Sri Lankan Tour of Australia, October-November 2010/11

[sifter132]

Well I prefer to give a little bit of credit to Sri Lanka. Mathews was awesome and Malinga was...well he was insanely good.

I didn't like the kind of body language they showed from Michael Clarke, seemed a bit grim, but I guess he was just trying to keep his frustrations inward. I'm not gonna blame him for the loss though, none of his bowlers could do the business at the end there.

Is funny though, the endless calls for Smith to bowl despite his injury. Richie Benaud called for him about 4 separate times in commentary. Do these guys not have ANY inside info? Does ANYONE do research for them? Obviously not, because they spent the last 2 summers whining about how Simon Katich should bowl more until someone went and actually asked him about it...and it turns out his shoulder was stuffed. Absolute fail - and these are the guys people get their cricket knowledge from...

 

[TumTum]

I'm not gonna blame him for the loss though, none of his bowlers could do the business at the end there.

Bowlers were trying their hardest, Clarke was the one that let SL get away.

Really 8/100 FFS. There is no bloody excuse for Clarke.

 

[Iridium]

Callum Ferguson replaces injured Shaun Marsh in ODI squad | Cricket News | Australia v Sri Lanka | Cricinfo.com

Marsh seems to get injured a lot these days. Out with a back injury. Doesn't look like Ferguson will get a game as Marsh was going to give way for Ponting when he returns.

 

[sifter132]

Bowlers were trying their hardest, Clarke was the one that let SL get away.

Really 8/100 FFS. There is no bloody excuse for Clarke.

Well fine it's your opinion. But this so called problem of finishing off teams has very little to do with Clarke's captaincy as I see it. The other examples thrown around have been Cardiff 2009 and Mohali last month - Ponting captain both times.

 

[angryangy]

Well fine it's your opinion. But this so called problem of finishing off teams has very little to do with Clarke's captaincy as I see it. The other examples thrown around have been Cardiff 2009 and Mohali last month - Ponting captain both times.

The most relevant example is from Melbourne 2008 against South Africa. It was Johnson and Siddle then too, trying to bounce Dale Steyn out in the 2nd innings. It started on 8/250 and didn't stop on 8/350. The irony of this performance is that they also tended to over pitch against Duminy and made him look like Brian Lara.

 

[TumTum]

There's a difference between not being able to take a wicket due to defensive batting and allowing a tailender to slog junk time runs when 8 wickets are down, continually.

Exactly

Any captain with a brain would have placed close-in fielders and put pressure on the tail-ender.

What happened in India last tour was that Sharma batted extremely well and our bowlers lacked penetrations to pick up his wicket. Nothing to do with Ponting's captaincy, as they played good shots and played defensively.

I 100% agree that our bowlers have a problem bowling to tail-enders, but even that should still have given us a comfortable victory last night. Clarke just let the game slip.

 

[Covvy]

Yeah, he needed to really amp up the pressure, soon enough they would have cracked under the pressure and tried a stupid shot.

 

[angryangy]

Malinga was almost exclusively dealing in stupid shots.

I agree that Clarke was caught under pressure without any good answers, but his fast bowlers put him in that situation.

 

[aussie1st]

Cricinfo predicted lineup

Australia (possible) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Steven Smith / Nathan Hauritz, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 John Hastings, 10 Xavier Doherty, 11 Mitchell Starc.

Selectors would have lost it if Hauritz is batting at 7. Hastings at 7 if we are going down that route. I really don't see the selectors dropping Siddle and I can see them replacing Doherty with Hauritz.

 

[ZexyZahid]

This news surprise me. I think the emphasis should be more on North to worry about his spot in the Test team then becoming vice-captain of Australia. Also North doesn't have a spot in the ODI squad, so I don't understand from where the speculation is coming from that he could become the vice-captain.

North rejects speculation over Test captaincy
ESPNcricinfo staff
November 4, 2010
Australia news: North rejects speculation over Test captaincy | Australia Cricket News | Cricinfo.com

 

[TumTum]

I think the emphasis should be more on North to worry about his spot in the Test team then becoming vice-captain of Australia.http://www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/story/485409.html

So true

 

[angryangy]

Cricinfo predicted lineup

Australia (possible) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Steven Smith / Nathan Hauritz, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 John Hastings, 10 Xavier Doherty, 11 Mitchell Starc.

Selectors would have lost it if Hauritz is batting at 7. Hastings at 7 if we are going down that route. I really don't see the selectors dropping Siddle and I can see them replacing Doherty with Hauritz.

I think the point is not so much the order, but that if Smith isn't fit to bowl, they are likely to replace him with someone who is.

Long tail as it may be, most if not all of them are quite handy on a good wicket and if the top order can do its job, they will contribute.

 

[Themer]

Also North doesn't have a spot in the ODI squad, so I don't understand from where the speculation is coming from that he could become the vice-captain.

North rejects speculation over Test captaincy

You've answered your own question there. No one is suggesting he become ODI vice captain.

Not sure if I want to see Australia beaten again. Them losing might gee them up come Ashes time. Although whatever happens if they aren't geed up by the Ashes they should have no place in the Australian team.

 

[War]

Cricinfo predicted lineup

Australia (possible) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Steven Smith / Nathan Hauritz, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 John Hastings, 10 Xavier Doherty, 11 Mitchell Starc.

Selectors would have lost it if Hauritz is batting at 7. Hastings at 7 if we are going down that route. I really don't see the selectors dropping Siddle and I can see them replacing Doherty with Hauritz.

Although he bowled well, i think Doherty may have to be dropped. Thus making the XI:

Watson
Haddin
Ponting
Clarke
White
Hussey
Smith
Hastings
Johnson
Siddle
McKay/Starc

As i've continously said, the inexperience of the bowling attack with Harris, Bollinger, Tait out injured & unpredicatably of Johnson & Siddle. Makes the the non-selection of Nannes look even more worse now in these next two must win games.

 

[Slowcoach]

What the hell are the selectors thinking?
Yes, I agree, Nannes should be in there, after Bollinger he is our best bowler.
As for this production line of boring Victorian seamers, who is this Hastings guy?
Has Victoria got a production line of pace bowlers to rival the great West Indies of the 80's?
Or does the MCG just seam a bit and inflate their records?
I'm finding it hard to name a Victorian seamer who hasn't played for Australia in the last 2 years.
Who was that McDonald guy? Look at him, he's crap, and yet he has decent stats because he bowls on the MCG.
Just look at the guy, what the hell kind of bowling do you call that?
Glenn McGrath he aint.
The selectors should get real and try picking our best team for a change.
As for building for the future, how bout we try and win the World Cup first.