Test What ever happened to the gritty innings from a tail ender?

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treeman

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 19, 2005
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Gone are the days when McGrath could make a one off 50 Warne led us to many post 50 scores and even Gillespie managed a double hundred.
Often Steve Waugh would freely take singles to give them confidence and back them in.
These days I feel like they are technically more skilled but don't have any perserverence to knuckle down and make a decent score.
Is it my imagination? Or are we too good in Australia they don't need to and overseas it's too hard?
Often in the late 90s early 2000s it was said that the final 6 batsman could outscore the first 6.
I feel Cummins looked like he was going to score more consistently when he came back from his injury years ago but now he's mediocre at best.

Do I just have a selective memory? Or am I right?
 

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Gone are the days when McGrath could make a one off 50 Warne led us to many post 50 scores and even Gillespie managed a double hundred.
Often Steve Waugh would freely take singles to give them confidence and back them in.
These days I feel like they are technically more skilled but don't have any perserverence to knuckle down and make a decent score.
Is it my imagination? Or are we too good in Australia they don't need to and overseas it's too hard?
Often in the late 90s early 2000s it was said that the final 6 batsman could outscore the first 6.
I feel Cummins looked like he was going to score more consistently when he came back from his injury years ago but now he's mediocre at best.

Do I just have a selective memory? Or am I right?

Dont you mean Stephen Waugh happily gave them the strike to protect his average and get not out next to his name. One of the more selfish players of the past 30 years.
 
In this age of T20 cricket you don't see that many gritty innings from top order batsmen so you probably can't expect to see too many from tailenders.

Most tailenders these days just try and slog some quick runs, you don't see many tailenders these days like Gillespie that can be relied on to bat time.
 
Also burnt many batting partners in runouts.

Including his brother several times, you would think being twins they would have had a sixth sense when it came to knowing what each other was thinking when it came to running between wickets but that didn't seem to be the case with them.
 
Dont you mean Stephen Waugh happily gave them the strike to protect his average and get not out next to his name. One of the more selfish players of the past 30 years.
Shane Warne said it, so it must be true.
 
Including his brother several times, you would think being twins they would have had a sixth sense when it came to knowing what each other was thinking when it came to running between wickets but that didn't seem to be the case with them.
Probably started one Christmas as a kid when he sacrificed his great nanna for a single that was never there and ran her out for a diamond duck
 
In this age of T20 cricket you don't see that many gritty innings from top order batsmen so you probably can't expect to see too many from tailenders.

Most tailenders these days just try and slog some quick runs, you don't see many tailenders these days like Gillespie that can be relied on to bat time.

I think that T20 cricket has burnt the gritty innings from a top order batsmen let alone a tail ender.

Been a huge focus on positive cricket but ut is at the expense of "digging in". This would have been a huge help in India on the current tour. No one would do a Pujara and score 100 off 300 balls, not the Australian style.
 
Cummins just played one of these in the most recent Test, 30 odd in the first innings.

If Pattinson had of remained fit I think he would of been one of our better Test tail enders. I remember back in Ashes 2013 he nearly stole the game together with Brad Haddin in a game we should of been no chance of winning.

I think if people are concerned about T20 effecting batsmen's games it's likely worse for the bowler's batting. It's not their primary skill and they're used to going for the slog in the final overs of a T20 innings, I can't imagine they have much time to work on their defence.
 

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Think it’s your imagination. 80’s and 2010’s exceed other decades on batting averages positions 9-11. For Australia the 2010’s stand out above other decades (20’s lagging but beating the 90’s).

Think of the contributions made by Johnson, Harris, Lyon, Siddle over the years. Siddle and Leach in the 2019 Ashes.
 
I think the trend now for the tail is to favour the slog. They’ve developed these skills in T20 and see more value in it.

They’ve probably got a limited number of balls they can survive let’s say average 30. Why not try and add a quick run a ball 30 to the score rather than block around for 5-10 runs. Turn 8/200 into possibly 250+ or hang around for 220 odd.
 
You kinda miss the stoic innings by the tailenders, particularly the "rabbits".
Like this one for instance.

Somehow Terry Alderman managed to hang around for 26 balls and 56 minutes on a sub-standard pitch to help Kim Hughes get to his hundred.

 
Can’t speak to how Australia approach it but as a Windies fan we have a specialist in Kemar Roach who has helped add priceless runs for a long time now with guys like Jason Holder and Shane Dowrich batting above him.

Anderson is a trier with the bat.
Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel were both from the more stoic side of the cloth though Steyn could open his shoulders when the mood took him. Even Jasprit Bumrah whose batting was barely above Chris Martin standard for a long time has actually learned how to bat to a capable level. Ishant Sharma is another Indian who puts a high price on his wicket most of the time.

There aren’t as many but they haven’t died out
 
The 10 & 11 finished with FC career averages of 32 and 20 respectively so they must've been better than their positions suggest.
There's a whole article about it. Interesting story.

 
Like this one for instance.

Somehow Terry Alderman managed to hang around for 26 balls and 56 minutes on a sub-standard pitch to help Kim Hughes get to his hundred.

To surpass that, Alderman also hung around with AB in the second test in the West Indies, 1984. Batted for 105 minutes, faced 69 balls, 21 n/o. Allowed AB to reach his century on the last ball of the match and Australia got a draw. Border made 98 n/o in the first innings and Dujon said it was a misjustice that he missed out getting twin centuries. Unfortunately no footage of it, but Border played one of the greatest innings to save a game against Marshall and Garner at their peak.

Screenshot 2023-02-27 8.46.16 AM.png
 

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Test What ever happened to the gritty innings from a tail ender?

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