Heads nicked behind off Steyn. Really don’t rate him as an opener

Short edges too and Faf with a super catch. 2/4.

Love O'keefe's commentary!

Madness from Finch to not review that

Looking forward to seeing NCN bowl here.

This team is a disaster

Absolute shocker. Carey’s gone alright

NCN good chance to be top scorer for the 3rd time this season.

Get Cummins on already. Starc and Haze are sucking.

Cummins looks sharp but Starc looks a bit off. 

Bunch of no hopers. Four of our bats threw away their wickets.

What would CA have given to have George Bailey partnering Alex Carey.

When is CA going to pick specialist limited overs bowlers.. blokes that can actually bowl dot balls and build some pressure.. not serve up pies to feast on.

Yes until he laughs.

Agree. I also dont like to see Lynn striking at 50 per cent. He should open and be given a free licence. 

Our CAX1 kids batted better than this rabble.

I wanna see some blokes in our top six that actually have a technique

Oh man. Look at those cover drives. Aidan Markram is going to be an all time great, what a talent. 

Such a shame we can't find batsmen like him in our system. 

Glorious!

Stoinis bowling over 130's now. 

Haze and Starc have offered nothing threatening on a grassy pitch. This could be a very long summer.

They are there. Josh Philippe for one. 

I enjoy his laugh!

I think Baggers said it before but I agree that Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins  need to get match fit for bowling in a Test series by playing FC cricket - not bowling in a Mickey Mouse money making ODI series, with no context, other than increasing the coffers of CA.

The likes of Stanlake and possibly Coulter- Nile, both good bowlers, barely even play FC cricket. Can't they, and others, do the ODI bowling - which can essentially be defensive, not bowl batters out?

Nobody  is going to remember who wins this SA ODI series in a few months, but they will certainly remember the results of the Test series this summer.

CA get a lot wrong these days.

Don't mind the commentary on Fox.

what a disaster a 220 pitch at least

I think we'll end up disagreeing on this one. I understand and respect your point, I just do not share it myself. 

CA can rotate teams and they often have in past seasons. But Australia's ODI failings predate Warner and Smith's bans. I understand the point of view of the Jamodi (Just-Another-Meaningless-ODI) argument , but more importantly the World Cup is just around the corner, and if Australia want to defend it successfully, winning just 2 of its last 21 ODI games is not the best preparation for it. This losing run goes back to 2016/17. The Champions Trophy was a failure for Australia as was the last tour of England. CA need to use what games that they have between now and then (there's less than you think) to work out its best bowling unit at the very least given the bans are disrupting working out the best batting unit. The team needs some confidence and some wins. The Aussie cricket fans need some wins because they are not all as passionate about cricket as Baggers and yourself. And I have read a lot of gloating from Aussie fans that they're glad they did not buy Fox.

This pitch was grassy - with both teams having slips in all day, and there was no way Australia was going to Run Rate defend 152. So it was a perfect chance for some bowl the batsman out cricket. As the commentators said, Australia needs its best team out on the park right now to retain fan interest, also for World Cup preparation, and to really understand what level the guys are playing at. There is also an argument that trying to dismiss QDK, Markram, and Faf in ODI is better preparation for Indian test batsmen than bowling in FC. 

I understand that you and Baggers have a counter view which has merit of course. But Starc needs to get his pace back up - because if he sends down 138-142 in an ODI - I don't see how he is ready to bowl 150 in a 20 over a day test spell effort. It isn't like he did not just play 2 test matches in the UAE. Most bowlers bowl faster in ODI than they do in test due to the lighter workloads.

Whether CA got it wrong putting the ODI's behind a paywall and lining its coffers as you suggest, the fact is that they have. If they expect people to pay to watch these games, they actually need to offer a good entertainment package, and they have a contractual obligation with Fox to do so. That is not the likes of Scot Boland. Also the players do take a percentage of the CA coffers revenue and CA has a responsibility to its broadcaster to play cricketers that fans want to watch to justify that 1 billion dollar contract.

Australia is even hosting the World T20 in 2020, it may be the most despised format, but the Australian fan expects Australian success on Australian soil for all formats of the game. 

I'm arguing from the premise that Test cricket supersedes the World Cup, Paddles.

I'm sure most reading this disagree with me!

They do.

However, I'm one of the 10 -15percent who have pay TV and see how poor we are overseas, because we play in conditions in this country that suit Aussie players and visitors find then tough to play in.

This creates a false perception for the public about how good we are, because they see us play little Test cricket overseas.

I've noticed this reduction in speed too.

I also think it better for the likes of Tremain, et al, bowlers who are unlikely to be ever be successful on a range of Test pitches around the world to do the ODI bowling.

It isn't just the bowling. 3 times in the last month - NCN has been the top scorer for Australia.
People are now betting on him to do this regularly like people bet on Jason Holder (with Pay TV you know how dire the West Indian top order is).
Even when Finch and Warner return, there is the need for 4 more batsmen.

Further, this may seem outrageous to many, but I think that there is every possibility that Starc gets dropped during the test series this year. I am calling it now. I never thought he'd have a long test career anyway. He may actually need Shane Warne to give him a serve from the commentary box again.

He needs to get his pace back up, or he is limited overs death bowler only with his yorkers in a Malinga gen 2 model.

I like the candour of your posting Decentric. You seem like a good bloke. I disagree with you on importance of the World Cups, but I do so respectfully.

The Aussie team needs to get back to winning, whatever the format, especially at home. They've won nothing since the Ashes last year. They were pampered and praised for a 4-0 win at home over England - who then promptly spanked them in the ODI stuff.

Thanks.

I try to disagree  respectfully too.

Since we've picked up you, Baggygreenmania, and Mike R, all knowledgeable posters about cricket, to add to Grazorblade's performance  knowledge ( a former high level player), and a few others who chip in, this has become the best sports forum I've seen in 13 years of participation.

It is noticeable and refreshing, that people are able to disagree here politely, without a resort of name calling and insults.

Too many forums are just reassertion of popular opinion, and any deviation from that becomes an ad hominem-fest.

I like it here so far :-)

I agree with this comment. In football, Decentric and I  are highly trained coaches and know a fair bit about performance.  I do it for a job, being  Tech Dir of a Victorian NPL club. In cricket though we know comparatively little, but like reading posts  from those  who know more about the technical aspects of cricket than we do.
 
I've stopped posting in 442 football sections because I get trolled about being Decentric.

It was either you or Baggers, but one of you suggested how effective Starc's yorker was.

It was potent  last night. 

It was both Baggers and I. With all respect - I thought his yorker was impotent yesterday due to a lack of swing, lack of pace, and lack scoreboard pressure. 

 Starc's yorker is deadly at the death of limited overs games where scoreboard pressure rules. With the batsmen needing to find boundaries, it is a very hard ball to get away. It is a difficult ball for tail enders in any format also due to the pace if it.

The problem with the yorker is this, in test matches against good batsmen, there is no need to hit boundaries. So unless it shapes in like a Waqar or Bond special - it is not an effective test wicket taking ball where there is no pressure to score runs. The batsman may just block and dig it out. The ball has to swing so much that the batsman gets off balance and misses it. Starc often gets it to reverse swing in at the death overs of limited overs - making it deadly like Waqar and Bond - but in tests - this requires the ball reversing for Starc because he does not seem to always do it with orthodox swing. 

I watched all his balls yesterday - not a single ball swung and he was pitching it up and he bowled his yorkers.

Right now, in the world, Bumrah and Starc are the two deadliest exponents of the yorker. Many fans tell me Rabada is as well. But I think Bumrah and Starc are still better at it (even if Rabada is clearly the better test bowler all-round). But Starc needs more to his arsenal. What that more has been in the past - is bowling at over 150 clicks in tests (easier to do in ODI - damn impressive in tests). 

For mine, Starc is an express bowler with a great reverse swinging yorker. But I would take Steyn's lesser pace and outswinger any day of the week to win test matches with. (And yet yesterday - they were more or less the same pace except Steyn got his outswinger going regularly). I would however take Starc and Bumrah to close out any limited overs game as the two best yorker bowlers in the world. Steyn, as great as he is as a test bowler, is useless at closing the death of a limited overs game.