But didn't Ponting play many a pull shot off his front foot?

Not always. Often, he'd rock back and play the pull shot off the back foot.

But I swear I've seen him step forward and play it. In fact, I swear he said this (or it was said) in a master class video

Yep he played a lot of front foot pull shots, particularly early in his innings. Playing at 3 meant he often came in against the new ball and against genuine pace and a moving ball he needed to be a bit preemptive in his movement. Considering he's in the best 5 bats in cricket history, his footwork early in his innings was pretty ordinary. He probably had the best pull and hook shots in the history of the game.

11.mvfc.11 and 99Problems

I don't think we can possibly say Ricky Ponting had, definitively, the best pull and hook shots in history.

Punter was magnificent. But it's hardly definitive.

What about Viv Richards? Sunil Gavaskar? Sachin Tendulkar? Gordon Greenidge? There must be a handful of others up there.

I reckon Alastair Cook plays one of the best pull shots in the world. He sees it so early and plays it accordingly (late or early). I'm not saying it's better than that of Ponting, but it's up there. Then Michael Vaughan used to play one of the most exquisite pull shots I've ever seen. He made it seem so classy. Like Greenidge (I'm told), rock back, knee up and swivel. Again, not saying he was better than Ponting but he was solid.

Don't forget that Punter wore a helmet his entire career.

Can you imagine not wearing a helmet and taking on Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, etc., and staying in, attacking their ferocious bowling with perfectly timed hooks and pulls and crafting some of the best innings ever.

Well, Sunny Gavaskar has done just that.

Then the West Indies batsmen used to bat that way against Thommo and Lillee.

I'm sorry but I have trouble accepting the proposition that a bloke who always wore a helmet was definitively the best at the pull and hook shots ever, given other blokes did it beautifully against even faster bowling than Ponting faced and with no helmet.

Actually, supposedly when Ponting was a lad he used to face express pace bowling in the nets without a helmet and practise the pull shot. It would explain a lot.

Perfectly reasonable. I'm also in my early (yikes sort of mid) 20s.

Managed a session at the Tas/Vic Shield game yesterday.

Tas bowled out Vic on a green top for 165. Tas are 2 for 115 in reply.

It was a good toss to win. The wicket usually flattens out. I expect Vic to do much better in the second innings.

Tasmania's specialist spinner is Beau Webster, an all rounder who took 3 for 18.

Fekete took 2, Rainbird 2, Kingston 3.

Fekete was dropped from the Shield team, but has rediscovered his rhythm after sort in out technical issues . Doolan and Paine, both former Test cricketers, have been dropped recently and have both returned as specialist batters. Fekete was also selected in the Australian tour of Bangladesh which was cancelled.

I still think Doolan is Australia's most stylish batsman for some time, at least equal to Mark Waugh. His problem is a suspect defence and inability to take singles. His main problem is probably mental. He is a very intelligent fellow with lack of confidence in his immense talent. ATM he is 26 not out.

I haven't Webster bowl yet. Given he has scored 2 hundreds in the last two Shield game as high order batter, he is doing well.

Yet again there is no Faulkner. He has hardly played First Class cricket in Australia for the last three years. Most of it was in England for a county season last year.

It will be interesting to see Ahmed bowl. Definitely the best Aussie spinner, outside Lyon, to play Shield cricket at Bellerive over the last few years. Given he is a wrist spinner, he is a good foil for GOAT for the subcontinent .




Edited by Decentric: 26/2/2016 09:04:36 AM

Good to see you back, Quickflick.

You and 11.mvfc.11 are the same age as my offspring. Good to see young people interested in the longer form of cricket.

I'm gobsmacked we are ranked number 1 in world Test cricket rankings.:roll:

A few years ago Pakistan absolutely thrashed us in the Middle east. The most one sided series I've seen Australia play, and we were supposedly number at the start of the series.:?

We lost to England last year.

England contested a much more even series with Pakistan in the ME in the last few months.

The Poms beat South Africa in South Africa a few weeks ago.

I've seen a lot of him play and always think of him as a back foot puller and hooker.

Maybe he did play it off the front foot, but I can't remember seeing it.

I've been away basically the whole summer.

What have the Sheffield Shield wickets been like?

I see quite a few centuries have been scored.

If they're playing on roads then you might as well discount the Shield.

We've done crap in the Ashes whenever it has come off the back of several seasons of playing domestic cricket on roads. The batsmen have no technique, have no idea how to play the ball late, no footwork and the bowlers are gormless.

I'm hoping these wickets have been challenging.

Faulkner and Maxwell don't play enough FC Cricket.

The Vics are getting what they deserved for the Team they picked.

Doolan's century was sublime.=d>

Anyone who hasn't seen him in full flight is missing out. He caresses the ball with great elegance in offside and onside drives that race to the boundary with exquisite timing .

Apparently Tassie's Dunk and Bailey are the Shield's 1st and 3rd ranked highest scorers, with WA's Bancroft 2nd.

Apart from Webster's recent runs, Tassie's other batters have consistently failed.

I was disappointed in Ahmed. We need him firing for the subcontinent.

Tassie thrashed Victoria by an innings and 50 odd.

Edited by Decentric: 3/3/2016 04:33:02 PM

RIP Martin Crowe. Cancer got him age 53.

New Zealand's greatest ever batsman.

:cry:

Superb batsman.

What a player Martin Crowe was.

Thoughts and prayers with him, his family and friends.

Attended an end of season review from the TCA for members a few nights ago.

After the event, it was meet the players night. I was astonished how friendly and well spoken the state cricketers were, including international players.

I certainly learnt a lot from them.



Edited by Decentric: 27/3/2016 12:44:10 PM

Jackson Bird is playing for Nottinghamshire in Div 1 of the County Championship. And he seems to be bowling well.

He removed both Surrey's openers.

10 yeas ago yesterday this happened.....

http://www.cricket.com.au/news/jason-gillespie-200-bangladesh-double-century-chittagong-nightwatchman-end-of-career/2016-04-16

[youtube]9sny6UmZJDQ[/youtube]

Hobart has just been awarded a Test against South Africa in early November.

SA is probably the best Test team who have played in Hobart. Some Pakistani teams of the past have been pretty good. We need to draw big crowds.

Bellerive Oval Test is on from 12th-16th November against South Africa.

Prices have been lowered.

$25 adult

$15 concession

$8 child

Prices at other venues are 20% higher.

Alan Donald is now Australia's bowling coach.

One of his predecessors wondered why he was being sent all round Australia doing some strange work. The board should have told him they didn't want him.

http://www.cricket.com.au/news/australia-implications-of-a-two-tier-test-system-icc-world-test-championship/2016-06-03

Interesting - the ICC is discussing a two tiered test match system with promotion and relegation. Thoughts?

Problematic. Couldn't it lead to further entrenchment of the power of the Evil Trinity- ECB, Cricket Australia and the BCCI?

England v Pakistan at Lord's. Misbah at the crease, very nice innings on what, I'm guessing, is a rather a docile pitch. Approaching his ton.

Interesting day at Lords. Amir was billed as the one to watch, but Yasir Shah the leg spin bowler took the wickets. He really looks the goods, can't wait to see him this summer.

Lastbroadcast

To be fair, Mohammed Amir had Alistair Cook dropped twice. Once by the wicketkeeper and once in the slip cordon. He got Cook out by clipping his off-stump (I gather). Both were routine catches. Mikey Holding said that Amir couldn't rely on his fielders so had to do all the work on his own. You can't ask for much more than that. He probably would have taken more wickets of the fielders had held on to the chances.

None of that is to detract from Yasir Shah's magnificent bowling. This is the first time he has ever bowled outside the subcontinent. Amazing. And that delivery to Ballance

Healthy problem for the English selectors. Woakes has bowled beautifully. Can't really drop him for Ben Stokes - maybe drop Finn or Ball?

Pretty exciting test match.

ATM Shah is my favourite bowler in the world to watch on TV.

When Warnie was bowling well, he said he would get inward drift, like inswing. Shah has that all the time ATM.

He is a big spinner of the ball too.

Edited by Decentric: 21/7/2016 12:47:35 PM

Agree.

Yasir Shah really looks like an excellent wrist spinner.

He is getting loop (where the ball drops sharply in flight in the air) and drift through the air (like an inswinger), plus he seems to spin the ball hard on the pitch. He is also confident with his googly.

Grazor, if you are reading this, what do you think of him?




Edited by Decentric: 20/7/2016 10:12:54 PM

Yasir Shah is, indeed, an excellent bowler, Decentric. The thing is that Lord's isn't even so highly rated for its turn. And yet Yasir Shah, in his first Test match outside the subcontinent, still gets turn, drift and still destroys batsmen. It will be interesting how he goes at the other grounds with may turn more.

I wholeheartedly agree that one of the most exciting things in cricket is watching a leg-spinner of the highest quality at work.

They're amazing and, aside from making the ball turn a huge amount, the best ones seem to read the game (and their opponent so well). Or maybe I say that because the era of Shane Warne was fairly recently. Anyway, by all accounts the great leg-spinners do this.

My main bowling style was leg-spin, when I played cricket in my mid teens. I could turn a few, but I had such a lack of control.

On the technical aspect of leg-spin. I read a comment on a youtube video which seemed reasonably on the money and seemed to tally with my own limited experience bowling (or trying to bowl) leg spin. Anyway the comment was that the direction of the arm in the follow through gives an idea of whether the ball is designed to produce that ripping turn or drift a bit more. Both being remarkable skills. I'm going from memory but the bloke commenting underneath was probably saying that Shane Warne started to drift the ball more and turn it a bit less as his career went on because his shoulder surgery made it difficult to do this, I think it was.

I gather he said that when the bowling arm (of a right-handed leg-spinner), in its follow-through, ends up more to the right, it imparts more spin. It's difficult to illustrate this without a diagram but you may have to mime the action yourself. Basically, it's because you're best using your shoulders to generate revs. Whereas, when the arm ends up more to the left of the bowler, the action has allowed the ball to drift more.

I'm not quite sure of these things. Possibly grazorblade can shed some light on it all. Certainly some amazing deliveries have drift and turn. They're amazing skills, that's for sure.

Here's a video of Shane Warne outwitting Daryll Cullinan with some extremely clever bowling. The bloke is a tactical genius. Also, I heard Warney say that he invented the slider, I think it was, because he couldn't move his fingers properly after some fracture or operation. So he just invents a whole new delivery which works wonderfully. What a way to respond to what should be a massive hindrance. His resourcefulness is phenomenal.

[youtube]DlyG5wnW7I0[/youtube]

Finally, Decentric, I'm going to post an article in the Olympics thread by Gideon Haigh. It's worth reading if only because any article on sport by Haigh is worth reading. I can't think of a better Australian sport writer (for any sport) out there.

Edited by quickflick: 21/7/2016 05:27:33 AM