Hilfy struggling to carry expections

Ben Hilfenhaus is in danger of becoming the forgotten man of Australian cricket this summer unless he can break the shackles of a worrying form slump.
Twelfth man for the two Tests against Sri Lanka, the Tasmanian swing bowler has all-but been written off as a fourth-pace option for the Boxing Day Test following the stunning [...]

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Boo Cheers

Spiro Zavos said | December 6th 2007 @ 4:32am | Report comment

I watched Ben Hilfenhaus at the SCG when Tasmania played NSW. As he did at Perth he got an early wicket (Ed Cowan) and then struggled to make much impression. I thought he didn’t seem to swing the ball as much as I had expected him to. But then I don’t think the SCG is generally a swing bowler’s ground. It favour quickies who hit the pitch hard, like Glenn McGrath. Hilfenhaus seems to slide his deliveries along the pitch rather than banging them into it.
He also was used as a defensive bowler with 3 (offside)-6 (onside) field and 4-5 fields from periods of play. Nothing is more likely to disillusion bowlers more than having to bowl to fields that do not give them much chance of taking wickets.

Stoffy said | December 6th 2007 @ 4:56am | Report comment

Hilfy is already the forgotten man. He cant even make his way into the upcomming twenty20 squad and he’s one of the best bowlers in that form of the game. His tight line makes it difficult for batsman to score quickly and in his two matches he has taken 3 wickets with best figures of 2/16 and an impressive average of 16. You cant blame hilfy for this recent form drop, if anything its the selectors fault. Last year he performed amazingly well over all forms and was only rewarded in 1 one dayer and 2 twenty20’s. Being a Tasmania it makes me even more fustrated that two of the three selectors are Tasmanian (Boon and Cox). Hilfy, not matter what his recent stats say is still the man for the job!