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5th Test Border Gavaskar Trophy January 3-7 1000hrs @ the SCG

Who will win?


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The best thing about this series is our celebration for winning the series was more understated than India's celebration for avoiding the follow on in Brisbane.
 
It's interesting this perception, because Cummins (1002 deliveries), Siraj (943) and Starc (920) all bowled extensively in the 5 matches too (Bumrah bowled 908 deliveries).

Yes, I know Bumrah was out of action for essentially one and a half innings of the final Test, but the point is that other bowlers had comparable workloads at least.

In any case, what happened here with Bumrah reminds me of Lillee in the 72 Ashes, where he took 31 wickets, although that was in another league entirely. In five Tests he bowled 1499 deliveries - that's one delivery short of 250 overs, or on average 25 overs in each innings of every Test.

Little surprise that by the end of the tour he was having back niggles, it got worse in the following Australian summer and he broke down completely in the 73 tour of the West Indies. He didn't play again for 18 months.
Bowling properly puts less stress on your body than what Bumrah does.
 

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And if Bumrah bowls yesterday he might have gone 0/80. Possibly.

possibly, but also incredibly highly unlikely when he avgs 17.......
 
Anyone else noticed mates of theirs who aren't usually into cricket getting into it this year? Maybe it's just me but multiple of my mates who usually pay 0 attention to the cricket got into it a decent amount this summer.

how can you not be into it?

summer and test cricket is like ****in eggs and bacon!
 
Kohli is interesting his average could end up trailing back to a Langer-esque type figure, I mean low to mid 40's is a damn good average at Test level but it certainly doesn't leave you retiring in the air of Tendulkar, Lara, Ponting etc. etc.

At his peak Virat was as good as anyone.

The thing that tarnishes his legacy to me is not so much the diminished average, it’s just how easy it has become to take him out of games. He gets out so consistently fending at balls outside off that he just doesn’t need to play, and has done so for a long time. For a player of his quality to not have fixed that, when all he has to do is let those balls go, is bizarre.

When you compare that to Smith, he got “figured out” by Wagner in 2019, and since then he’s been constantly adjusting to find ways to counteract that approach. His year by year average shows that while he’s never returned to peak levels, he has still found a way to be a consistent high level contributor.
 
how can you not be into it?

summer and test cricket is like ****in eggs and bacon!
It happens. Had mates in high school (mid 1990s) that would say cricket sucks, so boring etc. Then you lose contact and run into them 5 - 10 years later and they say gotta admit, crickets pretty good. It’s a bit like wine I think. As you mature you tastes change and you enjoy different things and kicking back with beers on the couch or pub watching cricket on a hot summers day is pretty appealing
 

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It basically summarises Indias tour. If Bumrah didn’t get early wickets, India were ****ed. If Jaiswal/Reddy didn’t get runs, they were ****ed.

Australia had Cummins, Starc, Boland, Smith, Head and Webster all play match winning moments. You can’t just have a good bowler (even if he is truly great), you need at least one bloke to regularly contribute with the bat.
Don’t underestimate the impact, role and performances of Carey , absolutely crucial with bat at times with the game on a knife’s edge , could have gone either way , but the keeper/batsman tilted it our way. Well played Carey. Quality series. 👏
 
Has to be one of the worst summers of cricket I can remember.

Obviously Australia winning is a big positive. However the fact that 3/5 games were essentially done and dusted by day 3, 1 was a washout and we were left with just 1 quality game that went the length.

The pitches in Australia need some serious work. This summer was far to much in the bowlers favour and very few batsman could get on top.

Can’t have pitches that favour the bowling conditions to that degree. If this was in India and we had the same results on spinning pitches we’d be up in arms.

Found it a very disappointing series in the end and not up to the hype which was a shame.
Why? Pitches like these expose batting techniques, in which both teams had really poor ones. Bowlers have to toil away on roads so why shouldn't batsmen have to figure out a way on lively decks?
 
imagine what MacGill would have done if not in Warnes shadow for all those years?

leg spin to cocaine dealer.

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At his peak Virat was as good as anyone.

The thing that tarnishes his legacy to me is not so much the diminished average, it’s just how easy it has become to take him out of games. He gets out so consistently fending at balls outside off that he just doesn’t need to play, and has done so for a long time. For a player of his quality to not have fixed that, when all he has to do is let those balls go, is bizarre.

When you compare that to Smith, he got “figured out” by Wagner in 2019, and since then he’s been constantly adjusting to find ways to counteract that approach. His year by year average shows that while he’s never returned to peak levels, he has still found a way to be a consistent high level contributor.
Not sure Smith got figured out by Wagner as much as just lost form. Nobody else really bowls at him with stacked legside field like Wagner did any more but he still isn't scoring the same runs he was
 
What's wrong with my avatar exactly? Take your racism to the srp board.
You are entitled to your view but you’re bringing politics to every board you post on while you have that avatar.

I’ve not said anything remotely racist. You are pretty dense for going there at all.
 

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Anyone else noticed mates of theirs who aren't usually into cricket getting into it this year? Maybe it's just me but multiple of my mates who usually pay 0 attention to the cricket got into it a decent amount this summer.
The aus side is winning without annihilating everyone to the point of boredom or coming across as bullies like the early 2000s so not surprising people are getting around the team.
 
In the debate about the pitches, and why we are seeing Tests end in less than three days, I'd like to offer this point of view. The contemporary batsmen, in terms of stroke play, are more advanced than at any time in Test cricket. 10-20 years ago, we'd never have believed it possible that ramp shots, reverse sweeps, etc were accepted in Test cricket.

Batsmen have been adding more clubs to the bag as the years have progressed. I believe this has brought on weaknesses in batting technique and an inability to handle the sideways moving ball. Batsmen have all these extra shots and are looking at every opportunity to implement them.

They have adjusted their techniques to allow for these strokes, and as such, their defensive techniques have suffered. Leaving the ball used to be a skill, making the bowler bowl to your strength, but it's becoming almost a thing of the past as younger players in particular feel the need to score off every ball. Batsmen are now allowing bowlers to bowl wherever they like, and they will offer a shot. A skilled bowler such as Boland is thinking to himself "How good is this, I no longer have to bowl where the batsmen want me too, I can bowl wherever I like".

In Australia's 2nd innings yesterday, we saw the classic scenario where Konstas received two balls in a row right where he wanted them, angling onto his pads and he clipped them through the leg side for two boundaries. The next two balls were outside off and too close to cut. Konstas needed to just leave those balls to pass, but he swung at both and was fortunate not to get an edge.

The "see ball, hit ball" mentality is alive and well and living inside the batsmen's heads. While this is in vogue, the only way we will see a 5 day Test is via multiple rain delays.
 
I dont think the matches were bad per say some were short, but still eventful, but i think Perth should be stripped of test matches until the fans over there sort their stuff out. Embarrassing to have a near empty stadium every year over there to kick us off for the series.

IMO Ashes 2025 Should be;

Test 1- Brisbane
Test 2 - Adelaide
Test 3 - Tasmania
Test 4 - Melbourne
Test 5 - Sydney
Im a fan of Perth - only because I get to see more after work. Tbh I couldn't care if all the games were played in empty stadia
 
I think Sam Konstas did relatively well in his 2 games.

The MCG he completely rattled India with his first innings and brought Khawaja and Marnus along with him. Like it or not, his gameplan threw Bumrah off his lines and lengths for a while which made it easier for the others. The 2nd innings India had a look and had a plan. That's going to happen.

Both his innings in Sydney given the benefit of hindsight I think were important. The scorecard says he scored a couple of 20s but on that pitch those were handy scores from your opener - in fact he was the highest scoring opener for the match in total runs. Particularly the 2nd innings, scoring a slightly better than run a ball 23 (along with the extras) helped us jump out of the blocks and get well into the chase early which was crucial on that pitch, and always is chasing short targets.

Some of the periphery stuff, which is self inflicted, has distracted from his performances. But in terms of his actual batting I'd say 3 out of 4 innings were a + to the side.

He wasn't just the highest scorer of the openers in the last test. He was the highest scorer out of the top 4 from both sides. Only Pant and Webster scored more runs.
 
Not sure Smith got figured out by Wagner as much as just lost form. Nobody else really bowls at him with stacked legside field like Wagner did any more but he still isn't scoring the same runs he was

I’m not sure about the lost form bit, he was coming off the 2019 Ashes, which to me that or the 2017 India series were the best performances of his career. I think Wagner clearly worked out a way to take away his strength and frustrated him in to taking wickets.

We did see after a while teams going to that approach for a while. The point I was making is that we don’t really see that anymore because Smith figured it out. We’ve seen throughout the past five years teams try different tactics to him and he’s constantly tinkering to counteract it and has been successful (albeit not to the extent of his peak of averaging 70+).

Kohli on the other hand has been getting out pretty much in the same fashion for a considerable period of time, and he has done very little to address it, which is quite remarkable really for a guy of his quality.

To be fair to Kohli though, his record in white ball cricket is astonishing and far ahead of anyone else in this era.
 

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5th Test Border Gavaskar Trophy January 3-7 1000hrs @ the SCG

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