[keylime]

Time for confession.

I, an American, have been bitten severely by the cricket bug, and have bought all five Tests to stream over the 'Net.

My money is on the Aussies; they played West Indies well in the ICC, they are on home ground, and I think the Brits' warmup with NSW was awful.

My score predictions: Aussies win 3-1. I'm eager to see if Gilchrist will play; he batted very well in the ICC.

[jikl]

There is no doubt at all he will play, he is almost the first person picked. There are slightly better wicketkeepers in Australia, but not with the dynamic batting of Gilchrist.

Gilchrist's career world batting ranking.

The reason he is sort of classed as an all-rounder is that he allows far greater flexibility to the Australian batting lineup since he would likely be picked as purely a batsman if he was not the wicketkeeper.

And welcome to cricket keylime. Hope you enjoy the Ashes.

Sean

[keylime]

I'm still learning a lot of the basics, like field position and why fields are set for certain bowlers - luckily the BBC's website was a good primer for me. I'm just amazed at the spin some generate.

I was a casual viewer of it in Canada, but now it's a full blown infection!

I got to watch the West Indies play their semifinal and saw Gayle's splendid century. By geographical default, this is my "favorite" team.

The batting is just insane for me to comprehend at times - most of it is due to the baseball background that many Americans have. Quick question: what are the distances involved in terms of hitting 6's...in baseball the dimension sizes are nonuniform and I imagine cricket is the same.

[jikl]

Grounds do vary in size but are becoming more standardised by the use of boundary ropes rather than the actual fences as it used to be. A big boundary is 80m (100m for the straight hit) [about 265ft, 330ft for straight hit], some used to be larger. However there are some much shorter boundaries, for instance square of the wicket at the Adelaide Oval is only about 60m (about 199ft). You may now be thinking they aren't hitting it hard at all. Remember that a baseball player has a much smaller expectation of where the ball will be to hit it, in cricket it can be at your toes, at your head, and these at close to baseball speeds, for instance Brett Lee's fastest delivery ever was less than 1mph under 100mph. (I know Shoaib Akhtar has bowled faster than Lee but haven't used him because of the recent drug cloud over his name) Then you have the spinners, spinning at near 90 degrees sometimes; other times spinning in the opposite direction with little discernible difference in action.

Sean

[keylime]

It looked shorter on TV than it really is - I remember sitting at a Nationals game here in Washington D.C. and it had to be a good 440 feet plus for a ball to clear the fence and get up to the upper deck.

Now once I digest the LBW rule I might be a little better off....

[EricK]

keylime, on Nov 14 2006, 04:22 AM, said:

Now once I digest the LBW rule I might be a little better off....

LBW law is quite easy if you think in terms of when the batsman is not out.

If it is a no-ball it is not out.
If the ball wouldn't have hit the stumps it's not out.
If the ball hits the bat first it's not out.
If the ball pitches outside leg stump it's not out.
If the ball hits the batsman outside the offstump and the batsman is playing a shot it is not out.

I think that covers it.

[zasanya]

EricK, on Nov 14 2006, 01:11 AM, said:

keylime, on Nov 14 2006, 04:22 AM, said:

Now once I digest the LBW rule I might be a little better off....

LBW law is quite easy if you think in terms of when the batsman is not out.

If it is a no-ball it is not out.
If the ball wouldn't have hit the stumps it's not out.
If the ball hits the bat first it's not out.
If the ball pitches outside leg stump it's not out.
If the ball hits the batsman outside the offstump and the batsman is playing a shot it is not out.

I think that covers it.

If the umpire thinks you are not out, you are not out and vice versa.

[nickf]

jikl, on Nov 14 2006, 01:42 PM, said:

There is no doubt at all he will play, he is almost the first person picked. There are slightly better wicketkeepers in Australia, but not with the dynamic batting of Gilchrist.

Gilchrist's career world batting ranking.

and by the way, happy birthday gillie.

nickf
sydney

[keylime]

The LBW rule, demystified - that makes a lot of sense.

[the saint]

jikl, on Nov 14 2006, 03:18 AM, said:

The big talk over here at the moment is who will be Australia's fourth bowler. There are three obvious selections, these of course being McGrath, Lee and Warne.(Shane Watson will be playing as the teams second allrounder, Adam Gilchrist being the first allrounder)

The names being tossed around are (in order of likelihood):

Stuart Clark (17 overs 3/50 in current NSW vs England 3 day)
Nathan Bracken (14.4 overs 2/51 in current NSW vs England 3 day)
Shaun Tait (8 overs 3/21 Prime Minister's XI vs England OD)
Mitchell Johnson (Bowled very well in Champion's Trophy)
Stuart Macgill (Currently recovering from a strain but would be ready, prior to this suspended for an on-field incident)

Given it is at the GABBA they are much more likely to choose a seamer, so Macgill would seem to be out of contention. There is a small chance they might give the berth to Mitchell Johnson as he is a local boy. However I believe they will play it safe and go with Clark. Clark is a bit like a mini-McGrath, always in the right spot etc. Personally I would like to see them go with Shaun Tait who clearly rattled the English in the Prime Minister's XI game, with many deliveries above 150kph.

If any of you want to see some Australian reports of the series, I would recommend:

Australia's Cricinfo site

or

Melbourne's newspaper

I am sure this thread is about to get a whole lot more active soon.

Sean

Now that Banger (Trescothick) has flown home it certainly has got a lot more interesting.

Englands Starting XI

Cook
Strauss
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Jones (why Reed was dropped no-one knows, but Fletcher loves him)
Giles/Panesar
Harmison
Hoggard
Anderson

The batting line-up now picks itself and the 3 seamers have already been named. Basically we have an incredibly long tail. The only possiblity is that if Flintoff proves able to bowl a full quota then Anderson might make way for another Batsman.

For England to win they need the top 6 to fire - we have a very long tail, even longer with Monty (Panesar) in for the King of Spain (Giles). If we play with 6 Batsmen, Flintoff, a keeper, two seamers and Monty, then Monty is critical. He has the ability to bowl all day like Murali and keep attacking while not conceding. If Australia can hit him out of the attack then the rest of the bowlers have too much workload. Unfortunately, whilst being quite handy at one-dayers, Colly's dibby-dobby seamers haven't proven to be that effective in the test arena. An alternative to come in is Dalrymple who can bat at 7 in this order and had shown excellent control in the one-dayers but is not a wicket taking spinner. Trescothick is a big loss. Not only is he an aggressive opening bat, but also England's most reliable slip-fielder, eating up catches almost as fast as he does Sausages. While Colly is probably the best fielder in world cricket at the moment, a number of the rest of the team are suspect and prone to dropping more than they should. Pietersen will be phased by nothing and will relish the chance to go afte rthe Aussies and will take it to them. Expect at least one or two brilliant counter-attacking gems from him this series, and if he gets hot it will be spectacular - you can't set fields for reverse-swept sixes!! Ultimately, it will depend on the colossus that is Sir Frederick of Flintoff. Whether they admit it or not, the Aussies are scared of him and the fact that at any moment he can do anything with bat, ball or in the field. As captain he will lead by example and could inspire the team to walk in his shoes (and hopefully this will wake Harmison up - when Grievous (bodily-harm) is in form, he is the most destructive quick in the world today. Unfortunately his rhythm and radar have a habit of deserting him too often for our liking!). Still since Fred is Botham reincarnate (and there are more than a few Aussies who still wake up in a cold sweat when they hear that name) he will whip the Barmy Army into full cry (and they will outnumber the Aussie fans at least 2 to 1 despite the absurd ticketing policies) so that each test match will almost be a home from home match!!

Score? 2-2 and absolutely thrilling!!

[jikl]

Shane Watson out of squad with hamstring strain while playing for Queensland. Michael Clarke called up to 13 man squad including Stuart Clark, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson. Given Watson is out it is far more likely that it will be Clark in the side since they will have less gambling ability without Watson's bowling. If Watson was still OK to play, I think they might have gone for Tait. As Brisbane and Adelaide are back-to-back tests, Watson will also miss Adelaide. (Hamstring strains usually take about 2 weeks and the strain has been confirmed by scans)

Sean

[jikl]

Well, it all starts in less than 40 minutes. I hope it lives up to all the hype. Whilst I want Australia to win, I hope the English do well also.

Sean

[nickf]

jikl, on Nov 23 2006, 09:23 AM, said:

Whilst I want Australia to win, I hope the English do well also.

not me, I'm hoping for a 5-0 drubbing.

nickf
sydney

[jikl]

Quote

not me, I'm hoping for a 5-0 drubbing.

nickf
sydney

I want us to win 5-0 too, but I would prefer they play well

Sean

[keylime]

The Aussies are out to a steady start. I envy the weather in Brisbane.

[jikl]

How is your internet viewing keylime? Coming through OK?

Sean

[keylime]

It's quite nice - am immensely enjoying it

I got all five Tests for under 100 bucks U.S.

The delay is about 10 seconds. I have DirectTV's feed which is Channel 9's feed down under; also have Sky Sports 1's feed, with 2 other feeds I've yet to access.

The throughput is high: DTV is 600kbps, and Sky's 350kbps.

[jikl]

Probably getting better reception than me on normal TV

Sean

[keylime]

Even on this crappy Intel integrated chipset, it is quite sharp at full screen.

[Walddk]

This could easily turn out to be another South Africa for Steve Harmison. Far away from home and his mind seems to be somewhere else (in Durham I presume). The bowling he produced on day 1 was, well hopeless is hardly an exaggeration.

When did you last see an opening bowler being asked to have a rest after 2 overs!? And when Flintoff finally decided to go for the new ball, he also let Harmison stay in the deep. Deep trouble?

I am not sure how England expect to take 20 wickets in a match when their main strike bowler aims at hitting the slips and fine leg.

Roland