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*Official* First Test at the Gabba

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I've never really minded draws, a good hard-fought draw is part of Test cricket. If both sets of bowlers aren't good enough to dismiss the opposing batsmen, then so be it. I just hope that people don't selectively criticize draws in the subcontinent and bemoan the "death of Test cricket due to roads" every time two teams happen to draw there.
 

Dissector

International Debutant
600 runs for the fall of two wickets on day 4,5 is truly dire and I would struggle to think of a sub-continental test which averages 300 runs per wicket on the last two days. In fact I wouldn't be too suprised if this is some kind of world record.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
I've never really minded draws, a good hard-fought draw is part of Test cricket. If both sets of bowlers aren't good enough to dismiss the opposing batsmen, then so be it. I just hope that people don't selectively criticize draws in the subcontinent and bemoan the "death of Test cricket due to roads" every time two teams happen to draw there.
Two wickets in two days in a non-Adelaide Australian test match should prevent that from occurring again.
 

Son Of Coco

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Nope. Almost all the English boys threw their wickets away. Johnson was ordinary, Hilfenhouse average, and a random tweaker thrown in.

Anderson bowled one of the finest spells i've seen in a while, Broad bowled well, Finn ok, Swann poor. Apart from afternoon on day 3 they had control, but the aussies played really well and that's why they got their lead (bit of luck).
Almost all is greatly exaggerating the first innings effort from England.

Strauss threw his wicket away. But he did cut a ball that moved back into him a bit. Could've left it.

Cook: fell to a ball on a length angled across him around off-stump (This has been mentioned as a weakness by all and sundry).
Trott: beaten by a good ball from Watson trying to play an off-drive.
Pietersen: Possibly didn't have to go for the drive. Bit of movement from Siddle on a good length.
Collingwood: Got out to a good ball around off-stump...like every man and his dog knows he will. Stuart Clark to testify in the affirmative. Never looked good in his brief stay.
Prior: Bowled by a good one first up.
Broad: Also got a good one, made history as the 3rd down in a hat-trick.


Out of 7 bats, maybe you could lay claim that 1 to 1.5 'threw their wickets away'.

Not really 'almost all' though is it?
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Sorry but AFAIC, if you bowl out a team for 200 less than the opposition in the first innings, you've bowled better than them. In the scheme of things it doesn't really matter how well Anderson bowled, because he still took 0 wickets, and you can't win games taking no wickets, as the Aussies found out vs. Cook and co.
He took 2 wickets and had a plumb lbw not given...
 

Blaze 18

Banned
The only bearing it has is if Cook gets to 30* on day 1 at Adelaide and the Aussies start thinking 'Here we go again.'It shouldn't get in their heads that quick though,not this early in a series.
Nah, highly unlikely. Australia are just far too strong mentally for that kind of thing to happen.
 

Howe_zat

Audio File
Australia are just far too strong mentally for that kind of thing to happen.
Johnson isn't. Collectively, Australia were mentally exhausted on the 5th day. One of the reasons Strauss shouldn't have declared. In the words of one twitterer: "I'd have made them field until their feet bled."
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Yep. That Ponting 50 could turn out to be of huge significance. How significant, we won't know for a while.
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
Re Johnson, You don't drop your most experienced pacer on one bad match. Thing with Johnson is, He looks pathetic when he's not taking wickets, He looks pathetic while he does wickets, So everytime he doesn't take wickets, People are harsher to him compared to someone who equally fail such as Hilfeh, who will usually be bowling in an impressive disciplined fashion even when he takes 2-100. Thing is raw effectiveness matters more than how you want your romantic effective bowler to bowl.

In the India series, He was easily Australia's best bowler in the series(Dougeh played only one game) and 8 wickets @ 30 is pretty close to his overall stats and ****in' fantastic considering the pitches and the batsman he bowled to. I felt he unlucky not getting any wickets in the second Innings of the Mohali game as well, bowled really well.

Hilfeh on the other hand is a bowler who looks to be working hard and always close to a wicket even when he doesn't take any. Atm, For me It's a no-brainier about who the better bowler is.

Anyway, I don't think either of them should be dropped, particularly considering the match was a high scoring draw with 1365 runs being scored @ 113.75 per wicket on average.
 
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Howe_zat

Audio File
It was 62 rpw for the match, and there's no denying that Johnson was awful. He is supposed to be a confidence player, and if that's the case, he has none. Drop him. The Aussies have to do something.
 

simmy

International Regular
How have the Aussies not got a single batsman in the top 10 test batting rankings with pitches like that?!

Boggles the mind.
 

Howe_zat

Audio File
How have the Aussies not got a single batsman in the top 10 test batting rankings with pitches like that?!

Boggles the mind.
Because Australia have been playing in England and South Africa, and against England, South Africa and Pakistan over the last two years.

Conversely, India and Sri Lanka have been playing entirely in India and Sri Lanka. Not to mention that Tendulkar, Sehwag and Sanga have been genuinely excellent.
 

LongHopCassidy

International Captain
Jacknife said:
He's bound to say that, he's there batting coach.
Yeah, I don't think Australia's bowling or fielding coaches would concur with our JL re: the state of the series. I mean, Langer may have done his job...
 
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