Oldham M   -1
Replying to Super Hans   10:23, Fri 28 Nov
Boland too. It could be another 2 day test !

I think Cummins may be back for Adelaide but I'd be surprised if we saw Hazelwood for anything more than the last test, if that.
Leithblues   0
Replying to Fat Buddha OBE   10:24, Fri 28 Nov
Further shows what a massive missed opportunity the first test was.

As others have said how we play Starc will be crucial with the pink ball
Oldham M   1
Replying to Fat Buddha OBE   10:27, Fri 28 Nov
Fat Buddha OBE
You man up too

I never said who would win the two day test... I think it evens it up for England.
Replying to Oldham   10:33, Fri 28 Nov
Usman Khawaja‘s comments on the Perth pitch are interesting.

: “[There were] 19 wickets on the first day, about 20 people got hit – that’s a great wicket, that seems real fair? “The same thing happened last year, that day one wicket...

“Steve Smith is by far the best cricketer I’ve played with. He’s missing the middle of his bat by a long way, and he does not miss the middle of the bat. You can’t really predict up and down [bounce]; your hands can’t catch up.

“[The] day one wicket is a piece of shit, I’m happy to say that. They do get better day two, day three, but day four they start to crack up again. We know day two and day three is usually the best time to bat, that’s why whenever we play at Perth and we win the toss we bat first hoping that we can bat again maybe end of day two into day three.
newblue   -1
Replying to LondonBlue   10:57, Fri 28 Nov
Ironic thing that I didn’t see mentioned is that Head played a total ‘bazball’ innings which really came off fantastically well. He’s been in such poor form that if one of the swipes he middled relentlessly had ‘gone up the chimney’ instead early on, he’d have got massive criticism too for ‘giving his wicket away’.

Head would fit into the England batting approach very well.
Oldham M   1
Replying to newblue   11:10, Fri 28 Nov
He wasn't driving the rising ball though. He sat back and waited for the short ball which we persisted with
Replying to Oldham   11:14, Fri 28 Nov
Yeah he played balls on their merit and didn’t really drive at balls he shouldn’t have, can’t remember him giving us much of a sniff with an edge.

Aggressive cricket is absolutely fine and it’s great to watch but there’s a big gap between aggressive and moronic

How anyone can defend what happened on Saturday is beyond me.
Free Thongs
IanT M   0
Replying to newblue   11:48, Fri 28 Nov
As others have said, his shot selection was superb.....ours wasn't.

He bats like that all the time, and he backs himself when the odds are in his favour and it's in his area.

We didn't look like we could bat with that sort of discipline.
There's too much opinion and not enough fact.
Replying to IanT   11:54, Fri 28 Nov
He bats like that all the time and as with our more aggressive batters, it doesn't always come off. There was some debate as to whether he should play prior to the test, so poor was his form. It was his day, good on him. Others on both sides will also have days to remember.
Replying to newblue   11:58, Fri 28 Nov
Ironic thing that I didn’t see mentioned is that Head played a total ‘bazball’ innings which really came off fantastically well. He’s been in such poor form that if one of the swipes he middled relentlessly had ‘gone up the chimney’ instead early on, he’d have got massive criticism too for ‘giving his wicket away’.

Head would fit into the England batting approach very well.

Damien Fleming, or maybe Glenn McGrath, one of the six, was saying the other day that Head is responsible for Bazball. McCullum was impressed by a quickfire Head innings and changed his whole philosophy on how the game should be played.

I call bullshit.