Australia declare on 556/4 after Khawaja was out for 174 - delighted for Usman, his first test century. Let’s see if this is actually a hopeless pitch now.
The Kiwis are 5 down at the close. The Saffers were bowled out for 180 and India are building a lead
How did the world’s Number 1 batsman Steven Smith fare out?
He made 48. He’s not #1 anymore anyway, think it is Joe Root now.
He scored his 1000th Test run in the calendar year in 9 tests at an average of 68.53 and captained his team to a 208 run victory. He is still the ICC’s no 1 Test batsman, Joe Root is third. Is that decent enough for you?
A word about Kane Williamson - a brilliant 140 for NZ in the 1st innings, he looks like an excellent player.
Steven Smith is clearly rated a lot higher in Australia than he is in this part of the world. @Bandage provided the best analysis of Smith during the Ashes.
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A great man to come in when it’s 350-2.
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Second test just started at the WACA, Australia batting. I think it’s the second last test before the new venue is opened. The groundsmen are promising a traditional WACA wicket, plenty of bounce and noreast should make the ball swing. Tim Southee passed a fitness test.
Mitch Johnson is making noises about retiring, this seems to definitely be his last WACA test, a place he took his best figures of 8/61 against South Africa.
Hopfully NZ will make a contest out of this and the Adelaide test. Hopefully, because what will be served up in test cricket here for the rest of the summer will be shite. The Windies are here. Gayle, Pollard, Bravo and Sammy are also here, but they’re not playing test cricket, they’re playing Big Bash. As long as this situation persists, where the dollar usurps playing for your country, the Windies will be a joke.
He’ll be under real pressure again when he comes in to bat next. Australia currently on 403/1 at 4.64 runs an over. Haven’t been watching but according to @Fitzy its a traditional WACA wicket with plenty of bounce and a noreast which is making the ball swing. That sounds like superb batting from Australia in such bowler friendly conditions.
Warner 244 no at the end of the day. Either he is Brian Lara or else they were bowling tennis balls at him. Hopefully Steve Smith can get some nice handy runs now to feed his average. The Aussies love their stats almost as much as the Indians.
Averages are only useful to a point. They never tell when the hard runs were made or the big wickets taken.
Test cricket in Australia has become very dull over last few years. They just serve up these 500-550 for 5 type wickets. Its not a fair contest between bat and ball. Australian batsmen fill their boots at home but as we saw for the countless time in recent years on the recent Ashes tour of England, when they are faced with challenging conditions and a proper contest between bat and ball, they’re not up to the job, largely because they have it so easy on home soil.
My excellent mood after the game tonight has been brought down somewhat by the news that Mitch Johnson is retiring with immediate effect after this (awful) Test. He’s been a fucking superbly entertaining bowler over the years. I reckon his best spell was in Durban in 2009 when he put Smith and Kallis in hospital. Was probably the most exhilarating sport I’ve had the pleasure to watch on TV.
Age 34. 311 test wickets. The Barmy army will miss him.
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He was very up and down as a cricketer, no doubt about that. Was always fun to watch though, and breathtaking at his best
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Bell dropped for Saffer tour. Compton and Ballance back. Wood and Finn ruled out with injury. Jordan, Footit and Woakes will be fighting it out for third seamer. Stokes named, didn’t see any quotes as to whether they think he’ll be fit for Durban.
Interesting. Good to see Compton back and that the bridges weren’t burnt there. Thought they might have still stuck with Bell but it is probably the right decision. Picking Ballance could be a brave decision not great with the short ball. Finn is very unlucky with the injuries. Footit is a left armer so can give them different options.
He’d actually clean up over here in England. Much like Warne, the English cricket public love him. He could name his price for corporate schmoozing.
Apparently the story with Compton was he hurt his ribs in a game and was told on initial inspection they were probably cracked. Scans then showed they were just bruised, and the coaching staff accused him of shirking fielding duties. That didn’t go down well with Compton and words were exchanged. The end of the Flower era seems to have been a strangely intense time.
Windies have selected the same 15 players that were walloped in both tests and ODI’s in Sri Lanka for the upcoming Frank Worrell Series. There’ll no doubt be much tut tutting in Australia about how awful the inevitable shambolic Windies performances will be. Windies have themselves to blame to a certain extent for their long and painful decline but the big powers in world cricket India and Australia must shoulder a portion of the blame as well for this ‘joke’ o fkilling off the Windies test team by perennially stripping their best talent for this IPL and Big Bash nonsense.
There is some truth in that no doubt. But plenty of countries have test players also involved in IPL, Big Bash and other competitions and still manage to field their first team. It points to a wider issue of the general governance of test cricket, which as we know is essentially predicated on what the BCCI wants. The Windies, while a bit of a basket case of an association, receive bugger all support from the ICC, who should be stepping int o sort out this situation, but that’s rather unlikely. The ECB are not exactly blameless in all of this either Geoffrey, as you well know. Summed up perfectly here:
“It’s self-interest because England and Australia want to make sure that they are getting the big series with India, in terms of TV and sponsorship deals, and to hell with the rest of the world.” Ed Hawkins.