Australia drew tamely (not drew aggressively or sexily) with Sussex and it has convinced some that the apocalypse is coming.
There was a time when practice matches on tours meant a lot. Bradman, and his neurotic need to be better than everyone, pushed the Invincibles to win everything they could. Allan Border threatened to send Craig McDermott home during a tour game once for being too ginger.
Taking tour games seriously has gone the way of chat rooms; Australia only has two proper practice games on this tour, and asked for 12 payers to be played in both.
The fact that they didn’t push very hard for victory, and looked a bit flat makes sense. They are taking this as just a warm up in a similar way to their game against South Africa A before the tests there. You can’t trust teams in warm up games anymore. Look at Pakistan’s form before the world t20.
Robin Martin-Jenkins played in the match, and he this to say:
He might have a point, but it could just be that they couldn’t be bothered sledging in a practice match. That is a real shame. Sledging is much a skill as the leg glance or the doosra.
Some things have become clearer in Hove, Peter Siddle is Australia’s number two bowler, Nathan Hauritz can struggle on a spinning deck, Marcus North needs some runs at Worcester, Mike Hussey is still in a slump, everytime Phil Hughes goes out someone will come up with a strategy to end his career, and Australia still seem confused as to who their top four quicks are.
Australia now play England A, and there is a chance that Brett Lee might actually bowl his heart out.
Jarrod can be found over at cricket with balls.
6 Comments
Here’s a thought as we try and work out our bowling attack – Macca is the 4th best bowler we have in the squad, maybe even the 3rd best.
Johnson is no. 1, Siddle is no. 2, Hauritz is last – he just cannot be picked, he doesn’t have the talent regardless of the conditions. Watson is injured, Lee is coming back from injury and has never cut it in England. S Clarke is probably no. 3 and looks certain to play simply because someone has to, Hilfy is dropped for this tour game and is therefore seemingly out of the running.
But Macca has that stump to stump line that seems to work better in England than anywhere else. I can see him getting heaps of LBW’s with the lower bounce in England, he’s got a test bowling average of 33 which is OK since it’s early days. His inclusion at no. 8 strengthens our tail as well.
Disclosure: I’m Victorian.
WHAT? There is no way Macca is no.3 or no.4, he’s a half ass’d middle order batsmen and a half ass’d bowler.
What happened to Stuart Clarke? Although he may lack McGrath’s height, he doesn’t lack his consistency outside off. He troubles people, and he will play well in England.
We need to start developing strategies for the shit the Sun is going to write. You know it’s coming.
Disclaimer: I’m from NSW, living in Vic. Also, bring back Jacques.
John, It probably isn’t the worst shout, but even as a fellow Victorian I can’t see it happening. Johnson at 8 and Lee at 9 will be more appealing than McDonald at 8 and Johnson at 9.
Delperro, Stuart Clark will be playing, I would say he is the third bowler picked behind Johnson and Siddle. He hasn’t bowled much because of his injury but he was probably the second best bowler in Hove by all accounts.
The Sun, seems like a waste of time to me, they will tire themselves out.
I’m throwing my weight behind John. I’d take McDonald, Johnson, Siddle and Clark. North and Katich can bowl spin if the pitch falls apart. I agree that McD’s stump to stump line, on a seaming deck will be quite a handful.