Roar Rookie
Joined August 2010
17.9k
Views
12
Published
399
Comments
Published
Comments
How do you rate all-rounders? For a start, there are different views on what an all-rounder is. If there isn’t agreement there, it’s hard…
In the first Test against New Zealand, David Warner joined Ricky Ponting as the only Australian to score hundreds in both innings of a…
It has been noted that the South Africans were the first visiting team since the 1992/3 West Indians to win a second successive series…
The not particularly evocatively named Mr Price Kings Park, Durban. The not overly fan-friendly time of 3:10 am, Sunday eighth July. One of those…
In all of the debates about Australian cricket selections lately, one almost constant has been the criticism of Brad Haddin, with calls for him…
Three-quarters of the way through pool play at the Rugby World Cup and it’s hard to find anyone with a good word to say…
The 2000th cricket Test match has just begun between England and India at Lords. Some are querying whether it is really the 2000th Test,…
[caption id="attachment_16689" caption="Australia\'s bowler Simon Katich, third from right, with teammates, celebrates. AP Photo/Themba Hadebe"][/caption] Simon Katich was – and deserves the opportunity to…
It’s been popular on The Roar to talk about the relative weakness of the Australian conference in the Super Rugby competition in 2011. The…
In the hand-wringing that has (quite appropriately) followed the Ashes series, one snippet is worth noting – discounting the Perth match (which starts to…
There have been a couple of articles recently on The Roar regarding the haka. It’s been a popular bone of contention – how do…
Posts on The Roar in recent weeks have discussed selecting all-time World, West Indies, India v Australia and West Indies regional teams. Some of…
This is tricky – I can’t pick between (b) and (c).
Win or lose, why Fittler should walk away from NSW coach's gig after this Origin series
2 of the non-specialists have taken 3 of the 5 wickets. Stokes is only ever a jarred knee from not bowling any more so maybe he can be discounted to at least some extent, but Moeen Ali has always had the ability to bowl a wicket-taking ball (even if he has also always bowled a fair few 4-balls in between). That and his ability to score runs on non-bouncing pitches meant his selection wasn’t a complete joke (in my view anyway). Let’s hope the pitch gets flatter instead of wearing (as the English pitches have done over the past few years, judging by the spate of successful run chases).
Uzzy's the man! Khawaja's finest ton keeps Aussies afloat, but advantage England after top-order failures
Not just your lifetime AK – there’s never been a 5-0 in the Ashes in England. Three times in Australia, and one of those was with timeless tests. I’m not sure I’d take the 5-0 predictions as being much more than pre-series banter mind you.
Ashes Scout: Smith injury scare, England cut key bowler in final XI, Brook taunts Aussie attack
Is Ashwin the number 1 ranked bowler in English conditions? He has a reasonable but hardly compelling record of 7 games for 18 wickets at 28. And it’s stretching things to say Lyon took 4 vital wickets in the second innings – one vital and 3 pretty cheap would be nearer the mark. That’s not a criticism of him, more an attempt at a fair characterisation. Australia bowled pretty well, took some good catches (dropped or didn’t attempt some others), had one brilliant batting partnership and a number of starts, while India lost it by not getting a bit of luck in the opening session of day 1 when the attack they picked had very good conditions to work with, then not bowling well the rest of that day when those conditions eased and they were faced with 2 very good players scoring freely. They then compounded that by a regular sprinkling of impatience and poor shots when batting.
Five key takeaways from the World Test Championship final
If Warner’s is right, Labuschagne’s is low. Batted just as long (actually slightly longer) in the first innings when the going looked tough, and much longer in the second, again when it wasn’t easy. If Warner and Labuschagne hadn’t survived as long at they did in the first innings, do Smith and Head get to make hay later on?
Every player graded from the World Test Championship final: Heroic Head, brilliant Boland, but Aussie nemesis struggles
Looking through the Cricinfo list of most test wickets taken, and then looking at the age Australian pace bowlers on the list were when they played their last test – they start to drop at age 30 and almost all were gone by 34 (exceptions being that handy pair Dennis Lillee and Glenn McGrath, and Peter Siddle who was able to keep playing despite his pace dropping away). All of that suggests that at almost 32.5 Josh Hazlewood’s days are rapidly running out, even if he didn’t have not just a side strain, but a series of side strains. When you do factor in his injury history over the past couple of years, and take all of the reports about his fitness with a good handful of salt, you wouldn’t say he’s played his last test, but it couldn’t surprise if he only plays a handful more.
Ashes Scout: Aussies make early call on Hazlewood injury, hobbling Stokes says he's OK, Warner says 2019 form irrelevant
Nice. There should be a sub-heading on the Roar for “relevant Ripping Yarns references”.
Ashes Scout: Aussies set to make bold call on Hazlewood for WTC final, Brearley backs Stokes’ gung-ho approach
Perhaps more an attempt to reprise Golden Gordon, the one where the obsessed soccer fan brings back players from his club’s (distant) successful past to play in the club’s last game before it disappears into oblivion. The parallels are almost spooky. If someone takes off his toupee straight after the toss at the Oval, watch out.
Ashes Scout: Aussies set to make bold call on Hazlewood for WTC final, Brearley backs Stokes’ gung-ho approach
1981 at a guess Crow – only time I’ve been to the SCG – not a great place for watching rugby from this Qld boy’s perspective but that was a really good game. Chris Roche outplaying Rives (who was a very great player) a highlight.
Jean-Pierre Rives: a blood-stained jersey tells the story of French rugby's Renaissance man
You did pretty well. The first site I could find with a squad for 2003 (something called “Statbunker”) gave the squad as Hookers – Anthony Mathison, Sean Hardman and Stephen Moore; Props – Pete Niumata, Nick Stiles, Fletcher Dyson, Tai McIsaac and Greg Panoho. A couple of decent hookers (though pretty young at that stage I suspect) but none of the props would go close to warranting a royal commission if not picked for the Wallabies.
Revealed: Why Wallabies scrum guru walked away after Eddie arrival
2005 doesn’t count because of the McGrath injury, and 2010/11 doesn’t count because Broad was injured after the first 2 games.
Broadside: Stuart’s playing bizarre mind games with Aussies claiming last Ashes didn’t count - ‘a void series’
Ray, the winner is actually Promite.
Broadside: Stuart’s playing bizarre mind games with Aussies claiming last Ashes didn’t count - ‘a void series’
Can you tell (without a lot of work) how many were won with a field goal?
Golden point is pointless - it's a solution to a problem that never existed and should be scrapped
Not FC of course so not what you’re talking about Tempo, but one of the times Bill Lawry batted through a Test innings he made all of 49 (out of 107) – the lowest such score for Australia if you discount innings where not all 10 wickets fell (and if you don’t apply that discount, the lowest is Bill Woodfull’s 30 out of 66 in Don Bradman’s first test). No balls faced figures in scorecards from back then – 58.2 (I think 6 ball) overs in the innings so Lawry presumably would have faced something in the 180 to 200 ball range. Positively brisk compared to Chandrasinghe.
Slow though Chandrasinghe may have been, how many would the Vics have made if he got out early? It’s not like he’s taken so much time he’s made it hard to get a result.
Defiant, or dull? Victorian opener's remarkable vigil keeps WA at bay in Sheffield Shield final
Bush, as regards rugby, the 7s version of the game gets a lot more traction in the US (as does women’s rugby). 7s being in the Olympics helps there, but 7s was a significant game in the US before Rio. Sure men’s 15s isn’t even a blip on the radar compared to the main US sports and while there’s been growth, it hasn’t been rapid. But does that matter?
When it comes to cricket, you mention proximity to the West Indies and others mention the sub-continental diaspora to the US. There are also a lot of migrants and would be migrants from the West Indies in the US. Rather like 7s rugby compared to 15s, you (or I) may prefer test cricket to T20, but if T20 is going to be more palatable somewhere else, isn’t it better to play T20 in that place than not to have anything more than recreational cricket there?
Aussie stars sign up with international big hitters for ambitious Major League Cricket start-up venture
And should also have added – had I been the bowler in those circumstances and thought about it, I’d have tried a Mankad just to keep Wagner more in his crease when I did actually bowl!
Williamson stars with ton as New Zealand's Test with Sri Lanka decided on final ball of match in another thriller
No I hadn’t heard anything about that either, but because I’d raised the subject of Mankads I thought I should add that I thought Wagner would have been fine even if Fernando had tried one (which of course he didn’t).
Williamson stars with ton as New Zealand's Test with Sri Lanka decided on final ball of match in another thriller
Planning and preparation are obviously tremendously important and you can’t not do either – but for all England’s planning (and Vaughan always comes across to me as someone who talks a great game while never being wrong), would they have won the series without Glenn McGrath standing on a cricket ball in the warm up at Trent Bridge (or Simon Jones having basically the only series for most of which he could stay fit) (or Murray Mints – maybe that is one to chalk up to planning)?
India 2027 tour planning starts now: Plenty of time but none to waste for Aussies to break drought on next trip
I thought I’d already said this so apologies if this turns into a duplication. Jacko, you’re correct. I looked at the laws, and 38.3.2 (helped by 38.3.3) answers the query in the line “the ball shall not count as one in the over”.
So had Wagner been out to a Mankad, Fernando would have had to bowl another delivery. As a final note after looking at the video, Wagner looked to be as in as any other batsman normally would be at the point Fernando bowled.
Williamson stars with ton as New Zealand's Test with Sri Lanka decided on final ball of match in another thriller
Absolutely I acknowledge that Agar was treated very poorly and I have said that in previous comments closer to that time. I disagree on your other points but since this is an opinion site that’s fine!
India win series but Aussies favourites for rematch, player of series award a cop-out, Head stuck in 90s: Talking Points
Jacko, I think you’re correct. I resorted to looking it up, and Law 38.3.2 talking about non-strikers being run out in this way says
If the ball is not delivered and there is an appeal,
the umpire shall make his/her decision on the Run out. If it is not out, he/she shall call and signal Dead ball as soon as possible.
the ball shall not count as one in the over.
Because of the way it is punctuated in the law as it is presented on line (which doesn’t quite come across when it is cut and paste into here) I take the last line about the ball not counting as applying whether it is out or not out. I think 38.3.3 reinforces that conclusion but this is getting legalistic enough without going into that.
Theoretically therefore, you could have an entire team dismissed without a ball being actually bowled. I’m sure that wouldn’t look the least bit suspicious from a corruption point of view.
In this particulare case, it means that a tie was still possible as Fernando came in to bowl the 6th ball of his over. As a final note, looking at the video Wagner did not seem to be out of his crease as Fernando was bowling.
Williamson stars with ton as New Zealand's Test with Sri Lanka decided on final ball of match in another thriller
So a significant risk that someone would run into the back of you?
Certainly from a little after lunch on there wasn’t a whole lot of pressure there.
Head, Labuschagne steer Aussies to safety as thrilling series ends with a whimper thanks to disgrace of a pitch
Much earlier in the season than when Australia usually plays at the Oval, which may be significant when trying to guess what might happen based on past performances.
Head, Labuschagne steer Aussies to safety as thrilling series ends with a whimper thanks to disgrace of a pitch
No problem and I get what you’re saying. In the same vein, is Head likely to contribute more from 5 or 6 than he is from 1 or 2? No-one can say for certain, but I’d have said yes.
India win series but Aussies favourites for rematch, player of series award a cop-out, Head stuck in 90s: Talking Points
I don’t want to appear to be bagging Hazlewood, but 6 for him seems very generous if Boland is getting 3.5.
Every player rated from the first Ashes Test: Awesome Uzzy, ridiculous Root as Aussie twin towers crumble