'He's a typical young fast bowler, quick and thick, he'll learn, just like Thommo and Lawson and Pidge and McDermott and even Lillee had to learn, that fast bowling isn't just about speed and stupidity, and anyway his body won't be able to keep it up and then he'll have to develop a Plan B and maybe a C as well.' Well judging from this summer he's learnt diddly squat.
'He's been the optional extra, make him the No 1 and watch him thrive on the responsibility.' So went the theory. The practice is, he struggles to spell responsibility let alone take it on.
'Somebody has to take the tailend wickets. Not long ago Australia's inability to do that bordered on embarassing.' True, but however valuable a 9-10-Jack specialist may have been ten years ago, now that's been fixed and any current or recent Australian bowler can do the same, with the added bonus of occasionally troubling a bloke who bats BEFORE the keeper.
Brett, pack up your chainsaw and go home. Now. Maybe like Craig McD in 1991 they'll let you back in the side if ypu can put three or four 50-wkt Puras Cup seasons together, and convince the selectors you've started using your brains and/or working on your game to give it some width and depth. Cos that's what Thommo and Dennis and Craig had to do, and they were all faster than you to start off with.
― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Monday, 29 December 2003 06:02 (twenty-one years ago)
20-0-100-5 (4 tailenders) doesn't wash any more.
― pieman (pieman), Monday, 29 December 2003 07:49 (twenty-one years ago)
That he finished with as many wickets as Bracken is obscene, insane, embarassing and utterly unfair. Why the bloody blue blazes did Waugh persist with him, given the way Bracken had bowled? Why did he get the new ball? I nearly gave up in disgust and left.
Selectors, please, do us all - and cricket itself - a favour, and drop the useless waste of space for Sydney now Dizzy's fit. Williams and Bracken have both earned their spots for that match. Blee hasn't even earned the right to be the drinks trolley that Bichel carries onto the ground.
― tailender (tailender), Monday, 29 December 2003 09:15 (twenty-one years ago)
There are whispers on the ABC forum that Williams is on the outer because he dishes out too much audio. But Lee is no choirboy himself and preferring him to 'Mad Brad' on that basis defies logic.
― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Thursday, 1 January 2004 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)
Hasn't helped Andy Bichel...
― Cleavy, Thursday, 1 January 2004 23:10 (twenty-one years ago)
― pieman (pieman), Friday, 2 January 2004 00:19 (twenty-one years ago)
― horace, Friday, 2 January 2004 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)
― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Friday, 2 January 2004 04:04 (twenty-one years ago)
― horace, Friday, 2 January 2004 04:58 (twenty-one years ago)
― pieman (pieman), Friday, 2 January 2004 08:28 (twenty-one years ago)
― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Saturday, 3 January 2004 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)
what a champion.
Hopefully Lee's performance here will get the reward it deserves ... a holiday while the rest of the team is in India.
― pieman (pieman), Saturday, 3 January 2004 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)
and 40-5-200-4 (including 2 lucky wickets) is unspeakably bad. Ian Callen and Sam Gannon would have been ashamed to bowl as badly.
― pieman (pieman), Sunday, 4 January 2004 00:51 (twenty-one years ago)
And while we are venting spleens, can someone punch Stu MacGill in the head for me, preferably on National TV. Can't catch, can't bowl. Kumble has given this clown a lesson on legspin bowling.
MacGill is proof that shit gets wickets, just not all the time...
― Bennö (Bennö), Monday, 5 January 2004 00:27 (twenty-one years ago)
― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Monday, 5 January 2004 00:32 (twenty-one years ago)
Katich to 79, his highest Test score. Well done Simes, all you need is to double it and we may yet save the follow-on.....
― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Monday, 5 January 2004 00:46 (twenty-one years ago)
A further thought, with some relevance to the Indian tour ... the left-handers have handled Kumble well, the right-handers haven't.
Arguments in favour of Lehmann and Bevan.
― pieman (pieman), Monday, 5 January 2004 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)
― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Monday, 5 January 2004 01:23 (twenty-one years ago)
Perhaps they can get well past the follow-on mark.
Hoping for a Dizzy century ...
― pieman (pieman), Monday, 5 January 2004 02:52 (twenty-one years ago)
ps - Dizy out, Kumble has 7. McDill has no idea which end of the bat to hold. Will GinganGoolie enforce the follow on?
― Bennö (Bennö), Monday, 5 January 2004 03:19 (twenty-one years ago)
He did generate some reverse swing with the new ball every time he got it. Would have been passably effective if:1) more than 1 ball per over was in the vicinity of the stumps2) he kept his foot behind the line3) the fieldsmen held a few more.
Don't know how much of this was Waugh's instructions, but even late on the fourth day with 4 of India's 5 wickets LBW or bowled, they were still persistently attacking well outside the off stump. If you're going to do that, you need to back it up with field placements, and 2 slips and 1 or 2 gullies doesn't work.
To all those who questioned whether Dizzy should have been picked for Sydney given his lack of match practice - just consider where we would have been without his batting. The man's a true champion.
PS: I was there when Tugga played his final innings.
― tailender (tailender), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)
In other words Brett, start using your brains or it's over.
― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Saturday, 10 January 2004 10:14 (twenty-one years ago)
― tailender (tailender), Saturday, 10 January 2004 12:37 (twenty-one years ago)
My bowling is pretty straight - you miss, I hit.
Of course, whether the ball disturbs the bails on those rare occasions that it hits (usually when the batsman has fallen asleep before it arrives) is another question altogether.
― pieman (pieman), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)
Most blokes would be glad to be compared favourably to an (ex)International cricketer.
― tailender (tailender), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 08:11 (twenty-one years ago)
ROFL at his performance v Vozzies
He should leave his cellar undisturbed until AFTER play
― pieman (pieman), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 23:01 (twenty-one years ago)
― tailender (tailender), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 07:21 (twenty-one years ago)
Say goodnight to the folks, Brett.
― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Sunday, 18 January 2004 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)
He's not just cricket's Anna Kournikova, he's bowling's pre-moderated ABC Forum.
― tailender (tailender), Sunday, 18 January 2004 04:27 (twenty-one years ago)
― Big Dog (Big Dog), Sunday, 18 January 2004 07:22 (twenty-one years ago)