By RedKat - 19 Aug 2019 10:17 AM
Quick turnaround as we head to Leeds for the third test. Imagine some changes for Australia. Probably Harris and Labuschagne in for Bancroft and Smith. Will be interesting to see what we do with the bowlers.
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By Paddles - 2 Sep 2019 7:33 AM
+x+x+xI didn’t post stuff last night because I was busy chewing my fingernails off. that has to be the greatest match winning hundred in a test match. It was absolutely unbelievable hitting. The only thing that comes close to it was Lara’s 153 against Australia in the West Indies, but that series had already been lost. This was either slog 135 or lose the ashes. Incredible. Iecho the sentiments of others that our bowlers - Lyon aside - bowled poorly at the end. We had 17 balls at leach, and not once did anyone try a full Yorker from around the wicket. Hazelwood is not a good performer at the death in ODI cricket. I wasn’t surprised to see him taken to the cleaners at the end there. But Cummins and Patterson should have bowled some full ones at the stumps. He’s a number 11 for god sakes, try to bowl him out! These comments really really annoy me. I saw cricinfo write the same thing. Ben Stokes innings WAS NOT EVEN THE BEST TEST INNINGS TO WIN A TEST THIS YEAR... This one is imo... https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18645/scorecard/1144164/south-africa-vs-sri-lanka-1st-test-sl-in-sa-2018-19That's AWAY in SA, facing Steyn, Philander, Rabada, Olivier and Maharaj! 78 required for the last wicket... Sorry Stokes is great, but how noone even discusses this one which occurred this very year should be mindblowing... but its actually just reveals how little attention is paid to intl cricket outside matches involving the Rich 3. That Lara 1999 series was drawn 2-2 - Lara does the 153* in the 3rd test, to put WI up 2-1... No way! I saw Perera's knock and it was indeed absolutely incredible, but I think Stokes was better given the series circumstances. Keep in mind, if Stokes got out, that was the entire ashes gone. The pressure on him was way higher than Perera - an entire Ashes series on one man's shoulders. Plus the bowling may not have been quite as hot but the pitch was tougher. To do that with all of those pressures on, plus 15,000 Northern English fans screaming, that's off the charts. Circumstances? Really don't buy this.
Look I get you think that the Ashes series win is a thing as against drawn series. But its still just another test series. There's been drawn series before, be drawn series again.
Its not like they'll skip the fourth and 5th test if Aus won the third.
Now you can tell me I don't get it. But I got up to watch the English chase cos I thought they had a chance of winning. I got to see Stoke's innings, cos I thought England had a good chance of doing it.
Now Perera, in South Africa, after SL had lost 3-0 at home to England, had lost away comfortably, I mean thrashed, to NZ and Aus - then turn up with a mickey mouse team, facing Philander, Rabada, Steyn, Maharaj and Olivier. And pull off a bigger 10th wicket partnership chase to win. AWAY. On a spicy pitch. Against the best bowling attack on the planet!. Sorry - its not close. Noone had heard of Perera before that innings, we already knew Stokes. Perera scored more runs, he scored more his team's total, and he blunted the best bowling group on the planet. Away. On a mine field. In a team that had just lost 3 series in a row...
Perera for mine, much more brilliant and unexpected innings. Root, Bairstow, Stokes, England always had a chance. SL sent a rubbish team that should have been destroyed by Rabada, Ngidi, Philander, Olivier, Maharaj et al like Australia, India and everyone else has been. But they won? In those circumstances? With Perera playing like a man possessed with CHANCELESS innings. Not dropped like Stokes was. Chanceless.
Sometimes I don't get why any country plays test cricket, if the Ashes - between the 4th and 5th ranked test nations, means so much more apparently cos its the Ashes. You really think Olivier, Steyn and Rabada, let alone Perera, dont care about winning their tests even if they're not Ashes matches? But here's the thing, if Perera doesn;'t win that test, SL coudn't win their first series in SA. An entire SA tour on one man's shoulders ;)
You may not understand this, but it was huge deal to Indiam cricket fans to win in Aus, even if not the Ashes, India still have never won in SA. NZ has never won in SA. Its a big deal to many of us. And SL has, while fielding their worst test team since the 1980's. Perera made it possible. And it did then happen. SL beat India to a series win in SA... they got one up on big brother. Again. And while Aus and Eng fans may get excited about the Ashes, sub continental fans are always excited by every single test match. They are under intense and constant pressure. They drop players and coaches like tomorrow. And burn effigies in the streets. The players and the coaches fight in public. The CURRENT players even fight with each other's player's wives on twitter lately! Seriously, read T Perera, Malinga, wive, captaincy issue. https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/sri-lanka-a-laughing-stock-captain-s-wife-in-spat-with-player-20190131-p50urh.html Its not evena wait till retire and sell some gossip. These are current players. And they're fighting on twitter and facebook!
If winning in SA despite the Ashes was important to Aussies, Smith and Warner wouldn't have cheated. These guys are playing to win whether they are from Eng or Aus, Ind or SL, regardless of who they're playing and where.
They're cricket nuts in the sub continent. There is always pressure to perform on them. Always.
What Fernando's point was, it shows the Big 3 have become so myopic, that it doesn't matter what SL, NZ, SA, WI, etc players achieve. The global cricket media has gone Big 3 mad. Which is odd, cos England and Aus are 4th and 5th right now... afterall. The levels of ignorance to non-Ashes or non-Indian series is just overwhelming.
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