Showing posts with label Kemar_Roach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kemar_Roach. Show all posts

Thursday, February 11, 2010

3rd ODI, Australia vs West Indies

It's quick poll time!  Given the state of the West Indian team at present, and Chris Gayle's new status as Bollinger's Bunny, do you feel that the Windies are:

a) Slightly Screwed
b) Moderately Screwed
c) Screwed
d) Utterly Screwed
e) Curl-into-a-fetal-position-and-cry Screwed

in today's upcoming 3rd ODI?  Discuss in comments.

That is one brutal looking bowling line up all of a sudden, Bollinger, Harris, McKay, Johnson and Hauritz.  (I didn't think I'd be saying that about an Australian team for several years!)  The Windies are facing the prospect of a tenth loss on the trot, coming not only against teams like Australia and India, but also Bangladesh and Pakistan.

They say Nash will get a start again; he was reliable in the tests but didn't exactly cover himself in glory.  The West Indies will definitely be looking to him to help anchor the middle order, which lately has been more of a briefly delayed top order for the West Indies.  Roach is still there, and the Sydney wicket promises to be a cruel and unusual experience for the batsmen once more, I can't wait to see what Roach can come up with.

Update:
Holy crap, four change, including no Marsh.

Update 2:
9 wides in 11 overs, this is just silly.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

West Indies: Where to start...

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)