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

Who will win?


  • Total voters
    60
  • Poll closed .

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The Flipper is a very difficult ball to bowl. I was a wrist spinner and I couldn't bowl it consistently. It puts pressure on the fingers and shoulder and upon release it has to be squeezed out like a pip, like clicking your fingers.

But it's a very effective ball. Batters will go back to the ball but the ball skids through low thus creating opportunities for bowled or LBW.

Shane Warne used to bowl the Flipper well before he had shoulder surgery. He still used to bowl in occasions but not as much. He did though bowl a "slider"....a ball out of the front of the hand.

Brad Hogg also used to bowl thr traditional Flipper (like Warne) as well. In the 2003 World Cup he bowled Andy Flower with a great Flipper....great ball. He also bowled Surav Ganguly in a Test match too.

But yeah the Flipper is a difficult ball to bowl. Clarrie Grimmett has been credited with creating the Flipper. It took him several years to master it before he bowled it in games.

You need incredible strong fingers , wrists and shoulders to bowl it .
Then being able to control is another matter .

After Warnie did his shoulder he lost some of the power and range to consistently land it , so started going out the front of the hand more . Which was clever and skilful enough .

You do get the odd grade/premier leggie who bowls them they just dont have the consistentcy .
Flippers are pretty easy to pick if you know what to look for
 
You need incredible strong fingers , wrists and shoulders to bowl it .
Then being able to control is another matter .

That's the point I was trying to make last night. By 19, physically I could bowl a flipper. But it was absolute physical torture on my shoulder to do it, cos you're "dropping" it whenever you bowl a flipper... and like, I strongly suspect, at least 90% of 18-19yos who figure out how to physically do it, there's no benefit whatsoever to that physical torture cos you're only landing maybe 10% of them on a good day.
 

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I’ve mentioned a few times that at this level the “faces have to fit” and in particular with this bloke he just didn’t on a number of levels.

The Australian Cricket Team is almost like a real life MAFS. You can identify plenty of players that “should have” made it but ultimately didn’t because of this.
Yes indeed.

The converse to this, both in sport AND a work environment, is never underestimate the damage 1 dickhead can do to a good team.

I am a very big subscriber to that.
 
You need incredible strong fingers , wrists and shoulders to bowl it .
Then being able to control is another matter .

After Warnie did his shoulder he lost some of the power and range to consistently land it , so started going out the front of the hand more . Which was clever and skilful enough .

You do get the odd grade/premier leggie who bowls them they just dont have the consistentcy .
Flippers are pretty easy to pick if you know what to look for

You can spot it in the grip. Thats one element of watching for it.
 
Ashley Mallett averaged under 30 but had a SR of 75, not sure if that qualifies. Tim May was a good bowler but averaging 34 not sure if that qualifies as "genuinely good". Lyon has a shitload of wickets, I'm sure he does, not sure who else there is?
Think Hugh Trumble is our only offie to have a rep as a genuine match winner in his own right pre Lyon.
 
You want your spinner to be able to bowl you to victory in favourable conditions, which was a Lyon weakness early on, but in Australian tests there hasn't been favourable conditions for spinners in a test for years. They're your old ball change bowler as no spinner has ever been as dangerous as Boland Cummings and Hazlewood are in our current conditions. Lyon does it beautifully. Keeps it tight and chips wickets away at a steady rate. I agree with Zampa that we're going to continue to favour the control of finger spinners. It'll take another freak for a leggie to get the nod. Or a change in tactics. Bazball is probably wrist spinners best hope.

And the subcontinent pitches are result based around spin. You don't need to be a big turner of the ball. The accuracy of finger spinners is a bit like the accuracy of Boland on our seamers. The pitch does a heap of the work for you. Hit the spot and there's enough variation with some skidding and some gripping.
Selectors should go with Zampa then, because he's the one leg-spinner, with international experience who is proven completely capable of doing exactly what Lyon has done.

People don't realise the level this guy could reach playing to the same game plan as lyon now in test cricket, if we just gave him a go.

People point to his first class record like that's the bowler he is now. Those figures are solely because he plays so much limited over cricket. And he makes a bloody good coin from it, and why not? He never got a go at tests really.

If not him, I wish they would give Swepson a go. His BBL bowling is so impressive to this old leg-spinner, flight above the eyeline, and his slowness is the enticing icing.
 
Selectors should go with Zampa then, because he's the one leg-spinner, with international experience who is proven completely capable of doing exactly what Lyon has done.

People don't realise the level this guy could reach playing to the same game plan as lyon now in test cricket, if we just gave him a go.

People point to his first class record like that's the bowler he is now. Those figures are solely because he plays so much limited over cricket. And he makes a bloody good coin from it, and why not? He never got a go at tests really.

If not him, I wish they would give Swepson a go. His BBL bowling is so impressive to this old leg-spinner, flight above the eyeline, and his slowness is the enticing icing.
What absolute nonsense. His own first class team doesn't pick him because he's a crap 4 day bowler. 3 games in 3 years at FC level

Imagine picking a test number 5 who's played 3 first class games in 3 years with a batting average of 26 because he's a decent T20 player.
 
What absolute nonsense. His own first class team doesn't pick him because he's a crap 4 day bowler. 3 games in 3 years at FC level

Imagine picking a test number 5 who's played 3 first class games in 3 years with a batting average of 26 because he's a decent T20 player.
Mods please hive this discussion off to a thread called “Adam Zampa is crap”
 
Just on the Flipper, it is worth remembering that Warne turned it into a lethal weapon by pitching it much fuller in the danger zone. Prior to that, leggies bowled flippers, but they were pitched shorter with the idea of getting the batsman to play a pull shot and keeping low. People used to talk about the flipper thinking Warne invented it. He didn't, he merely perfected it. I remember the first time I saw Warne bowl the flipper and thinking, "What the hell was that?". I think the batsman was thinking the same thing :)
 
Just on the Flipper, it is worth remembering that Warne turned it into a lethal weapon by pitching it much fuller in the danger zone. Prior to that, leggies bowled flippers, but they were pitched shorter with the idea of getting the batsman to play a pull shot and keeping low. People used to talk about the flipper thinking Warne invented it. He didn't, he merely perfected it. I remember the first time I saw Warne bowl the flipper and thinking, "What the hell was that?". I think the batsman was thinking the same thing :)

Clarrie Grimmett invented the Flipper and spent years in the nets perfecting it and practising it before he bowled it in games.
 

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Just on the Flipper, it is worth remembering that Warne turned it into a lethal weapon by pitching it much fuller in the danger zone. Prior to that, leggies bowled flippers, but they were pitched shorter with the idea of getting the batsman to play a pull shot and keeping low. People used to talk about the flipper thinking Warne invented it. He didn't, he merely perfected it. I remember the first time I saw Warne bowl the flipper and thinking, "What the hell was that?". I think the batsman was thinking the same thing :)
I used to love listening to Richie commentating while Warney was on. A bloke that knew the craft inside out also and got more excited about Warney than anyone else from memory
 
Selectors should go with Zampa then, because he's the one leg-spinner, with international experience who is proven completely capable of doing exactly what Lyon has done.

People don't realise the level this guy could reach playing to the same game plan as lyon now in test cricket, if we just gave him a go.

People point to his first class record like that's the bowler he is now. Those figures are solely because he plays so much limited over cricket. And he makes a bloody good coin from it, and why not? He never got a go at tests really.

If not him, I wish they would give Swepson a go. His BBL bowling is so impressive to this old leg-spinner, flight above the eyeline, and his slowness is the enticing icing.
He doesn’t turn the ball…if he was gonna make it…he would have made it by now
 

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

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