Roar Rookie
Joined September 2017
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Try to picture a town of only 46,832 people. According to Wikipedia, the closest real town to this in Australia is Gladstone (45,000), although…
The Australian summer is over (not counting the Sheffield Shield, but sadly nobody seems to). So what better time to slip in another light-hearted…
Welcome to another fun, frivolous hypothetical cricketing XI. The concept this time is quite simple: come up with the best possible alphabetical XI in…
A talking point that often comes up regarding the state of cricket is the balance between bat and ball. Many people say that in…
This article is another contribution to the annual state-of-the-game hand-wringing festival, so if you’re over that already, I totally understand and you’re free to…
With all this imposed indoors time, I’ve been conjuring up any number of imaginary XIs, and here’s my latest idle idea: beautiful versus ugly.…
Despite the complete lack of cricket to watch, I’ve found this period of time to be quite conducive to random pondering and what ifs.…
Every time the Olympics come around, or perhaps at any moment for our sport-mad brains, we wonder which country is the best at sport.…
you’re not getting a lot of shared love for mr stokes, but this was some lovely writing i thought:
‘More the speed, more the boom from the sweet spot of his sword’
Ben Stokes: The technical side of the perfect all-rounder
nice preview! of that probable pakistani line-up, who do you reckon will score the most runs in the series? i’d be guessing Babar, but i don’t know much about how well he’s adapted to English conditions in the past
Pakistan's tour of England: What to expect
Yeah Pooran was definitely chucked in at the end, Buttler would be a good fit.
Bowlers versus batsmen: Whose game is it really?
haha yes, it wasn’t deliberate, but as an aussie it is somewhat satisfying
what are your thoughts for the bits you’d don’t agree with?
Bowlers versus batsmen: Whose game is it really?
I think I tend to agree with you Paul about the ODIs, if anything it is weighted more for the bowlers. But for me it’s still very close. Even for normal line-ups chasing 200 can get wobbly if you lose 4 or 5 early wickets, so for this side it’s no cakewalk. I agree the top 5 or 6 bowlers could do it comfortably, but if the batters get into the ones below with some plain bowling & restrictive fields & good fielding, the balance really shifts
Bowlers versus batsmen: Whose game is it really?
So I just looked up the average points for each currently used stadium, here they are:
Perth: 82.1 (small sample size) –
Adelaide: 85.6 –
Kardinia: 87.9 –
Syd Showground: 88.2 –
MCG: 89.7 –
Carrara: 89.9 –
Docklands: 96 –
Gabba: 96.4 –
SCG: 97.8
So of course you’re right there’s variation, with 3 stadiums in particular having definitively higher scores than the others. However playing at those venues a lot won’t automatically make you a better team or win you matches, which is still the most important metric. The idea is just that this dangling carrot of offensive points will influence coaches’ tactics, not ultimately decide the ladder
Why it's time to ditch percentage from the AFL ladder
I don’t use twitter, so I haven’t seen what you’re referring to, but as I said in the article I know it’s not my original idea. I just like it and think it would have some positive effects
I agree though that defence is important and that tight, low-scoring games can be just as entertaining as high-scoring ones. I’m really focused more on the style of play, getting it faster and less congested, and I think encouraging more scoring would help with that. So the goal-scoring is just a means to an end
Why it's time to ditch percentage from the AFL ladder
Good point, I didn’t think about different grounds (size as well as weather as others have said) at all. You’re right it can’t be inherently fixed, but one thing I’d say is that this is still a secondary measure, behind wins. Everyone will be pretty much where they’re meant to be, based on how many they’ve won.
The main point of this system is to act as an incentive for coaches to change game styles, not so much as a means to wholly decide the ladder. For those teams which are really close on points for, I suppose we can only hope it evens out!
Why it's time to ditch percentage from the AFL ladder
Do you his recurring back injuries had something to do with that? Or would it have been from assuming more responsibility and deciding not to throw his wicket away?
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
Nice call indeed, those legside flicks and wristy pull-shots were very sweet
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
Now you mention him I’ve heard about Bedi, he does indeed look very smooth and serene.
What a shame about Uzzie, we all thought that innings would be a turning point. Hopefully he can get back to that sort of form
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
Sounds like some more youtubing for me, thanks for the names!
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
Unfortunately I was juuust a bit too young to watch Donald, but what I’ve seen on youtube he does look pretty smooth. And good call on Kaspa, I’d forgotten about him. I wonder what he’s doing nowadays
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
The two Shanes, Bond and Warne, certainly entered my thoughts, they wouldn’t be far away from my teams.
Gough, Reid and Walker were all before my time unfortunately. And with Akram, I might be in a very unpopular minority here, but I don’t think his action looked that nice. His leap at the crease was just a stottering shuffle really, and everything was a bit choppy in his movements. Still, not a bad bowler 😁
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
Haha sorry, I don’t think I’ve ever watched Martin Crowe bat unfortunately! I’ll jump on youtube to have a look.
And with Ponting, I agree with the other commenter, I never thought him particularly stylish. Obviously his pull shots were just dominantly impressive, but he had such hard hands with his off-side drives
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
Yep Lara is my 12th man, really close to getting in.
And Tendulkar I’ve never actually thought looked stylish or beautiful – technically just flawless of course, but not really attractive. Perhaps he was almost too compact?
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
Yeah I agree Cook is certainly not pretty, quite plain, but for me he’s not outright weird
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
Oh dear, I just watched that video. If only I knew beforehand
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
Haha love the alternative Paul Adams description! And Thommo did pop into my head, he’d be very close to my second XI I think. Unfortunately most of the others I haven’t seen, perhaps just a few snippets of ‘Tangles’
A stylish XI versus an awkward XI
I love this idea, although of course worried as everyone else is about the real-world chances of it ever happening. It’d be a swing back in favour of the bowlers, which I’m a fan of, and I don’t think it would necessarily mean more load on bowlers, if they adapt properly. If they learn to manage their effort and construct an over instead of blasting away they could be fine. Really illuminating figures about how much time is lost changing ends
A simple change could get rid of one of cricket's pet hates
Love the idea, and great analysis! I think as others have pointed out, it also shows how poor Australia’s first class competition is in terms of depth. It’d be fascinating to see what would happen if this were applied to all the other teams
An uncapped Australia versus India Test match
re Abbott, I suppose I’m looking at general cricket form, not just Tests. I can’t remember his stats from county cricket but they’re seriously impressive. I agree thought that he’s got good competition behind him, Wagner would be next for me
you’re right with the Windies, we’d certainly do fine without them at the moment, but who’s knows in the future with south african cricket not looking overly healthy
World Test match: North versus South
Kusal Perera is the name you might have been looking for, the batsman who dragged the Sri Lankans to a miracle win over the Saffers. arguably a better knock than Stokes’
The psychology behind sports psychology