Monday, November 30, 2015

Pink Balls, Fast Bowlers and Physios

After initially being dubious, I am an official convert to the Day/Night Test cricket format. The appeal of Test cricket, as opposed to other formats, is the tactical nous it requires, and day/night Tests provide another element, another variable condition, more considerations for captains, for coin tosses and declarations and team line-ups. In short, more tactical nous is required, and more interesting cricket is produced.

As for the pink ball, as far as I could tell, it held up well. The fact that it swung around for most of the match was, funnily enough, influenced by the curator leaving a good layer of grass on the pitch to help protect the unknown pink ball.

Obviously we have a very limited sample size – one match, and only three days of that – but the day/night format made for compelling, testing Test cricket, and all in prime time TV viewing hours, something not to be underestimated.

Speaking of which, in case anyone missed it, Channel 9 is now available in HD, which would be exciting if this was 2007. But, you know, good on them for using the available air space they’ve had for 5 fucking years on something other than Nutri-bullet ads. (Where do these TV infomercial people get their money from? It’s not cheap to buy a 30 second TV ad spot yet these people are running a fucking 24/7 telethon for pulley-system door/gyms and the sliver of a niche market that requires blenders to also cook. Fuck it, I’m starting a kick-starter to raise money for my own infomercial. Instead of Chuck Norris on a rowing machine you can watch me, day-drunk, yelling at the TV about the preposterousness of Ian Healy being employed as a “commentator”. If he couldn’t catch he’d be shining hubcaps at a second-hand caryard. Knowledge, is what I’m selling, knowledge.)

And as for other expert commentary, the talk of Josh Hazlewood being dropped, or being under pressure, (granted, this seemed to be coming purely from Michael Slater who kept inanely repeating that “he needed some wickets”) was ridiculous. His “bad” Ashes series saw him take 16 wickets in four matches (Starc took 18 in five, Johnson 15 in five), in his first tour of England. He’s 12 goddamn games into his career! To paraphrase the great Aaron Rogers, everybody calm down. In fact, let’s play a quick stat game: Which bowler has had a better start to his career?


Bowler A
Bowler B
Matches
12
12
Wickets
40
53
Top 7 Batsmen dismissed
27
42
Average
30.5
24.16
Economy Rate
2.72
3.09
Strike Rate
67.1
46.7

As I’m sure you’ve guessed (because I will only ever quote stats that support my assertions) Bowler B is Josh Hazlewood, who stacks up particularly well against the first 12 games of Bowler A, all-time-great Glenn McGrath.

I’m not sure if the view of Hazlewood is skewed, the expectation bloated, or Michael Slater is just a moron (actually we may have an answer), but he’s not yet 25 years of age, and has 13 more wickets than Australia’s highest wicket-taking quick had at the same stage of his career. And as those terrific numbers show, he is dismissing top 7 batsmen regularly.

It is also worth noting that Mitchell Starc, destroyer of worlds, has only started to look fully comfortable this past 6 months, 25 Test matches into his career.

Someone who shouldn’t relax, however, is whoever’s responsible for inexplicably sending Australia’s physiotherapist out to field during a tight, competitive, ICC-sanctioned Test Match. It’s not often I land on the same side of things as the Jingoistic Matthew Hayden, but what kind of bullshit, bush league move was that? And I’m not even talking about the misfield.

In the past, the 12th man would be the substitute fielder, but they also carried drinks and ran out gloves and all that other shit, which is quaint but unprofessional. Today the support staff are there to do everything the 12th man used to do except, ya know, play the game. The 12th man for this match, James Pattinson, had flown out to WA to play Shield cricket, which isn’t unusual these days. But a professional cricketer needs to be there to take the field if required; you can’t just pluck someone out of the crowd. (Actually, that’s exactly what they should do, a VB sponsored competition where you send in barcodes to win 10 mins at mid-off.)


Quick Hits: Plenty to like about Peter “Phil” Nevill… Anyone else warming up to the idea of Glenn Maxwell: Test match no 6?... Was there anything more predictable than Shaun Marsh’s “fighting” second innings knock, almost getting Australia over the line, tightening up as he approached 50, and eventually nicking one to the slips? It’s becoming laughable. I SMS’d a friend before the Test saying, “I look forward to Shaun Marsh making 2 and then 47* to retain his spot, and another summer of elegant 35s”, and I’m not even joking… Adam Voges is the best option at first slip? Really?... The Starc injury came at a horrible time for him. The past six months have seen him become Australia’s best and most resilient bowler... Paging James Pattinson… James Pattinson… James Pattinson…

2 Comments:

Anonymous Fustercluck said...

Hey there El Capitan,
Are you going to shift focus from the cricket, over to the Cat's ascendancy to the 2016 flag? (I'm almost semi serious when I say we can win it).

...fustercluck...

1:37 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Captain ....?

4:31 pm  

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