Smith - Archer

[the big bambino]

I haven’t caught up with all of the Lords test thread but have seen talk about whether Archer has Smith’s number. Archer’s bowling has been impressive, more so when he’s kept it up and achieved seam. He’s been hard to face but felt his bouncer sometimes released pressure until late yesterday.

He delivers close to the stumps and it seemed to me delivered his bumper wide of or in line with off stump. That line might be easier to play for some players than others. Smith’s walk across style seems to put him in line with Archer’s short ball where he doesn’t have the choice to leave it meaning he has to decide to play it or somehow avoid it after he’s moved all his weight to get there. So I think his style maybe vulnerable to Archer’s short ball line.

I’m sure Smith is a realist and will admit the problem he encountered with Archer and will be thinking how to deal with him. Hopefully he’ll listen to Steve Waugh who dealt awkwardly but successfully with the short ball. First thing is he’ll have to recover his mental balance. I admire his courage but batting angry will undermine his success. Perhaps adopt the Sutcliffe tactic and refuse to hook until he’s got 40 or weathered the bowler’s fury. I think his walk across method still works if he formulates a plan for the Archer bumper and sticks with it. Sticking to a plan is one of his strengths. Oh - and wear an arm guard.

 

[Bijed]

The true Steve Smith response will be to face 1000 96mph short balls in the nets before the next test and he'll emerge being completely capable of playing such bowling with ease

 

[TheJediBrah]

Smith will figure it out immediately and counter it with no trouble IMO

 

[Starfighter]

It's worth mentioning that he didn't actually get him out. I'd agree that he's vulnerable to wearing one, in comparison Cummins stayed where he was and played very calmly. I'd be a bit surprised if he didn't try make some sort of alteration to the way he plays. All he needs to do is what he does with a lot of bowlers, and just let the ball go and make them bowl to him. One will note that Archer never threatened the stumps or the outside edge during his spell, that's something Smith can use to his advantage.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

The thing is how mobile will he be today and what mental scars there are for him. Until he gets out there we won't know but it makes it more intriguing for today and next week as he wont have much time to adjust his way of playing between games.

 

[TheJediBrah]

The Archer hype-train is in overdrive. Not saying that there shouldn't be hype but everything he does is being blown out of proportion. The bloke took 2-60 on a bowlers' wicket and there's articles about how he's signalling England's domination of world cricket

 

[MW1304]

Except for the fact there's literally none of that.

He's just exciting.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Except for the fact there's literally none of that.

He's just exciting.

uh, of course there is. If there wasn't then I wouldn't be responding to it. Literally saw an article earlier today saying exactly that.

I'm not saying it's the majority opinion, but it's there

 

[mr_mister]

I definitely agree he wear an arm guard the rest of this series. It doesn't restrict arm movement in any way right? The only reason its just tailenders and not specialist batsmen who usually wear them is because its a sign you're scared/bad batsman or something like that? i'm sure that won't bother Smith



And I think just focusing on evasive tactics rather than looking to always take it on will be the right course of action for the Archer short ball ala Steve Waugh who probably had his best ever series against Ambrose in '95. I doubt he played a single hook/pull that series. Smith seemed to want to play at every bumper after his arm got struck, it threw him out of whack

 

[trundler]

It made Smith.exe malfunction

 

[MW1304]

uh, of course there is. If there wasn't then I wouldn't be responding to it. Literally saw an article earlier today saying exactly that.

I'm not saying it's the majority opinion, but it's there

Link pls.

I mean it's just classic naysaying contrarianism to not find him as exciting as everyone does. Who cares about one fringe opinion that has no bearing on the actual conversation.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Link pls.

I mean it's just classic naysaying contrarianism to not find him as exciting as everyone does. Who cares about one fringe opinion that has no bearing on the actual conversation.

I'm not going to the effort of finding the facebook article I saw earlier today. If you genuinely think I would make that up to have something to disagree with then that's on you.

If you haven't seen the same things I have that's fine, but don't say "there's literally none of that". Because you're flat-out, objectively, wrong.

edit: **** it, here you go https://7news.com.au/sport/cricket/...englands-domination-of-world-cricket-c-405451

also says in there that he "constantly nudged 155kph", which is completely false.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Is this lolyoukid v2.0?

 

[trundler]

I'm sure the bloke who wrote that click bait did not think anyone would take it 100% seriously either. Most people just think he's exciting which is fair enough.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I'm sure the bloke who wrote that click bait did not think anyone would take it 100% seriously either. Most people just think he's exciting which is fair enough.

Of course he did. And of course Archer is exciting. That's not relevant to anything I've said.

 

[trundler]

My point is tabloids churn out bollocks after anything remotely noteworthy happens and it never reflects popular opinion or is relevant to discussion.

 

[TheJediBrah]

My point is tabloids churn out bollocks after anything remotely noteworthy happens and it never reflects popular opinion or is relevant to discussion.

That's, like, pretty much exactly what my original point was

it absolutely can be relevant in certain context though. Not that it should be given a lot of weight, which was also my point

 

[trundler]

You're either really bad at expressing yourself or perpetually ****ing with everyone on some other level.

 

[TheJediBrah]

You're either really bad at expressing yourself or perpetually ****ing with everyone on some other level.

my problem is I'm just brutally honest when someone says something dumb and/or wrong

 

[trundler]

If that were true you'd just be replying to yourself most of the time