Tuesday 10 February 2009

four matches and then fore-sight

2 all now in the Aus NZ ODI series, obvious the difference the stability of M.Hussey makes!

Has our team got enough in reserve if the "stars" don't fire?
I think yes, obvious by the last 2 results, but one thing is for sure, this is now a team that plays on confidence... not self belief.

Let's hope we can carry over this confidence and roll it into self belief before the SA tour.
At least England are looking pathetic if all we care about is results and not the quality of cricket!

I personally don't believe we have what it takes to de-rail South Africa at home given the excellent balance of their current side, but a lot can be said for self belief: and if we continue with the selection policy from the SCG test there may be hope.

What do you think?

stoph verismo
downthewicket

4 comments:

  1. Should be a great deciding match! I hope Qld doesn't produce thunderstorms and down-pours and it becomes a 23 over game.

    I think what we've been seeing is more like what Aus CAN play - but didn't against SA for most of the season. The bowling is still a bit of a worry. Johnson has been getting hit and Hilfenhaus hasn't quite delivered as well as he might. I think that in SA Katich, Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, Hughes (oh yeah baby) and Haddin CAN do the job with the bat. I'm positive about Mcgain - haven't seen much of him but it sounds like he's got good control which means one end can get tied down - so it's up to Siddle, Johnson, Bollinger etc to do the job at the other end.

    I think SA has just got all compartments better orgainsed than Aus; strong top and middle order, good fielding, tight bowling (with many options). My concern is that Aus doesn't have the depth with the ball if plans don't work. Having said that with SA if Steyn, Ntini and Morkel can't get breakthroughs there's a lot of pressure on Kallis to do a job too (and bat 3 or 4).

    I think 2-1 SA win would be a good result all things considered. Their batting has been better than our bowling most of the summer so I don't think this will change over there. My bet is Duminy will take batting honours for the series and Steyn the bowling.

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  2. What a pity the final 50 over game will be washed out. Typical Qld weather! What's even more annoying is that there's no chance of playing it this weekend because of stupid 20/20 chicken. Bad luck NZ, we probably would have wiped the floor with you but......

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  3. Damn straight LRO, seems like a lame way to end the Aus season... even though i enjoy wack and giggle!

    as per the last line of the above post; i think it was more of a case of 'saved by the bell' with NZ looking like they were heading easily over the line thanks to some brutal shoulder opening by Guptil and that other tall streak of misery! it was all too much to get of the couch and grab the mac in case i missed another crunching thwack!
    I think the Gabba weather hates the kiwis!

    thanks for your contributions LRO... i don't know what i've got to do to get the others involved?!
    i know Gab has been crook (should mean more time to be antagonistic), Pons...i mean Outside sledge has been away (but is now back and talking cricket-just not writing about it!) and i think Nospmas Lihp mightn't have been happy with a comment- correct me if i'm wrong everybody!

    i will continue hitting other cricket sites/blogs/forums to try and bring more on board so that we can get a bit more too and fro going on here, it certainly is harder than i'd presumed! surely with the Ashes coming and England (united) looking like turd people will have an opinion.

    stoph verismo
    downthewicket

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  4. Truth be told NZ definitely had the momentum in the washout game. I just can't understand why they have been so good for so long at shorter games but can't seem to step up for test series. I thought Southee and co would give Aus a shake in the tests but they still don't have the firepower to bowl sides out for under 300 and their batsmen can't build innings. I thought Ross Taylor would be huge for them and we've seen what he can do in one day stuff but it hasn't quite translated into the longer version. I realise they'll always be hampered by a small population and rugby forever taking precendent; but they've got talent enough - unfortunately probably not enough depth in their squad. However, I'd say the same about England to a large extent. Take away 3 big names and they struggle to find replacements. I've never rated Cook as an opener, Bell is shit (Shah has replaced him against WI for the third test - Stoph I'd recommend writing something about the 2nd test debacle and being rolled for 51 in the first test) so there's two out of your first three bats!

    I think it's rediculous that Aus has just finished 5 tests, 10 (almost) one dayers and two chicken since late 2008 and then the next day following their final match fly to South Africa. The first test is this month with warm-ups beforehand; meaning a couple of days to acclimatise, get over jetlag and straight into it. Is this supposed to be 'player management' like resting blokes for a 3 hour game? South Africa have been home for a while, had time to meet their new children, have a leisurely hit and prepare for Aus. With the summer Aus has had they couldn't have been prepared any worse for an overseas tour. I reckon Kenya will be devastated Aus isn't touring there!

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