Other Cricket
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@KiwiPie said in Other Cricket:
Looks like all test top orders are struggling to make runs these days. To my old fart eyes, the batting techniques are hopeless, the feet go nowhere and most batsmen can't play the moving ball.
They've got more shots, but less "technique" if that makes any sense. The scourge of T20 cricket?
It makes Kohli and Williamson stand out even more (Steve Smith is the outlier there)
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@mariner4life said in Other Cricket:
@KiwiPie said in Other Cricket:
Looks like all test top orders are struggling to make runs these days. To my old fart eyes, the batting techniques are hopeless, the feet go nowhere and most batsmen can't play the moving ball.
They've got more shots, but less "technique" if that makes any sense. The scourge of T20 cricket?
It makes Kohli and Williamson stand out even more (Steve Smith is the outlier there)
Smith's technique is odd but he matches KW in that he plays the ball late - too many Guptills out there, plant the feet and swing the bat at the line of the ball (before it moves off the seam or swings late).
But someone like Moeen Ali ends up as a test batsmen (was batting at 3 until recently) who basically plants his feet and hits through the line. He made 50 today but that's purely due to luck - he gives the bowling side so many chances that he is never in or out of form - it just comes down to chance. He has a great eye, and can score fast .. Bairstow and Buttler are similar in that English side.
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@KiwiPie said in Other Cricket:
@mariner4life said in Other Cricket:
@KiwiPie said in Other Cricket:
Looks like all test top orders are struggling to make runs these days. To my old fart eyes, the batting techniques are hopeless, the feet go nowhere and most batsmen can't play the moving ball.
They've got more shots, but less "technique" if that makes any sense. The scourge of T20 cricket?
It makes Kohli and Williamson stand out even more (Steve Smith is the outlier there)
Smith's technique is odd but he matches KW in that he plays the ball late - too many Guptills out there, plant the feet and swing the bat at the line of the ball (before it moves off the seam or swings late).
But someone like Moeen Ali ends up as a test batsmen (was batting at 3 until recently) who basically plants his feet and hits through the line. He made 50 today but that's purely due to luck - he gives the bowling side so many chances that he is never in or out of form - it just comes down to chance. He has a great eye, and can score fast .. Bairstow and Buttler are similar in that English side.
I'm not sure what you're including in these day but a decade ago or maybe more we had journalists breathlessly exhorting the declining importance of footwork as Sehwag plundered triple and double tons with a stand and deliver approach. The second coming of Matthew Hayden was similar.
I feel like there was a period from the late nineties until recently where pitches got better for batting, there weren't many elite swing bowlers (as everyone chased express pace bowlers and mystery spinners) and batting averages crept up while technique declined. Perhaps that's what is causing the decline in averages now as some elite bowlers have popped up and there's a reaction to flat decks.
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Windies wrap up the Poms....
Whisper it quietly but they might be on the way back.
Also Jason Holder is now test crickets number one all rounder. First time someone from the Windies has been there since Gary Sobers in 1974 which surprised me a bit. I guess all their legends are generally very much batsmen or bowlers. Not both.
Good on him though, he's come a long way since Adam Voges padded his average to ridiculous levels against a terrible WI team.
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@Donsteppa said in Other Cricket:
Would love to see (and be slightly scared by
) the West Indies rising again. After growing up on the 86/87 version an onwards, watching their decline was disappointing.The Holding-Ambrose-Richards WI were fearsome and the most exciting cricket team on the planet. They seemed to have a conveyor belt of quicks back then
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@canefan said in Other Cricket:
@Donsteppa said in Other Cricket:
Would love to see (and be slightly scared by
) the West Indies rising again. After growing up on the 86/87 version an onwards, watching their decline was disappointing.The Holding-Ambrose-Richards WI were fearsome and the most exciting cricket team on the planet. They seemed to have a conveyor belt of quicks back then
Pedantic alert.
Did Ambrose and Richards/Holding play together at all ? Don't think so....
Yes trying to pick their four best ever quicks would be hard work.
I'd maybe go Marshall, Ambrose, Holding, Garner.....
Loads of fucken good others miss out.
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@MN5 said in Other Cricket:
@canefan said in Other Cricket:
@Donsteppa said in Other Cricket:
Would love to see (and be slightly scared by
) the West Indies rising again. After growing up on the 86/87 version an onwards, watching their decline was disappointing.The Holding-Ambrose-Richards WI were fearsome and the most exciting cricket team on the planet. They seemed to have a conveyor belt of quicks back then
Pedantic alert.
Did Ambrose and Richards/Holding play together at all ? Don't think so....
Yes trying to pick their four best ever quicks would be hard work.
I'd maybe go Marshall, Ambrose, Holding, Garner.....
Loads of fucken good others miss out.
Holdng played form 1975 - 1987
Ambrose from 1988-2000
Garner from 1977-1987
Marshall 1978-1991for me the windies from 1975 - 1983 were lethal:
Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall plus the real nasties like Croft, Clarke, Patterson and the rest of the conveyor belt
Then the batting - Greenidge, Haynes, Kallicharan, Richards, Lloyd - 3 of those 5 could tear the game away from you on their own.The second phase of WI team is awesome yet not as explosive in batting or bowling
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@hydro11 said in Other Cricket:
English batting looks incredibly weak. If Root isn't scoring runs, who can they rely on. Ashes will be interesting.
Saw a stat that England have averaged losing a wicket every 32 balls in this series - 32? So the Windies quicks don't even have to bowl long spells and the wickets keep falling.
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I recall watching Canterbury at the Rangiora Domain many years ago. Canterbury's opening bowlers? Holding and Hadlee. Pretty sure Hick was in the opposition that day too.
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@MN5 said in Other Cricket:
@Godder said in Other Cricket:
@Virgil said in Other Cricket:
@booboo said in Other Cricket:
Legend.
He’ll be gutted he never got the ton
Great cricketer, perfect foil for paddles.
Not many sportsmen nearly die on their debuts.And, like Sir Don, he was out for a golden duck in his last innings!
Ha. An average NZ player compared to Bradman. Only on the fern.
A classy humble NZer compared to an arrogant grumpy Aussie. No comparison really
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Typical poms. Mouth off, then run to the authorities when it comes with consequences.
And what is it with England sport trying to get rules changed when something goes against them? Arrogant bastards
Michael Holding is the coolest sounding motherfucker of all time.
"Reechie, put me in mon. The Aussies love me. Because i sound so cool"
For blokes our age, the Windies cricketers of that golden period (right through to the mid-90s really) just hold a fucking special place in our hearts.
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@KiwiPie At a minimum he should have been taking guard somewhere behind the square leg umpire!
A bit more of the story included here...
Brian Close was the bravest man to ever play cricket
Yorkshire great, who has died aged 84 after a battle with cancer, was renowned for his ferocious battles with West Indies' great fast bowlers of the 1970s
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@Chris-B Confession - I remember it well as I watched it at the time! He was famous for ignoring physical pain and fielding ridiculously close at short leg.
Batting in those days without a helmet, they were remarkably good at not getting hit on the head - today a bash on the helmet happens with regularity.
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@KiwiPie I knew you'd know all about it. I've read about it in various places - some parallels with them parachuting Cowdrey in to face Lillee and Thomson.
My cricket career ended about the time that helmets were coming in. Like Viv Richards I never wore one...and never wore one.
Unlike Viv, I didn't play many hook shots - I gracefully swayed to leg and let it pass by!
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