God help me - the Test Cricket thread

[ElwoodBlues1]

Starc doing his impression of a pie chucker again

Looks disinterested.....Pant is on today and our bowling looks a bit tired and we are waiting for a mistake rather than bowling to a plan. Need to regroup and just bowl a better line and length something which Starc struggles to do when the conditions are not in his favour. If I was India I would experiment with Pant as an opener and get a keeper who can catch and bat, he has that Schewag/Srikanth ability that can really destroy attacks.
If we can prise Pujara out I think the rest will fold up especially with Jadeja unlikely to bat..

[Mantis]

Remove a second slip and a ball is edged in the exact place the fielder was. Paine misses an opportunity. Gas just keeps chipping away with edges not able to carry. The old catches win matches will be an issue every side needs to work super hard on at training. Opportunities present and you just need to pounce on them. Sure the bowling hasn’t been spectacular but the Aussies haven’t pounced on an opportunity when it presents either.

[LP]

It's amazing how some bowlers delivery a heavy ball, even though the radar suggests the speed variance is minimal.

[Professer E]

Starc has been very average this series and escaped criticism thus far .... Currently can't bowl two balls an over in the right place and he's not bowling anywhere near enough wicket taking balls and leaking runs.  As EB says,  looks like he's running at half rat power and disinterested.

I'd be handing Neser a cap in Brisbane.

[DJC]

Ri Starc was the pick of the bowlers in the last session and was stiff not to snag a couple of wickets.  With a bit of luck going his way, we could have got a result.

I’m puzzled by our use of the DRS and some of the field settings but you have to give credit to the Indians.  I wrote them off when Jadeja was injured  :-[

[ElwoodBlues1]

Credit to India for the courage they showed but we were really were poor in the field and bowled like we expected things to happen rather than trying to make them happen. When you cant get a bloke out with a blown hamstring and another who is a bowler all be it who can bat a bit you have to  ask some questions. Too much BS sledging by Paine,Wade and crew and not enough attention to where to bowl and position the field IMO. Paine dropped some catches but he also lacks a bit of imagination IMO. The continued short pitched attack especially by Cummins on a dead wicket had me confused, they were ducking most of the short stuff and didnt look overly troubled IMO. When Starc bowled in a more traditional method and looked for the edge we looked more likely to take wickets but it was too late at that stage.
Not sure why Green has to start with a warm up half rat power bouncer every spell either, hasnt taken a wicket yet and I hope he improves as his fitness gets better as he really bowled crape in this test and has been ineffectual with the ball.
I would have tried Lyon and Marnus as a combo attack a bit more and made Vihari use his feet.......Ashwin kept Vihari away from Lyon and Vihari was happy to take the quicks after Ashwin got hit in the chest and we just let them keep facing up to their preferred bowlers.
Agree with Prof, I'd play Neser on his home track and if the test gets played in Sydney due to Covid issues in Qld I'd play Abbott
and drop Starc who looks cooked more times than not although his last spell was his best.

[capcom]

Pretty dumb when we never needed to defend the total but didn't bowl accordingly.

Indians played well though

[LP]

Another crap no result SCG pitch.

[Professer E]

Yep,  just pleased we didn't lose the game,  I hate the SCG pitch.  It's like we custom make it for the other mob, which craps me to tears.

[capcom]

Crap keeping ... dropped 3