5th Test Border Gavaskar Trophy January 3-7 1000hrs @ the SCG

[ABAB]

Matt Henry has been among the best performed bowlers on the planet over the past 18 months. 48 wickets at 18 this year alone.
Will O’Rourke hasn’t quite started as well as Scott Boland but he’s taken 36 at 24 to begin his career, and Southee has taken nearly 400 wickets over a decorated career.

In NZ conditions on a green deck yeah I’d say it’s pretty meritorious.

You’ve just been shown numerous times by the likes of Travis Head, Rishabh Pant etc, that when the ball is doing a bit, often the best way to play that is to attack and England know that playing conservatively won’t win them jack shit. Playing aggressively gives them a puncher’s chance because one thing they CAN do is attack and very quickly turn momentum around.

The fact that people don’t understand this after 36 tests of them doing it, means they either don’t watch them, or they get their info from Fox Cricket.

So not the same quality of Australia's bowling attack. Sure if you are talented like Head or Pant and if you have 6 batsmen as talented as them then you will easily be the best Test side but they also get out cheaply as well.

 

[Mr Meow]

"evidence"

Australia registered a lower first Innings total but were "miles ahead" somehow?

Ok Chief Wiggum. Keep digging Up!

Inability to call it as it is, is not a strength.

I'm incredibly happy Bumrah pulled out. That injury was massive to the result.

By your logic if India made 5 runs in the first innings, Australia would not be ahead at that time if they ended up making 4 runs in their follow up innings. It doesn't work like that - the call was made after 1 innings, not after 2. Yet you gloated as if 180 was a good score all along. It really wasn't. India were 4 for 120 in their second innings but a combination of brilliant bowling and brain dead batting meant they collapsed for around 150 - it didn't mean it was a "150 pitch". Australia weren't ahead when Pant was in but they were by the time India's innings was finished.

As surprising as it is that someone doesn't understand the nuances of sport, there's no point being harsh about it. We live, we learn. You got real mouthy during the match but were whisper quiet by the end.

 

[Cataholic]

Matt Henry has been among the best performed bowlers on the planet over the past 18 months. 48 wickets at 18 this year alone.
Will O’Rourke hasn’t quite started as well as Scott Boland but he’s taken 36 at 24 to begin his career, and Southee has taken nearly 400 wickets over a decorated career.

In NZ conditions on a green deck yeah I’d say it’s pretty meritorious.

You’ve just been shown numerous times by the likes of Travis Head, Rishabh Pant etc, that when the ball is doing a bit, often the best way to play that is to attack and England know that playing conservatively won’t win them jack shit. Playing aggressively gives them a puncher’s chance because one thing they CAN do is attack and very quickly turn momentum around.

The fact that people don’t understand this after 36 tests of them doing it, means they either don’t watch them, or they get their info from Fox Cricket.

And Konstas.

Uzzie shared his partner's positivity today and in the blink of an eye they had @ 40 on the board, which deflated the Indians noticeably.

 

[ElliottsMaggies]

Or he held a bit of grudge with what Kohli did to him the previous Test? Mind you he handle that situation very well.

Yep at the end of the day it was a win/win for us.

Sam wasn't intimidated, India were obviously rattled by him & focussed on him and we won the Test.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

By your logic if India made 5 runs in the first innings, Australia would not be ahead at that time if they ended up making 4 runs in their follow up innings. It doesn't work like that - the call was made after 1 innings, not after 2. Yet you gloated as if 180 was a good score all along. It really wasn't. India were 4 for 120 in their second innings but a combination of brilliant bowling and brain dead batting meant they collapsed for around 150 - it didn't mean it was a "150 pitch". Australia weren't ahead when Pant was in but they were by the time India's innings was finished.

As surprising as it is that someone doesn't understand the nuances of sport, there's no point being harsh about it. We live, we learn. You got real mouthy during the match but were whisper quiet by the end.

terrible take. leave it at that

by your logic someone who wins a heat event wins the gold medal, simply because the other person has actually raced yet.

No one's miles ahead until both teams complete their first innings. Especially when everyone (except you) knew the pitch was playing very hard for batting. It was as green as the outfield on the first day.

 

[evolved2]

Agree completely, they have some guys there who are a handy support cast, but without a leader they are pretty mediocre

In SENA, that's true. Their bowling will have us struggling in Asia even without Bumrah.

 

[Mr Meow]

terrible take. leave it at that

by your logic someone who wins a heat event wins the gold medal, simply because the other person has actually raced yet.

No one's miles ahead until both teams complete their first innings. Especially when everyone (except you) knew the pitch was playing very hard for batting.

Nah, momentum changes through a match and teams lift or fold. That can easily be one set of batsmen failing (putting their team behind), then the other set doing the same. We saw that all series - Melbourne was an even better example (the pitch didn't just collapse after tea on the last day). Just take it as a learning experience and move on I reckon.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

Nah, momentum changes through a match and teams lift or fold. That can easily be one set of batsmen failing (putting their team behind), then the other set doing the same. We saw that all series - Melbourne was an even better example (the pitch didn't just collapse after tea on the last day). Just take it as a learning experience and move on I reckon.

i am moving on, knowing your take is terrible. lol.

 

[Mr Meow]

i am moving on, knowing your take is terrible. lol.

Happy to help. If you get stuck next match just let me know.

 

[swingdog]

Are India now coached by Gautham Gambhir? the same bloke I remember back in 2012 After India got whitewashed 4-0 nil by Michael Clarke’s team his response was “Just wait til you get to India where we will prepare rank turners”

Quite the downgrade from Rahul Dravid

This is all I think of when I see Gambhir: ROOOBISH

 

[kickazz]

I would be looking at the impact he had without using stats and instead the eye test

• Kohli bumps him
• India mock his arm waving geeing up the crowd gestures - they practically never do this with anyone else
• Bumrah is geed up by him - again have never seen him like this
• Bumrah again seems agitated by him when he intervenes with Khawaja facing up
• Khawaja dismissal - they charge him as the non striker
• Ghambir basically calls him soft at a media presser after today

He was 110% in their head and distracted them. There is a good argument he took their focus off the game enough that helped Australia win - beyond his momentum changing innings Boxing day.

His batting he showed is not sustainable but he certainly had a very big hand ( beyond runs ) in Australia winning.

I think just going out there positively spread to Ussie and Marnus too, and made the bowlers change things they perhaps didn't want to.

 

[kickazz]

Given the MCG and SCG pitches aren't flat anymore, Bazball won't be as effective here.

If the 2023 Ashes was played on Aussie sized grounds, Stokes would have been caught in the outfield about a dozen times

 

[Lunchtime]

Marnus Labuschagne - Past 44 Innings

Innings: 44
Matches: 23
Runs: 1275
Average: 31.87
50s: 10
100s: 1
50+ Scores: 11
Not Outs: 4
Ducks: 1

So one Test 100 in 44 Innings. Eleven 50+ scores in 44 Innings - averaging a 50+ score every 4 Innings. Not good enough from a Test number 3. Surely the heat has to come? Surely he is in danger of being g dropped from the Test team?

 

[swingdog]

I asked this during play, but would be keen to revisit as it got lost in the flow of events.

There's always talk about India having a production line of greater batters and bowlers, but I wonder how much that's true. They have the conditions right (passionate population) but the system seems dodgy, mainly because the politics and culture involved and worship of individual players rather than the team.

Indian world domination has been talked of as inevitable, but I'm not sure it is.

 

[ABAB]

If the 2023 Ashes was played on Aussie sized grounds, Stokes would have been caught in the outfield about a dozen times

Probably right, did they hit a lot of 6 in much smaller NZ ground?

 

[PhatBoy]

So not the same quality of Australia's bowling attack. Sure if you are talented like Head or Pant and if you have 6 batsmen as talented as them then you will easily be the best Test side but they also get out cheaply as well.

They don’t have to be ‘the best test side.’ They have to scrape up a couple of wins.

There’s every chance Harry Brook is more talented than either of them.

Again, does that attack have to be the equal of Australia’s down to the exact decimal point? Oh well if it’s not, Brook’s innings wasn’t worth shit then

Boland’s 10-fer on this wicket wasn’t worth anything because only 3 blokes in the other team average above 40 and one of them hasn’t managed that for 6 years.

 

[swingdog]

If the 2023 Ashes was played on Aussie sized grounds, Stokes would have been caught in the outfield about a dozen times

Certainly the G - loved that about Pant's dismissal. There's always at least one player each summer who misjudges the size of the place.

 

[Xtreme]

"evidence"

Australia registered a lower first Innings total but were "miles ahead" somehow?

Ok Chief Wiggum. Keep digging Up!

Inability to call it as it is, is not a strength.

I'm incredibly happy Bumrah pulled out. That injury was massive to the eventual result.

A healthy Bumrah and Australia likely lose a few more wickets before Cummins and Boland hit the winning runs!

 

[t_94]

The whole culture of how they select the batting lineup needs to change.

It shouldn't be that big of a deal if a batsmen is dropped because they are out of form.

Real life: yes -100% agree
BigFooty is the opposite, most are pretty trigger happy on here and have no concept of the fact that the best to ever do it (Don aside) make 50+ approx 40% of the time.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

A healthy Bumrah and Australia likely lose a few more wickets before Cummins and Boland hit the winning runs!

Agreed. was a lot less stressful than it would have been if Bumrah was bowling.

 

[damochandler]

Marnus just kept getting out the same way. Hitting it to third slip/gully

 

[Cataholic]

A healthy Bumrah and Australia likely lose a few more wickets before Cummins and Boland hit the winning runs!

So a healthy Bumrah wouldn't have changed the outcome?

Good to know

 

[Lunchtime]

Certainly the G - loved that about Pant's dismissal. There's always at least one player each summer who misjudges the size of the place.

MCG is very much a wide ground. Like in AFL - a lot of visiting teams struggle with the width of the ground. India cricket...it can be difficult to hit boundaries because it's such a wide ground. Like a large circle.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Has a West Indies tour later this year been announced yet? I've heard some mentions on here that it's happening but can't seem to find any info on cricinfo or cricket australia's sites.

It is in the Future Tours Program, but I doubt the schedule has been released.

 

[Xtreme]

So a healthy Bumrah wouldn't have changed the outcome?

Good to know

I was being modest.... fine

a healthy Bumrah and he would have got all 10 2nd innings wickets, man of the match, man of the series AND unseat Albo as Prime Minister of Australia!