*Official* Third Test at the WACA

[Son Of Coco]

Because of the way he bats. BTW he averages 43 now. Every dog has it's day and so has Smith.

The Home of CricketArchive

He just had 1 fluky season, compared to everyone else who have been performing their butts off, yeah lets give Smith the opportunity. ****ing Hell.

Everyone else in state cricket? Maybe that's why they're putting him in the Australian team then. They want to shelter him from the over-achievers.

 

[Ruckus]

My point is you cannot see that far ahead into the future, and things change very quickly in cricket. Nothing breeds confidence like winning. But yeah, if you were to make it a purely hypothetical A vs. B question, then it's an obvious answer.

Yeah that's why it was framed as a hypothetical, because as PEWS said, it allows the benefit of hindsight, which is obviously not possible in reality. Whether the answer is obvious or not is subjective. It depends on how much people value winning the Ashes over losing relatively more in the future, or the opposite. Personally, I'd probably opt for losing the Ashes if it meant a higher success rate in the future. We already don't have the Ashes, so nothing would be different if we lost. The incessant gloating of the English would be painful indeed, but at least we could start enjoying more success as a team, and look forward to the next Ashes where we could put up a better fight.

 

[Son Of Coco]

At the same time, it would look pretty strange to drop Johnson for bowling crap in the 1st Test, but retain Bollinger, who bowled worse.

Possibly, think 'equally crap' is fairer than 'worse'. If Bollinger genuinely bowled to the best of his ability and wasn't hampered by fitness issues then of course it would be strange.

If, however, there was an issue there and it could be resolved before the next test then I'd give The Rug another go.

The only certainty is that Johnson bowled absolute horse**** fully fit
(unless hurt feeling counts as an injury).

 

[Jarquis]

ffs, why do you think that Smith's a mere glorified slogger? Does a glorified slogger average 50 in Shield cricket?

Does Smith?

 

[Prince EWS]

Does Smith?

I believe he does, yeah, or very close to. His FC average is dragged down a bit by games other than Shield games. I know he was averaging over 50 for NSW before the current match. I think he's played a tour game for NSW in there; can't remember how he went in it though.

 

[simmy]

At the same time, it would look pretty strange to drop Johnson for bowling crap in the 1st Test, but retain Bollinger, who bowled worse.

Bollinger looked as if he couldnt be bothered half the time.

Even Ponting said he "hit a wall"

 

[Uppercut]

Bollinger looked as if he couldnt be bothered half the time.

Even Ponting said he "hit a wall"

His opening five~ overs were pretty good though, wicket of Strauss and Trott dropped at gully.

Clutching at straws but it's five more effective overs than Johnson managed at Brisbane.

 

[social]

We are 1-0 behind, for us to win almost everyone has to fire.

If it were still 0-0, Ponting would still be the wild card as he is the only great player in the series and he can bat anyone out of a match

However, no matter how many runs he scores from now on, he'll need bowlers who can take 20 wickets

I doubt that he has them

 

[GotSpin]

If those are the changes, they're fairly woeful despite Doherty and North which a. should never have happened and b. happened over a year ago.

 

[Evilhoopler]

Doherty has a irst class average of 82! I think they picked affter that ODI against Sri Lanka in which he took 4/20. Good performances in ODI's don't necessarily translate to good test match results. And anyway, Nathat Hauritz hasn't bowled that badlty, if you take that tour of India out of account of course, but I think Hauritz is the right man for the job.

As for North, I cannot explain how often I have had discussions with people about him been dropped, and finally the Australian selectors get something right. That last game was lost for four reasons, all fairly obvious, and when as a selector you start costing teams matches, you have a problem with the side. When in the last two innings a bowling side takes 7 for over a thousand there are obvious issues with the bowling attack, so I'd like to see more thatn just Doherty dropped. I would like to see Brett Lee come back.

 

[howardj]

I hope that's the team.

Just triggered off four pages of posts for no reason if it wasn't

What a let down if, after we all get our hopes up, North is retained

 

[howardj]

Squad announced at noon (NSW, VIC time)

11am in sunny Queensland.

 

[Evilhoopler]

What a let down if, after we all get our hopes up, North is retained

Andrew Hilditch must suffer the same us Aussie fans do watching him come out to bat, and die

 

[GotSpin]

Yay only three hours until we can see how ****ed we are

 

[vic_orthdox]

Because of the way he bats. BTW he averages 43 now. Every dog has it's day and so has Smith.

The Home of CricketArchive

He just had 1 fluky season, compared to everyone else who have been performing their butts off, yeah lets give Smith the opportunity. ****ing Hell.

Everyone else?

Khawaja, the man without a front foot?
Dave Hussey, the guy with the worst technique ever?
Or Smith, the slogger with multiple first class hundreds?

 

[Uppercut]

I'm loving your new-found anger, Jack. Turning me on.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Bollinger looked as if he couldnt be bothered half the time.

Even Ponting said he "hit a wall"

Exactly, it's the closest you'll ever get to a captain saying that a bloke doesn't run in all day.

 

[howardj]

SK Warne - Champion

Good insights from Craddock.

BTW I think Ben Dorries has been dumped by News Limited for the rest of the series - didn't write at all for Adelaide.

Will Swanton (match reports) and Craddock (analysis and commentary) have stepped in.

 

[vic_orthdox]

No Dorries, No Worries

 

[MW1304]

Its quite possible for Australia to have one of the the most plainly-named teams in their country's history today, with some of the unlikely names thrown in there:

Watson
Hughes
Clarke
White
North
(insert wicketkeeper here)
Smith
Johnson
Harris
Clark
George

Bores me just thinking about it.

Then again, you throw in your Khawaja's, your Katich's, your Hauritz's and Hilfenhaus' and you've got one pretty interestingly named team. As an aussie selector, I'd go down that route.