God help me - the Test Cricket thread

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Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #720 – December 16, 2022, 11:46:43 pm

Quote from: dodge on December 16, 2022, 11:25:20 pm

Elwood, considering the pitches they played on, it makes sense to pick the team they did and play the way they did - it got them results. Won't be able to do that in England, Aus, NZ, SA because the pitches aren't roads or dry turners, bowlers aren't as strangled by the rules and the red ball lasts a bit longer.

While I didn't watch any of it, I think it is a good thought process and innovation for the conditions.

Some good points Dodge and appreciate the conditions in Pakistan made winning games difficult and called for innovation. I watched England play India and NZ in England and it was the start of Bazball and while it wasnt the extremes like bouncers every ball or One day allrounders being picked the theme was the same and that was attack at all costs and it did rattle the opposition with Englands batting playing in short format mode. I think they intend to carry on with this style into the Ashes with their batting but might adjust back to normal cricket with their regular bowling attack available. Be interesting how the Aussies handle the Saffie quicks as that might have a bearing on how England select their team and play given they will probably have Archer and Wood available ..

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #721 – December 17, 2022, 06:12:05 am

Agree. Going to be tough to choose their pace attack - it's a bit better than the Devon Malcolm, Derek Pringle days!

Bazball will get shown up - hopefully we're the ones doing it.

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #722 – December 17, 2022, 06:51:13 am

Just saw Sydney Thunder all out for 15. That's not many!

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #723 – December 17, 2022, 05:58:29 pm

Warner's form is consistent with how the Thunder batted. Finished a year ago.

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #724 – December 17, 2022, 07:38:05 pm

Quote from: dodge on December 17, 2022, 06:51:13 am

Just saw Sydney Thunder all out for 15. That's not many!

That is the record for the lowest T20 score at any senior level. The next lowest was 21, by Turkey against the Czech Republic!
Truly amazing!

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #725 – December 17, 2022, 07:41:04 pm

Quote from: Professer E on December 17, 2022, 05:58:29 pm

Warner's form is consistent with how the Thunder batted. Finished a year ago.

I think Warner is finished as test batsman. He's never really liked the ball moving much, but now he isn't coping.
On the other hand, he'll probably play white ball cricket for a few years yet: the ball doesn't move around so much for starters.

Who to replace him with? Now that is an interesting question! Not a lot of names stand out, particularly as some of the pitches prepared this year for Shield games have been pretty ordinaire.

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #726 – December 17, 2022, 09:19:29 pm

I get the feeling Warner was tolerated when he was making runs, but no runs leaves him very exposed.

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #727 – December 18, 2022, 12:19:54 pm

Socials suggesting Head was dudded by another umpire who fails to understand the technology.

As I understand the argument, Snicko synchronises noise spike with video. But the ball clearly clips Head's shirt, however there is only one Snicko spike which must be the contact of the ball flicking the shirt. If it had hit his gloves there should have been two Snicko spikes in the video frames shown on the replay.

It seems reasonable, there was a clear gap between Head's hand and his body, so it seems there should have been two Snicks given one is clearly the shirt.

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #728 – December 18, 2022, 12:52:02 pm

The problem with the Bazball style test cricket, it's not taxing at all on opposition bowlers.

Watching today, our tail suffers because blokes like Warner at the top only punish the pill if they make a ton, we are 70 runs ahead after only 50 overs the ball looks like it's 20 overs old.

The cure for Bazball is for the opposition to channel Boycott, pound the new pill into the deck around your feet for the first 20 or 30 overs then do all your scoring in the last 40 or 50 overs. Keep the opposition out there bowling even if you are scoring at a great rate. Plan to bat an innings right through the pill, not just make a quick scoreboard impact and put your feet up. Time hurts the fielding side as much as runs!

But modern openers are a bit selfish, they want to bat like it's a 20 / 20 when the ball is hard and races to the boundary, they aren't thinking about the lower order batsmen, they aren't think about the next tests in the series, it's all about now!

Past greats like Haydon and Langer, Border, Simpson would end a oppositions whole series in the first couple of days, not just by runs, they kept them out there in the sun!

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #729 – December 19, 2022, 07:27:03 am

Today's openers don't get the concept of "knocking the shine off" and putting overs into the bowlers. As a side we don't do well batting time . Then again, Warner never lasts long enough. But on that pitch bazball was the option because you were a walking wicket trying to bat time, as Head, Smith and Veeryn showed. Eventually you were going to get a good one (QED Smith).

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #730 – December 19, 2022, 08:53:07 am

Quote from: Professer E on December 19, 2022, 07:27:03 am

Today's openers don't get the concept of "knocking the shine off" and putting overs into the bowlers. As a side we don't do well batting time . Then again, Warner never lasts long enough. But on that pitch bazball was the option because you were a walking wicket trying to bat time, as Head, Smith and Veeryn showed. Eventually you were going to get a good one (QED Smith).

Aus don't play the real quicks well imho, they got lucky because the saffies batsman are very poor but in England we will get knocked over imho.
The short stuff worries our top order regardless of this pitch and when it's coming down at 150k you can see the techniques that won't hold up.
England will be doing everything they can to get Wood and Archer on the park for the Ashes series.

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #731 – December 19, 2022, 09:34:45 am

I heard an interesting discussion on the wireless before the start of play. Kim Hughes asked about a South African batsman whose impeccable technique had impressed him on a previous tour. The South African commentator said that his technique had deserted him and went on to explain that his loss of first class cricket form coincided with his rise in IPL rankings,

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #732 – December 19, 2022, 09:42:57 am

Quote from: DJC on December 19, 2022, 09:34:45 am

I heard an interesting discussion on the wireless before the start of play. Kim Hughes asked about a South African batsman whose impeccable technique had impressed him on a previous tour. The South African commentator said that his technique had deserted him and went on to explain that his loss of first class cricket form coincided with his rise in IPL rankings,

The IPL has much to answer for, not the least being the fairly ordinary techniques that are now plaguing India.

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #733 – December 19, 2022, 09:54:06 am

Personally, I don't think the pitch was anywhere near as bad as the commentary makes out.

A lot of the commentators are looking after their mates trying the paint the pitch as abominable, when in reality it's just that it's not the flat track T20 style pitch we've become use to seeing.

I think the points highlighted by @Professer E‍ and also @DJC‍ about diminished techniques is very valid, and interestingly late yesterday Kim Hughes was making similar points on radio. He basically thought like myself that the pitch wasn't as bad as suggested, the bowling was good but not as good as some made out, and the batting was basically very poor. In particular Hughes made some very good points highlighting the apparent inability of the modern top end players to leave the pill, he said they play like they are obliged to score runs every over. That sounds to me like the influence of T20.

He mentioned stuff like batting techniques and tactics which force bowlers to change their length, turning over the strike regularly, and patience at the crease, all seem diminished.

Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread

Reply #734 – December 19, 2022, 10:16:47 am

One of the ABC commentators, a former Aussie women's cricketer I believe, played down criticism of the pitch and gave the bowlers, from both teams, all of the credit. She said that she didn't think any dismissals were the result of poor batting, just good bowling.