The Ashes thread
- Thread starter TankAbbott4Eva
- Start date
- Joined
- May 9, 2010
- Messages
- 16,612
- Reaction score
- 781
Great day 4 morning for Australia.
Can't help but admire Smith, what a batsman. Surely #1 in the world.
Can't help but admire Smith, what a batsman. Surely #1 in the world.
So, what happens next? Will the Ozzies bat out their second innings, and aim for a draw? Or will they declare - today - in hopes of bowling England out for the win? I think they'll declare around 400, or if and when Wade gets his 100, and go from there.
I was playing social grade/beer league type stuff a fair few years ago. About the 5th grade team in the club (which is really 7th when you take into account Prems and Prem Reserves but after the 2nds, who's really counting?). I was in the nets batting next to the bunny of the reserves who would bat about 5 for the seconds. The "injured" quick for his team started to warm up haha. All I heard was "don't you dare bowl short!". First ball, I heard the whistle as the ball went past his nose. Second ball was a crack right on the top of the helmet followed by "get the f*** outta here!!, you're supposed to be hurt". The guy wasn't a bad batsman, just with the step up, he was there solely for his bowling.
Yes on the Piers thing, he'd called him out for months but Lee should've been good enough to send one or two past his nose then take all his stumps out. After the second ball hit him, it just got uncomfortable.
Bondy was far too nice but took a bucket load of wickets when he was healthy. I'm glad he was one of the very small handful from the ICL that actually got paid
Smith has by himself dragged the Aussies kicking and screaming into the match where they've been behind the 8 ball since the first hour. Can Australia take 10 wickets based all around Nathan Lyon... First session will tell us
That sounds like quite a wake up call for the poor lad! LOL
I only played cricket around the neighbourhood; there's not much of a cricket culture in the Netherlands, but I lived in an area with a lot of Indian and Pakistani kids, so that's how I cam into contact with it. Wasn't much of a batter, but could bowl a mean fast ball, well, as far as a ten year old can.
I have to say, I enjoyed it. Loved how Lee was following with the ball, as he saw Piers coming forward, but moving to the legside, still nailed him pretty much every single time. The only uncomfortable thing for me was Warny repeatedly trying to get the audience to applaude Piers, and they were all like: Nah, fuck that mate.
Yeah, fast bowling simply takes an enormous tole on the human body, especially with today's schedules, and the guys wanting to play every match they can, especially now with the very lucrative T20-leagues popping up everywhere. I mean people like Afridi, McCullum, de Plessis, et al, are currently playing T20 in Canada of all places!
I hope not, but he seems to be getting the ball to grip a lot more than Ali for instance. I think this will be a day of blocking, but I hope I'm proven wrong, and the English will be going balls out for the win this time.
As for Smith, I expected more people in the audience offering him some sandpaper on the way onto the pitch, kinda disappointed about that. Seems to be the only way to get him rattled, so why not? <45>
About 10 to 12 is the age when it starts getting bad lol. Moving from plastic to leather. Had a guy in school, all arms and legs and no co-ordination. Was filling in in the junior teams. One year over the winter something clicked. He was 12th man for his first junior club game so asked if he could fill in for our old school. He gets given the new ball... First game using leather for pretty every one there. This was 1993ish so helmets weren't a thing in juniors and you played on a patch of grass that'd been mown. He sends the first ball down short of a length and it rears towards this kid's head. Kid didn't even move and it went right past his nose. Words were had, this kid started to tear up and I swear from my spot in square leg I was starting to see a yellow stain in his pants too. Next ball was pitched up and the kid lost his middle stump.. He high tailed it outta there.
Warner and Smith played in that Canadian league last year I think.
Fast bowling takes a huge toll on the body, and you either got it, or you don't but you (and your coaches can help yourself). You've got guys like McGrath that bowled for ages but they toned it down. In NZ for a time all our bowlers got lower back stress fractures (including Daniel Vettori). Apparently this was due to their motion and technique and they were coached to twist their body instead of being totally side on or totally square.
England should push. I don't think their batting (apart from Root who can bat in any way he wants) are built for a day for defence.
Sandpaper is more for Warner and Bankcroft. Smith had the crying Smith masks.
I agree, but it's a mindset thing. Root even went to Ponting for advice on how to stop choking at 50, and some more tons under his belt. Didn't stick. They need to go back to the 05-07 mindset. What's Andy Flower doing at the moment?
Yeah, your right about that, but none for them either. Expected more from the English crowd tbh. Though the World Cup tribute did make me smile.
We never played with plastic, leather ball from the first one. Thing is, I never knew about bouncers or short balls or anything; we didn't have the BBC back then, so no exposure to cricket at all, other than what the Paki-kids told me. So I basically tried to yorker each and every ball. Looking back, and looking what I can now do with a ball (having a dog means throwing balls), I'm able to give quite a bit of swing to a ball, even "over-arm". Makes me wonder what could have been.
Yeah, never even knew there were helmets in cricket, didn't know about a box either. LOL
That must have been horrible for the little kid. Sorry, but I'm in stitches. Poor thing.
Yeah, I remember that now as well! Warner went for quite a few ducks a think, and Smith was batting in the 20s.
McGrath was like a machine, wasn't super quick, but his placement of the ball was immaculate.
Man, that's messed up. So basically bad technique taught by the coaches messed up their careers? That's horrible!
Thinking about that, is Malinga the only one that twists his body during delivery? Or at least, only bowlers with that weird technique. He fascinated me from the first ball I saw him bowl. Pretty much a straight arm baseball pitch. Would make swing bowling a lot easier, looking at my own technique. Hmmz. Why don't we see more of that?
I agree, but it's a mindset thing. Root even went to Ponting for advice on how to stop choking at 50, and some more tons under his belt. Didn't stick. They need to go back to the 05-07 mindset. What's Andy Flower doing at the moment?
Yeah, your right about that, but none for them either. Expected more from the English crowd tbh. Though the World Cup tribute did make me smile.
Answer "See what Stephen Fleming did his whole career... Do the exact opposite"
I batted without a box that day. Cam in for my 2 overs after the game was done (we kept playing so that everyone got a turn) for my 4 runs. The bowlers I faced couldn't keep it on the pitch and I was chasing them trying to hit them out of the park.
McGrath wasn't super quick but in his young days, he wasn't a slouch either. It was later in his career he got known as the guy that bowled at the 4th stump and was taking wickets bowling there ball after ball in the low 130s.
We do that a lot here. We take natural talent that looks "ugly" and try to make then aesthetically pleasing because it's "right" according to the sports scientists. We ruin the kids by taking way what made them special instead of trying to work with them. Kane Williamson's bowling is similar (even though the reason he always wore long sleeves in the field was because he's a bit of a chucker haha). He was useful with ball in hand.
It's hard for me to describe but it's a twist as a certain in. From memory, Malinga's body doesn't really twist. He runs in very square on, plants and then moves his body. Look at pictures of Andre Adams for example.. In midair, he's square on but his legs are side on and all that crunches into the ground.
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2011
- Messages
- 2,439
- Reaction score
- 214
I’d like to see England have a crack. Test Cricket is at an important juncture right now.
I think 50 over cricket is kinda doomed but it’s important in a series like this with the world watching that it’s played in a positive way.
I think 50 over cricket is kinda doomed but it’s important in a series like this with the world watching that it’s played in a positive way.
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2010
- Messages
- 26,136
- Reaction score
- 14,659
I don’t like Warner but the only time you walk is when your car has run out of petrol.
And here we go lads, one down and 9 to go hopefully, just have to get fucken Root out
