He'll argue that it's open to interpretation. :lol:

Nice little fight back here. Smith is keeping the scoreboard ticking, you'd think that we need these two to bat well into tomorrow's session to get back into it.

Yay! Australia have passed 50! :lol:

Get the feeling Rogers is taking on the role Steve Waugh was so famous for when Australia were in a tough situation. The famous dig in and fight hard approach. Rogers appears to be doing just that. So long as Smith doesn't go playing too flashy.....


As I say that, Rogers is given out LBW. A full swinging delivery. He;s gone for a review, but it looked fairly plum live.

This could be bad.

That really hurts. Very similar to the one Starc had turned down on referral.

Edited by vaughn2111: 11/7/2013 03:01:44 AM

Australia would be pretty happy to have 50 odd runs on the board. Dunno about having 4 out though #-o

Yep, Rogers gone for 15.

Australia 4-53, fightback didn't last long.

That wickets done me for the night. Please no more down before stumps boys [-o<

Very good Stevie.

Take that! Says Steve Smith to Graham Swan.

Dispatches him for 6 over Long On. :lol:. Why not, not much to lose.

Swann looks like a Bond Villain with his collar up like that.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is stumps on day 1.

Australia 4-75. The Aussies with a LOT of work to do tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be as overcast and cloudy as it was today, thus it won't swing as wildly as it did.

Smith: NO on 37
Hughes NO on 7

All that good work by Australia's bowlers undone by a predictably poor upper Australian order. #-o

I have no idea why Ed Cowan is in the side. He is a failure, is nowhere near test match standard. He needs to be dropped, sent home from the ashes, make a stand that we only have good batsmen in the squad. Selectors have absolutely no idea what they are doing.
Why are we crucifying an opening batsman like Hughes by playing him down the order and playing a failure like Watson as opener? Watson should not be opening and probably should not be in the side, he is not good enough to be a test match batsman.

To be fair...neither are half Australia's current batsmen.

Not sure what the fuck you're on about with Watson though. He's been one of Australia's best performers over the last 3-4 years.

Yeah, and you can't really claim Hughes is the solution after his tour in India. There are going to be some tough days, but we need to stick loyal to players. The only option to come in would be Usman for me, but give these lads a couple of cracks at it first.

I'm not entirely sure if DP has ever seen a game of cricket in his life tbh :lol:

I think the frustration with Watson is the lack of making hundreds.

And the fact his attitude appears to stink.

I dunno about that. He's a good, aggressive batsman. He looked like he was going to cry when he got out last night.

Not his attitude as a batsman, his attitude as a person. Guy is soft as puppy shit, loves to whinge to anyone who'll listen, Type of bloke who thinks he's tough shit when others are around, but get him alone and he's all talk.

Give Hughes a go as an opener and then have a go at him for failing. When he is played in the middle order against spinners the only thing that is going to happen is failures. He is being destroyed.

Cowan has been given heaps of opportunities and has been a continual failure. He has fought hard and given his best and his best is a joke for a test match batsman.

Edited by Davis_Patik: 11/7/2013 03:00:40 PM

You could literally switch Hughes' name in for Cowan's in your post. Hughes has had several different stints at opener and at 3. I'm not saying drop Hughes, but you can't claim he hasn't had his chances.

The reason Cowan is still there is because of his bating style. You need the tight players to balance the looser, technically flawed players like Warner and Hughes.

Watson and Rogers are the prime opening partnership for me. We need to have either Cowan or Khawaja at 3 to a) stop a collapse and b) protect Clarke.

Who is your spinner?

please dont say smith or Warner....:shock:

For me, it should be this for the whole series, with the options selected on form. We often criticise Smith for his technique, but he showed last night that he is a fighter. He batted superbly last night In a very difficult session.

Watson
Rogers
Cowan/khawaja
Clarke
Hughes/Smith/Warner
Hughes/Smith/Warner
Haddin
Starc/Faulkner
Pattinson/Bird
Siddle
Agar/Lyon

Edited by vaughn2111: 11/7/2013 04:34:21 PM

Id give Harris a couple of games, provided he can stay fit.

I am talking about this stint with Hughes, especially what happened in India. Yes he largely failed in India as a middle order batsman against spinners but that should not be a black mark against him playing as an opener. My point is Hughes should not be playing 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 he should be opening. Let him open, if he fails then drop him and do not give him another chance for a long time. However to play him other than an opener is just not fair to him or very likely to work.
And to compare Hughes and Cowan and say they are the same is rather strange. Cowan has been fairly consistent and making mid sized nothing scores, fighting hard but Hughes has been quite the oppposite, has made a number of hundreds but also failing a lot. Hughes also has a much better first class record averaging close to 45 while Cowan is under 40. Hughes is young and therefore much more likely to improve. It is interesting both Cowan and Hughes have played the same number of first class games, 98 even though Cowan is 6 and a half years older.
We have seen the best of Cowan and that is not good enough.
We have only seen glimpses of the best of Hughes and he can become a good test match batsman.

We need stability at the top, we can't just hand Hughes a spot because he's a good bloke. We've chosen Watto and Rogers. We need to stick with it. Hughes will have to adapt lower down.

This. It's been half an innings in tough conditions against a really good bowling attack FFS. Give these blokes a series to see what they can do. If Hughes can't adapt to have some success at 5 or 6, he ain't going to be good enough to open. The reality is Watson/Hughes isn't likely to work. We need 2 players in our top 4 that bat time, and Rogers and Cowan are good options IMO, and if one of them don't work it should be Usman that comes in. We need to provide Pup with the best opportunity to cash in, because we know he will.

Clarke coming back from injury is probably a bad option as a bowler. Warner isn't even an option right now either.