Re: The Cricket Thread
 

Yeah, and they're paying for it now.

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

Now there's a sneaky trick. Nice use of spaces

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

India 41 without loss 50 odd behind ... I hold out hope for a good finish. :fingerscrossed:

(Edit) Vijay lives up to his name, one down.

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

Smith journeyman, will not captain the team for long, just hit a bit of form.... :rofl::rofl:

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

Jury out but I like his style, swashbuckling :thumbup:

Good win for Oz in the end but I hold out for more series japes given India's feistiness and hatred for Gabba food. :rofl:

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

Jury out on someone who has 6 test centuries by the age of 25 and captained his team to victory and motivated them all to turn it around from 4/311 at the end of day one? He shows tremendous enthusiasm, has the respect of the other players and speaks confidently and eloquently; all at a comparatively tender age. :confused:

Meanwhile Cook fails umpteen times, England lose series after series and apparently he is a tremendous leader and relieving him of the captaincy is not on the agenda - Ali will turn it around is the message.:confused:

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

South Africa 552/5d

West Indies 201 & 131 (f/o) (42.3 ov)

South Africa won by an innings and 220 runs

:thumbup:

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

No going to argue with Cook, he's no ODI captain.

Jury out because Smith he has played one test, when times/conditions get lean let's see how he gets on. I guess I'm just difficult to please. :lol:

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

The problem with Australia's attitude of earmarking a captain early and sticking with it forever is you end up in a Ricky Pointing and Alistair Cook situation. Good batsmen who can't captain then their batting goes too. Cricket teams need to identify when this happens and relieve them of captaincy to concentrate on batting. So far so good for Smith but its one test.

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

I've had this discussion before about Ponting. You and many others make out he was hopeless as a captain but he wasn't and his batting record whilst captain was almost 2nd to none. What I will concede is that he played on for one season too long than he should have but he was entitled to that; any great is:


Second to Graeme Smith (South Africa) for most Test victories as captain: 48
Most consecutive Test victories won as captain: 16, shared with Steve Waugh
Most Test caps by an Australian Player: 168 Test caps 168 shared with Steve Waugh
Most Test runs by an Australian: 13,346 runs. During the third Ashes Test in 2009 he overtook Allan Border's 11,174 runs record, this moved him into third place in the all-time list of run-scorers. He is currently second in the all-time list behind Sachin Tendulkar.
Most Test centuries by an Australian: 41
Most Test centuries in a calendar year by an Australian: 7 in 2006
Most Test runs in a calendar year by an Australian: 1,544 in 2005. He has passed 1,000 test runs in a calendar year on five separate occasions, in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2008.
Leading run scorer on Australian soil, surpassing the previous record holder Allan Border's mark of 5,743 set in 86 Tests between 1978 and 1994. Ponting did this during the second innings of the Third Test against India in Perth in January 2008[8]
Most Centuries on Home Soil (Australia): 23 out of 41
Most Test Catches by an Australian fielder (non-wicket-keeper): 191 Catches
Equal most times (3) scoring 100 runs in both innings of a Test, shared with Sunil Gavasker
He's only batsman in the history of cricket to score both centuries in his 100th test match - achieved against South Africa in 2005 scoring 120 and 143*
First batsman to score over 1,000 runs at four individual grounds (Adelaide Oval, the Gabba, MCG and SCG).
Highest Test score by a batsman in a losing side: 242 against India, Adelaide 2003–04
Seventh overall and the third Australian batsman in history to pass 10,000 Test Runs; Achieved against the West Indies at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound West Indies 2008
Third overall and the second Australian batsman in history to pass 11,000 Test runs: Achieved against England at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff Wales 2009
Second overall and the first Australian batsman ever in history to pass 12,000 Test runs: Achieved against Pakistan in Headingley in Leeds England 2010
Third overall and the first Australian batsman ever in history to pass 13,000 Test runs: Achieved against India at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide Australia 2012.[9]
The first cricketer to be involved in 100 Test victories achieved the feat against Sri Lanka in the 1st Test at Galle
The fifth batsman in history to score double-centuries in back-to-back test matches: 242 at Adelaide and 257 at the MCG against India in 2003-04.
The first ever Australian batman to score 40 or more Test Centuries for Australia: Achieved against India Sydney 2011-12
Most Double Centuries against one team: 3 against India 257, 242 and 221
Most Test centuries against one team: 8 against India
Most runs in a calendar decade, 9103 in odis and9458 in tests in 2000s.
Most Innings score 50+ by an Australian Batsman: 101 scores are which he scored with 50 runs or more

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

You forgot most Ashes series defeats to England in the modern era, everything else is gravy ;-)

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

Throw all the stats at it you want. Once Warnie left (he pulled all the strings and made the decisions) Ponting made some howlers. As far as captains go, he couldn't read the game like Mark Taylor, AB, Steve Waugh, Michael Clarke and most importantly for Ponting - Warnie.

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

Warne's off field activities made him totally unsuitable as captain. Ponting has a better record than most you named. Read Steve Waugh's autobiography for how near both he and Taylor were to the chop and couldn't get things right in the beginning - you make out they were perfect at all times which is nonsense. No captain gets it right all the time; all captains make howlers. I suppose his biggest howler was McGrath standing on a cricket ball at Lords which change the face of history?

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

A storming win but I take no pleasure from the WI playing so shit

It's sad to see

Re: The Cricket Thread
 

No mate ...... his biggest howler was bowling first at Edgbaston in 2005 after Glenn McGrath stood on the cricket ball.