I wish to offer an unreserved apology to Mitchell Johnson, whom I bagged mercilessly owing to frustration at his inconsistency.
Absolute highest respect for a bloke who late in his career went away, worked on his game, came back and got it right and delivered on his ability. People who come out in top after getting there the hard way deserve nothing other than the utmost respect and kudos.
If Marsh plays and makes runs, I will say that the selectors should be considered greats because they will have picked a winner based upon zero elapsed form. Given his last efforts against that mob, and no red-ball form, it must be considered an extremely risky punt.
On another point, I took a double take recently when I thought I heard a current selector say that "shield cricket was irrelevant: and that "they didn't take much notice of it". You can imagine my shock with what I thought I heard.
They fell over because they lacked skill and probably choked as well. Bradbury was faster and better. The results show it. He has a gold medal to prove it and the others came ... wherever.
Dig deeper and people might see what Bradbury went through to win that medal. If anybody ever won anything through sheer effort this was an example of it.
#1 S. Bradbury. World's greatest ever underdog, yet showed more skill than anybody when it truly mattered AND I believe also did a PB - talk about giving 100% when it really counted.
Maxwell and Skull then daylight from that list... although I have really enjoyed MacDonald's insightful view and positive comments. AB has been interesting at times and Alderman also talks some common sense.
Clarke hasn't made first digs runs for a while and his more recent dismissals have looked soft and reminiscent of his earlier career when he wasn't a great starter and made a lot of scores between 10-30. Agree that he is better at 5 we need to find blokes to bat at 2, 3 and 4 first.
More evidence today that Watson has a concentration issue... so often gets out after batting for two hours... or just after making a milestone. Simply doesn't go on with the job and that's the difference between 250 all out and 400.
Don't get me started on Smith. Batsmen who get out in the last over before breaks should be dropped. Idiotic stuff.
If Clarke isn't batting at stumps I'd be worried, very worried.
Any squealing about doctored pitches? Sounded like a good test wicket with something in it for everyone.
Hardest fought 4 day win I've seen in a long time, let's just not carried away with things; we won, we're exiited, let's be gracious in victory and well prepared for next week. It only takes one bad hour to undo all the good work.
