Australia vs. Sri Lanka

[Donny]

Well, Haydos and Punter sure benefitted from their rest. After 27 overs, Australia is 1/156!

Ponting is 77 from 73 and Hayden is 50 from 66. Gilly made 26 from 23.

Donny.

GO THE MIGHTY WOODSMEN !! ALL THE WAY IN 2003 AND BEYOND !!!!

[Donny]

A delight to watch! I love it when they flex their muscles! A 9 wicket victory. 215 in 34.3 overs. 6.23 per over.

Ricky Ponting just gave us a little reminder of what he is capable of. 106 in 97 balls! 11 fours and 1 six.

Matthew Hayden just ticked it along in support till he could contain himself no longer. 3 mighty sixes towards the end must have settled his nerves. Lol. 80 from 87 balls with ONE four and 4 sixes !!

Donny.

GO THE MIGHTY WOODSMEN !! ALL THE WAY IN 2003 AND BEYOND !!!!

[JLC]

I had an accounting class tonight so missed all of the cricket
Well the Sri Lankan bowling attack without Murali is pretty harmless. Well done to the Aussies though

I think the two right teams are in the finals

jlc

Essendon 2000 premiers
2001 runners up
2002 fifth
2003 ????
The slide continues

[Brown26]

JLC - got a chip on your shoulders mate?

Just read pretty much the whole of this topic, and mate, you haven't said one good thing about the aussies!! Not that I disagree with everything you say, but I beleive everyone's entitled to a bad day, it's when you string three or four together that you have to start asking serious questions.

Being one of the privelaged few who didn't ahve anything to do yesterday, I went to the cricket with a few mates, got sunburnt, and saw a great bowling display from Australia's 5 - 8 bowlers, and Symonds put in a good few overs when it counted.

That's right "Sri Lankas bowling attack without Murili is pretty harmless" JLC - New ball pair Braken and Williams, with Bichel and Hogg bowling unchanged after that, and support from Watson and Symonds - none of Australias premier four played - Gillespie was 12th man.

and they played well!! Braken's 10 overs were great - beat teh bat consistently in his first spell, and right on target with all but one ball in his last two overs.

Williams was very unlucky to have 6.3 pre over off his first six, and deserved a few wickets, beating the bat, edges through slips, LBW's etc.

Hogg 3 for, not that he didn't deserve them, but in my opinion it's hard for a spinner to bowl one dayers,a dn you have to be good, so perhaps he was a litlle lcuky the Sri Lankans didn't try to take him on. But he bowled a good line, length a bit off at times, he did ok.

Buchel - even consistent, never looked like being carted, got a much needed wicket in his first couple of overs, bowled unchanged, workhorse like and exactly what we needed.

Watson only bowled four overs - resting him? testing Symonds? not sure, but he was a bit wayward in his first four, thought he maybe deserved a chance to rectify that, but not to be.

Symonds - bowled to keep the scoring down, never looked like a wicket taking threat but that wasn't his job.

all in all, good display by the openers, great bowling by the next two, and a nice return for teh final five overs by the openers again.

Braken especially is looking teh gods for the world cup - if he's going? - harvey (ian) will be ruing his injury that kept him out til the cup squad was named (basically) cause he's a much better bowler than symonds, probably better than watson, just needed to show the selectors what he could do a bit more.

batting - well, gilly hit out and went out, hayden took it slow (only a run a ball) and got 80 odd not out, ponting hit out and stayed in.

It's all very well to say the bowling without murili is impotent, but he wouldn't have bowled in the first ten, and we were carting them all over teh paddock then too.

We played very well, for a team with all their front line bowlers out especially well, and I wouldn't be surprised if Lee finds himself out of the squad in place of braken when the bowlers are all fit and return.

having said that, lee bowled well in teh last game I though, rose to the occasion, he's just a little wayward for one dayers IMO still.

- Ben

Pies for Premiers 2002, 3, 4, 5, 6....

[JLC]

Actually i think Bracken is a fantastic young cricketer and adds variety to the attack and would have been a great inclusion for the World Cup Squad. Hogg has been a surprise packet and has performed admirably in Australian conditions.

The only players i dont like are Watson and Symonds and they have not done anything alarmingly brilliant to change my mind.

Bevan i think has become boring to watch bat. He used to be so much more flamboyant when in his prime.

This forum is entitled "Cricket". Therefore it is not simply about being Pro Australian. Maybe we should change the forum to "Aussies Only" ?? Everyone else on here thinks Australia cannot do a thing wrong so i merely show the other side to the story.

jlc

Essendon 2000 premiers
2001 runners up
2002 fifth
2003 ????
The slide continues

[Bartros]

I agree on all counts of what you have just said Johnny!!

Long Live the mite and power of
Shane Morwood (member of 1990 team,1988 Vic rep)

[Donny]

Well, that makes one of you, Bartros.

JLC's first paragraph: "Hogg has been a surprise packet and has performed admirably in Australian conditions" A surprise packet to who? He's been playing well and honing his craft for WA since he was first selected for Australia, over six years ago. He has simply performed too well for JLC to bag him.

Par.2: Watson and Symonds. He's flogging a dead horse - again. The squad has been picked.

Par.3: Bevo has NEVER been flamboyant!

Par.4: Yes, this forum is called 'Cricket' and ALL opinions are welcome. But when someone who claims, "I like Australia and I have supported them all my life .." continually critisises and attacks them, he will attract comments like the ones from Ben (Brown 26) and me.

"Everyone else on here thinks Australia cannot do a thing wrong ..." That's simply not true as a good read back through the various topics will show but it's obvious that any cricket forum in Australia will have a majority of Aussie supporters.

I'm also aware that JLC takes a 'devil's advocate' position on some things and that's fine. I enjoy jousting with him. Lol.



Donny.

GO THE MIGHTY WOODSMEN !! ALL THE WAY IN 2003 AND BEYOND !!!!

[This message has been edited by MAGFAN8 (edited 23 January 2003).]

[JLC]

Bevan did use to be flamboyant as if you recall he was a great improviser when it came to strokeplay. Whereas now a days he is trying to be too much of a "perfectionist". The amount of dot balls he has in an innings is unforgiveable in a one day game. At least he should be pushing for 2's and 3's and keep the scoreboard ticking over.

I wasnt flogging the symonds and watson issue i was just saying that this was one point where i was negative

I dont recall bagging Hogg before? If i have then so far i have proven to be incorrect. But im pretty sure i havn't

jlc

Essendon 2000 premiers
2001 runners up
2002 fifth
2003 ????
The slide continues

[Brown26]

I agree with JLC about Hogg - did well in australian conditions for what he does. I just don't like bowlers of his kind, that's all, not in one dayers. tests yes fine, but one day games I reckon it's too easy - or should be too easy - to dance down and slog them. maybe Hogg has some way of not letting them do that? nto sure, still to prove itagainst good batsmen.

having said that, Hogg did as well as could be expected, and got three wickets recently, marvelous job! but I was surprised, and I dn't expect it to last.

The point I was making about bagging Australia is that we are clearly the best team, and even though we have our problems we are still clearly the best team (in the series, in the world, since the great windies teams and even then we'll give 'em a run) and yet so many people like to bag them ALL the time.

I s'pose that's balanced some what by the people who only say good thiings about them, but I don't like it when people bag soemthing just cause it's sucessful and to drag it down. Not that I'm saying that's what JLC's doing / did, but that's waht a lot of people do when something is so good.

- Ben

Pies for Premiers 2002, 3, 4, 5, 6....