*Official* First Test at the Gabba

[Ruckus]

Stuart Clark as backup too.

ahhh NSW a land fit for kings...

 

[howardj]

The pitch is currently getting it's last few hours in the sun before play.

It's started off drizly and showery here every day this week, and then it clears at about 11am.

Sun makes an appearance about mid-day.

Expect a delayed start tomorrow, mainly due to showers, but the field won't be waterlogged.

I thhink there will be plenty of cricket tomorrow, but just not in the first session.

 

[DragonPunk]

Obviously the selectors should just pick the whole NSW side + Ponting.

 

[Spark]

well....

Think the point G_S was making is that it's an apples/oranges situation wrt Clarke/Bollinger to an extent.

---

There is an element of genuine bad luck that Hilfenhaus sometimes suffers from though. Not just beating the bat - as stated that probably means you're a touch too short - but in India he had quite a few edges going between/just wide of slip and what not. To his credit unlike Siddle last summer he didn't start bowling pies after that.

 

[Prince EWS]

ahhh NSW a land fit for kings...

Players Born in NSW/ACT XI

1. Chris Rogers
2. Phil Hughes
3. Phil Jaques
4. Ed Cowan
5. Michael Clarke
6. Steve Smith
7. Brad Haddin
8. Steve O'Keefe
9. Trent Copeland
10. Mark Cameron
11. Doug Bollinger

12. Stuart Clark
13. Damien Wright
14. Peter Forrest

We could claim Khawaja too because, although he was born in Pakistan, he'd fall to us should we split from Australia. Give us Test status IMO.

 

[Top_Cat]

Haha, a bit. It's obviously different when it's a short sample size as you can just assume it'll reverse itself, but after it goes on for a while you just have to face the fact that something might be going on that you don't realise - either preventing a bowler from taking the wickets you'd expect, or allowing him to take wickets you don't expect. Johnson's a great example of the latter - there's only so long a fluke can last, and it's definitely a number shy of 166 wickets and 38 Tests.

Yup. Bloke bowls a lot of crapola but sure does bowl a lot of stuff in the areas batsmen hate. Worse, he has something for righties and lefties; awkward release for righties so you're not sure whether to play or not and late in-swing + skid for lefties. That and he's quick.

Being unpredictable is fine if you have the knock-out balls too.

 

[Sylvester]

Even if Bollinger is under-cooked, it reeks of double standards. Clarke wasn't 100% fit either....

Agree. If this was Mitchell Johnson with the same preparation I'm positive he would have got the nod to play instead of going to Perth to play in the Ryobi cup. The selectors and Ponting don't see Bollinger ahead of Siddle in the pecking order, if they did then they would have played him.

 

[Ruckus]

Players Born in NSW/ACT XI

1. Chris Rogers
2. Phil Hughes
3. Phil Jaques
4. Ed Cowan
5. Michael Clarke
6. Steve Smith
7. Brad Haddin
8. Steve O'Keefe
9. Trent Copeland
10. Mark Cameron
11. Doug Bollinger

12. Stuart Clark
13. Damien Wright
14. Peter Forrest

We could claim Khawaja too because, although he was born in Pakistan, he'd fall to us should we split from Australia. Give us Test status IMO.

Yeah, finally this thread is going in the right direction. But seriously, I would be pretty confident that team could challenge and/or beat our current one.

 

[Prince EWS]

Obviously the selectors should just pick the whole NSW side + Ponting.

Ahh yes, the old Players Living in NSW XI.

1. Watson
2. Hughes
3. Ponting
4. Katich
5. Clarke
6. Khawaja
7. Haddin
8. O'Keefe
9. Copeland
10. Cameron
11. Bollinger

12. Smith
13. Clark

 

[Top_Cat]

Players Born in NSW/ACT XI

1. Chris Rogers
2. Phil Hughes
3. Phil Jaques
4. Ed Cowan
5. Michael Clarke
6. Steve Smith
7. Brad Haddin
8. Steve O'Keefe
9. Trent Copeland
10. Mark Cameron
11. Doug Bollinger

12. Stuart Clark
13. Damien Wright
14. Peter Forrest

We could claim Khawaja too because, although he was born in Pakistan, he'd fall to us should we split from Australia. Give us Test status IMO.

Christ that's a strong side. I'd say "Give us some!" but, well, NSW did.

A state of origina cricket match would be interesting. Could Vic's team ethos match up to NSW's raw talent? Would be great to see.

 

[Ruckus]

Ahh yes, the old Players Living in NSW XI.

1. Watson
2. Hughes
3. Ponting
4. Katich
5. Clarke
6. Khawaja
7. Haddin
8. O'Keefe
9. Copeland
10. Cameron
11. Bollinger

12. Smith
13. Clark

If that team was playing in tests, I'd be confident it could be the no.1 ranked team in the world.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Hilfenhaus flatters to deceive. Unlucky bowlers don't win Test matches. I'd pick Johnson and Bollinger both ahead of him.

Jason Gillespie used to go through troughs where he just couldn't take a wicket, no matter how well he bowled. Hilfenhaus will come through, he still has only one Test at home to his name as well. If there's anywhere he's going to know how to bowl to get poles, it's going to be in Australia.

 

[Prince EWS]

Jason Gillespie used to go through troughs where he just couldn't take a wicket, no matter how well he bowled. Hilfenhaus will come through, he still has only one Test at home to his name as well. If there's anywhere he's going to know how to bowl to get poles, it's going to be in Australia.

I'm not saying he should be dropped; I'd definitely be picking him, and it wouldn't surprise me much if he took a stack of wickets. I just think this whole 'unlucky bowling' this is over-stated with him, and I certainly don't think he should be ahead of Bollinger or Johnson in the pecking order.

 

[Prince EWS]

Christ that's a strong side. I'd say "Give us some!" but, well, NSW did.

Haha, none of the ones we sent you warranted a mention in my post though; you can keep them.
Julian87 will of course disagree and insist I find room for Christian and O'Brien in that team.

A state of origina cricket match would be interesting. Could Vic's team ethos match up to NSW's raw talent? Would be great to see.

Yeah it'd be a great game. Victoria would lose a few - Wright, Hastings, Dussey, Rogers - but I imagine they'd get a couple back too.. I don't profess to be an expert on all things Victorian-born. Klinger would be one.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Jesus, Mark Cameron's a good bowler, but he's not ****ing Barnes reincarnate. With this supposed ridiculous depth that NSW has, you'd think that they might've gone well in the last few Sheffield Shields, yeah?

If the NSW side was so ****ing good, why don't Katich and Watson start making some hundreds instead of ****ty little 40-60s, Brad Haddin stand up and be counted for ****ing once, and Michael Clarke not be a self-indulgent ****? Then they, and Australia, might ****ing win something. ****!

 

[Prince EWS]

Jesus, Mark Cameron's a good bowler, but he's not ****ing Barnes reincarnate. With this supposed ridiculous depth that NSW has, you'd think that they might've gone well in the last few Sheffield Shields, yeah?

If the NSW side was so ****ing good, why don't Katich and Watson start making some hundreds instead of ****ty little 40-60s, Brad Haddin stand up and be counted for ****ing once, and Michael Clarke not be a self-indulgent ****? Then they, and Australia, might ****ing win something. ****!

Haha, knew it was coming. Had to be a Victorian.

 

[DragonPunk]

Jesus, Mark Cameron's a good bowler, but he's not ****ing Barnes reincarnate. With this supposed ridiculous depth that NSW has, you'd think that they might've gone well in the last few Sheffield Shields, yeah?

If the NSW side was so ****ing good, why don't Katich and Watson start making some hundreds instead of ****ty little 40-60s, Brad Haddin stand up and be counted for ****ing once, and Michael Clarke not be a self-indulgent ****? Then they, and Australia, might ****ing win something. ****!

When we've been full strength, we won the champions league

 

[benchmark00]

Victoria are holding the country back. Kick them out. What a ****ing ****ty little state.

 

[Ruckus]

On a different note, I really hope if the toss goes our way Australia actually choose to bowl for once in the Gabba test. With the English team on such a high, I feel we could really dent their confidence (and raise ours) by bowling them out for a small score. On the other hand if we batted first, there is a good chance we could be collapse, pretty much allowing England to dominate the test. I would really prefer if we relied on our bowling to get us of too a good start, rather than our batting...

 

[Spark]

It's not a bad tactic tbh. This series is going to be the won who can induce the most collapses in two fairly brittle lineups. Not the worst idea to get one-up on that score.