Australia cruelled by wasted starts with the bat

40 wickets fell so it can't have been too hard to remove batsmen 'So it was a tight tussle because all the bowlers could do was bowl tight and try to bore the batsmen into a mistake, and all the batsmen could do was try to not do something stupid and wait for a genuinely bad ball to score off' Sounds like test cricket to me. The outfield was a touch slow but otherwise an excellent wicket Bring on Perth. Should be another fantastic battle between two evenly placed teams

If Foakes, Ahmed, or Watling were at the crease and had a start you'd at least believe they had a chance to go on with it, with Paine in the side our tail starts at 7 which isn't acceptable with our current top six, especially if, God forbid, MMarsh is in the side (the tail starts at 6 in that case). He isn't any better with the gloves than the other keepers in test cricket; he's slightly overrated in that area, actually.

Psychology is definitely part of it. But there are other factors, the pitch for example. Whilst a particular ground might have seen a number of fourth innings scores above what is being chased, this particular pitch is unlikely to be as good to bat on, or else the teams would have scored more runs over all. On the psychology thing, you just can't take out the reality of doing something after five days of exertion. Put simply, it must be draining in the extreme, so to then heap on pressure, history etc, it's no wonder so few teams pull of miracles.

It wasn't good batting conditions, or good bowling conditions. It was conditions where staying in wasn't hard but scoring was. Hence most of the dismissals came from attacking shots. It was very hard for bowlers to get out a batsman if they were trying to defend. But attacking shots were fraught with danger. It was conditions where the bowlers had to just keep it tight and wait for a batsman to make an error, and the batsmen just had to stay in and wait for a genuinely bad ball. Probably the real thing the batsmen need to do in those conditions is realise they aren't going to hit many boundaries and just need to find any safe way possible to keep picking up regular singles.

For instance, there have only been three successful chases over 400 in test history, yet there have been 20 fourth innings scores of over 400. You mention 20 scores over 400 and a score over 400 seems a lot more getable than saying only 3 successful chases over 400. At the Adelaide Oval, all time, there have been 36 fourth innings scores over 200, of which 12 were over 300 and the top score is 445, ironically by India. However, when you filter that list to the successful chases, you are down to just 4 over 200 and 1 over 300. A dozen of them were in drawn matches, the rest losses. And the majority of those losses were by a lot, suggesting that they were set a massive target. It's harder to find statistics for, but you would probably find the number of matches won by the team setting a target of no more than 325 wouldn't actually produce a big list either. If anyone knows how to find that stat I'd be happy to know. I can find runs scored in the fourth innings easily in StatsGuru, but not fourth innings target.

Yeah, when they keep putting up those "highest successful chase" charts, I'd always be interested to then see one that's just "highest fourth innings scores". Might find there have been plenty of 300+ fourth innings scores, but they were chasing 400+. I also wonder if these "records" put added pressure sometimes. It looks like something so hard to do. And really wonder if it wasn't for the boat having to leave and the game being called a draw when England were almost certainly going to successfully chase down a target of 696 back in 1938, if we would have seen more successful chases, because the psychology is that it's so far below the record, it feels more doable and gives you more confidence.

I've never advocated for run-fest roads. The classic Australian pitches from 10+ years ago used to have something in them for everyone. The ball came on nicely so batsmen could play their shots, but there was enough there for the fast bowlers to be able to get the ball to do a bit and pick up wickets, and they wore as the match went on and brought the spinners in towards the end. This pitch didn't provide for spinners or seamers. If a batsman was content to not score they were almost impossible to remove. But the way the ball came through seemed to make it almost impossible to time attacking strokes unless it was a really bad ball. Hence all the batsmen looked like geese edging the ball when playing some sort of attacking shot. So it was a tight tussle because all the bowlers could do was bowl tight and try to bore the batsmen into a mistake, and all the batsmen could do was try to not do something stupid and wait for a genuinely bad ball to score off.

Both team can improve especially in batting department.Yasir Shah wasn't that great before the NZ series.There is a reason why Pakistan were ranked no 7 before NZ series.He could've prevented some of the losses against WI(1),Sri Lanka(2) in UAE.Not that he was bad but he could've done better.Against Australia also,He wasn't that great and they managed to draw a test there recently.

Rabada would surely end up as ATG but he has only played 32 tests,I would like to see bit more of him especially in subcontinent.Williamson is definitely in the contention of being impactful batsmen in the world after his series winning performance in UAE.He is now ranked no 2 and closing in on Kohli.One thing is for sure is that Root is the weakest of Fab 4(Smith,Kohli,KW and Root) as of now and the current England team is not highly dependent on Root like before.Any team that is highly dependent on unreliable batsmen like Root is bound to be mediocre team.

The top 7 batted terribly in good batting conditions. The bowling was steady but hardly Curtly Ambrose.

His first class average is 29.85, quite amazing that his test average is so much higher.

It was nice to watch some cricket without handbags.

Khawaja was very guilty of it also. He needs to come out of his crease to meet the pitch of the ball way more often. Even if done defensively, it’s quite safe to do and often the little push gets the single. It not only rotates the strike but makes the spinners think about their lengths and makes it so much harder to set batsmen up.

True Strike Rotation is a problem for Australian batsmen.I think chaseable( but difficult) Target actually worked against Australians.If I am being honest,No team in the world would've chased the target of 323 on the 4/5th day that test.However,In recent years this Australian team have shown lots of grit on the 5th day of tests and they pulled of couple of draws from loosing position(or when WIn was completely out of equation). http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18923/game/1157370/australia-vs-pakistan-1st-test-australia-in-uae-2018-19 http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8525/scorecard/1062575/india-vs-australia-3rd-test-ind-v-aus-2016-17 India at one stage were 6-303 but got all out for 307.Had India lower order extended the lead from 323 to 380,Australia most likely would've drawn this test especially now considering Ashwin bowled 52 overs and took only 3 wickets which is simply unacceptable.We would've seen better Shot selection from Australian batsmen.

I think Yasir Shah May have something to say about the best spinner. Yes our top 7 didn’t bat nearly good enough and yes Starc was way below his best. Also consider Pujara was out on 89, given not out and not referred. Went on to add 34 more runs. What was the winning margin?

Yep you're rIght.

Our batting seems to the the major concern, as most of them are bogged down with good bowling from India & our highest individual score was Marsh in the second innings it would be great to see at least a couple of our batsmen could go on with a bigger score. And at times our bowling was a little erratic with a total of 31 extras in India's second gig!

Cricket's such a funny game though, so few successful chases above about 250, yet teams do regularly make 250 or more in the 4th innings. So many variables. I honestly doubt this current line up will be able to chase anything above 200 at any stage.

I'm still pissed at that shot.. I get that you needed to play shots to score the runs required.. but the pull shot? Across the line? a bit too risky. Compulsive pull/hook shots is how I get out in Ashes Cricket on PS4 lol!!! He did a reasonable job as our keeper/batsman.... but as our captain, he should be smarter than that.