Barbelith Underground > Games & Gameplay > International Cricket

Match fixing eh? Interesting thought actually as you’re right, there were a number of strange coincidences. Still, cricket repeatedly frustrates any attempts to predict it. A lot of credit has to go to England’s bowlers who kept the pressure up and India’s batsmen just got pushed into tentative shots. It reminded me a bit of the recent ashes series where there just weren’t enough bad balls to allow the batsmen to settle. Tendulkar’s and Dravid’s wickets were a bit like that, and I didn’t expect anything better from Dhoni who is too much of a Gilchrist or KP to do anything else, although doing it twice in three balls was a bit much. What an idiot. Should be dropped from the team just to make a point. I think they let the mindset of defeat in as soon as they selected their opening pair at the beginning of their second innings. Dravid should’ve moved up the order. I think they just weren’t confident of surviving and couldn’t face the pressure.

It’s very hard to know what to make of all the debutant success lately. Does it mean they should be straight into the team or is it just luck? Clark just had a 9 wicket haul in his first test for Australia but I don’t want to dub him the new McGrath just yet. As much as I slag off the selectors, I wouldn’t want to be the one trying to look into the future and predict who will be a lasting addition to the team. But I definitely think that Bell has had his chance. He’s just too tentative at the crease.

I agree that Freddy is maturing as a batsman and playing some classy middle order innings so I suppose that does give KP more freedom to take risks but I’m not entirely convinced. Someone like Gilchrist can slog because as astrojax says the keeper isn’t expected to do the job of the middle order but KP has to be able to do that, at least sometimes. “Playing their natural game” is something that I’m not really convinced by. A test batsman needs to be flexible. He can slog when it’s time to slog but play defensively when trying to save a match. If the ashes are on the line and you’re batting to save the match then KP holes out to mid on, I don’t think anyone will be saying that he should play his natural game. Martyn was dropped from the aussie side for years after being held responsible for losing to South Africa through a rash shot.

Not convinced during the 2002-3 Ashes series when he scored 3 tons, and 633 runs in 10 innings against the best attack in the world? I rate him highly, but you're right about the injury; it's extremely worrying, especially as it's the same knee that caused him problems before.

But what has he done for me lately? That was a long time ago and I think he’s been living off it for way too long now. The history of test cricket is full of players who had one great series and never did a thing since. I would scrap Vaughan if not for his captaincy, and the longer he’s away, the less weight that carries. Hopefully he’ll be back for the summer and will have a chance to prove himself.

International Cricket - Winter 2005-6