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Angelo Mathews-Selfish?

Himannv

International Coach
Dont think he's selfish, Ed put it quite well. I think he's batting a bit slow at times but its mostly due to the match situation imo. We are often in situations where saving the test is probably the best way to go. He can definitely bat more aggressively as we've seen in other games, its just that the situation is forcing him to play in a different sort of way at the moment.
 

Scaly piscine

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Dont think he's selfish, Ed put it quite well. I think he's batting a bit slow at times but its mostly due to the match situation imo. We are often in situations where saving the test is probably the best way to go. He can definitely bat more aggressively as we've seen in other games, its just that the situation is forcing him to play in a different sort of way at the moment.
Mostly due to the match situation? Nope. That is why he's being perceived as selfish. He scored his 100 off something like 260 balls when the team are trying to force a victory. In the context of the match situation it was a horrific innings. It's like scoring a 50 at a run a ball when you're chasing 200 in a T20 match. If someone did that they'd get ripped to pieces because of it, the fact it's a Test match doesn't make it any better. He basically blocked out an end when he was batting with the tail in the last Test. The last 3 wickets went for around 35 runs and the *tailenders* contributed 27 of them. Mathews scored 8 off 28 balls (it's worse if you look at just the last two wickets). Mathews scored at about a run every two balls with the last two wickets in the first match, again not exactly putting his foot down. He did well for his average, but not particularly well for the team.
 

DriveClub

International Regular
He's certainly clueless batting with the tail in Tests, that much was certainly apparent against AUS & PAK recently. Needs to improve that aspect of the game.
 

Xuhaib

International Coach
I'd say turning down the opportunity to score runs yourself so that your partner can get to 100 is the opposite of selfishness.
selfishness in the sense he tends to give lot more importance to personal milestones then the team goal which is to win the game.
 
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mono

U19 Debutant
How on earth did the chandimal incident get interpreted as an selfish act. And the sri lankan tail isn't bad at batting prasad has a domestic century, hearth & welegedara are also fairly decent, they were the 2nd & 3rd highest scorers in the first innings. Given the situation he may have expected them to bat decently.

In the limited overs form at least mathews has exceptional match awareness. If anyone here had seen the heist malinga & mathews pulled off against australia last year you'll never doubt mathews match awareness.
 

intcricket

U19 12th Man
Mono, it wasn't selfish. It was misunderstood maybe coz it was a different sight for people outside the subcontinent.

Read post 54 to understand this statement..
 
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Flem274*

123/5
Mono, it wasn't selfish. It was misunderstood maybe coz it was a different sight for people outside the subcontinent.
Haha, no. There will be none of this. Post reported for review, and in the meantime if you continue to post like this I'll give you an instant infraction.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Dont think he's selfish, Ed put it quite well. I think he's batting a bit slow at times but its mostly due to the match situation imo. We are often in situations where saving the test is probably the best way to go. He can definitely bat more aggressively as we've seen in other games, its just that the situation is forcing him to play in a different sort of way at the moment.
I don't think it can really be argued that his batting on the 4th morning of the Colombo Test hurted SL more than helped them.
 

mono

U19 Debutant
I don't think it can really be argued that his batting on the 4th morning of the Colombo Test hurted SL more than helped them.
not really. I know this is going to come off as negative, but given how fragile sri lankan batting has become over the last few months being defensive with the tail exposed is definitely a valid tactic. Besides we were never going to win that test on that track
 

Spark

Global Moderator
SL would have been better off getting knocked over in five overs than wasting basically the whole session like so.
 

Himannv

International Coach
SL would have been better off getting knocked over in five overs than wasting basically the whole session like so.
Definitely makes for some poor viewing but I think drawing the test was the best option we had so have no issues with him occupying the crease when batting with the tail.
 

intcricket

U19 12th Man
Haha, no. There will be none of this. Post reported for review, and in the meantime if you continue to post like this I'll give you an instant infraction.
I was making a simple analogy of how different things are perceived differently, like Nasser's "donkey" comment was fine in England, not in India.

Similarly, my assertion is that it would seem alien to others that people in the subcontinent indulge in activities like delaying declarations to let a batsmen score a double hundred, run across the field during taking a run to congratulate his skipper (Murali doing so to congo Kumar) and a lot of activities that are peculiar to the SC.

Regardless, if you interpreted it the other way, I regret it.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Definitely makes for some poor viewing but I think drawing the test was the best option we had so have no issues with him occupying the crease when batting with the tail.
Why? There was almost no chance of us winning the Test. If you're still thinking of a draw when you're 200+ runs ahead and 2 days to bowl, then...
 

Himannv

International Coach
Why? There was almost no chance of us winning the Test. If you're still thinking of a draw when you're 200+ runs ahead and 2 days to bowl, then...
Hmm, I have a feeling we're talking about two different games here.

EDIT: My bad, I see you were talking about the Colombo test. Carry on.
 
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Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
I was making a simple analogy of how different things are perceived differently, like Nasser's "donkey" comment was fine in England, not in India.

Similarly, my assertion is that it would seem alien to others that people in the subcontinent indulge in activities like delaying declarations to let a batsmen score a double hundred, run across the field during taking a run to congratulate his skipper (Murali doing so to congo Kumar) and a lot of activities that are peculiar to the SC.

Regardless, if you interpreted it the other way, I regret it.
Wut?:confused:

The comment can have different connotations at different places, but don't understand how this applies to the situation in discussion. Or how a Cricketing strategy can be exclusively area specific.
 

intcricket

U19 12th Man
Wut?:confused:

The comment can have different connotations at different places, but don't understand how this applies to the situation in discussion. Or how a Cricketing strategy can be exclusively area specific.
I think the people who criticized Matthews and his partner for being selfish overreacted.

I've got another example.

When Lara wasted 3 days of cricket to get to a 400, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting dug into him for that. But if you look at it from the West Indian players' perspective, they will maybe tell you that they were there when their skipper and arguably the best MO batter in the world scored a World Record 400.

So while one set of people might look at it differently, the others would too. I was making a simple statement.

Okay, another generic example here.

We had a debate where delegates from different countries were invited. A lad from Spain asked me, "Dude, why are guys in your country so gay?" Shocked, I asked him, what makes him say that. He said guys here would walk together holding hands and stuff. So a plainly simple friendly gesture looks overtly friendly elsewhere.

From these examples, the point I'm trying to make is that my comment was written from a different point of view. I guess everyone took another meaning of it.
 

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