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Geoff Lemon is a writer, editor and broadcaster. He's the host of cricket podcast The Final Word, and author of the book Steve Smith's Men: Behind Australian Cricket's Fall.
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In a lot of ways, Ashes series are like birthdays. Not in the sense of coming around twice every four years, and not in…
The great games don’t necessarily tell you they’re great at first. Two-thirds of the way through the tied World Cup semi-final of 1999, South…
Name your most iconic World Cup cricket duo. For South Africa, how about all-rounder Jacques Kallis and former Everton winger Steven Pienaar? For Pakistan,…
You can keep your tied semi-finals. Don’t bother me with iconic hundreds in deciders. Don’t even start about batting revolutions in the first ten…
This season, Tasmanian wicketkeeper Matthew Wade has become the emblematic hard-luck selection story. But is he actually lucky instead? There’s never any shortage of…
When the Test season wrapped up in Canberra this week, I mentioned the achievements of some Australian players. People promptly pointed out that they…
It shouldn’t be contentious to say that Mitchell Starc is far from his best with the ball this summer. But saying so can draw…
Chew on this: Kusal Mendis has made three Test centuries in the past year. Australia’s entire cricket team has made one. If you’ve never…
In my time following cricket, I’ve never known such a fevered atmosphere around selection. Belatedly, the national panel has recognised that fact. Cricket supporters…
The unfortunate thing is that it’s not Marnus Labuschagne’s fault. But the latest selection for Australia’s Test team is embarrassing for those who made…
It’s alive. Aliiiiiive. The Boxing Day Test has been a dead affair for years, but finally we’ve got one that counts. In truth, Boxing…
We keep hearing it. That Australia needs to play hard cricket. Or tough cricket. But not one person who says it can define what…
The triple century is cricket’s rarefied tier, the area of the stats sheet where mortals dare not tread. To cross the mark of 300…
Adam Gilchrist’s career was always about being fearless. As a batsman, he just came out and took the bowlers on, almost regardless of the…
For the rest of Mitchell Johnson’s life, the defining moment of his career will, of course, be the 2013-14 Ashes, with the early 2014…
Some moments, you always remember where you were when they happened. On the last day of the Adelaide Test in 2006, I was at…
Occasionally, it isn’t a matter of hyperbole to talk about something in terms of the best or worst ever. This is one such case.…
'Worst Ashes team to inflict a whitewash', was a description people started proposing in 2013. Now there's a contender in the works. The current…
It seemed fitting that international cricket should exit the WACA with a comedy of errors. Make no mistake, we’ve just seen its final Test.…
In Test matches, we love to look for symmetry. For England's loss and Australia's win at Brisbane, look no further than the two captains.…
Well, I could have written an article offering the insight that the guy who made a century had an influence on the result, but mostly I’m there to get a feel for the game, and to look for moments that are notable one way or the other. There are enough match reports already. Johnson had an effect on the atmosphere in both innings, so it’s worth discussion.
Great line about the spark plugs : )
Don't look at the numbers, look at Mitch on centre stage
Good to hear from you Sheek, looking forward to the Trans-Tasman final very much.
Don't look at the numbers, look at Mitch on centre stage
Absolutely, his bounce last night would have been a great addition. And then if they’d had Ajmal in the middle overs…
What-ifs, but tasty ones.
Watson, Maxwell prove themselves in a different World Cup partnership
Yes and no. You get a side five wickets down and suddenly all kinds of nerves come into play – even if they only have 40 to get, let alone 100-plus.
Watson, Maxwell prove themselves in a different World Cup partnership
It would have been an absolute belter of a game if you’d had Haddin coming in at 5/80-odd, with Wahab in that spell. Australia would probably have scraped home but you never know.
Watson, Maxwell prove themselves in a different World Cup partnership
Very envious you got to see it live, Nudge. Even on TV the tension during that spell was palpable. Hopefully it’s the late-career making of Wahab, a la Johnson.
Watson, Maxwell prove themselves in a different World Cup partnership
I continue to be amazed that Smith can play them so well with that claw-like grip of his. But his timing at the moment is perfect. Barely hits the ball.
Watson, Maxwell prove themselves in a different World Cup partnership
Thanks Joey – I think. Agree with the others that we won’t see Finch dropped with two games to go.
I don’t claim to be a journalist, just a writer. And I’ve written extensively in support of Michael Clarke, including recently. It depends on the topic.
Eg: http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/12/11/clarke-finished-clarke-king-clarke-martian/
Watson, Maxwell prove themselves in a different World Cup partnership
Hello Brett – yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the Associates. But then, I went through the tournament figures for each of the top 20 wicket-takers game by game (because I have a rich and fulfilling social life) and none of them took bags against Associate sides. All the top wicket-takers have been very consistent: 2 wickets here, 3 wickets there, regardless of who they were playing.
The only bags have been Southee’s 7 against England and Starc’s 6 against NZ. In fact, all of the 5-fors have been taken against Full Member sides.
World Cup is a batsman's paradise, but are bowlers in purgatory?
True that, Spruce. I’d add Vettori and the full Pakistan pace attack. Losing Mohammed Irfan is a massive blow for Pakistan.
World Cup is a batsman's paradise, but are bowlers in purgatory?
Shami has been really good actually. Hitting a great length throughout, and he’s consistently taken wickets and been economical in every game he’s played. Credit where it’s due.
World Cup is a batsman's paradise, but are bowlers in purgatory?
Which is a ridiculous thing to say because it would be inconsistent with everything else I’ve written about Clarke’s preparation. Your reasoning is that I have some vendetta against Clarke – a claim you’ve made a number of times, and which is also ridiculous.
Not sure it could be any clearer.
By the numbers, Mitchell Starc is top of the world
Interesting point. There are a few bowlers with excellent figures among the carnage. Maybe the rejigged rules make it harder to hide those half-bowlers: Perera, Behardien, Russell. Perhaps all-rounders in future will need to be top-six batsmen who can bowl, like Maxwell, rather than bottom-five players who can club. Faulkner can hold his spot on bowling chops alone, so he’s an exception.
I reckon the four-men-out rule makes a bigger difference to spinners, who take a lot of their ODI wickets in outfield traps, and use boundary riders to manipulate a batsman’s shots. Vettori’s had a blinder, Ashwin and Shakib have been good, but there’s barely another spinner in the top 50 wicket-takers. The two new balls probably don’t help.
By the numbers, Mitchell Starc is top of the world
Hi Digger,
I wouldn’t claim to be an expert on fast bowling technique, but I suspect it’s just that the games are so different. The tactics that will bring you success in one don’t apply in the other. Philander bowls a perfect regulation line and length in Tests that can be taken apart in one-dayers as the batsmen move and attack. Starc attacks the batsman a lot in ODIs and comes into the game because they have to play shots in return. Most of his clean-bowled wickets for instance have been against batsmen playing scoring shots rather than defending. He could bowl those yorkers in a Test but they’d be blocked out, he would get tired, and then he’d start to give away balls they could score from.
Test bowling is much more an endurance thing of settling into a rhythm and drawing a mistake. He doesn’t necessarily have that endurance, patience and consistency yet. For ODIs he’s been told to get right after the batsman as hard as he can, because he only has to bowl three short spells for the day. That’s how I figure it, anyway.
Maxwell and Starc learn to surf Australia’s World Cup wave
It’s borne out in this tournament though Chris – Starc is a massive anomaly.
We’ve had 25 innings of 300 or more in this World Cup. That’s from 39 games.
The average winning margin between Full Member sides is 89.8 runs, or 5.2 wickets. Only 6 of their 19 games have been won chasing.
All up 17 games have been won by a side putting up 300+ and defending it, and three have been won by teams chasing over 300.
I might run up some more of these numbers for an article.
By the numbers, Mitchell Starc is top of the world
We’ve got a few more besides, Goodfella. Behrendorff has a ton of wickets in a handful of Shield games. Bird isn’t the youngest but still has some prospects. Siddle might still offer support. I reckon you need half a dozen top-line quicks to guarantee a good bowling era, so you can cover for injuries and varying conditions.
By the numbers, Mitchell Starc is top of the world
Hello Tom – I’d love to read critical analysis, but it’s not always in plentiful supply. Agreed about positive stories, I think we all fall into the trap of overly negative topics at times. They’re a bit more readily available. Though sometimes they do need writing.
Starc is a very good news story, I was staggered by those stats on five-wicket hauls. Not sure if he’s just had a purple patch, but if he could keep going at his current rate he’d smash all the tallies. Waqar’s world record for five-fors is only 13.
By the numbers, Mitchell Starc is top of the world
Nudge, if someday you feel like chatting about the game, I’d enjoy that. If you’d rather talk about imaginary vendettas, no one benefits. Let’s move on.
By the numbers, Mitchell Starc is top of the world
We’re all a bit bored of arguments with Nudge. Let’s talk about cricket instead.
By the numbers, Mitchell Starc is top of the world
Testiness has hardly been a one-way street, my friend. Let’s get back to being our cheerful old selves from here on.
(The score was in the quoted paragraph, between all the other bits you said were missing.)
Maxwell and Starc learn to surf Australia’s World Cup wave
I must have missed the rule that every article has to include all of the information all of the time. Some of us choose different things to focus on than others. Life’s rich tapestry.
For what it’s worth, most of this article is about a Victorian.
Maxwell and Starc learn to surf Australia’s World Cup wave
Sangakkara has opened 21 times in 402 games.
Maxwell and Starc learn to surf Australia’s World Cup wave
Sorry Don, I didn’t realise I had to transcribe the entire 50 overs. Here goes.
Maxwell: “Here’s Malinga, rushing up, bowls to Warner, Warner drives, he’s caught at cover. Change of pace and he’s chipped the ball away straight to cover, and he’s out for 9. It’s 1 for 19. No control there, deceived by Malinga’s change of pace.”
Lawson: “That’s just beautifully bowled, that really is. It’s one of the skills that Malinga has… [carries on about bowling for a while] … It’s a gorgeous piece of limited-overs bowling from a veteran and a master.”
Maxwell: “And it gets Prasanna into the game, he was at cover, simple catch lobbed to him.”
Was there anything else?
Maxwell and Starc learn to surf Australia’s World Cup wave
That’s how it looked live, Chris. I think Dhoni and Rahane were finding looking to just tick things over, but they found it hard to even score enough singles and twos. Rahane in particular was stuck on strike, and Dhoni was caught between wanting to smash and not feeling like he had the right deliveries to do it against. His run out had all the signs of a guy who’d given up.
Don't look at the numbers, look at Mitch on centre stage