Ken Gargett Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 23 minutes ago, dicko said: I attended the first 2 days of the boxing day test. Good cricket with a ton for warner day 1 and from cook day 2. The bowling was pretty brave as well. I have to say apart from the atmosphere the "best seat in the house is your living room" really is true as far as watching the bat on ball action. That said some things really are better taken in live. Ill give an example, the captaincy. In my opinion you get to see the field placings better, get a better sense of the tactical game and the body language. Joe Root was very defensive again. Also his body language was a bit off at times. I know you shouldn't judge people on their appearance but he really does look like a grumpy school boy at times. That said he did make some good bowling changes and got some good results from being more aggressive. Im not a cricket expert and this might be obvious given it is often talked about in commentary etc but ive noticed that the more proactive and aggreasive the captaincy the better the result. Jeez im impressed by Steve Smith. What a tough bloke. Good captain as well. Conpare to Root he changed bowlers more often i think, placed more aggressive fields and strong body language. Fits the mould of the classic Aussie captain perfectly. Tough and aggressive. Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk dicko, fully understand the comments re attending the game. the members in brizzy is right behind the bowlers' arm - vulture street end. it means you get that view down the pitch and can follow ball movement and shots, plus keeping. absolutely ideal. and then you can also see field placings etc. to be honest, i'd have long given up going if we were like most grounds where the members are to the side. crazy to me. i think smith and root are both reasonable captains but not stellar. neither are ian chappell or border or brearley (don't think we'll ever know if bradman was a good captain - he had a massive advantage the others did not. himself as a batsman). i think root lost his nerve very quickly this series and that has really hurt england. disappointed smith didn't enforce the follow on. lots of other picky things. but what smith is, is a fabulous and tough batsman. brilliant. even today, the century will hardly get a mention but he held the innings together. he goes early today and we almost certainly lose the test. his batting is truly stellar. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted January 3, 2018 Author Share Posted January 3, 2018 I do concur with those sentiments @Ken Gargett. I understand that of the 28 times before the 4th test that Australia was 160 runs behind on the 1st innings at home, they lost 21. Of those other 7 times, 2 wins came prior to 1930, 1 was the fraudulent 2010 Sydney Test (where Pakistan threw the game for bookmakers) and there were 4 draws. So, even though the MCG pitch was flat, it didn't guarantee that Australia would avoid defeat. They were assisted by rain (43 overs were lost on day 4), David Warner batting 5 hours for 86 and uncharacteristically, Mitchell Marsh batting 3 hours and 18 minutes with Steve Smith for 29 not out. The amazing thing about this innings were the defense strokes which displayed the full face of Marsh's bat. However, Steve Smith batting over 7 hours for 102 not out was quite a feat. I thought Alastair Cook's innings was a masterclass in timing and placement, 244 not out was an amazing achievement. However, the purist in me will recall that he was dropped at first slip on 66 and at square leg on 153, both times due to Steve Smith favouring his sore right hand. So, it was not without chances. I think the game would have been very different if he was dismissed on 66. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Gargett Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 apparently english fans were asked for a one word description of the series - the winner... "smithereens". perfect! 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted January 11, 2018 Author Share Posted January 11, 2018 Matthew Hayden, the great Australian ex-Test cricketer who hit 30 centuries in his career as an opener, wrote a great article this morning on how valuable Pat Cummins has been to Steve Smith's captaincy recently... http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/matthew-hayden-the-breakout-star-of-the-ashes-and-my-xi-for-south-africa/news-story/6e55b2ed901bb0349b9d2178a10e06e8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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