And milking the fuck out of Ashwin in the subsequent over. We've found our opener at last.
And milking the fuck out of Ashwin in the subsequent over. We've found our opener at last.
Health permitting, there is no chance this lad doesn't make it. Just looks right at home already.
Time to roll out the declaration bowling.
Oh wait, they opened with Jadeja.
FEC Hameed.
Lovely score to wake up to.
Assuming we don't collapse what target are we aiming at here?
Don't see anything other than a real token declaration. Have 40 overs at them maybe.
Yeah, no interest from either side in trying to win this.
Hard to believe at this point that options like Ballance and Buttler were seriously considered instead of this kid.
Amit Mishra and his wig/hair transplant need binning off for the next game in favour of some chucky off spinner. The Pie Brothers will come into it in Vizag although at the moment I'm still sticking with Mehedi Hasan.
Yeah seems as Vizag is gonna be a bunsen.
Think I've said it before, but where is Pragyan Ojha? Always quite rated him. Surprised he hasn't played more Tests.
Consulting the Ranji Trophy statistics, which is the sort of thing I do at 11.15am on a Saturday morning, you're probably looking at Yuzvendra Chahal or for a random option against the left handers, the chinamen of Kuldeep Yadav. Ojha doesn't seem to be in the mix these days.
Leading wicket taker in the competition is Pankaj Singh
Ashwin being reduced to the Giles tactic
"Continues to show he's a MASTERCHEF in these conditions"
Vintage Shastri
Cook goes past Don Fraudman to 30 Test hundreds. Most hundreds in India by an overseas batsman as well
Bradman didn't have to face anyone as good as Amit Mishra either.
Anderson looks like he's hovering around the team like a shark now but would I pick him? I don't know. I wouldn't lose a spinner for him.
Why the hell didn't Pujara review that? Never out.
Probably should have brought Rashid on before the 15th over.
Absolutely loving this, even though we're not going to do it. Well on top of India in their own conditions.
I love the the burbling in the Guardian OBO for this test is whether or not Nathan Lyon should be dropped. Bowled out for 85? Better pick a new spin bowler.
You have to laugh, really.
Don't mind us, we're just moving the game along . . .
*skittled in a session*
http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-c...y/1066249.html
The person in charge of recruitment referring to the (32 year old novice) successful applicant by his nickname in the official announcement must have delighted the other 15 'extremely good' applicants. That along with their youth being shit and him being a total wanker suggests a glorious relegation could be on the cards soon."We had 16 applicants for the job with some extremely good candidates in amongst that list," said Moxon. "But at the end of the day, for what I believe we need, Galey was the obvious choice."
https://streamable.com/nvix
Embarrassingly bad
Ferguson gone in bizarrely similar circumstances also
The natural instinct is to have a big lol at Australia as ever but this has been serious bowling from South Africa. Just relentless line and length and now Rabada starting to blast them out.
Got to be approaching "heads must roll" time now for Australia surely? Maybe wait until South Africa complete an inevitable whitewash.
121/2 at the start of the day! Absolutely pathetic.
Build a whole new XI around Warner, Smith, Khawaja, Starc and Hazlewood. As it stands they do all the run scoring and all the wicket taking anyway, you could replace the other six players with 18 year olds fresh out of school cricket and there'd be no noticeable difference at all. If more than half the team are passengers, there's no good reason not to throw in young players.
I mean Burns, Voges and Ferguson made 7 runs between them in this test, from six innings. You'd expect as much from three Glenn McGraths or Chris Martins.
Pattinson comes back as the third seamer, so I suppose there's only five spots left. Three batsmen, a keeper who can bat, and a spinner.
You look around Shield cricket though and I'm not sure there is any of the above who can play not so much at Test level, but at the Test level expected by Australia. They have massively neglected the Shield in the last 10 years and it's costing them dear. They definitely don't have a spinner.
There was an English born Queensland opener who I thought looked promising but I can't remember his name at the moment.
Warner
Burns
Khawaja
Smith
Patterson
Lehmann
Nevill
Agar
Mennie
Hazlewood
Starc
That's my prediction. Still utter toilet. If in doubt, pick more NSW players and lengthen the batting lineup. No 5th bowler though so in reality they might go for Mitchell 'I'm shit, but in two different areas' Marsh or better still, Moises 'Henreeks' Henriques.
Most likely the 9 execs get on the phone to CA and four belters are rolled out for the rest of the summer, papering over the cracks. You can't demand the rights fees CA do and not provide a 'premium product', which seems to mean Australia win on day five with a match aggregate approaching 2000.
I genuinely can't wait for Misbah to score a hundred on Boxing Day. I wonder what banter Tubby and Slats will concoct from that.
Do they get Rameez Raja on nine? The possibilities are endless.
James Sutherland:
His bullshit alone is surely enough content to keep their commercial partners going for years.Sutherland is asked if CA is too focused on commercial matters, and not enough on the game of cricket and the Australian cricket team.
"No. No, we find the balance. It is, it is challenging to balance all of the respective interests of the game and we have significant obligations to our fans, to our venues, to our state associations, to our commercial partners to deliver content to cricket grounds and cricket venues all over the country."
He also claims there will be 'massive changes' in the next squad. How massive are we talking I wonder, Harold Bishop? Julia Gillard?
i'm always getting wistful about my favourite cricketing content deliverers from my childhood
is that a step up from your position in Jimmy's TTH XI on the new-old board?
All I remember is that I was making up the numbers in the tail. Not wagging, that's for certain.
I'd say Ital would be a reliable opening bat. Ian a workhorse seamer. Igor probably a really chirpy wicketkeeper who adds handy runs at seven.
I could probably muster up some occasionally-accurate medium pace filth.
Cracking start.
Justice for Gambhir.
I can't believe they've brought Jimmy back for this ground. We'll miss Woakes.
Think we're going to need 500+ again to get out of this with anything. Classic Cook clueless captaincy of spinners, refusing to bowl Moeen before lunch because of the way he turns it.
Just woke up and assumed Moeen was injured or ill or something. Bizarre, he's our best spinner.
Ansari well out of his depth.
He's the second spinner for his county... and the first spinner for said county is carrying the drinks due to his lack of 'variety'. Which leads me to believe he's in for his batting. Could have brought Samit Patel but then I think Ansari's bowling is a bit better than his.
With the benefit of hindsight, Ansari looks like a really weird selection now. A young batsman who can bowl a bit doesn't really add a lot to this team. Zaltzman was saying on Cricket Sadists Hour that he's not even been that good this season, and it seems more like he's being picked for his form the season before when injury prevented a call up. Fucked if I know who should have played instead. Leach I suppose, but obviously I'm just going on averages and hype there.
Cook seems to bring him on first out of all three spinners which is bizarre. Moeen is getting some tap now but he got brought on in the 40th over with India's two best players 50*.
My work colleague reckons if you really want a 3rd spinner you could just give Root a few overs and you wouldn't lose much from leaving out Ansari, and I'm not sure I disagree.
He had his moments this season, remember him bowling a couple of sides out in the Championship, but it was distinctly injury hit. I think they picked him not because of any form at any time in particular, but because they just 'fancy him' as a cricketer, like Liam Dawson. Batting, bowling, fielding, right sort of family, poncey intellectual references in interviews.
Third spinner is fine, especially a left armer. We can't be over bowling the seamers in this heat and with this schedule. Ansari is definitely the third spinner though, should never be on before Ali or Rashid. And certainly not at 36-2.
Great shout on CSH by the way, @Jimmy Floyd. Shame they release them randomly and often go months between episodes. Still listen?