Sorry I'm late to get on the topic but, busy weekend.
Well, that was rather cruel and unusual. The pitch was lively enough for both sides, and on the third day you could see these terrifying longitudinal cracks in the pitch, like giant San Andreas fault lines. The lack of Jerome Taylor beyond a nine-over contribution no doubt hurt as well. But even those factors can't excuse a three-day slaughter.
From what I could tell, the West Indies were simply in a ODI mindset. As thrilling as the opening overs of the West Indies innings were, it wasn't test cricket and it wasn't being mindful of the pitch or the opposition. With fifteen wickets falling on one day, they were certainly dismissed in an ODI fashion, and in doing so deprived me of my sunday afternoon viewing.
Chanderpaul probably stands out as the biggest disappointment. Effectively the anchorman of the West Indies order, the calypso reply to Dravid, in the last outing with the Australians he batted an average of like five hours per innings. A score of 2 & 2 makes it nearly impossible for the WI batting order to make the necessary chase. Add into that the fact that Gayle and Chanderpaul racked up 3 of 4 referrals, all on exceptionally plumb decisions...
All in all, the Windies had two shining points, Adrian Barath's century performance, and Kemar Roach's bowling. Both of these look like players who will go places if given the chance.
On the downside, the rest of their bowling was ho-hum, their star bowler couldn't bowl, their top order was brittle, their middle order was brittle, their lower order was brittle, their discipline with the referrals was lax and they simply couldn't perform on a lively pitch.
Australia 480/8d
West Indies 228 & 187 (f/o)
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Mistake to ask Pakistan to host Champions Trophy
2 weeks ago
where to start....?
ReplyDeleteahm... lets start with dumping these jokers in stinking dustbins they have become...
even T&T would play better...
Taking the lineup of T&T with some modifications may have been a decent option! Of course, that still lost to a state team, but then I reckon the Blues in that Champions League would have had a better chance at retaining the ashes than the people we sent over to England anyway.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty painful, even for us Australians. South Australia being more of a batsman's pitch, let's hope Barath and Gayle can restore some pride later this week.
ReplyDeleteI hope we still win, though.