Cricket

[jhong]

Australia squad for Domain Test Series v Pakistan – Tim Paine (c), Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins (vc), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head (vc), Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner

 

[Cannon82]

Must be nice to be able to drop a bloke with a Test bowling average of 19...

 

[Cannon82]

For a session and a bit there, it looked like we had a game on our hands.

 

[jhong]

So there was a good reason to not pick Burns in the England i imagine . Also if the players have their names on their shirts , why have numbers that look stupid anyway (to me) ?

 

[Cannon82]

So there was a good reason to not pick Burns in the England i imagine . Also if the players have their names on their shirts , why have numbers that look stupid anyway (to me) ?

Given the bloke at the other end who just tonned up was a bunny for the whole England series, not sure Burns would have solved any of our issues at the top. Conditions at the Gabba are obviously pretty decent for batting.

Agree on the names and numbers. Just go back to a plain shirt.

 

[Fork n Hell]

typical Pakis. looked like they were going well enough to win the test early, now they look like they going to have an innings defeat.

 

[Cannon82]

typical Pakis. looked like they were going well enough to win the test early, now they look like they going to have an innings defeat.

That's alright, they've got plenty of time to work their way into this tour... oh wait, it's a pointless two Test series. Oh well.

 

[Cannon82]

That was a mistake. Pencil Smith in for another double hundred?

Edit: Would have thought 1 for 200 odd is a reasonable time for Smith to come in.

 

[Johnny Karate]

That was a mistake. Pencil Smith in for another double hundred?

Edit: Would have thought 1 for 200 odd is a reasonable time for Smith to come in.

I thought it was illegal to complete a sentence without referring to Smith and his unusual technique? Despite plundering runs at a not dissimilar frequency to Bradman, Smith’s unusual technique tends to see him bat at 4. It seems that players like Labuschagne and Khawaja who bat with more classical techniques are preferred at 3 over Smith who has batted at 4 since 2015 probably because of his unusual technique.

 

[jhong]

I thought it was illegal to complete a sentence without referring to Smith and his unusual technique? Despite plundering runs at a not dissimilar frequency to Bradman, Smith’s unusual technique tends to see him bat at 4. It seems that players like Labuschagne and Khawaja who bat with more classical techniques are preferred at 3 over Smith who has batted at 4 since 2015 probably because of his unusual technique.

I thought Smith bats at 4 because he wants too .

 

[Cannon82]

I thought it was illegal to complete a sentence without referring to Smith and his unusual technique? Despite plundering runs at a not dissimilar frequency to Bradman, Smith’s unusual technique tends to see him bat at 4. It seems that players like Labuschagne and Khawaja who bat with more classical techniques are preferred at 3 over Smith who has batted at 4 since 2015 probably because of his unusual technique.

Ugh, is that what the commentators are saying? I am yet to see a ball of this Test. Khawaja doesn't have a classical technique - I don't remember shit footwork and chasing wide ones being in the manual. Hodge, Martyn, Williamson, Kallis, Dravid etc have classical techniques. Get your foot to the ball, hit straight and play it under your nose is pretty much classic technique in a nutshell.

 

[Cannon82]

Is Michael Clarke commentating at all? He would have loved this. Touring side in Australia 100+ behind with us 2/330 odd in the first Test of a series. He'd be praying for a wicket so he could come out and chalk up another Test century at #5 against an exhausted attack.

 

[Cannon82]

Smith out, we've persisted with him for far too long.

 

[jhong]

Smith out, we've persisted with him for far too long.

I put it down to coming in at 2 down for a heap and not knowing what to do .

 

[Cannon82]

I put it down to coming in at 2 down for a heap and not knowing what to do .

Fair point. He's been waiting over a day for Warner to get out.

 

[jhong]

Fleming and Slater ffs. Has taken Ch7 just one season to trash the broadcast .

 

[Cannon82]

Fleming and Slater ffs. Has taken Ch7 just one season to trash the broadcast .

Was finding it hard to watch the game, and not just because of the lack of a contest. Fair play to Babar Azam - good dig from him, but too little, too late. Cricket is a different sport in that it is ludicrously long compared to most other broadcasts, but you'd be hard pressed to find another sport where the commentators spend most of their time talking about everything other than what's taking place in front of them. We're not far from My Kitchen Rules and the Block contestants coming on for guest commentary stints, and they wouldn't be much worse than Healy, Slater, Taylor, etc.

 

[jhong]

Was finding it hard to watch the game, and not just because of the lack of a contest. Fair play to Babar Azam - good dig from him, but too little, too late. Cricket is a different sport in that it is ludicrously long compared to most other broadcasts, but you'd be hard pressed to find another sport where the commentators spend most of their time talking about everything other than what's taking place in front of them. We're not far from My Kitchen Rules and the Block contestants coming on for guest commentary stints, and they wouldn't be much worse than Healy, Slater, Taylor, etc.

Yeah i had enough when they went overboard talking about Warner as if he is a saint. How convenient we got it done just in time for the News .

 

[jhong]

Well with the AFL draft sucking what little oxygen was left , no surprise this 2 test series just doesn't do anything than appear to fill in for the BBL . Pretty underwhelming really . So on that note same X1 for second test and the only interest for me is to see if anyone turns up to watch .

 

[Cannon82]

Well with the AFL draft sucking what little oxygen was left , no surprise this 2 test series just doesn't do anything than appear to fill in for the BBL . Pretty underwhelming really . So on that note same X1 for second test and the only interest for me is to see if anyone turns up to watch .

A day night Test is good, shame there's no interest in watching the game. Seeing all the empty seats in the first match shows you the level of interest at the moment. Cricket is past its saturation point with all the T20, BBL, WBBL, Tests, one-day matches, World Cup etc this year. Kiwis will get a decent turn out and the Boxing Day and New Years Tests will get their usual crowds, but there's a distinct lack of interest from all concerned. Don't think I've discussed cricket with anyone at work at all. Wouldn't know there's a Test series on at the moment.

 

[Topkent]

A day night Test is good, shame there's no interest in watching the game. Seeing all the empty seats in the first match shows you the level of interest at the moment. Cricket is past its saturation point with all the T20, BBL, WBBL, Tests, one-day matches, World Cup etc this year. Kiwis will get a decent turn out and the Boxing Day and New Years Tests will get their usual crowds, but there's a distinct lack of interest from all concerned. Don't think I've discussed cricket with anyone at work at all. Wouldn't know there's a Test series on at the moment.

I'm strong on this. Crickets at a crisis point for tests, they really need to spice it up a little without destroying it completely.

So
-Day night tests except for events is a start because then people can actually go and watch.
-Matches should be cut from 5 days down to either 3 or at least 4. But don't just cut the matches down, do it by thickening the seams on the balls or making sure that wickets that don't get results often are fined or punished somehow.
- a score of 300 should be a really good score, if you can score 500 against a test quality opposition then somethings wrong.
- rather than traditional tours I think there should be tournaments held across countries. So top 5 nations play 4 tests in Australia then move to South Africa and do the same, and the bottom 5 do the same. Bottom of the first group gets relegated top of the top bottom gets promoted.

Then next year do India and Sri Lanka , year after NZ and England etc.


That's probably pie in the sky shit but outside of the ashes who really gives a **** about cricket?

 

[Cannon82]

I'm strong on this. Crickets at a crisis point for tests, they really need to spice it up a little without destroying it completely.

So
-Day night tests except for events is a start because then people can actually go and watch.
-Matches should be cut from 5 days down to either 3 or at least 4. But don't just cut the matches down, do it by thickening the seams on the balls or making sure that wickets that don't get results often are fined or punished somehow.
- a score of 300 should be a really good score, if you can score 500 against a test quality opposition then somethings wrong.
- rather than traditional tours I think there should be tournaments held across countries. So top 5 nations play 4 tests in Australia then move to South Africa and do the same, and the bottom 5 do the same. Bottom of the first group gets relegated top of the top bottom gets promoted.

Then next year do India and Sri Lanka , year after NZ and England etc.


That's probably pie in the sky shit but outside of the ashes who really gives a fu** about cricket?

I don't know what they need to do, and to be honest I haven't thought about it because I don't care. So much cricket on that thinking about how they can maintain some interest levels and attendances seems like a massive chore itself. AFL has been losing my interest as well, about the only thing I still enjoy flicking on to as much as always is the football.

A cricket league might do something, although where do we sit in the rankings? Imagine we slipped outside that "top 5" and played the likes of the Windies, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, etc. Sheffield Shield would get more of a crowd. I had a quick google and it looks like we're actually 5th at the moment, so its conceivable we'd have that issue. I also like that idea purely on the off chance that India have a bad time of it and somehow finish 5th so we could see the BCCI flex their muscles to get the rules changed and prevent them from being relegated to the second tier.

The governing bodies realizing that a two Test series is worse than no cricket might help as well. I think at its heart, cricket is just a less exciting game than other sports and when the powers that be turn away from the "purists" and cater to the fly-bys and drop-ins, they're going to realize that those people won't just hoover up every drop of T20 and Test cricket they put out because its on TV. I don't know, maybe they were fully aware the Pakistan series was just going to be a couple of warm-up games for the Kiwis.

 

[jhong]

It would not surprise me if in the not too distant future cricket adopts the format the women used over in England for their Ashes Tour. A couple of tests worth say 6pts for a win , one-dayers and T-20 worth 2pts a win . Most pts wins the series . It just maybe the tours of 3-4 tests will be a thing of the past .
Funny that yesterday , despite losing 17(?) overs to rain , we still got 300 + runs , well done to the batters but if Pakistan wants to send a "work experience" bowling attack what did they expect to happen .

 

[Cannon82]

It would not surprise me if in the not too distant future cricket adopts the format the women used over in England for their Ashes Tour. A couple of tests worth say 6pts for a win , one-dayers and T-20 worth 2pts a win . Most pts wins the series . It just maybe the tours of 3-4 tests will be a thing of the past .
Funny that yesterday , despite losing 17(?) overs to rain , we still got 300 + runs , well done to the batters but if Pakistan wants to send a "work experience" bowling attack what did they expect to happen .

I just don't think anyone really gives a hoot about the series, whether its individual Tests, one-dayer and T20s or them all lumped together. That idea sounds very Mickey Mouse to me - another attempt to make inconsequential games matter when the main issue is the lack of interest and in most cases the lack of a genuine contest.

If the Pakis thought Brisbane was bad, they're now bowling first at the Adelaide Oval. We'll score 600+ here and should be having first nibble at the top order in the third session tonight.

 

[Cannon82]

Hopeless from Labuschagne. He and Smith can't get booted from this batting lineup fast enough.

Edit: Pretty pertinent commentary from Waugh, though. Why the heck would you persist with the old ball at 1/350 odd? The new ball swings, Labuschagne gets de-pegged with one that hooped back into him. What an odd coincidence.