the most extraordinary cricket performance ever.

[Ken Gargett]

i see that in the women's U19 cricket competition in south africa, one side declared at 8-169. of those, 9 were extras. the remaining 160 were scored by a single batter while her 8 team mates all got ducks. she got a couple of wickets as well, in the victory. extraordinary.

[Warren]

You go girl

[Coolio]

I thought this topic might relate to the Paki's efforts yesterday!

I was wondering, after they dropped a handful of sitters (wk, long off and silly mid on) and then didn't refer a couple of probable outs (Shane Watson must be thinking "i thought you had to refer everything)  that maybe they'd put some $ on an Aussie win. Then after their batting performance, I knew they had. They really did look like they had no idea what they were doing under the lights with the pink ball. 

But then Wade missed that easy (for a 1st class keeper) stumping....... so maybe all the Paki's are just colour blind like he is!

Kudos to the SA U/19 player though. She must have had her eye in!

[Ken Gargett]

10 minutes ago, Coolio said:

I thought this topic might relate to the Paki's efforts yesterday!

I was wondering, after they dropped a handful of sitters (wk, long off and silly mid on) and then didn't refer a couple of probable outs (Shane Watson must be thinking "i thought you had to refer everything)  that maybe they'd put some $ on an Aussie win. Then after their batting performance, I knew they had. They really did look like they had no idea what they were doing under the lights with the pink ball. 

But then Wade missed that easy (for a 1st class keeper) stumping....... so maybe all the Paki's are just colour blind like he is!

Kudos to the SA U/19 player though. She must have had her eye in!

must say i wondered about the match fixing.

seemed odd that the nation ranked 2nd in the world could be so bad but if you think about it, i believe they got that ranking because they play so many games on wickets that are ideal for them in abu dhabi or dubai or wherever they play their games now. going from those pitches to the speed of the gabba pitch and facing a trio of quality quicks, after a couple of days in the heat and humidity in brizzy? i'll give them the benefit of the doubt. also, as one of their number went to jail for fixing, i really can't imagine that he is up for it again. aussies finally clicking and pakistan out of its depth.

as for wade, he missed that stumping because he is a bog average keeper. but don't blame him. blame the selectors. truly braindead decision to bring him back. shows that they really are dimwitted. imagine he does that to joe root in the ashes? you think he'll score the runs to cover it? the selectors made a number of changes. two have worked and two are disasters, though one of those might turn around. renshaw and handscomb have been fabulous and could be long-termers. maddinson has been awful. hell, i'd bet glenn mcgrath had more test runs after two tests. why not patterson? still, he has the chance to turn it around. wade instead of nevill? a large step backwards. so stupid and likely to cost us dearly. will never understand it.

[Coolio]

2 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

must say i wondered about the match fixing.

seemed odd that the nation ranked 2nd in the world could be so bad but if you think about it, i believe they got that ranking because they play so many games on wickets that are ideal for them in abu dhabi or dubai or wherever they play their games now. going from those pitches to the speed of the gabba pitch and facing a trio of quality quicks, after a couple of days in the heat and humidity in brizzy? i'll give them the benefit of the doubt. also, as one of their number went to jail for fixing, i really can't imagine that he is up for it again. aussies finally clicking and pakistan out of its depth.

as for wade, he missed that stumping because he is a bog average keeper. but don't blame him. blame the selectors. truly braindead decision to bring him back. shows that they really are dimwitted. imagine he does that to joe root in the ashes? you think he'll score the runs to cover it? the selectors made a number of changes. two have worked and two are disasters, though one of those might turn around. renshaw and handscomb have been fabulous and could be long-termers. maddinson has been awful. hell, i'd bet glenn mcgrath had more test runs after two tests. why not patterson? still, he has the chance to turn it around. wade instead of nevill? a large step backwards. so stupid and likely to cost us dearly. will never understand it.

Yeah agree fully with your calls on the selections Ken. It's so exciting to see Renshaw and Handscomb bat well. They both look like future Test players. I don't buy the Ch9 dipshit commentators talking about Handscomb needing to change his technique. Seems to work for him. Listening to him interviewed by Chris Rogers after the game he said he plays back so he can play the ball later, and cut more balls. and he prefers a back foot defence. Fair enough. He still gets onto the front foot a fair amount as I can tell anyway. He played their leggie very well I thought. Loved how he used his feet often to move down to the pitch of the ball. We might have found someone that doesn't look like a bunny in the headlights over in India!

Maddinson looked out of his depth. Surely after 60 odd 1st class games and an average of mid to late 30's, that would tell you he might not be good enough. I think he got in because they had to keep their quota of NSW players in the side. And that's not sarcasm! I would like to see that short SAus player Travis Head in the team. He looked quite comfortable in the LO games against NZ.

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, Coolio said:

Yeah agree fully with your calls on the selections Ken. It's so exciting to see Renshaw and Handscomb bat well. They both look like future Test players. I don't buy the Ch9 dipshit commentators talking about Handscomb needing to change his technique. Seems to work for him. Listening to him interviewed by Chris Rogers after the game he said he plays back so he can play the ball later, and cut more balls. and he prefers a back foot defence. Fair enough. He still gets onto the front foot a fair amount as I can tell anyway. He played their leggie very well I thought. Loved how he used his feet often to move down to the pitch of the ball. We might have found someone that doesn't look like a bunny in the headlights over in India!

Maddinson looked out of his depth. Surely after 60 odd 1st class games and an average of mid to late 30's, that would tell you he might not be good enough. I think he got in because they had to keep their quota of NSW players in the side. And that's not sarcasm! I would like to see that short SAus player Travis Head in the team. He looked quite comfortable in the LO games against NZ.

yes, agree with that. i heard maddinson was a fave of mark waugh. but if they want nsw players, and lord knows we've seen plenty of average ones over the years, why not go with the other kid, pattinson? and why drop nevill?

[JohnS]

Although Pakistan has finally put up a fight on the fourth day (where were they the other three), I think I need to agree, Maddinson and Wade are not up to the standard required for test cricket for their roles. A better long-term prospect would be Kurtis Patterson and Peter Nevill is a better keeper. This test has seen Wade make basic wicket-keeping errors that aren't acceptable in spin-friendly places such as India.