Ken
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Posts posted by Ken
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We have the ability to get 20 wickets in England now. We just need our batsmen (other than Warner and Smith) to contribute. That is a work in progress.
I don't think Anderson will be there and if he is he is on the wrong side of 30 and wrapped in cotton wool. You may need to stick with Cook and Broad if there aren't alternatives putting up their hands.
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20 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:
@ken
yes, i think that's fair. some great players are coming to the ends of their careers. 2017 has been a poor year for Broad and Cook, the double hundred against Windies aside. i wouldn't be surprised if cook calls it a day. the problem is who replaces him?
i still think we will beat most teams at home with the current lineup. but there's a case for the selectors and bayliss to go. we need to find a way to try to win in places like australia and india. that means trying to unearth some proper fast bowlers and a proper spinner - where they come from, i don't know.
on the plus side, i think stoneman, malan and overton can take something from this series and we've been in all three test matches to a degree without ever dominating - they fought harder than a more talented side managed to last time around. but credit where it's due. australia streets ahead of us in home conditions.
And Broad? He has genuinely looked uninterested in this series.
It is an end of a good era for you now, decisions need to be made as to where you go from here over the next four or five.
Your touring 'rookies' have been good, but there are serious questions on those who have been the backbone for a decade. Not a position of power given the lack of solutions.
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2 minutes ago, David Kelly said:
There's not really a team in the world who seem able to win regularly away from home at the minute. India have swept aside everyone this year but all the series they have played have been in conditions they know how to play in. Can they do the same away from the sub continent? I doubt it personally.
We have been comfortable at home but were poor in India and are looking poor again now. Australia weren't great in India or Bangladesh.
We are looking good now though. It is a young side collectively with plenty of improvement in it given the inexperience. We are building. We go to South Africa next with confidence. We will get better over the next three years, we haven't peaked yet.
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Not trying to make a mountain over a molehill here but this could be a whacking that could affect England long term. Not sure how Root will recover after this series, the added responsibility of captaincy must way on his mind while trying to find form with the bat, and there are calls for Broad and Cook to retire which isn't out of line. Anderson is 35 and won't be around for the next Ashes series. You need desperately to find some new blood when it is all said and done - a period of regeneration.
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ok, maybe not.
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A wet wicket and rain is saving your lot here. Root and Bayliss pressing hard on the game not continuing. This series could still be alive yet.
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14 hours ago, Dr Gloom said:
It’s pretry pointless trying to compare players from different eras. The likes of Richards, Lara, Sachin, Border etc would probably average closer to Bradman’s 99 than Smith is now if they’d had the luxury of playing on modern pitches with modern bats and against the current generation of fast bowlers.
Smith is proving he is the best of his generation. Agree with Alex about the only mark against him being how he seems to fail when the ball is swinging. Swann called him out on it - he looked pants in Brisbane when it was hooping, ditto the tests on the last tour of England when there was movement through the air. I seem to remember him doing well at Lords on a batting friendly wicket, but really struggling at Cardiff and Trent bridge when it was swinging.
I’m not calling him a flat track bully but he still has a bit to prove before you can say he is up there with the all time greats.
It is why I thought talk of comparing him to Bradman was a bit of overreach and premature. Personally I feel that Ponting had been the best batsman Australia has produced in my time watching the game, purely based on statistics and technique, but Smith has gone past him now, he has scored centuries and double everywhere in the world. Keeping in mind he is still only 28 as well and has quite a number of years where he will be at the peak of his powers still, he has achieved a lot but there is more to come you'd expect.
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Master Blaster. Hard to argue with that, his playing style of course was much better than AB's.
I guess I was more coming from the POV that Border began his career when Australian cricket was in the doldrums and he retired just as we had entered a golden era. His legacy was immense.
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Smith the best since Bradman tbf. I always had the greatest of admiration, in a long list, for Allan Border. Averaged 50 in an era of monsters that he had to face and on some dodgy wickets too - Marshall, Ambrose, Holding, Garner, Hadlee, Willis, Botham... I've probably forgotten a few there.
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31 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:
I’ll compare him to Root instead of the Don.
There’s been a lot of debate about which of Root or Smith was the best in the world lately, as they continually swapped places at the top of the batting rankings.
Smith has ended the debate emphatically in this series. His technique looks all over the shop compared to Root but it works for him so who cares it isn’t out of the text book?
Unlike Root, he converts 50s into big hundreds more often than not. I thought leading England on an ashes tour would really inspire Root, and we’d see a close contest between the top two batters in the world, but he’s been nowhere near his best.
He is better than Root, twice as much in my opinion. I don't believe that was ever in question tbh. His only real adversary was Kohli, which can be debatable.
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Best in the world now but comparing to Bradman? What is with comparing to those no longer with us and considered the best? How do you score that?
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Never! My knee knackered friend.
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Staveley has all the cards.
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I said this a month ago, whether we stay up or don't affects the price.
Hope Staveley doesn't budge. Fuck Ashley, the fat retail cunt.
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I see commentators in England comparing Steve Smith with Don Bradman.
Steve Smith is the best batsman in the world but comparing him to Bradman? The best is yet to come from him.
Better to focus on your own.
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1 hour ago, Dr Gloom said:
Top banter.
England's attack looks absolutely toothless in these conditions.
Those that have toured here before capitulate the quickest. Mental scars don't go away. That is why the likes of Stoneman, Malan and Overton are holding there own at times. The others apart from Bairstow just give in.
Rain may play a part tomorrow. That is your only hope.
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16 hours ago, Alex said:
Never posted during the last series iirc. Bad loser, worse winner
I think I would have. Obviously though I'm tucked away in bed while the majority of the proceedings occur on your patch. I watch a lot while it is on here of course so I can form many, many opinions.
And tbf I have given praise where it has been deserved for your lot here, but there hasn't been all that much to be complimentary about.
Aside from that it has been so pleasurable watching the mental disintegration of Broad and Anderson today, almost as much as watching Steve Smith's Lara-esque innings which has contributed to that mental and physical drain.
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6 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:
time to get back to your shiraz, ken.
You're a good sport. I've said this before, I hate the boxing day test to be meaningless.
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4 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:
we don't have the pace to take 20 wickets as quickly as your lot in aussie conditions when there's no swing or seam movement. no newsflash required there. you'll win this series, as i predicted. my 4-1 prediction could still come in, if the weather man is to be believed. though i do find it hard to believe ... this is perth we're talking about.
our lower order has been our strength for the past few years, constantly digging us out of holes after top order collapses, but they have been poor in this series, it's true.
i'm still not convinced you're better than us away from home. beat us at our place in a couple of years and i'll say i'm wrong. until then i'll go along with the rankings, which suggest we're both fairly average teams, with us marginally ahead.
i treated every point you made with the respect it deserved, but banter? aussie aussie aussie, oi, oi , oi #shanter
You don't have the bowlers, pace and spin combined, to take 20 wickets.
Does the weather man predict an England win then?
Your lower order have been labelled cowardly today by some.
One series at a time man.
Banter on the field that Root, Bairstow, Anderson and Broad have copped.
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2 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:
get smith out and your lot still have a collapse in them, i reckon. though if he carries his bat i think you're probably right.
There is no collapse in us at all. You boasted about an exciting tail, batting wise with your lot before the series started but they are afraid and incapable to finding solutions to the problems our bowlers are throwing at them.
Our middle order was the concern for me before this series started but they have held up well.
And our tail wags. Cummins is good for 40-50 runs every time. Paine is solid. They are far superior to your lot.
There isn't one single facet of the game where your lot might have an advantage over ours and that includes banter as well.
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23 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:
fine margins though. get smith out before the close and we've got our noses in front, i reckon
Fine margins? Your batsmen look genuinely scared facing our bowling attack. 6/35 if you need reminding on a flat wicket.
You did well to get 400 odd in the first innings but you won't get anywhere near that in the second given the deterioration of the pitch and the cracks which provide extra worries for your batsmen. You are fighting to get a draw here.
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32 minutes ago, Gemmill said:
Shite from Ali.
What are you doing up btw?
Are you doing an all-nighter?
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Cracks opening up on the pitch already and it is only day 2. There may be a result in this game after all. Before this started I expected multiple declarations in the game.
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25 minutes ago, Alex said:
It's getting a bit daft though, don't you think. It's become the biennial swapping of the urn ceremony instead of a fierce contest
Yes and no tbh. We dominated from 1989 until 2002-03 so that is an argument that the status of play should remain. What you acheived afterwards is a reflection of that as well. Test match cricket is test match cricket. Do you propose something different?
The Cricket Thread
in General Chat
Posted
Warner has done it England. He has looked hesitant in this series but that's because he has tried to be more conservative due to the lack of experience in the batting lineup. He'll open things up in the next two matches. Observe it.
Renshaw hasn't featured in this series. The Marsh brothers whacked you around and got confidence from it. Payne had a long stint out of the side to work on his batting and he has delivered.
Your projections on what may happen in English conditions at this point in time are null and void.
We did hammer you. Looking like a whitewash again.