Good Areas, Work Hard, Keep It Simple

Shaun Marsh gets Philbo's spot. A predictable selection, not necessarily a good one I believe. For one thing, he's not an opener. He saw his spot in the Test side as an opener so WA wanged him to the top of the order. However in the defence of the selectors, DJ and BJ weren't openers either, but at least they were proven bats.

And people just love to refer to Marsh's success in the IPL. Good on him, he did bat himself into the Australian team. But we cannot forget that it was just Twenty20 cricket. Claiming he has experience in India after that is ridiculous.

Ok, maybe I'm just peeved because young Daniel Cullen wasn't selected. He really should have been. Form cannot be cited as a reason, since none of White, Marsh, Watson or Siddle had the kind of form to warrant a Test cap. Of the lot, Cullen is perhaps the only one that can claim a bit of form, Watson excluded perhaps. But no, he's stuck playing in the same XI as Younis Khan while Marsh is on his way to India. Aaaannnoooyyyiiinnnggg!!

In other news, SA beat NSW tonight in a last over finish. I'm not sure how I feel about this, since I don't support either of the teams. I like SA because they were so rubbish last season everyone loves the underdog, but at the same time NSW were probably the underdogs for this game. In the end, I can just be happy for individual performances. Shaun Tait 5-fer including some cruel bowling to tailenders. Cullen picking up 3 in his spell, but not great off-spinner wickets, instead one-day spinner wickets. NSW's new tactic of opening the bowling with O'Keefe's spinners, still interesting.

Just on that last point, I'd like to question the thinking behind it. As this is the second game in a row they've done it, it's not about the pitch. So it has to be a tactical thing. A spinner opening the bowling, give the batters something to think about. Perhaps they will feel obligated to smash him out of the park and hopefully lose their own wickets. Or perhaps they'll take the other extreme and just be super watchful against him and just play him out. Either way, it's not saying anything about the boy's abilities. Actually the fact that they're willing to expose him like that suggests he's not a good enough spinner to get wickets the normal way. Shame, Mr. Thornley. Shame.

Labels: dan cullen, NSW, SA, shaun marsh