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1
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread
Last post by crashlander -
Well, that was embarrassing. Losing a test in less than 2 days is never a good look, but the carnage to Cricket Australia for missing out on 3 extra days crowd may actually cause something worthwhile.

[1] The pitch could have been better. Leaving the grass 3 mm longer than last year is going to be hard to justify.
On the other hand, the pitch did not cause all of the batting woes.

[2] None of the batting was worth watching, but the Australian batting was particularly poor. To be out twice in less than 1 day's play is simply unacceptable.

[3] The Australian team was definitely still on holiday. There was no fight, no persistence and not a lot of thinking in our batting.

[4] Our line-up:
(a) If Khawaja, who has been our opener, is playing, then why didn't he open?
(b) Cam Green: he didn't bowl much (less than 1 over), his batting was faecal and he didn't do much in the field. Why is he there if that is how he is going to play?
(c) What has happened to Jhye Richardson? He used to bowl at 145 - 150 km/h. He didn't get anywhere near that. He got 2 wickets in the last innings, but really didn't impress. Very disappointing.
(d) Jake Weatherald: what has happened to him? His form has been ordinary, after an excellent start.
(e) Marnus Labuschagne: he has also fallen off the cliff after a good start. Where is the persistence he showed getting his spot back?

[5] England's style of playing: why did it work today and not before? They haven't improved that much. They betted like it was a 20-over game!
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The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread
Last post by LP -
You could see the complaining apologists setting up for the barrage of pitch related excuses yesterday, and as you mentioned it came overnight.

These people are apologists for sh1t cricket, they expect the batsmen to be delivered billiard tables not a turf pitch.

Go back to the days of playing on the hession matting and it'll give this lot something to really complain about! Back in the day when 1st class was rained out, we would play against test bowlers who would come back to grade cricket to run out the cobwebs on the mats. We played in one such game where a certain bloke bowled short on the mats for 6 byes.

In Benaud's day, tests were played on hession mats when the pitch was deemed unsafe.

Yesterday's pitch was a good 1st day wicket 10, 20 and 30 years ago, now in the T20 era it's labelled a death trap by some extremists who think batsmen have the right to run at the express bowler regardless of the conditions. It's sh1t cricket, and as sad as I am hearing about Border losing the plot he's probably saved from watching yesterday's rubbish!
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The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread
Last post by DJC -
The pitch copped it overnight … but the batsmen’s technique and decision-making and the bowlers’ planning and execution didn’t change.

The only discussion about the pitch that I recall from the commentary was that batting would become easier as the pitch hardened over the next couple of days and that the ball was carrying through to the keeper more in the last session.

I think that for the cricket media, as opposed to commentators who have batted/bowled on the pitch in question, 20 wickets in a day must mean dodgy pitch rather than poor batting/good bowling.
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The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread
Last post by Professer E -
No there was a lot of "poor pitch" comments from the pommie media, I agree with the comments above, our batting was putrid...we batted like millionaires.
Weatherald...poor shot, again.
Marnus is not batting well, but got a good one.
Head chopped on to a ball too tight to cut (did this multiple times)
Khawaja jumped in the air and poked at it instead of using his feet. Finished.
Green ran himself out (plain stupid).
Carey fell for a trap (also stupid).
Tail batted mindlessly.

Pommies batted like they couldn't wait to get on a plane home quick enough.
So a lot of poor mindset coupled with a soft pitch due to rubbish weather. Maybe 7 mm of grass would have been better.
5
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread
Last post by DJC -
I must have tuned out for a minute or two because I didn’t hear any commentator on TV or radio blame the pitch for both teams’ poor batting.

All I heard was “poor technique”, “poor shot selection”, or “good bowling”.  To that I would add not being able to respond to the game situation.
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The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Test Cricket thread
Last post by LP -
I'm growing weary very quickly of the media apologists defending shizen cricket by bashing the pitch.

There wasn't much wrong with that pitch by traditional cricket standards, what it isn't is it is not a T20 pitch!

It's clear to me T20 $ has made modern cricketers soft and weak minded, the greats of the past made hundreds on pitches far worse than anything this modern lot play on!

FFS, Green's home ground in Perth was similar and as many wicket fell, and today the same bloke, the one most of us have calling to be dropped ran himself out when the side was 5 for not many!

The pitch complaints are a smokescreen, camouflage for shizenhouse cricket delivered by a bunch of soft overpaid pseudo-professionals.
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Blah-Blah Bar / Re: RIP Chris Rea
Last post by Baggers -
Such a distinctive voice and for someone who didn't take up the guitar until his early twenties, he sure did excel in quick time.

"Fool If You Think It's Over" was probably his biggest hit, though "Tennis" and "Driving Home for Christmas" also charted strongly. But you could see his physical appearance change (deteriorate) over the years, due, mainly, to his heavy smoking.

RIP
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Blah-Blah Bar / RIP Chris Rea
Last post by DJC -
Chris Rea passed away a couple of days ago aged just 74.

I guess he won’t be driving home for Christmas this year.

RIP