Comments on: Australians climb from the canvas to defeat India

By: Jameswm

Jameswm — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:43:57 +0000

We all know Katich is good enough in all 3 forms, not to mention being the best thinker there.

Someone please explain how our selectors kept their jobs after dud decision after dud decision…

By: vinay verma

vinay verma — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:07:25 +0000

Jameswm…Katich is good enough to play till the next World Cup…Jayasuriya played the 2007 WC at 38. I say stick with Katich and Hughes as openers for all three forms.

By: Jameswm

Jameswm — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:59:27 +0000

Freud – apart from the selectors, who rates Marsh?

I don’t buy that too old stuff – if you’re good enough, you’re young enough. And there’s no doubt Katich is good enough. It’s a crime that he’s left out of the other levels of the game. Look what he did captaining NSW in the 20/20 thing.

Hughes and Jaques leave Marsh for dead too – I don’t get it. Marsh struggles to get it off the wicket square half the time.

It helps to have a well known dad is all I can say. Even Paine is a better bat than Marsh.

By: vinay verma

vinay verma — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:50:12 +0000

Alec..it hasn’t always been the case. The Great West indies of the Mid seventies to the Mid eighties could chase anything and defend anything (more often than not)The toss did not matter a great deal to them. You could amost say “Who gives a toss”

By: Freud of Football

Freud of Football — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:12:04 +0000

Katich is “too old”, the selectors are rightly focussing on the next WC and Katich wil certainly be over the hill by then, whether Marsh is the right batsman is a matter of opinion but Katich, at 34, isn’t the man for the job.

By: Alec Swann

Alec Swann — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:15:03 +0000

Unless conditions dictate, and they rarely do on the sub-continent, you should win the toss and bat.

At whatever level of cricket you play, it is harder to chase a score than it is to set. It always has been and it always will be.

By: Jameswm

Jameswm — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:40:06 +0000

Marsh dudded it again.

What do the selectors see in him? He’s not fit to tie Katich’s shoelaces, yet Kat doesn’t get a look-in.

Even the biggest Watson doubters must be starting to re-assess now. He is consistently one of our best players, sometimes, like yesterday, in batting AND bowling.

By: vinay verma

vinay verma — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:52:23 +0000

Spiro the next gane is a D/N at Hyderabad and the best conditions are in the afternoon. Win the toss and bat. The sixth one is at Guwahati and an early morning start. Send the opposition in. So you cant really bat first everytime. The last one at Mumbai will not matter if you bat first or second. India actually like to chase because they have confidence in their top four. But if they dont fire India struggles. And yes Tendulkar was focussed on the 17000..very unlike him.

Freud..Cricket is a game of yards and inches, thankfully the metrics have not totally taken over. Pontings’ run out was a split second hesitation.He was going to take just a single and then realised there may be two and hesitated momentarily..it took a great throw from jadeja. White and manou were backing up and you cant blame them. Manou actually slipped trying to recover. Bollinger’s was a non event. Henriques stumping was the case of a youngster panicking. His wild swipe was desperation and he will learn. India’s fielding was or me a revelation and shows the ground surface is improving to the point where the Indians are not hesitant to throw themselves around. Five years ago it would have been courting torn skin and blood.

Ponting’s run out of Yuvraj changed the game and he backed up by running out his nemesis Jadeja. Ponting would have enjoyed that. I also thought Ponting rotated his bowlers well and one day soon Johnson has to repay this trust.Hauritz continues to enhance his reputation and was not afraid to flight it to both Yuvraj and Tendulkar. The education continues .

By: Freud of Football

Freud of Football — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:13:40 +0000

Spiro, you are right and yet international cricketers, selection panels and administrative bodies cannot communicate this to the captains. Didn’t WG Grace say;

“When you win the boss – bat. If you are in doubt, think about it – then bat. If you have very big doubts, consult a colleague – then bat.”? Wise words indeed.

Apparently Dhoni was worried about the dew, well what affect did it have? After every wicket they had people running out on to the field and dragging ropes across the grass to soak up any moisture anyway, it was totally counter-productive and if I were in Dhoni’s shoes I’d back my batsmen every time. Tendulkar in particular looked pre-occupied with his record, if he’d batted in the first innings he would no doubt have been unshackled.

Australia can count themselves lucky though, 250 wasn’t enough on that track, 4 run-outs and a stumping is also something they need to make sure doesn’t happen again.

By: Spiro Zavos

Spiro Zavos — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:50:07 +0000

M.S.Dhoni made the same mistake as Ricky Ponting the match before and won the toss and put Australia into bat. The advantage of bowling second is that you have a much better idea of how to use your bowlers. You know how many runs you have to bowl at and so have the advantage of working the bowlers in a way that allows you, the captain, to get the best value from your bowlers.
Sometimes this means bowling them out straight away and not holding them back and other times not bowling certain bowlers their allotted over.
Will the toss winner put the other side into bat in the next ODI? Or will the captains finally learn their lesson.