The Cricket Thread

[Joseph41]

It's a great time of year for cricket at the moment.

[Yertle the Turtle]

It's a great time of year for cricket at the moment.

So true! What a great year 2017 was for Smith the batsman! Insane batting, despite the fact that Australia lost more games than they won! Just shows how reliant they are on their superstar batsman. Just a bit upset that he couldn't equal Ponting in that last innings with his 7th ton of the year. Still, he only failed to pass 40 once in the Ashes, and only failed to pass 50 twice, so a really brilliant series for him! Love the way M Marsh has matured as a batsman, though I still would have picked Maxi over him. I can't believe we've dropped him from the ODI side now, so anti-Victorian! 

[Joseph41]

So true! What a great year 2017 was for Smith the batsman! Insane batting, despite the fact that Australia lost more games than they won! Just shows how reliant they are on their superstar batsman. Just a bit upset that he couldn't equal Ponting in that last innings with his 7th ton of the year. Still, he only failed to pass 40 once in the Ashes, and only failed to pass 50 twice, so a really brilliant series for him! Love the way M Marsh has matured as a batsman, though I still would have picked Maxi over him. I can't believe we've dropped him from the ODI side now, so anti-Victorian! 

Hasn't Maxwell averaged like 20 in his last 20 ODIs?

[Yertle the Turtle]

Hasn't Maxwell averaged like 20 in his last 20 ODIs?

And just to prove everybody wrong he makes 60 and takes a wicket in the BBL!

[Joseph41]

And just to prove everybody wrong he makes 60 and takes a wicket in the BBL!

Great innings. What's it proving?

[Sine]

BBL or any other T20 league for that matter is just a bit of fun don't think anyone takes it seriously in considering ODI/Test squads. Anyway apparently due to injury maxwell might be back in the ODI squad. Personally I wouldn't pick him for a number of reasons; dodgy technique which isn't good for the long term, doesn't value his wicket highly enough and coming from smith "he doesn't train smart" and they seem to not have the best relationship so could mess with the team's chemsitry. Also maybe due to stuff behind the scenes that we don't know about.

[Yertle the Turtle]

I can't believe that despite another opportunity to pick Maxi they go for Cameron White of all people???

Brilliant batting by AB de Villiers, against a very good quality bowling attack, very gritty knock from Elgar as well. I'm not surprised at the sanction on Kohli from the ICC, he has always struck me as not being a very good role model, I would almost compare him to our Kyrgios

[Rod]

How King Kohli took out the player of the year award ahead of Smith is beyond me

[Yertle the Turtle]

How King Kohli took out the player of the year award ahead of Smith is beyond me

Because of his ODI and T20 batting. How he got the captaincy of the ICC Test team of the year is beyond me though! Smith's captaincy has probably been better than his this year, despite India's better winning record. And as for the batting, there was no way Smith wasn't getting Test Player of the Year award!

[Rod]

Because of his ODI and T20 batting. How he got the captaincy of the ICC Test team of the year is beyond me though! Smith's captaincy has probably been better than his this year, despite India's better winning record. And as for the batting, there was no way Smith wasn't getting Test Player of the Year award!

Agree with ya. But he is the biggest flat track bully and NEVER performs when his team needs him most (recall 2015 WC, recall 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, recall TWO days ago). Scored a 150 last test because the pitch was flat (have you ever noticed that whenever India tour outside, the nation that they are touring always make their pitches a tad flatter than usual and at least one game fully flat like india?). It's ridiculous, IMO Kohli is extremely overrated.

Smith is the world's best player and he's the kind of player you'll only have once ever in the history of the game (e.g. Bradman, Sanga, Tendulkar). Kohli is a hot headed little boy. Smith should have won the player of the year award because he carries Australia, performs outside of Aus, has great captaincy and is just a JET. Oh and also because runs and good performance in test >>>>>>>>>>>>>> runs and good performance in ODI and 2020 ''cricket''

[Yertle the Turtle]

Agree with ya. But he is the biggest flat track bully and NEVER performs when his team needs him most (recall 2015 WC, recall 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, recall TWO days ago). Scored a 150 last test because the pitch was flat (have you ever noticed that whenever India tour outside, the nation that they are touring always make their pitches a tad flatter than usual and at least one game fully flat like india?). It's ridiculous, IMO Kohli is extremely overrated.

Smith is the world's best player and he's the kind of player you'll only have once ever in the history of the game (e.g. Bradman, Sanga, Tendulkar). Kohli is a hot headed little boy. Smith should have won the player of the year award because he carries Australia, performs outside of Aus, has great captaincy and is just a JET. Oh and also because runs and good performance in test >>>>>>>>>>>>>> runs and good performance in ODI and 2020 ''cricket''

I think that you are right to some extent. He is somewhat of a flat track bully, but he is good at times. I believe that in Tests his stats have been blown up by many home Tests and games against weak sides, e.g WI last year and two SL series, so he does have inflated stats in Tests, however in short form cricket (on largely flat tracks) he can bat very well and does have good captaincy skills. However he has deserved his ICC sanction for a long time, he has 2-year-old tantrums at times.

Smith's current stats, particularly the fact that he does have the second highest Test ranking of all time, tell me that he is one of the greatest batsmen of all time. Don't forget that Test in Hobart against SA where he scored 48* out of 89 against good bowling, and particularly his incredible 109 against India in Pune, one of the all-time great knocks, and the 141* this Ashes, Smith's batting in the last four years has been phenomenal. I see him as being highly underrated.

EDIT:

Even Steve Smith wouldn't be too bad a replacement (for Hauritz), he can also bat a bit.

Just found this quote from 2010 in this thread. Lol

[Yertle the Turtle]

Aus-U19 smash PNG-U19 by over 300 runs, and this is where I have a huge amount of support for the tier system for cricket, since improving teams get hammered by the No. 1/2 teams and it damages confidence so much. I think that the tier system should introduce new teams more slowly into international cricket so that they are not demoralised early.

[Yertle the Turtle]

Interesting call from the selectors to pick Jhye Richardson. Are we going to see a pace quartet in SA this season? Still no place for Maxi

[Yertle the Turtle]

Does anyone else think that Smith should stick to Tests? Because I don't. I think that he's the best innings-builder that there is. Back around the '15 WC no one complained that he had a SR of 80, because he was still scoring hundreds, but now everyone is against him because he keeps coming in when Australia is in trouble and having to rebuild the innings. I'm a little bit upset that we lost last night, but I always thought that Curran was a good pick. Great bowling by Tye, though I personally would have played Richardson over him since they'd picked him for SA. IPL auction didn't have many surprises.

I'm currently liking Aus U-19 chances of the WC, they're looking pretty good, particularly with the ball, managing to defend something like 120 in a semi. Come on Aus!

[EDIT: Post #400 Yay!]

[Yertle the Turtle]

That was a pretty impressive pair of semis, with HH surprisingly smashing the Scorchers, incredible batting and bowling form them, and now a one run win for the Strikers. Now I'm just backing HH to win the final, but hopefully it's a good game for all!