SA Footy

Pathetic

Surely some heads must role

Wow, absolutely pathetic. Embrassing to just capitulate like that AGAIN FFS. Apart from a few really good individual performances our batting was just woeful in this series.

Mitchell Starc (24 wickets @ 15.16) is the only bloke that can hold his head high, he was outstanding coming back after a long lay off. Lyon- 16 wickets @ 31.93, given how much the Sri Lankan spinners dominated that is a well underpar return for our number one man.

The Henriques selection, nothing against him, reaked of incompetence. Holland 5 wickets @ 54.80 was a quick-fix selection and while he gave it his all he was just out of his depth. Losing O'Keefe killed us.

Warner 163 runs @ 27.16, Burns 34 @ 8.50 and Khawaja 55 @13.75, a pretty promising top three that just didn't rock up. Smith the only batsman to make over 200 runs (@ 41.16), some of his dismissals were horrible. Voges struggled and while he showed a bit with the bat, 163 runs @ 27.16 we did not get enough out of Mitch Marsh. Nevill was super with the gloves but he can't make a run.

Herath 28 wickets @12.75 made us look like F grade park cricketers along with his sidekick, Perera 15 @ 24.80. Sandakan 9 @ 23.00 who I thought was under bowled looks to be a very exciting prospect.

Mendis was the catalyst for the Sri Lankas at the start of the series, 296 runs @ 49.33 while de Silva made a very good start to his test career, 325 @ to 65 in his first three test matches.

Just a completely horrible series for us. I'm really disappointed, especially after today's collapse. That was just unacceptable.

The Sri Lankans were outstanding and responded in excellent fashion after getting thrashed in England. They throughly deserve the series Whitewash victory.

We lost each game because of our batting. Our bowling was fine at times and superb at other times. Starc was superb and will man of the series with worse performances. He looks more and more like a bowler who might just be our greatest ever. Hazlewood did fine IMHO, in conditions that don't suit him while Lyon gets a pass in my book. He's a spinner who relies on bounce, not turn, so the low slow decks of Asia will always prove a challenge.

But the batting. We started the series with 5 batsmen and when they weren't scoring enough we went to 4. Nevill will soon find himself batting behind Starc and the sooner M. Marsh gets out the better. He was hidden behind a dominant top 5 in good form, but once things got tough (as they always do) he was exposed. One good innings and a few starts just tells me he's at his best. It's not good enough. When his form drops off, he'll be about as good as a number 10. It wasn't even like his bowling was even useful. Hazlewood was under used, what good is Marsh going to be if Hazlewood is right to bowl, but just not as effective as Starc or Lyon, or a part timer? Then they pick Henriques. Good lad, probably will be a solid one day player for a bit too for Australia. But he's 29 with a first class average of 31.

The solution was simple. We didn't have a clear second spin option once O'Keefe went down so why force one? Use part timers for the 4th bowler if you need to give Lyon, Starc and Hazlewood a break and have 7 batsmen and Nevill. All rounders in test cricket have always been over rated. The great all rounders in history have all been capable of holding their spots with bat or ball alone. Sobers and Kallis were the best bats in the team. Hadlee, Khan, Dev, Akram, Miller, Botham - all great bowlers. Lehmann has many qualities as a coach, but gee he's been exposed badly here.

A brilliant summation on all points Graham.

regards,

REB

Great article on the current side in the paper today. And it's spot on.

This article has just popped up on WWOS -

Allegations of match fixing and pitch doctoring have hit cricket once again with fresh claims that the Galle Test match between Australia and Sri Lanka in 2016 was rigged by underworld figures who reached out to a member of the ground staff. A new documentary to be released by Al Jazeera alleges criminals placed large bets on the match not ending in a draw. The fixers got their wish with a result coming in just over two days.

Australia collapsed on the third day losing the match by 229 runs. The tourists lost 20 wickets in just over 500 balls with Sri Lanka’s spinners proving to be a nightmare on a pitch that was doctored. It’s alleged a section on the pitch where the spinners would land the ball had been severely impacted.
Australia was heavily criticised for their performance in that match with several batsmen scoring in single digits. Furthermore, Usman Khawaja and Joe Burns were cut from the team following the dismal showing.

The Al-Jazeera team secretly recorded ­former first-class player Robin Morris, Dubai-based Indian businessman Gaurav Rajkumar, former Sri Lankan star Terindu Mendis and the Galle stadium assistant manager, Tharanga Indika discussing the scam. The men can be heard explaining how wire brushes used to sweep the pitch were used more firmly to gain the effect.

“One thing he can do during the match is the brush thing,” Mendis explained.
“You just do it slowly. What they do then is press it inward,” Morris added.

In the documentary, groundsman Indika openly talks about how he can make the pitch spinner friendly and extremely difficult for batsmen.

“In that five-day match, we prepared the wicket poorly without using a roller. In that way we made a spinning wicket,” he said.

Vision also captures Morris motioning towards Indika, explaining how it happens.

“What happens is he — we — can make a pitch to do whatever we want it to do.

“Because he’s the main curator. He is the assistant manager and curator of the Galle stadium.

“Yes, if you want a pitch for spin bowling or pace bowling or batting, it can be done,” Indika said.

“We leave the wicket uncovered for about two weeks. Don’t water it and this will cause damage to the wicket,” he says.

The ICC is investigating the claims while the men captured in the vision say they thought they were taking part in a movie.

The silver lining in this is no players were involved in the fix. Groundstaff however dodgy as ****!