I have to call out Skull on his slider claim. To my knowledge only wristies bowl that. I do stand corrected tho.

Aus lead by 219 on first innings. 

Lot of scoreboard pressure for BCs. 

I can bowl a top spinner as a leggy, but have no idea how finger spinners bowl top spinners? 

Warner’s strike rate before his ban in 74 Tests was 75. 

In the 10 Tests played since returning it has dropped to 61. 

Skull just raised it. 

We have a bloke opening the bowling in a test match with 120kph 'thunderbolts'.

He is more circumspect now. Batting as tho he values his wicket more. 

Wagner’s figures for 2 and a half games of this Kiwi series are 17 wickets at 20 runs average per wicket.

Outstanding! 

Can Wagner control the new ball? 

Yes, but he isn't a new ball bowler. He doesn't swing it orthodoxly nor hit the seam. 

Typically in SENA,  Boult, Southee, take the new ball. CdG is the first change. Wagner the second change. If NZ play 2 spinners with Wagner, and Boult, or Southee (or both are missing and Henry plays) - CdG opens the bowling. 

CdG's career openign the bowling is better than you may think:

Career averages

	Span	Mat	Inns	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	5	10
unfiltered	2016-2020	22	41	562.5	125	1379	45	6/41	7/64	30.64	2.45	75.0	1	0	Profile
filtered	2017-2020	6	10	153.0	38	372	14	3/52	3/72	26.57	2.43	65.5	0	0

Innings by innings list

Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Econ	Pos	Inns		Opposition	Ground	Start Date
23.0	7	52	3	2.26	2	2		v South Africa	Wellington	16 Mar 2017	Test # 2255
8.0	1	20	0	2.50	2	4		v South Africa	Wellington	16 Mar 2017	Test # 2255
24.0	4	62	2	2.58	2	1		v South Africa	Hamilton	25 Mar 2017	Test # 2257
8.0	5	15	1	1.87	2	3		v South Africa	Hamilton	25 Mar 2017	Test # 2257
13.0	6	30	2	2.30	2	2		v Pakistan	Abu Dhabi	16 Nov 2018	Test # 2327
3.0	0	15	0	5.00	2	4		v Pakistan	Abu Dhabi	16 Nov 2018	Test # 2327
30.0	11	44	2	1.46	2	1		v Pakistan	Dubai (DSC)	24 Nov 2018	Test # 2330
17.0	2	47	1	2.76	2	3		v Australia	Perth	12 Dec 2019	Test # 2374
24.0	1	78	3	3.25	2	1		v Australia	Sydney	3 Jan 2020	Test # 2378
3.0	1	9	0	3.00	2	3		v Australia	Sydney	3 Jan 2020	Test # 2378

No one likes starting their innings facing a huge deficit. The BCs have had to do it three games on the trot.

If there was a combined eleven from both teams,  Wagner would have to be in it with these figures. 

Tough for the BCs. 

De Grandhomme can bowl. 

0-73 after 22 overs must be one of our best starts. 

I’m enjoying Wagner bowling short from around the wicket  and Warner going after him this morning. 

A couple of decent 6s from Burns this morning. 

0-101 is a decent opening stand from Warner and Burns. 

6 runs an over has been a decent clip this morning. 

This has been a more free flowing Aussie high order partnership at last. 

Gday Dc,
jj - Is your dog Milo as good a cricket judge as my dog Scruf?
I stayed away from the forum for a while, as the ludicrous comments re body line bowling
 by us Aussies was more than I could put up with.
Ironically I ended agreeing with Paddles.
Good to see it has not carried over into the Forum on this test.
As you know I am a critic of Paine, however I also will give praise where it is due.
I think his keeping in this series has been absolutely 1st class & have enjoyed
watching him behind the stumps as a really good keeper is poetry in motion.

Not at all DC, here is the list of opening partnerships in the history of the game, that played 10 or more innings together. 215 in total

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=fow_average;partnership_wicketmax1=1;partnership_wicketval1=partnership_wicket;qualmin1=10;qualval1=fow_innings;spanmax2=6+jan+2020;spanmin2=01+jan+1880;spanval2=span;template=results;type=fow

Notice that burns and Warner have currently jumped ahead of Hayden and Langer, (probably will change after this innings is completed), better than Slater and Taylor, Better than Greenidge and Haynes (and that won't change after this innings is complete).

More recent in the last 20 years?

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=fow_average;partnership_wicketmax1=1;partnership_wicketval1=partnership_wicket;qualmin1=10;qualval1=fow_innings;spanmax2=6+jan+2020;spanmin2=01+jan+2000;spanval2=span;template=results;type=fow

Burns and Warner partnership is one of the best! 7 century partnerships now.

Not bad for an opener who has all these so-called technical batting problems, or maybe someone is just talking through his proverbial.

Astle starting to really spin the ball - DRS for a googly LBW appeal initiated by Kiwis. 

Burns out LBW for 40. 

Why wasn’t leg spinner, Astle,  selected for the series? 

Keep posting, JJ. 

We can agree to disagree, mate. 

I am mainly concerned about player safety with round the wicket short pitched stuff. 

I am surprised at Paine criticism on forums, because the cricket lovers I know off forum, Baggers having met most of them, have been very impressed and most are former players even Shield and County, as well as First Grade. 

We’ve missed your input, JJ. 

Astle drops a caught and bowled from Labu on 4! 

Warne and Skull are praising Astle’s arm action. 

Warne pontificates that with his stock big turning leggy and googly, he will get heaps of wickets. 

They like Ike his rounder arm action, rather than the common new phenomenon of a release point past the perpendicular. 

I should have specified in the last year or too, JJ! 

Paddles, if you are reading this, why hasn’t Astle been selected? 

I’ve seen a lot of top wrist spinners, and Astle is extracting prodigious turn up almost up there with the legends of the game. 

Maybe he doesn’t have the consistency and loop, but he looks like a dangerous wicket taker. 

Naturally when you are so far ahead of the game DC.

Astle looks no more than competent imo. Did in the first innings and even tho he now has footmark assistance..does this innings too. He does tho have a good wrong'n. He did Burns like a dinner with it.. but yet again if Burns still cant pick which way a ball is turning by now .. not much hope for him on the sub continent.

When you look at the last 2 years with the batsmen Australia is playing the correct side currently

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?batting_positionmax1=7;batting_positionmin1=1;batting_positionval1=batting_position;class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=batting_average;qualmin1=3;qualval1=matches;spanmin1=01+jan+2018;spanval1=span;team=2;template=results;type=batting

Logically based on age Labuchagne, Smith, and Head are the only ones that will be around in 3 years. Warner and Paine will most probably be gone, Burns and Wade you can argue their best years are coming to an end, they'll be 35 in 3 years and not too many runs are generally scored after 32 years of age, and most batsmen will gradually decline as the age process catches up.

But currently anyone that argues that Head, Wade, and Burns have technical problems and they won't last is just pretending they have this superior knowledge to us mere mortals, results are all that matter and the current 7 batsmen are the best we have, and the results prove that, they are the best 7. And players like Renshaw, Phillippe Cameron Green  et al need more consistent performances at shield level to show they are ready to step up and to prove it's not a one off good season, and that is what Burns and Wade bring to the side, good players allowing time to judge upcoming players properly

 But everyone is entitled to an opinion and those on Whirlpool who you have a problem with just vary in their opinions doesn't make them wrong, just a different way of looking at things.

eg I could argue that Paine's captaincy and management of the bowling attack is poor, using the fact that Pattinson had to wait till the 40th over to get his 5th over of the innings, talk about hamstringing a bowler especially arguably the best new ball bowler in Australia currently gets an old demolished ball and told now take wickets especially after his performance in both innings in the Melbourne test, not just one innings like Cummins did. You may disagree but it is what happened based on factual occurrences. So is Paine's captaincy up to scratch? Is he playing favourites? You'll get different opinions with those questions even from "Educated" cricket followers and there are a lot on Whirlpool afterall they do spend the time posting so they are obviously watching.

Mr Walkabout has returned. Bit late eh Mike the series has almost concluded.

Pattinson was terrific on his home ground. But not here at the SCG. 
Bumping: (from yesterday)
Now Pattinson rubs salt into the wounds of a fairly ordinary day by overstepping and giving the debutant his third life.

Cummins and Hazlewood remain our best opening bowling attack. Pattinson and Starc are too inconsistent. Both need to be watching over their shoulder for Jhye Richardson.

No way is CA ready to boot Paine. Neither shud they be. The man had returned respect to Aussie cricket.

PS: Post on WP.. like to see what responses you get from the trolls to some of your over the top posts.