cant believe it went down the wire....

Matthews would have been a hero had that one gone for six....

 

[Radonx]

Hats of to Mathews. What an inning. But in the end couldn't quite replicate Melbourne heroics. Sanga runout was the turning point. Both matches were close so a win isn't far away.

 

[ArcherMcKinley]

That was a pretty close match. I only managed to catch the ending... but nevertheless, I'm happy Australia won!

 

[SLICKR392]

Damn! Missed it!
Aussies and Indians are likely to be in the finals.

 

[sifter132]

Ford definitely had done his homework. Great fielding by the players. This is what I want to see. Good attacking captaincy backed by good bowling and fielding.

Now it's up to batsmen to get us there without major hiccup.

Agree about the captaincy - hope George Bailey was watching this game at home... Loved the way Jayawardene had the men up. Although against Clarke I'd actually argue to leave the men back. Clarke's flaw is that he's always looking to hit it just past the fielder, he'll ignore the big gap for a single but try and get a 4 or 2 through a smaller one. So Clarke will actually play a fair amount of dots with only 4 or 5 inside the ring.

omg can we go one game without whinging about modern bats.

Agree - but I heard a good argument about this the other night on the radio from Geoff Lawson. He wasn't arguing about the boundaries or size of the 6s being hit - he was arguing about the chance to injure bowlers with the power some batsmen can produce. You've only got to look at Brett Lee breaking hit foot thanks to MS Dhoni, Rahul Sharma splitting the webbing and almost getting taken out again. I think there's a point to be made there. If a batsman really liked hitting straight eg. Warner on his good days, then it's damn hard for a fast bowler to protect himself against a pinging ball.

This is where we could get McDermott into the mix, he looks like a guy that could bowl at the death. Starc is always a risk at the death.

Yes! Heard Michael Clarke talking about McDermott the other day and it piqued my interest. 1) Clarke knew a lot more about McDermott's bowling than I thought he might have - maybe he's watching more cricket now he's a selector, and 2) yeah that he can bowl good yorkers. Brett Lee has been one of Australia's death bowler since forever and now he's out. The other guy that's been bowling a lot at the death over the years is Watson, and I'm not sure that's ideal. Johnson didn't have the consistency to hit the same spot, I don't see Hilfenhaus as a good yorker bowler. McKay's got a good slower ball, but yeah I think it's been a weakness for a while with Australia - and they've gotten away with it a bit more than they should have.

 

[SaiSrini]

Hopefully a full and a possibly tight game tomorrow between Australia and India (with an Indian victory hopefully). Want to see how India perform against Australia when they play a full ODI. Wish India dont start loading up on spinners after seeing the Adelaide track. Even on a spinner's track, two spinners are enough. What they can do is, drop Jadeja and bring in Irfan while dropping Vinay Kumar and bringing back Rahul Sharma. This way, they play three seamers + two spinners and also dont lose out on an all rounder. Anyways Ashwin has now been a more than decent batsman for India on this tour.

Resting Sachin is a double edged sword. The best chance for him to get into his best flow is to play matches. But resting him now and not during the final stages of the league stage is also important.