The Official Cricket '07/'08 thread!!

[major_panic]

India at Andrew Symonds + Matthew Hayden = asking for trouble

[cobl04]

That was one of the worst series I have ever watched. We batted three times and they took only 11 wickets. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

And yes I'm reviving this thread in the hope of an interesting Indian series. My observations:

- I'm glad Murali left without Warnie's record, he didn't deserve it after that woeful performance. His average in Australia is hovering in the eighties.

- Kumar Sangakkara is an incredible batsman and a joy to watch. He and Marvan Attapattu are the only Lankans to get a pass mark from me. (Jayawardena doesn't get one for two reasons, 1. leaving Malinga out of the first test and 2. winning the toss and fielding)

- Stuart MacGill is over the hill. Give Hogg another chance. He can bat and is a very good fieldsman and will not bowl the shit that MacGill did in the second test.

- Ricky Ponting is really starting to test my patience.

- Will any side ever be able to bowl out Jaques-Hayden-Ponting-Hussey-Clarke-Symonds-Gilchrist for a reasonable score? It's gonna take very hard work.

- Rudi, Rudi, Rudi.

- Let's hope the Indian bowlers can make this series somewhat interesting. I always love cricket season, but I'm losing faith in it now that Australia are just dominating.

[Acrobat Angel]

Yeah, that whole series was a big disappointment The last day of the last test looked somewhat promising. Sri Lanka only lost by 96 runs, if they'd batted the day they would of won easily, instead they collapsed.

- I was impressed by Jaques and Lee. Although you can't read too much into their performances because Sri Lanka was just a joke, there were definately some postives regarding the post- Warne/McGrath/Langer/Martyn era.

- As for MacGill, i couldn't figure out why they chose him to start with they keep going on about 'the future' and how in x number of years the Australian team will be weakened by inexperience, why not bring in a younger spinner to build experience now?

- Murali... so much for challenging our batters. He's considered the best in the world now, and that performance was a massive let down... I want to see our top and middle order really put under pressure, hopefully India can deliver.

- The idea of having such a huge gap between the Sri Lankan and Indian tests is just stupid. I can't really see any positives it could bring. It all just seems very messy... Is that a permanent change or just this season to accommodate for international scheduling?

- Also, during the test the idea of players playing for other countries was raised. I can see the merit in the idea, but i just can't see it working. I don't mind our former players coaching other countries, but playing for them would be a bad idea i think. Could you imagine an Aussie playing for England in the Ashes?

Unfortunately the only thing that will stop this team from breaking the Waugh-era record for consecutive test wins will be the weather... but i'm still hoping for some exciting cricket

[intedomine]

Terrible series, and it is series like this which will firmly establish soccer as Australia's number one sport in the popular opinion as well. Tried watching it for longer than 5 minute periods but couldn't do it, and I was supporting Sri Lanka in this one on principle.

I reckon MacGill's a joy to watch, becuse you never know what kind of ball he's gonna dish up. I reckon stick with him, but I'm bias cause I don't like Hogg.

[cobl04]

Originally posted by intedomine
Terrible series, and it is series like this which will firmly establish soccer as Australia's number one sport in the popular opinion as well. Tried watching it for longer than 5 minute periods but couldn't do it, and I was supporting Sri Lanka in this one on principle.

I reckon MacGill's a joy to watch, becuse you never know what kind of ball he's gonna dish up. I reckon stick with him, but I'm bias cause I don't like Hogg.

I was supporting Sri Lanka as well... I hate doing it but when it's so one sided like that.

at your first comment. Sorry, it will never be Australia's number one sport. It may certainly be catching up on Cricket, and Cricket Australia admit that, but it will never beat Rugby or AFL for popularity.

MacGill can be a joy, but in the second test he was very predictable in that he bowled a full toss or a shit ball every two or three balls. Hoggy's a gun man!

Can't go past Warne though.

And in the paper today that Ranatunga guy who told Murali not to tour Australia has come out and said Murali is a far, far better bowler because he has had to bowl to top orders more often than Warne, who (according to Ranatanga) only bowled to tailenders because McGrath and Gillespie always took the top order batsmen's wickets. He was also coming up with many excuses for why he has performed so badly in Australia, and also said that Murali has a better record in the sub-continent than Warnie which makes him better. What a load of shit! First of all, Murali is from the subcontinent, and has been bowling on it all his life. Second of all, Bangladesh are from the subcontinent as well. Easy wickets.

Warne always was better, always will be.

[intedomine]

Warne will always be the greatest, and as much as I like Murali, Ranatunga is a useless tosser who makes outlandish statements he can never back up. Crap player too....

I just find Hoggy boring to watch....handy bowler and especially awesome in one-dayers, but I just find him a bore.....

And I meant to say that soccer IS Australia's number one summer sport, that is fact. It is not bigger than AFL, not bigger than league (getting there), but is a lot bigger than Union.

[cobl04]

I still think it's behind cricket, but by a slim margin. Don't think you'll be able to compete with Boxing Day or the 2020s. It won't pass league, and the A-League is definietly much much bigger than the Super 14s.

[intedomine]

Originally posted by COBL_04
I still think it's behind cricket, but by a slim margin. Don't think you'll be able to compete with Boxing Day or the 2020s. It won't pass league, and the A-League is definietly much much bigger than the Super 14s.

Boxing Day is one day of an international test match that is given much publicity by the media, and few who go on that day care enough about it to go all five days.

A-League is a domestic club competition in it's third season, so I should bloody hope that Boxing Day will be bigger than any A-League match. I still doubt they'll pull 90,000 for Day 1 of the test anyway.

[cobl04]

Looks like this thread will become a sparring match between me and you. Agree with what you said though. And I also think they won't pull anywhere near 90,000 for day one. I don't think they pulled they many for day one of the Ashes last year, and that was massive. And having just looked recently at A League crowds, the support is improving. It's just not being openly embraced by the media.

[cobl04]

Well trying to resurrect this, the Indian series has begun, and what a cracker of a first day. I was very unhappy for a while, as it looked it might be another fizzer, but then the Indians got on a roll. Terrific crowd, although the sun got to everyone by about 4:30. I'm sunburnt like a bitch. Anil Kumble was superb, you always felt a wicket was not far away, Zaheer Khan stuck to his guns and was justly rewarded, Singh started poorly but fought back, Harbhajan was economical but not dangerous.

Jacques was great until he became a little to aggresive and was stumped, Hayden scored one of his more unspectacular hundreds. Clarke, Symonds and Gilchrist got starts but were never comfortable.

Ganguly copped a lot of shit from us in Bays 11, 12, 13 & 14, including 'Give us a wave', and a few 'Do da, do da, all the do da day' chants. The 'tits out for the boys', 'aussie aussie aussie' and 'you cant stop the wave' and more ran rampant.

Some of the bigger disgraces: My mate was kicked out for blowing up a beach ball, one guy was kicked out for skulling a beer, another kicked out for starting the mexican wave, and a woman behind us who kept telling us to sit down. It's the cricket! We were sitting near a cop who was pretty lenient, he saw who started the wave and didn't evict them, which was great to see. Shithouse rules. Seriously, if you're worried about your safety because a beach ball might hit you, go home.

Bring on day two!

[intedomine]

50 folk ejected. Soccer violence? How much racism was directed at Indians from Bay 11 12 13 14?

Seems like an evenly poised match..

[Axver]

Hey, India? So your bowling is pretty good and you stopped the Aussies piling on the runs. BIG FUCKING DEAL. Next time, turn up with some batsmen.

Hey, Bangladesh? Please replace yourself with a more worthy opponent for New Zealand.

Hey, New Zealand? The above isn't saying much, and flogging Bangladesh does not count as redemption for that worthless excuse for a Chappell-Hadlee trophy defence.

[Axver]

Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, et al., eat your hearts out. You've played against Bangladesh before and even you haven't caused the total carnage that Brendan McCullum just did.

80 not out off 28 balls!

The Bangladeshis took 37.5 overs to stagger to their measly 93 all out. Daniel Vettori pretty much just raped them with spin: 5 wickets off 6 overs, 2 of which were maidens, with only 7 runs given away.

And then Brendan McCullum and Jamie How came to the crease. I agree with Cricinfo's report: McCullum must have had a pre-New Year's lunch to attend, because he wasn't wasting time. He so thoroughly hogged the strike that poor How at the other end scored only 7 off 8, outscored by the eight extras! McCullum reached 50 in 19 balls, the fastest by a Kiwi and second fastest ever. Incidentally, he was simply beating his own record: he had previously scored 50 in 20 balls.

The Black Caps achieved victory in just six overs. What total fucking carnage.

[cobl04]

It's not the record though. So

Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe off 4.2 overs, though they were chasing 36.

McCullum goes alright.

Hopefully this pitch gives India a bit, and maybe they actually turn up to bat. However I must say: India's innings' were terrible. Laxman, Ganguly and Tendulkar all played well, but I think their lacklustre scores, Axver, were more due to the fact that Australia bowled incredibly well. Especially on day four.

[intedomine]

West Indies first away win in a test against someone other than Bangers and Zimby.....huge

[cobl04]

It'd be nice to see the Windies rise up again.

We need competition

You know what they need to bring back? Australia A. And make them a test team as well. It'd be soo great, and a perfect opportunity for players like David Hussey, Brad Hodge, Di Venuto, Katich, et al.

[intedomine]

Or drop golden boy Clarke from the Aussie XI and replace him with the more deserving Hodge..... the biggest travesty in Australian sport

[Axver]

Originally posted by COBL_04
It's not the record though. So

... who the fuck cares? It was still a damn impressive win. You Australians. If you're not doing it, "it's not the record though". Just shove it; you lot haven't played that well against Bangladesh (you've even lost to them!). You're arrogant as all hell when it comes to cricket. Just look at your "we need competition" whine. You do have competition. You just don't respect it; you belittle it. The Australian team is not as good as it thinks it is.

And India categorically lost due to shithouse batsmanship. Yuvraj Singh was a useless opener, Virender Sehwag's omission was a decisive factor, and players like Rahul Dravid who took forever to go nowhere (5 off 66?!) helped nobody.

[intedomine]

The 'competition' is there, they're just not 'competitive'.

I have barely watched a minute of any of the test matches this season 'cause I can't be bothered watching a one-sided team (without Hodge) smash what should be tough opposition so convincingly.

Any team that struggles in tests against bowlers like Johnson, Hogg and Clark and batsmen like Clarke and Symonds, is a disgrace, as India were in Melbourne.

[bono_man2002]

So We lost to Bangledesh?Boohoo!

Even so, that series we were clearly more focused on winning (but loosing) the Ashes.....so what.....any team that wins anything is going to drop a few games here and there.....due to lack of respect or not.

Anyways, back to the present.....Well done to Symonds today! Hogg played well also.