Good Areas, Work Hard, Keep It Simple

Move over 2005 Ashes, we have a new "best series ever".

Three wins apiece. Each won two away Tests and one home Test. The scoreline sums it up brilliantly, but at the same time it doesn't even scratch the surface.

First let's look at what made this better than the 2005 Ashes.

1) It was a home and away series. Both teams had the home advantage at some point. And even better was the touring team won both series.

2) Careers were made, realised and ended. The likes of Duminy, Hughes and North were given an opportunity to transfer their domestic form onto the international stage, and they did so with aplomb. Duminy played so well he kept the vice captain out of the side. Hughes became the youngest man to score twin hundreds. North the first to score a debut century for Australia since Clarkey did it four years ago. At the same time, Johnson, Siddle, Steyn and AB de Villiers dramatically increased their stocks. Johnson evolved into the strike bowler he threatened to be. Siddle showed why he was picked for Australia on the back of 12 first class games over three or four seasons. Steyn proved he could do it against the number one ranked team. And AB just made centuries for fun, showing his value to the team was more than as an electric fielder and back-up keeper. And last of all, we said goodbye to Hayden, and the same could possibly be said of McKenzie. Both openers who struggled, and both made way for the young guns.

3) Six results and still no winner. That is one of the truly astounding things about this series. Each match produced a result, and all but the final Test went to the 5th day. It would have been a TV broadcaster's wet dream.

4) There will be no MBE's and open-top bus rides. Each time knows the magnitude of the their achievements, but they also know it won't help them win their next series.

I'd like to look back at some of the big moments, so keep your eye out for that in the next couple of days/weeks.

Labels: australia, safrica

The third and final Test starts tomorrow.

It has been such a long Test series, spanning from December till March. My goodness, now that is how long a Test series should be. Ok, there was a lot of cricket in between, but it has been gripping viewing.

Five Tests, a number of fantastic performances, both individual and team, and now it has to come to an end. This is how a series should be. It should be long, hard fought, memorable, and most importantly, contain high class cricket. Test "series" of two or three Tests are not enough. The reason they're that short is because the boards or the ICC don't believe any more matches will sustain the public's interest. Instead, we get 7 match ODI series, because they are clearly more interesting.

So bring back proper Test series! Actually, I quite like the idea of return Test series, as Safrica and Australia do. It makes it much more likely that the home and away series will be played between the same times, with minimal personel changes. Compare this to the 05 and 06/07 Ashes, where England came to Australia a battered and broken team after tough tours to the subcontinent and general rubbish cricket.

I want to do a wrap up of this South Africa series, as it now takes over as my favourite Test series, pinching the top spot from the 2005 Ashes.

Remember when I gave Phillip Hughes a massive plug a year ago? I sure as hell do. Many of my predictions were wrong, but I got kinda closish.

I was correct in saying he'll take over Hayden's spot, although I was very wrong about the timeline. However I believe no one could have predicted how well he started.

To enter Test cricket at 20 years old, facing the team 90% of the world expected to take the number 1 spot in their own backyard, there wasn't a lot riding for him. To make a duck first up, it was an anti-climax of epic proportions. To follow up that duck with scores of 75, 115 and 160 is... ridonkey-kong. On his way, he became the answer to a number of trivia questions, namely one of the few men to score their first ton younger than the Don and the youngest to score two centuries in a match.

However with all that, he still can't get into a one day team lacking an opener. IT MAKES NO SENSE! The most in-form player of the team, someone who has already been in the country for almost a month, gets sent home and some baby slogger takes his place? It seems the selectors cannot help but make the Australian public hate them.

Labels: phillip hughes

Most fantastic piece of commentary ever. Tony Greig and Gilly were talking about Bracken when:

TG: Very versatile, Bracken is.
And then you hear in the background, but not actually directly into the mic
AG: Except for when he got smacked in the powerplay.

The people that NEED to be given an ODI game before the summer is out:

• Phillip Hughes
• Bryce McGain
• Jason Krezja
• Marcus North
  

It's been said a million times before that the might and power of the Australian team was all based on a strong selection policy. Rarely did they put a foot wrong and they remained in the shadows for most of the time. Of course they were backed up by consistent performances from those picked, but they do deserve a lot of credit. Players like Gilchrist, Hayden, Langer, Martyn and even the later versions of McGrath and Warne were shown faith by the selectors and duly rewarded them.

However with Trevor Hohns and Allan Border saying goodbye, and Merv Hughes and Jamie Cox coming in, there has been an undoubtable shakiness in the committee. If anything, they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. A flurry of greats retiring, greats that cannot be replaced. But at the same time, they are also reaping the consequences of the previous committee.

One of the things about the strong Australian team was it's stability. The only way for a new player to come in was injury or retirement. Form slumps were not rare, but the dropping of players were. As a result, we are now throwing countless players into the deepend.

In the current team, there's a clear divide in the generations. There's the old guard; including Ponting, Lee, Hussey, Haddin, Clark, Symonds and Katich, and then the younger guys; being Clarke, Johnson, White and Watson. Or more simply, there's the 32 year olds and aboves, and the 27 year olds. I always believed a team needed a gradient in age and experience.

Looking at the South Africans, the oldest/most experienced are Smith, Kallis, Boucher and Ntini. Then you have the established players in their prime; Amla, de Villiers, Harris, Steyn, McKenzie and Jalbie. Then there's the up and comings; Morne and Duminy. It is an irresistible combination which teams should aspire to obtain.

So the way out for Australia? There is none. We have to rebuild for a few years (read: be really crap), and then hopefully we can aim to be something resembling good again.

Labels: selection

I'd like to complain about Cricinfo's Fantasy cricket for just a bit. Before today's game, I had AB, James Hopes (who for some reason, I call Grass Hopper) and Peter Siddle in my team. Before the deadline, i.e. 15 minutes before play started, I swapped AB and Grass Hopper for Michael Clarke and Jalbie Morkel. Then after play had started, I swapped Siddle for the Hilf.

Ok, no problems so far.

The confusion sets in when I check the points after tonight's game. I didn't expect the Hilf to get any points because his transfer was after the deadline, and he didn't. Michael Clarke got points for his contributions. However Man of the Match Jalbie Morkel got nothing. Nothing! That's 250 points! Disappeared! If Clarke got points, then clearly Jalbie should have too! But no he didn't, he's just in limbo. And now he's going to under perform for the rest of the series and I'll be seriously robbed. Thanks a lot, you idiots.

Just on the Grass Hopper, I love giving the players nicknames. There's really no explaination for Grass Hopper, except for Hopper having "Hope" in it. I love Jalbie though. This is because his name is John Albie Morkel, but he's called Albie. Hence, Jalbie. Makes sense to me. Hmmm... others... others... I may call Neil McKenzie the "Mack Attack", similar to the Shak Attack. I call Amla the Hash and Gibbs the Hersh. That's about it, but I'll be sure to put down the others I remember.

Labels: cricinfo, fantasy, nicknames