pafc1870 wrote:you can make 1000 runs in the first innings, if you cant bowl them out, whats the point? We can make 245 again in the first innings of the next test, and if we bowl well are a chance of winning. Sure, runs are important, but if you cant take 20 wickets, the best result you can get is a draw
I know the circumstances are slightly different in today's game, and Ian Chappell had Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson at his disposal, but he always aimed for 300 runs with the bat, anything more was a bonus and often unnecessary.
Okay, our batting was poor in the Adelaide Test but that still doesn't excuse the fact that our attack was unable to bowl a consistent line and, even worse, a constant length. At one time Bollinger pitched the ball in the perfect spot to Pietersen, about 6 metres from the crease and moving across him. The ball had Pietersen floundering, it beat him completely. I said, "Yes!! that's the spot Dougie, keep it there". The next ball, instead of concentrating on the spot and slightly varying the line, Doug pounds one in short, Pietersen rocks onto the back foot and smashes it through mid wicket for 4.
Variety is all very well, but sometimes you need to strive for a constant line and length, tie a batsman down and force him into error. Our bowlers never did that. For the entire innings it was one pitched up outside off, a short on, one down the leg side, another short one, then one over the top of the batman's head, followed up by one 2 feet outside off tto be smashed for 4.
As for that stuff Doherty calls bowling, WTF was that??!! When you're trying to bowl that rubbish, you cannot waiver from a consistent line and length, otherwise you are cannon fodder. However, for some reason he manages to bowl 2 poop balls each over. That's parklands stuff.
Siddle gets a hat trick bowling a fuller length and forcing batsmen to play in an area they feel uncertain. Since then, all he's done is bowl short. As for Johnson ... disgraceful. Ricky should be shot for allowing them to keep doing it, and the bowling coach should be sacked.