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Steven Smith's recent form

quincywagstaff

International Debutant
I don't know where I read it but someone observed that Laubschagne's performances at 3 this summer meant that Smith became far less essential to the side than he had been for years and I wonder whether mentally that impacted his game a bit. As the Ashes showed I reckon he's someone who relishes situations where expectations and pressure are at their peak and with Labuschagne doing the hard yards every innings this summer (plus Warner against Pakistan) it's probably not that surprising that he mentally wasn't at his peak.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Then I wouldn't trust your feelings too much in future because in this instance they were disturbingly far off the mark.

You'd be right if you were talking about the Pakistan series when he was coming in at 2-300+ and didn't seem to give a **** but not for the NZ games. And at no point during the summer was he "ensuring his numbers were still good' by any interpretation

Well, for starters, those are my views watching the games on TV and I am not gonna be obstinate and say "my views are completely right". We have enough of that from you for all of CW. :laugh:

Its what I feel and I dunno why that should be "disturbing" in any sense of the word. He was obviously batting slower than he has done in the past and ensuring he stayed there far longer to make the runs that he would usually make at a quicker rate, even during second innings when they were already ahead of the game. Its simple.
 

TheJediBrah

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Well, for starters, those are my views watching the games on TV and I am not gonna be obstinate and say "my views are completely right". We have enough of that from you for all of CW. :laugh:

Its what I feel and I dunno why that should be "disturbing" in any sense of the word. He was obviously batting slower than he has done in the past and ensuring he stayed there far longer to make the runs that he would usually make at a quicker rate, even during second innings when they were already ahead of the game. Its simple.
It is simple. He was "out of form"/not hitting the ball well, and hence was not as fluent and had to battle more than usual. You are of course entitled to your opinion but saying that he just was deliberately scoring slower than usual because he was worried about his individual stats is an appalling opinion.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
He was not out of form the entire time and even if he was out of form, he would have tried scoring quicker under different circumstances. My point is the advantage the team had gave him the room to play slow to get a score and he did that, coz he does want to get a score.

But I think I have made my point enough times now, and you, as usual, have let it go completely over your head. So I am out.
 

Burgey

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The leg side field is an important consideration here imo, not so much because he necessarily has a weakness per se to getting out there, but that it negated his scoring, reducing his output and his pace of scoring. He could easily enough not play the hook or pull or the leg glance, but you deny yourself a lot of scoring opportunities if you don't. He needs to work his way around it, and he no doubt will by next season. it's just what he does.
 

TheJediBrah

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He was not out of form the entire time and even if he was out of form, he would have tried scoring quicker under different circumstances. My point is the advantage the team had gave him the room to play slow to get a score and he did that, coz he does want to get a score.

But I think I have made my point enough times now, and you, as usual, have let it go completely over your head. So I am out.
Except that this is the exact opposite of what happened. When he played slow and "got a score" was when the team wasn't in a real position of strength.

Making the same wrong point over and over doesn't make it any less wrong.

And yes as Burgey mentions the leg side field probably played a part as well. Why he scored slowly/looked in poor form for those Tests was due to a multitude of factors. Wanting to "ensure his numbers are still good" was not one of them though.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
The leg side field is an important consideration here imo, not so much because he necessarily has a weakness per se to getting out there, but that it negated his scoring, reducing his output and his pace of scoring. He could easily enough not play the hook or pull or the leg glance, but you deny yourself a lot of scoring opportunities if you don't. He needs to work his way around it, and he no doubt will by next season. it's just what he does.

Kinda how Sachin got his 241 or whatever in Sydney without playing a cover drive.
 

Shady Slim

International Coach
teams found a way to curtail him slightly with the bodyline leg theory sort of plan, it’s up to him to adapt now... and we all know he will and it’ll be painful for who ever it is that feels the wrath first

and when i say curtail i use that very generously because he’s still the best batsman in the world lol
 

Flem274*

123/5
yea i don't think you can just set a bodyline field to him and expect to negate him.

- it takes a special bowler, one who has a variety of short balls and the extreme fitness to bowl a marathon spell of them
- smiths concentration is supreme, even with the above bowler, of whom there is only one in the world, smith gave that tactic one of the biggest tests it will ever receive and he still managed to grind out starts or 50s by exploiting the lesser bowlers at the other end when one eventually made an error. smith doesn't sell his wicket cheaply.

smiths not out of form, he's one of the few batsmen in the world who can withstand wagnerball for the length of time he did and i think higher of him against the short ball than i already did. this will be demonstrated in a couple of weeks.
 
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