*Official* Australia in England T20s and ODIs

[Nnanden]

By the time Clarke left the crease, Australia needed 34 runs from 38 balls with 8 wickets remaining. That's a bloody good position to leave your side in. Of course, if Cameron White hadn't played the best innings of his ODI Career, who knows what dire straights Australia would've been going through.

Awta.

[TT Boy]

Because Kieswetter looks the better player, and more capable of making the jump to international cricket, Davies needs a wider range of strokes IMO. I'd pick Foster ahead of both of them and Prior ATM. Probably Read too though I don't know how he's been this season.

Regarding 06, only 2 players remain of that side (not a bad thing), and one of them's Bresnan, doesn't say much for building a team....was Colly injured that series? At least that 06 series was played on half decent surfaces, this slow sluggish stuff makes for abysmal viewing.

Also anyone catch Strauss leaving the field to allegedly talk to the coach? If that's what he was doing it's pretty out of order, I mean remember when Cronje was caught with the ear piece? People were up in arms, this is basically the same thing. I knew that stupid comfort break stuff would be a can of worms.

You can't expect good one day games in the month of September. The wickets are on their last legs.

Pro40 is a bit of an anomaly as the general poor standard of wickets and seam bowling creates an equilibrium between the two sides and increases viewer 'watchability'. That and the fact that some of the sides don't know how to win a game (example, yesterday's Somerset and Essex game), always means you usually have a good finish despite the wicket being dog.

[Julian87]

Selective memories here. 5 games ago Clarke scored a not out century to win Australia a game away from home against Pakistan.

[Uppercut]

Awta.

Clarke would've done something differently if White hadn't been playing like he was at the other end.

Or would he? It doesn't ****ing matter.

[oitoitoi]

The Clarke bashing is absolutely ridiculous here.

I suppose it's a culmination of him playing like this for quite a long time now, and by the looks of things he's getting worse (at one day stuff).

[dontcloseyoureyes]

****ing hell, someone English please just go and ****ing kill Michael Clarke. Sadly it's the only way they'd ever drop him from the OD side. ****, they'd probably still name him. It's not like he could score any slower anyway.

[Jakester1288]

Unless you decide to 'rest' Clarke

Awesome idea, I didn't even think of that.

He was talking about how he was tired in the interview, hopefully the selectors take notice.

Also, on another note, how bad was what Strauss said in his interview in the presentation? I can't remember what he said, but it was pretty bad and showed a really low morale.

[Jakester1288]

The Clarke bashing is absolutely ridiculous here.

Hahahaha, that's what you said to me on CricSim. Now people are realizing that I was right all that time.

[Jakester1288]

****ing hell, someone English please just go and ****ing kill Michael Clarke. Sadly it's the only way they'd ever drop him from the OD side. ****, they'd probably still name him. It's not like he could score any slower anyway.

Haha, gun post, but we need him for the Tests.

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Selective memories here. 5 games ago Clarke scored a not out century to win Australia a game away from home against Pakistan.

No, you've got the selective memory. Picking one innings out from 2 years of complete mediocrity as some sort of justification for the fact that he's completely lost the ability to find any gap in the field and can barely hit the white ball off the square.

I'm not normally a stats guy but by God do they back me up here. He averages 35 @ a S/R 68 over the last 24 months. It's a decent average, but NOT at a strike-rate like that. If you shortened it to less months it drops even further, but like I said I'm not going to go on and on about stats.

Fact of the matter is that he:
a) cannot rotate the strike
b) cannot find gaps
c) can't hit over the top when he's struggling to find gaps
d) can't change tempo

If he can't do these things (like he used to be able to) then he should be dropped.

[Jakester1288]

No, you've got the selective memory. Picking one innings out from 2 years of complete mediocrity as some sort of justification for the fact that he's completely lost the ability to find any gap in the field and can barely hit the white ball off the square.

I'm not normally a stats guy but by God do they back me up here. He averages 35 @ a S/R 68 over the last 24 months. It's a decent average, but NOT at a strike-rate like that. If you shortened it to less months it drops even further, but like I said I'm not going to go on and on about stats.

Fact of the matter is that he:
a) cannot rotate the strike
b) cannot find gaps
c) can't hit over the top when he's struggling to find gaps
d) can't change tempo

If he can't do these things (like he used to be able to) then he should be dropped.

I agree completely. He isn't our best option as a batsman, which he is in the side to be primarily a batsman, so he should be replaced by a better option.

[pasag]

No, you've got the selective memory. Picking one innings out from 2 years of complete mediocrity as some sort of justification for the fact that he's completely lost the ability to find any gap in the field and can barely hit the white ball off the square.

I'm not normally a stats guy but by God do they back me up here. He averages 35 @ a S/R 68 over the last 24 months. It's a decent average, but NOT at a strike-rate like that. If you shortened it to less months it drops even further, but like I said I'm not going to go on and on about stats.

Fact of the matter is that he:
a) cannot rotate the strike
b) cannot find gaps
c) can't hit over the top when he's struggling to find gaps
d) can't change tempo

If he can't do these things (like he used to be able to) then he should be dropped.

dcyeimh

[pup11]

Been a pretty strident defender of Clarke's spot in the team, but innings of 52of 90+ balls when most other batsmen scored at SRs of at least 66 doesn't help the argument. On the other hand really pleased White did so well. Good to see Watto getting some wickets as well.

Maybe Clarke is feeling too weighed down with the need, as skipper, to anchor the innings. I wouldn't mind, with Ponting coming back in, seeing Clarke droppEd down the order to six, where his role would be simpler and in line with the role he first made his name as an ODI player - come in and get on with it. Think White has shown enough to deserve to stay in the team, and the top order seems to suit him better than the lower order - give him a shot at four behind Punter.

Have myself been defending Clarke for long time as well, but I think its fair enough to admit that his limited overs game is a mess atm, and the way he is batting at present, won't mind if he gets dropped from the ODI and T20 teams.

Tbf to Clarke, most Aussie batsmen nowadays like to play out a ****load of dot balls through their innings, but most of them eventually start playing some big shots to catch up with their strike-rate, White's knock was a good example of this, had 2 runs of 18 balls at the start of innings, but eventually he finished his innings with a pretty healthy strike rate because of he was able to play some expansive shots every now and then.

Watching Clarke' innings yesterday was painful, he at times was struggling to time or place the ball, and at times he timed the ball beautifully but couldn't find the gaps, to put it simply he didn't have a clue about what to do out there.

I think he is gun player and I have no doubt he has it in him to comeback stronger then ever, but I think time has come to bench him, with Ponting coming back for the next game, White should retain his place in the side at the cost of Clarke, maybe on the face of it, it might seem harsh to some people, but getting axed here at this point of his career would definitely help him in the longer run.

[Hoggy31]

Watto ending Hopes' international career, would think Voges at 7 the far better option.

[Nnanden]

Smitty in genuinely good CC post shocker.