Australia vs Sri Lanka ODI (Melb)

[stampy]

and we do it again ******* useless when it comes to closing out a match

[Jim05]

You are a disgrace australia. Hang your head in shame you pathetic overpaid primma donnas. Pull your head in or piss off. Sack them all especially clarke. I will not bag pontings captaincy again because clarke has got no idea

[cripple]

some credit to the two batsmen who held there heads must be given. This is what australia used to do to others and now the tables have well and truly turned. Congrats to malinga and mathews on never giving up.
On the Clarke scenario, he aint the goose bowling the ball in the wrong places.

[Pottsy]

Is the Commonwealth Bank posting record profits because of interest rates, or reducing MOTM prizes?? I reckon it was more than one grand over ten years ago.

[Brucetiki]

You are a disgrace australia. Hang your head in shame you pathetic overpaid primma donnas. Pull your head in or piss off. Sack them all especially clarke. I will not bag pontings captaincy again because clarke has got no idea

x2 Clarke should be the first to go - needs to be brought down a peg or ten

[The Cadet]

What I would like our ODI side to be ( when everyone fit )

Watson
Haddin
Ponting
Hodge
Ferguson
White
Finch
Hopes
McKay
Tait
Bollinger


Hussey, Clarke to slow, blood Ferg to do that role.
Johnson bowls to much carp for big game ODI's
Hastings bowls like hopes but bats worse

[Jim05]

Clarkes field positions and bowling changes were atrocious

[Dutchy]

Wow - Aus cricket is in all sorts.

Bowlers exhausted and breaking down.
Hastings - WTF? Have you ever seen a bigger man bowl with no grunt?
Clarke - Captaincy was terrible, at the end Mitch bowling across the right hander and he brings Long Off up and leave Long on Back, Mathews says thankyou very much and plonks it over Long off. How many times did these blokes score runs by going long and straight? Its almost a given to have a Long on and off in the last 15-20 overs
Hodge has to come in

But take nothing away from Sri Lanka, its was pure cricket, a touch of class and a touch of cheek but great to watch.

Sangakkara is pure class and Mathews is an emerging star, loved the way he placed the ball and around Clarkes field placings and how he just timed the ball, not trying to hit the cover off it.

[Dogwatcher]

At seven for I made the call that Sri Lanka would win.
I thought the run out stuffed up my call.
But what a batting display! And what crap captaincy and bowling.

[sherminator]

some credit to the two batsmen who held there heads must be given. This is what australia used to do to others and now the tables have well and truly turned. Congrats to malinga and mathews on never giving up.
On the Clarke scenario, he aint the goose bowling the ball in the wrong places.

Couldn't agree more. Full credit to Mathews & Malinga, although the bowling was poo! As I posted before, can't any of these bowlers bowl yorkers? Sure the occasional full toss will result but consistently bowling short or on a lenghth clearly didn't work! I saw maybe 1 or 2 yorkers in the last 10 or so overs.

[Jim05]

Hastings - built like tarzan plays like jane. Never seen a big bloke steam in and then just plonk it on the spot. How about showing some effort. Was smith injured? If not 3 overs ffs. In the end though the experts all said at start of game we need 270+. Batting was poor. Open with marsh or piss him off he is no number 6. Clarke hopeless and although hussey was not out he batted way too slow. I think play haddin as an opener and play paine as no.7 and keeper. Positive was doherty, looked better in 10 overs than hauritz has in 10 years.

[mal]

Dont blame the Captaincy
Just acknowledge how well that partnership went
Strange names
Angelo Matthews and Latish MALinga, both were awesome

How can you possibly sack MichAeL Clarke on this loss
Australia is still a good one day side that lost in freakish circumstances
The batting is awesome, the bowling a bit iffy, but still a good competitive team
Clarkes record in ODI is good as is his captaincy in general

India were 8 for f...all and beat us in a Test Match
Pontings captaincy that game was abyssMAL
He allowed India into the game, opened the door, and was the main reason we lost
I didnt see anything major that Clarke did wrong in this loss

[Dogwatcher]

Nothing wrong?

They had them seven for and Golden Boy didn't bowl Doherty straight through.
Smith only bowled three overs.
Johnson bowled too many overs.
He chose to bowl himself, a bowler who can snare important wickets when used appropriately, when they needed three runs to win.

There's four.

The visible frustration he was showing was also not acceptable body language for a skipper. If the Lankan batsmen didn't have the initiative prior to that, they certainly would have been smiling after seeing that.

[CoverKing]

I was not a fan of his captaining tonight, although i was happy to see he brought himself on when he did. That was a good move IMO.

And also, Smith bowled 3 overs because he was injured. That is what i would assume, because surely he would have bowled him more?

Doherty not being bowled out was an ok move i guess, nor right or wrong IMO

[Old Dog New Tricks]

[quote="The Cadet"]Out Siddle and Johnson, short $hit to tailenders, It's time to sack all the selectors not just Merv and start picking the best side.[/quote]But what is the best side. It's one thing to critique the current team but you need a solution to go with it.

[smithy]

Nothing wrong?

They had them seven for and Golden Boy didn't bowl Doherty straight through.
Smith only bowled three overs.
Johnson bowled too many overs.
He chose to bowl himself, a bowler who can snare important wickets when used appropriately, when they needed three runs to win.

There's four.

The visible frustration he was showing was also not acceptable body language for a skipper. If the Lankan batsmen didn't have the initiative prior to that, they certainly would have been smiling after seeing that.

To quote myself from the 20/20 game.

Did Clarke not learn anything from the 1st innings.
This is just DUMB DUMB DUMB.
Sri Lanka were able to restrict Australia from very frequent bowling rotations, often with a slow bowler.
He's got plenty of slow bowwling options out there and hasn't tried any.

IMO, if you';ve had a bad/average day, a good captain will analyse how the opposition went about it and you try and emulate it a little bit better to win the game.
Clarke has proven to be hopeless in his role as captain already this summer.
No imagination, no tactical nous, and most importantly doesn't deserve his spot.
I will also add that the selectors who gave hiim this side have a lot to answer to as well.

Marsh at 6 no ferg johnson - can't bowl to a field in a test match, why is he playing ODI's?
And I can't wait for the next ODI when hauritz comes in and replaces Doherty.

[Media Park]

Deplorable.

[gadj1976]

I've said to mates over and over again that our bowling has been carried by our overall success for years. Now we're struggling (more than we were previously) and our bowlers are looking very ordinary.

Bowling short rubbish doesn't work even on big grounds in Australia. Then when we do pitch it up, it's 'hittable' rubbish that's half volley-esque! To top that off, not only do we finally pitch it up, mid on and mid off are up. Either Clarke was setting fields based on how badly the bowlers were bowling, or he has no idea.

The other thing I observed from last night was the hyped up commentary - suited to a 20/20. Yep, good game but Slater especially was riding everything to the nth degree.

And, Slater's comments on how "strong Sri Lanka look going into the world cup". Huh, they were 8/107?!?! No, not strong. They had a magnificent escape from some poor batting in the middle order - and some very good bowling by Doherty.

[Media Park]

Doherty...

Unlike my comments re a couple of other left field selections in the shorter game, I think Doherty could be an "X" factor (terrible joke).

Good wickets per game average domestically, averages just over 18 with the bat- not shabby for a no. 8 or 9...

Actually rate him a bit...

One post where I don't have egg on my face!

[Booney]

Captaincy? Average.

Bowling? Piss poor.

Respect shown to our opponents? None whatsoever. There I think lies our biggest problem in recent outings, our once ruthless approach was always coupled with a healthy respect for our opponents, therein lies the joy of winning, beating someone you respect.

Last night just looked like we were waiting for these bunnies to get out. I know, I went through the same think playing against mal at times.