Cricket Season

@Juro said:
Yeah, Hussey did well, but largely thanks to the Pakistan team giving him so many lives. It was only thanks to this that we had any sort of lead to defend.

And does Australia winning justify Ponting's decision to bat first? It is like saying that the Australian rugby league selectors are justified whenever Australia win, regardless of whether they pick the best team. The unanswerable question of course is what the result would have been if we had bowled first. I would reckon we would have won far more comfortably…

I don't know. Whenever Pakistan lose from such a strong position, I always have that nagging doubt in the back of my mind. Amazing that Australia's 9th wicket partnership almost scored more runs than the entire Pakistani 4th innings...
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Yeah I agree, its like for so many years Sheens would pick players that many felt shouldnt be there (ie Morris, Fitzhenry, Halatau, Galea). We still won games but many of us still felt they shouldnt be there.

As for Hussey, he went 15 Tests without a 100 (Or 20 from 21 tests), he's in the side for his batting, not for being a good team man and good fielder as Stryker suggests. The criticism was justified in my opinion. But he's scored runs this Summer and deserves to be there now.

@Stryker said:
a lot of people who comment on here come from this greedy, i want everything now generation that has to have results always ending in their favour ….or else.
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If that were the case I wouldve been calling for Hodge, Rogers, Clark, McGain, Lee and Nannes to be in the side for last years Ashes, not Phil Hughes, or even supporting the decision to play Clint Mackay in Perth.

As for Ponting's decision at the toss, his bacon was saved by Pakistani dropped catches, terrible captaincy by Yousuf, loose batting in Pakistan's first innings, and panicked batting in their 2nd innings. If he won the toss and bowled first, we wouldve won far more easily. That pitch on the last day was not a 139 all out mine field, and the Pakistani tail would not wag like ours did.
 
@stryker said:
@Jazza said:
@TheSunTanSuperman said:
This is where Hussey supporters lose it. A few sub-par performances? In the last 18 months he has been Australia's worst batsman. Yeah he did a great, great job this test, but it doesn't take away from the justified calls to sack him over the past 18 months.

Yeah I agree STM, its been more like a couple dozen sub par performances.
Still, he's done well, and he certainly deserves to be in the side now after a good Summer.

I'm still worried about this middle order though. After a great start a collapse of 8/152 yesterday, 10/127 in the first innings, 8/220 in Melbourne (Watson scoring 120 of them), 150 all out in Perth and 10/265 against the Windies in Adelaide.

I still wouldnt mind seeing Ponting shift down the order, avg of 39 I think last year, 3 years in a row he's averaging below 50, he's overall average has dipped below 55 for the first time in 5 years, it just says to me that he's in decline.
I still would like him to go down the order. There are many options, but I would like an opener coming in for North and having Katich or Clarke at number 3.

So its either:

1\. Katich
2\. Opener
3\. Clarke
4\. Hussey
5\. Watson
6\. Ponting

Or

1\. Watson
2\. Opener
3\. Katich (His normal position for NSW)
4\. Hussey
5\. Clarke
6\. Ponting

Man you two are joking aren't you? The bloke has had a quiet spell but he also has two of the last three centuries hit by Australian batsmen. You can manipulate the statistics all you want to confirm your argument but it never tells the full story. Hussey contributes far more to the team than just being a run scoring machine that he once was. His fielding is world class and his knowledge of the game is up there with some of the best captains/tacticians in the game. He is also still ranked the number 2 batsman for ODI's in the world - I know that its not test cricket… but dont you think it shows that he can still handle high pressure situations with the bat? If he could no longer do this we lose this test.

It seems to me that a lot of people who comment on here come from this greedy, i want everything now generation that has to have results always ending in their favour ....or else.

Im prepared to bet a fair bit that you guys were preparing most of the day to come on here and tear this team to shreds calling for mass sackings and a captaincy change....Im so sorry that they let you down.

Btw Suntansuperman can you confirm/deny whether or not you are a pom? Its just that I've never seen an Aussie attack his national side as much as you do....
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So you're happy that in the last 2 years, Hussey's average has dropped nearly 40 runs? That in the last year we have gone from undisputed no.1 to no.4? That the selectors will drop one player for one bad game, but will keep someone on board despite nearly two years of poor form?

And I don't like to attack the side, but when I've had to put up with duds like Peter Siddle getting chance after chance, while Doug Bollinger has to rely on injury to get into the side, then year, I probably am gonna be a little annoyed with the national set up.
 
Hmmm….....do you guys still think Punter should be dropped down the order......

Dont often agree with Ian Chappell but in this case......"Anyone knows anything about batting in particular batting at No. 3 knows Ponting is the best in Australia for that sake the world"

For all the mistakes he's made with his Captaincy .......I'm glad we don't have Youseff as our captain.......After the 1st session they were right in it.......but Ponting and Clarke have completely taken it away from them......His only answer seemed to be bowl 2 feet wide of off stump and try and frustrate them......No bloody idea......

Even now they are doing it with the new ball........ :laughing:
 
Very good fightback by the Aussies today…Taken from Fox Sports:

Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke hit tons as Australia dominate day one

By Jim Morton
January 14, 2010

Bloodied captain Ricky Ponting and his deputy, Michael Clarke, combined for a record partnership as Australia rubbed salt into Pakistan's wounds in the third Test in Hobart.

The home side went to stumps on the opening day in complete control at 3-302, with Ponting unbeaten on 137 and Clarke 111 not out.

Following the misery of their SCG capitulation in the second Test, Pakistan dropped Ponting before he scored, letting the struggling Australia top-order off the hook.

After winning the toss and batting, they were in trouble at 3-71 in the morning session when Clarke joined his battling skipper at the crease.

Their unbeaten stand of 231 broke Australia's fourth-wicket record against Pakistan, set by Greg Chappell and Graham Yallop in Faisalabad 30 years ago.

Spilt on the fine-leg boundary by Mohammad Aamer off his fourth ball, Ponting punished the tourists by producing his 39th Test century and second on his Hobart home ground.

The Tasmania crowd of 7216 were in raptures twice for their state hero as Ponting was incorrectly awarded a six when he hit Danish Kaneria down the ground when on 94.

Three balls after the mistake was corrected, a jubilant Ponting celebrated with a sweep for two.

In contrast, Clarke was the quiet achiever with his chanceless century of high quality almost creeping up on the Bellerive Oval fans.

He brought up his 13th hundred off 188 balls with 11 fours and also passed the 4000 Test run milestone in his 58th Test.

Pakistan appeared clueless for the second half of the day as Ponting and Clarke dominated.

The pair batted almost 70 overs together as Mohammad Yousuf, criticised for his second Test leadership as Mike Hussey and Peter Siddle produced a match-turning 123-stand at the SCG, again failed to inspire his troops.

In the overcast morning conditions, Pakistan's pace attack had carried on their fine form from the first-innings in Sydney by dismissing Simon Katich (11), Shane Watson (29) and Mike Hussey (6).

Katich was dismissed leg before by Asif after Pakistan correctly called for an umpiring referral after a long mid-pitch conference between Yousuf, bowler Mohammad Asif and debutant wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed.

The series leading run-scorer, Watson again looked a million dollars before he cut Gul to gully just after the drinks break.

Aamer went a little of the way in atoning for his missed catch by finding Hussey's defensive edge and providing Sarfraz with his first catch in Test cricket in the 21st over.
 
I know nobody has brought this up but Ponting seems to win the coin toss alot more than 50 percent of the time. I think he has only lost one coin toss this summer LOL
 
@alien said:
I know nobody has brought this up but Ponting seems to win the coin toss alot more than 50 percent of the time. I think he has only lost one coin toss this summer LOL
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Yeh I think the only toss he has lost was in Adelaide.

He did lose a lot of tosses for a while there in some odi's, I cant remember what series whether it was in England, Champions trophy or India.

Im surprised opposing captains havnt picked up that he is a heads only man and try and rig the toss if they could. I guess that could be a way of match fixing so its probably best not to try that lol.
 
Congrats to Ricky on another superb double century :righton:

he really knows how to answer those morons who criticize him…
 
@TheSunTanSuperman said:
@stryker said:
Congrats to Ricky on another superb double century :righton:

he really knows how to answer those morons who criticize him…

So did the Huss, hey?

That 6 he scored was brilliant!
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Haha here he is!!!

been expecting you :wink:
 
I am lead to believe (by an ardent St George supporter, therefore I have no reason the doubt its accuracy) that after the great choke by the Pakis in the second test that someone rang one of the sports radio shows and said that the only thing missing from the Paki uniforms was the **big red V**

:smiley: :laughing:
 
Great series win!!
Dominated the Pakis (Barring Sydney of course, we wouldve dominated that too if we bowled first)
But still good signs.

On the other hand this was one of the worst Pakistan sides of seen, just one class batsman (Yousuf) and one class bowler (Asif), the rest are either up and coming (Akmal and Ameer) or are just average.
Their fielding was worse then England's golden fielding era of the 90s. They were very disappointing.
Hopefully winning this series doesnt make the guys overconfident heading into the Ashes, we've beaten some ordinary competition and we've got more to come (NZ and then Pak again).
 
@Jazza said:
Great series win!!
Dominated the Pakis (Barring Sydney of course, we wouldve dominated that too if we bowled first)
But still good signs.

On the other hand this was one of the worst Pakistan sides of seen, just one class batsman (Yousuf) and one class bowler (Asif), the rest are either up and coming (Akmal and Ameer) or are just average.
Their fielding was worse then England's golden fielding era of the 90s. They were very disappointing.
Hopefully winning this series doesnt make the guys overconfident heading into the Ashes, we've beaten some ordinary competition and we've got more to come (NZ and then Pak again).
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Agreed. I think most of the bowling group did well, Bollinger and Hauritz were exceptional, Johnson was alright and Siddle was just plain ordinairy. One catch dropped does not equal an unlucky summer. Shane Watson had nothing but short pitched crap bowled at him, and showed obvious mental weakness alot of innings. Numbers are numbers, but I'll wait until he faces an attack that has plans against him with quality bowlers before I'll believe he is a long term test player.

North was a bit dissapointing, but he has shown more than enough against quality opposition to be cut some slack, afterall Hussey, Siddle and especially Johnson(twice) have been nursed through poor, extended runs of form, why can't North?

Rest of the side went well, Haddin's keeping was near faultless and his batting continues to be an asset. Katich continued to do what he always does and score consistently. Hussey mixed some good performances with his as of late usual rubbish.
 
Gotta feel sorry for Sarfraz Ahmed yesterday. Dropped by the keeper, then dropped by Clarke at first slip, bounces off the boot and caught on the third attempt.
 
Another marvellous victory by the Aussies tonight. Pakistans batting was awful. Pakistans 5th highest scorer was 'extras' with a score of 5.
 
I don't know what the stats are but I don't think it is very wise to win the toss and put the other team in at the SCG for a day-night game…
 
I hate it when I don't know the stats, so I decided to do a little research:

won toss & batted: 87 times for 50 wins (3 drawn)
won toss & fielded: 47 times for 18 wins (1 drawn)

http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/ground/56544.html?class=2;template=results;type=aggregate
 
Yeah two top efforts over the weekend against a very good side.

The power hitting from White and Watson was awesome to watch, the bowling on Sunday night was top shelf and the catching…....

Fair dinkum when Ricky retires he should bring out a highlights reel of his fielding. Superb catch again.
 
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