4th Test at the Gabba, Brisbane, 15 - 19 Jan 2021

[Senile Sentry]

Interesting dichotomy noted over last two BG series in Aus :

Indian RHBs average - 27.16
Indian LHBs average : 55.25

All the three LHBs who got to play a meaningful amount of deliveries, Jadeja, Sundar and of course Pant made good amount of runs and weren't really troubled too much at any stage. I think this is one thing both teams' didn't pay much attention upfront. And I think while Aus bowlers, in particular Cummins and Hazelwood were superb against RHBs they somehow were not as effective against LHbs.

Something to ponder for Aus.

 

[sunilz]

Interesting dichotomy noted over last two BG series in Aus :

Indian RHBs average - 27.16
Indian LHBs average : 55.25

All the three LHBs who got to play a meaningful amount of deliveries, Jadeja, Sundar and of course Pant made good amount of runs and weren't really troubled too much at any stage. I think this is one thing both teams' didn't pay much attention upfront. And I think while Aus bowlers, in particular Cummins and Hazelwood were superb against RHBs they somehow were not as effective against LHbs.

Something to ponder for Aus.

Which points to failure of Starc.
Zaheer/Johnson used to trouble lots of left handed batsmen.

 

[Senile Sentry]

Also interesting that not one Aussie bowler other than the foursome have taken an Indian wicket in Australia over the last eight tests.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Former Saffers and some guys like De Kock told Australians to get on with it, when their players and crowds alike made personal trashy comments on Australian players, especially Warner and his wife who was expecting a baby at that time, their justification was that since Australian crowds are **** they are getting what they gave.

Cricket Australia gave some lip service but did nothing concrete in this, eventually Smith, Warner and the core leadership group decided they can go to any extent but they won't be leaving South Africa without winning that series which lead to the Sandpaper nonsense.

A pro-active board with well being of their players at heart, would have intervened and would have tried to work things out when things were simmering eventually leading to the sandpapergate.

Also it is far fetched to suggest that Australia were tampering the ball through that period and only got caught by some sharp sighted South African cameraman, because if that were the case such a thing won't have happened through a course of time, without the faster bowlers consenting to it.

Haha yeah, and it also beggars belief that they could have been doing it for ages up to that point, and then suddenly became so startlingly inept at hiding it. They obviously got sick of not being caught and so threw it over to Bancroft to 'unwittingly' expose them by being so obvious.

 

[Senile Sentry]

Which points to failure of Starc.
Zaheer/Johnson used to trouble lots of left handed batsmen.

Starc himself has otherwise a very good record against LHBs. He averages 17 odd against LHBs generally as against over 27 vs RHBs.

For some reason he completely struggled against LHBs in the last 2 BGs. Could be testimony to how good the three Indian LHBs were against short pitched bowling.

 

[Smudge49]

And once again the high minded attitude of the Aus public and pundits rears its ugly heads. I personally detested the attitude of many of the SA cricket fans and the way they behaved in that series. I however don't think it is any better or worse than the rest of the world and to pretend otherwise is pretty sad. There has been pretty universal toxic stuff that you can look at from all countries fans and players consistently over the years. The whole 'this was worse this this' really does not play well long term.

CSA is pretty ****ing pathetic and corrupt but it tends to kowtow to all the big unions because of money, which is their single biggest driving factor in all its decisions (and local politics). Those fans where removed for the wearing of the masks, and it was made pretty clear that it would not be tolerated. And many of those banners where forced to be taken down very quickly. It was a pretty heated series, but lets not pretend that nothing was done or said by the Aus players in build up or that SA players have not copped some pretty horrible stuff in Aus (and Eng and India).

Personally the whole toxic sporting environment (at least in western schools) is built on this sort of thing, that starts at school level where it is pretty much guaranteed that you are going to get abused along with all the macho man bull****. You can listen to player after player from school to international level and hear how this stuff is rife throughout.

Mate, the day Australian players (former or current ) publicly make statements that opposition players shouldn't whine when them or their family is abused by the crowd, just because such behavior happens everywhere, that will be the day I stop supporting the Australian team.

My post had less to do with behavior of the South African crowd and more to do with how such instances were managed by Cricket Australia.

Also the next time South Africa are touring Australia and if they are abused by the crowd, I would expect nothing else from South African cricket board to either cut the tour short or sue Cricket Australia for failing to provide, an acceptable environment for their players to play in.

However in the future, I would also like to see Cricket South Africa ban guys like Du Plessis, when they are caught tampering and call them out for the cheats they are.

 

[sunilz]

Starc himself has otherwise a very good record against LHBs. He averages 17 odd against LHBs generally as against over 27 vs RHBs.

For some reason he completely struggled against LHBs in the last 2 BGs. Could be testimony to how good the three Indian LHBs were against short pitched bowling.

India is the bogey team of Starc in both Test and ODI
Averages 38 and 40 respectively

 

[Shri]

Cricket Australia were so ****ing bad at handling it. Everyone here thought the punishments were too harsh and unwarranted. Personally, I kinda like ball tampering and won't ever blame a player who cheats to win and they should have reminded everyone of Cronje et al cheating to lose, which is a far worse crime in sport. I'd be ****ing pissed if India got caught ball tampering and faced any harsh bans from the BCCI for instance.

 

[Smudge49]

India is the bogey team of Starc in both Test and ODI
Averages 38 and 40 respectively

Every team is a bogey team for Starc when the ball isn't swinging. Mitch Johnson despite all the frustrations he used to cause to an Australian fan, had the ability to bowl a mean bouncer, persevere with a fifth stump line to a RHB from over the wicket and stamina to bowl fast through the day.

Starc has none of this, it's boom or bust with him. Which is why it is time to look at other options in test cricket, but if Langer's backup to Starc are Neser or Abott then I will still persist with him.

 

[Smudge49]

Cricket Australia were so ****ing bad at handling it. Everyone here thought the punishments were too harsh and unwarranted. Personally, I kinda like ball tampering and won't ever blame a player who cheats to win and they should have reminded everyone of Cronje et al cheating to lose, which is a far worse crime in sport. I'd be ****ing pissed if India got caught ball tampering and faced any harsh bans from the BCCI for instance.

The punishments for Smith and Warner had little to do with what they did and everything to do with CA looking out for themselves.

Warner and Smith were faces of the ACA players movement in demanding better pay structure, for every Australian player starting from the very grassroots, however their fall literally killed the movement to a large extent.

 

[Gnske]

Cricket Australia were so ****ing bad at handling it. Everyone here thought the punishments were too harsh and unwarranted. Personally, I kinda like ball tampering and won't ever blame a player who cheats to win and they should have reminded everyone of Cronje et al cheating to lose, which is a far worse crime in sport. I'd be ****ing pissed if India got caught ball tampering and faced any harsh bans from the BCCI for instance.

It was pure politics. I mean when people in the country unironically think the Australian Cricket Captain is the second most important dude after the Prime Minister....

If people had recognized that Australian Cricket is not a paragon of ideals and moral virtue and instead is a decaying corpse riddled with maggots like I've been saying since day 1 on this forum, we would have Faf'd the pricks and let the ICC deal with it.

 

[DriveClub]

Before this reformed Warner, there was universal hate for Warner which was imo a big driving force behind a lot of the crowd antics in that series. There was almost a sadistic vengeance in the way the crowd went after Warner. Some of the hate for Warner may have been warranted for how he had conducted himself in the field until that point but the crowd obviously went personal and attacked his family which was not on.

 

[Gnske]

But he was the reverend man, remember that forced gimmick. He was a changed man because he had a kid.

 

[Shri]

Before this reformed Warner, there was universal hate for Warner which was imo a big driving force behind a lot of the crowd antics in that series. There was almost a sadistic vengeance in the way the crowd went after Warner. Some of the hate for Warner may have been warranted for how he had conducted himself in the field until that point but the crowd obviously went personal and attacked his family which was not on.

Warner hate even pre-ball tampering was bs

He is just a guy who you would hate like Hayden if he was part of your opposition

He should have leaned into it without giving a **** like Hayden did

You're probably going to hate him if you are an emotional person but the guy is loved by his teammates no matter where he plays, which should be the only thing that counts.

Not like he **** talked his teammates via texts to the opposition

 

[Senile Sentry]

Every team is a bogey team for Starc when the ball isn't swinging. Mitch Johnson despite all the frustrations he used to cause to an Australian fan, had the ability to bowl a mean bouncer, persevere with a fifth stump line to a RHB from over the wicket and stamina to bowl fast through the day.

Starc has none of this, it's boom or bust with him. Which is why it is time to look at other options in test cricket, but if Langer's backup to Starc are Neser or Abott then I will still persist with him.

Starc did bowl at 144-145 kph even in his las spell to be fair. His line was all over the place however.r

 

[Shri]

The punishments for Smith and Warner had little to do with what they did and everything to do with CA looking out for themselves.

Warner and Smith were faces of the ACA players movement in demanding better pay structure, for every Australian player starting from the very grassroots, however their fall literally killed the movement to a large extent.

yeah i made this point yesterday while talking to burgey somewhere haha

the ca contracts struggle was a major news item for a while and disappeared from the media after the bans happened

 

[Senile Sentry]

The punishments for Smith and Warner had little to do with what they did and everything to do with CA looking out for themselves.

Warner and Smith were faces of the ACA players movement in demanding better pay structure, for every Australian player starting from the very grassroots, however their fall literally killed the movement to a large extent.

No way the punishments were inappropriate to the crime they did.

 

[Shri]

Starc did bowl at 144-145 kph even in his las spell to be fair. His line was all over the place however.r

starc is a different kind of pace bowler to johnson

johnson bowled a heavy ball

i don't know how to explain it in technical cricketing terms but starc somehow seems like a 'lighter' bowler although he's rapid

 

[DriveClub]

Warner hate even pre-ball tampering was bs

He is just a guy who you would hate like Hayden if he was part of your opposition

He should have leaned into it without giving a **** like Hayden did

You're probably going to hate him if you are an emotional person but the guy is loved by his teammates no matter where he plays, which should be the only thing that counts.

Not like he **** talked his teammates via texts to the opposition

I remember when the ball tampering thing blew up there was vengeful celebration that Warner had been caught in it in the non Australian cricketing circles. Everyone wanted Warner to fail. I still remember some of the reactions

 

[Senile Sentry]

starc is a different kind of pace bowler to johnson

johnson bowled a heavy ball

i don't know how to explain it in technical cricketing terms but starc somehow seems like a 'lighter' bowler although he's rapid

Johnson was spanked around by Indians in the 14-15 tour. Overall he too struggled against Indians.