Aussies v Pakistan in England

[Mantis]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

My money is on Australia from this position and even the bookies after day 1 werent fooled either with aussies paying $3 for the win after being bowled out for 88. This has the sydney test written all over it. A lead of 175 should be enough for australia.

You think?

Aussies have lost 3 quick wickets to sit 5/164 and still trail by 6 runs.

Another duck to North... enough is enough, piss him off!!!

[DOG GOD]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

You think?

Aussies have lost 3 quick wickets to sit 5/164 and still trail by 6 runs.

Another duck to North... enough is enough, piss him off!!!

Not looking too bad atm..the new ball for the pakis will be very important to them. Maybe North's avge offspin will keep him in the team Mantis, but then again the Aussie selectors are known to continue to play favourites

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

A flurry of boundries in quick time by Smith & Hilfy has the lead out to 150 now.

Oops! Spoke too soon.

Hilfy out.

Doug the Rug has to get Smith on strike & he's gotta belt the shit out of everything he can now.

Going to be tough as the Pakistani's are giving Smith the single early in the over by placing the field out. A game of cat & mouse methinks.

[Mantis]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

Paki's 3/140.

Need only 40 more.

[comrade]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

Paki's 3/140.

Need only 40 more.

I'm firmly aboard the "P*** OFF NORTH" bandwagon (with you driving).

Surely a loss to the Pakis must be catalyst for a change.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

I thought Ponting's wicket early yesterday was the turning point. Very disappointing shot early on. Given the amount of time that we had (due to our firt innings debacle), yesterday morning was a perfect opportunity for Ponting and Clarke to be very judicious, especially against the dangerour Aamir.

I think North has also proved to hit and miss over a substantial period of time. He either makes big scores or gets very little.

The tour of India is going to be very interesting, and our entier bowling attack is going to have to do a better job, as I'm not sure it's a good thing for Watson to have to increase his bowling load too much, given his past injury issues. As we have gone down the route of him being our permanent opener and 2nd change bowler, we stand to lose alot in our structure were he to get injured.

On the plus side, I have been impressed more than I thought I would be in Smith's bowling. Still obviously very raw, but he's got fairly good control for a young leggie. Not sure he's ready for 2 tests against the Indians however, and therefore I hope Hauritz is going to be fit in time for the October series.

[mighty_west]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

I'm firmly aboard the "P*** OFF NORTH" bandwagon (with you driving).

Surely a loss to the Pakis must be catalyst for a change.

I am on as well, you simply cannot carry any passengers when the team is struggling.

[ledge]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

Will Ponting learn to take spinners to India?
Will Ponting ever have a 3rd man?

[chef]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

I'm firmly aboard the "P*** OFF NORTH" bandwagon (with you driving).

Surely a loss to the Pakis must be catalyst for a change.

Can I ride shotgun?

[lemmon]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

Smithy can belt the cover off the thing, his second innings knock was fantastic. Agree with dropping North, simply not up too test level I would be tempted to move Haddin to 6, Smith to 7 drop North and Hauritz comes back in. Gives us too genuine allrounders in Smith and Watson which we need with Johnson's continued poor form.

[GVGjr]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

Smithy can belt the cover off the thing, his second innings knock was fantastic. Agree with dropping North, simply not up too test level I would be tempted to move Haddin to 6, Smith to 7 drop North and Hauritz comes back in. Gives us too genuine allrounders in Smith and Watson which we need with Johnson's continued poor form.

Smith looks technically flawed to me and better suited to throwing the bat around in the shorter forms of the game. He will get a lot better but I wouldn't trust his batting. In 3 of his 4 innings he hardly did a thing.

Can we really weaken the batting by moving Haddin up the order and going in with just 5 specialists? 4 bowlers with support from Watson should be more than enough.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

Smithy can belt the cover off the thing, his second innings knock was fantastic. Agree with dropping North, simply not up too test level I would be tempted to move Haddin to 6, Smith to 7 drop North and Hauritz comes back in. Gives us too genuine allrounders in Smith and Watson which we need with Johnson's continued poor form.

Why wouldn't you just drop Johnson?

Watson can bowl 1st change, play the 2nd spinner.

[lemmon]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

Smith looks technically flawed to me and better suited to throwing the bat around in the shorter forms of the game. He will get a lot better but I wouldn't trust his batting. In 3 of his 4 innings he hardly did a thing.

Can we really weaken the batting by moving Haddin up the order and going in with just 5 specialists? 4 bowlers with support from Watson should be more than enough.

Hes averaged around the 60 mark for NSW scoring 100's consistently. Not only has he shown an ability to slog at the end but he has come in during pressure situations and managed to rebuild an innings, technically he's not great but he does play the conventional shots very well and has a wonderful eye. He was only really troubled by the spin of Kaneria early in his innings during his first couple of knocks but I think when he gained the confidence to come down the pitch he played him very well.

An attack of a largely untested Bollinger and Hilfenhaus, a sporadic and inconsistent Johnson, a guy in Hauritz who has improved but is harldy a world beater and a Watson who will struggle when the ball isnt swinging doesnt fill me with confidence.

[lemmon]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

Why wouldn't you just drop Johnson?

Watson can bowl 1st change, play the 2nd spinner.

North has to go, simply not up to it his averaged has dropped below 40 and rarely scores runs when the team requires them most, he's essentially 31 year old dead weight. An attack of Bollinger, Hilf, Watson, Smith and Hauri seems particularly frail to me.
Bolli struggled in England and is untested against quality
Hilf is a quality performer, no doubt but Im not sure he is capable of leading the attack
Watson was good when the ball was swinging but I fear will be taken to task against quality opposition on a batting strio
Hauri has improved decidedly but is no world beater
Smith has potential but his first class bowling record remains.

Johnson has been pitiful but is a wicketaker and what he did against the Saffers was remarkable, I think we need him to lead the attack.

[GVGjr]

Re: Aussies v Pakistan in England

Hes averaged around the 60 mark for NSW scoring 100's consistently. Not only has he shown an ability to slog at the end but he has come in during pressure situations and managed to rebuild an innings, technically he's not great but he does play the conventional shots very well and has a wonderful eye. He was only really troubled by the spin of Kaneria early in his innings during his first couple of knocks but I think when he gained the confidence to come down the pitch he played him very well.

An attack of a largely untested Bollinger and Hilfenhaus, a sporadic and inconsistent Johnson, a guy in Hauritz who has improved but is harldy a world beater and a Watson who will struggle when the ball isnt swinging doesnt fill me with confidence.

I'm not sure I get this logic.
- You are saying Haddin at 6 so he is a better batsman than Smith because you want Smith at 7. What does Haddin average in test cricket? I think it is under 40 which isn't good enough for a specialist batsman.
- You are obviously concerned about the bowling so the remedy is to have 5 bowlers plus Watson although Smith hasn't shown anything to suggest that he can take good test wickets. Throwing more average bowlers into the side won't improve anything.

I would look at getting 6 specialist bastman with one of them them being Watson, Haddin at 7 and then 4 bowlers. Hopefully Siddle will be back to strengthen the attack.