Johnson for MOTM.

+1.

Lol Sri Lanka. Didn't expect their capitulation as a Test Country until after Mahela, Sanga and Dilshan had retired. This is a new low for them.

:lol: very average performance. Will be interesting to see what happens in Sydney

Tony Greig dies after heart attack

http://au.sports.yahoo.com/news/article/-/15733708/tony-greig-dead-from-lung-cancer-at-66/

At Australia's next game they're going to have a 21 boring-stat Salute.

Shattered. Absolute legend of the game on and off the pitch. Hope Channel Nine do an old school pitch/weather report for the next test, would be a fantastic tribute to the man.

[youtube]luddQLV9n04[/youtube]

If he's cremated, who get to keep his ashes - Australia or England?

:lol:
Tenuous link, but I guess the burn reminded me of this:

[youtube]j8Bc7eRTdWY[/youtube]

Umm what... Mike hussey retiring after Sydney?

Makes me very worried with back to back ashes series coming up.

Oh man...I remember that :lol: That has to be one of the all-time great moments on television.

He's 37 now and he'll be 38 by the time the first ashes series comes around - same age as Gilchrist/Hayden when they called it a day - and he's probably feeling the rigours of the game a bit. Probably better that he calls it a day now and affords Australia the opportunity to groom/search for his replacement in the series against India.

That's spectacularly bad :lol: That has to be one of the lowest scores of all time?

The worst test score since 1974 :lol:

Has he announced his retirement date?

I'll miss Mr. Cricket. Favourite played behing Gilchrist. Late comer to test cricket, but boy did he get off to a flyer. Every time his position was in jeopardy, he turned his form around. gutted to hear he's retiring.

Imagine he wasnt a late starter. He would be mentioned in the same breath as Tendulkar, Lara, Ponting, Dravid etc...

Doubt it. Think his struggles away from home would have meant any poor form at home and his average would have dipped considerably.

David Warner with another 50. Becomes the first Aussie batsmen since Katich in 2010 to score at least 50 in 4 consecutive innings.

wasn't that in the Ashes series which Australia lost and he was subsequently dropped after the series?

Was entertaining watching him absolutely dominate the Sri Lankens in the opening 30 minutes of the game.

In terms of spectator entertainment, the batting only really went downhill from there.

What a century from Matty Wade, his first in Australia, incredible 4 to bring it up. And with that Australia declares at 9/432.

So with Hussey retiring, and the need for a second spinner, at least as an all rounder, on Indian wickets, please state your starting XI for the Indian Series.

I'll go first (assuming all players are fit and available, a big if with our fast bowlers!)

Warner
Cowan
Hughes
Watson
Clarke
Khawaja
Wade
Maxwell
Siddle
Pattinson
Lyon

Now I know what your thiking, only 3 dedicated bowlers and 2 all rounders? But bear with me, Maxwell is the second spin option, you also have Clarke who is a bit of a specialist on low turning wickets and even Warner can rip them when they're coming out right. My thinking behind 2 quicks is that the Indian wickets don't really offer much anyway to fast bowlers, plus a fit Watson in the past has been close to our best quick on these kinds of wickets, they seem to suit is bowling well, so Watto would act as the third quick.

My other train of thought is that by running an extra batsmen in Maxwell rather then a fourth dedicated bowlers is that our batting order is very fresh and can be fragile against spin, so the potential for mini-collapses are high, so the deeper we can bat, the better.

I'd also take Cummins (if fit), Starc, Johnson and Bird as the reserve quicks (yes 4 is a lot, but we have a rotation policy) and I'd take Brad Haddin as the reserve keeper because he has been smashing them for NSW so could double as the reserve batsmen, and I'd take Adam Zampa as the reserve spinner, he really looks like he has potential as a test leggy

If we go into the Ashes with Cowan opening we may as well just not turn up.

Cowans fucked. That run out yesterday, not only were the Ch:9 commentators giving him shit, the crowd around me were boo'ing him. But the bloke's a deadset fuckwit. Whats the deal with taking your gloves off everytime you're at the non-strikers end, seriously but.

Yeah it wasn't Cowan carrying his gloves that got him into trouble, Warner does that and he's had no problems. What fucked Cowan was how pathetic his running between the wickets was. The way he dawdled that first run and then baulked as he turned was what fucked him. He's just lucky he ran him self out and not Warner

I want Watson opening, it's where he's best as a batsmen.

Edited by sydneycroatia58: 5/1/2013 01:52:51 PM

Simple solution is to not have him bowl 20+ overs than. I mean the guy averages like 45 as an opener. He is an opening batsmen and the sooner they realise this the better the team will be. We shouldn't need him to be bowling 20+ overs, he should be focusing on scoring runs and helping out with wickets when he can, not the other way round.

Proble with having Maxwell in the top 6 is that I really don't believe he is in the best 6 batsmen in the country, certainly lacks the class of Khawaja

Proved today that he is a classy batsman, but fuck Wade is a shit keeper...

Yep, and that 100 will probably mean everyone forgets about his mistakes keeping.

Problem is that out of the alternatives, Haddin is too old and his time has probably passed, and while Paine and in particular Hartley's keeping is much much better, there batting is not up to test standard (Hartley is ODI and T20 standard, but not Test, and Paine is just generally shit with the bat)

EDIT: Ok thats harsh on Paine, but he does have a habbit of throwing his wicket away

Edited by RJL25: 5/1/2013 02:52:21 PM