I'm uncertain if there's a thread to discuss this, so please can some moderator subsume this into another discussion if I'm repeating something.
I love intimidating cricket. What I loved about Mitchell Johnson's bowling in this Test was that it was intimidating. England needed to send a message to him, try and dominate him, to break his spell over the Test. KP got himself out trying to dominate Johnson. It was great cricket to watch.
If we were just assessing Johnson's bowling, he's get all praise from me.
Two incidents in particular concerned me, however.
The first was Mitchell Johnson mocking Joe Root. On several occasions Johnson was throwing banter towards Root, and in my mind he didn't cross the line. Root, to his credit, kept on smiling, which is a great way to respond.
But then Johnson bowled one that went past his nose, he walked down the pitch, and mocked his smile by getting close and putting an angry smile on his face.
The second incident involved Michael Clarke saying to... I forget who actually... that he would get a [insert word] broken arm from Johnson's bowling.
Mitchell Johnson had a massive Test. His bowling was aggressive. Fast bowlers *should* be intimidating. Someone made a fair comparison with Johnson's bowling to Lille and Thommo's. But the threats and the mocking, to me, has gone too far.
I think Australia has gone way too far personally. Now we have Warner saying that Trott was afraid of Johnson's pace. Is there going to be off-field intimidation as well?
I really hope this tour isn't dominated by sledging and we don't have a repeat of that nasty Australia/India series where sledging got so out of hand that there were accusations of Indians (Singh) responding with racism.
That was a great performance by Australia, and in particular a great performance by Johnson... but Australia's going too far with the threats and the mocking.
I love intimidating cricket. What I loved about Mitchell Johnson's bowling in this Test was that it was intimidating. England needed to send a message to him, try and dominate him, to break his spell over the Test. KP got himself out trying to dominate Johnson. It was great cricket to watch.
If we were just assessing Johnson's bowling, he's get all praise from me.
Two incidents in particular concerned me, however.
The first was Mitchell Johnson mocking Joe Root. On several occasions Johnson was throwing banter towards Root, and in my mind he didn't cross the line. Root, to his credit, kept on smiling, which is a great way to respond.
But then Johnson bowled one that went past his nose, he walked down the pitch, and mocked his smile by getting close and putting an angry smile on his face.
The second incident involved Michael Clarke saying to... I forget who actually... that he would get a [insert word] broken arm from Johnson's bowling.
Mitchell Johnson had a massive Test. His bowling was aggressive. Fast bowlers *should* be intimidating. Someone made a fair comparison with Johnson's bowling to Lille and Thommo's. But the threats and the mocking, to me, has gone too far.
I think Australia has gone way too far personally. Now we have Warner saying that Trott was afraid of Johnson's pace. Is there going to be off-field intimidation as well?
I really hope this tour isn't dominated by sledging and we don't have a repeat of that nasty Australia/India series where sledging got so out of hand that there were accusations of Indians (Singh) responding with racism.
That was a great performance by Australia, and in particular a great performance by Johnson... but Australia's going too far with the threats and the mocking.
