Australia A team VS South Africa

[Bucking Beads]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...nst-south-africa/story-e6frepmo-1226503718039

 

[Browny]

Is this a four day or one day game. What do they see in smith?

seems to me that few out and batsman or bowlers have stuck their hand up. Should have gone for 10 all rounders and a keeper

 

[Coxy]

Lots of people up in arms about no Queenslanders picked - defending Shield champions. But let's face it, Queensland's batsmen are pissweak. Ben Cutting probably unlucky not to get a gig bowling, but IIRC he injured himself in this corresponding game last year that cost him a chance of a Test so he's probably not that upset ;-)

 

[m1c]

His injury was the result of the selectors absolutely shafting him for the Gabba test. Shafted > Last minute economy flight to Tas > Cramped up > side strain.

IIRC Hilditch logic dictated he wanted a left armer so he chose Starc over the home-town bowler that had been the dominant quick in the Shield. Starc is a shithouse red ball bowler and sent them down accordingly.

Ponting, Neilson and Hilditch were just the worst. All three were devoid of any sort of vision, tactical nous and leadership.

 

[m1c]

Steve Smith - Ugh.

Quite a few of those fellows have deserved a call up. It's certainly not a proper 2nd XI and very tough to criticise the selections when there is a bigger picture at play.

Between giving a young fellow some exposure (Two-dads), rewarding form (Moses), seeing if someone has it (Quiney) or hasn't lost it (McDonald), justifying the selection of each player is so varied and subjective.

 

[Bucking Beads]

McDonald is a joke selection. It makes it worse that he is skipper. I don't get it at all. The bowling attack is pathetic and they have picked 5 all rounders and 1 genuine new ball bowler. Picking on form and Davis, Smith and Coulter-Nile haven't played first class cricket in a while. Burns should have been given a game and Cutting, Bird, Hazelwood should have played. saving them in case of injuries to test bowlers is stupidity.

 

[m1c]

I'm a Mcdonald fan. Injury has really curtailed his last couple of season, but when on the park he's probably been the best bat (numbers wise) in the country.

 

[Mister Wright]

The selectors aren't trying anymore. Joe Burns & Cutting should have both been picked.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Australia A should be a development team. MacDonald is well past the developing stage IMO. Very good cricketer but joke selection.

 

[Big Pete]

See, everyone is going to have a different vision for what a second string side should be.

For mine, it should predominately be just that, the second best side you can name with maybe a sprinkling of young talent if they themselves aren't within that group.

Unfortunately, the A selectors haven't done that. Instead, maybe only 4 perhaps 5 deserve their spot, the rest are just there because we're trying to overcompensate for a player who isn't even that great in the Test arena.

It's obvious, but the truth is the side needed a deeper batting line-up and a stronger attack. If you replaced the two all-rounders (Smith & let's say Maxwell) with an extra batsmen (Burns) & bowler (Cutting) then the side would improve ten-fold.

I can see why they gave somebody like Davis a shot based on his form last season but I would have preferred to persevere with Khawaja while I have no clue as to how NCN even came into consideration for the side.

 

[Bull Shark]

Just amazing how cricket has changed over the last decade or so … and mostly not for the better imo …

This surge in popularity of 20/20 has given rise to a new sub-species of rubbish mickey mouse cricketers who specialise with neither bat or ball, provide a bit of everything but not much of anything .. and yet who aspire to be nothing more than what I've described above because they can make more $$$ in a couple of seasons of some hit and giggle gang-bang in the sub continent than most of our test legends of yesteryear made in their entire careers ...

Alot of our shield sides nowadays resemble the old school english county teams - with 'dibbla-dobbla' bowlers who max out at 130kph and "batters" (as opposed to batsmen) with attention spans of ADD children.

Then there's this nanny-state policy of 'resting', 'rotating', 'managing', 'nurturing', 'mollycoddling', 'tummy-tickling' any young bowler who gets the speed gun in excess of 140k's an hour .. CA's formula for staying fit as a fast bowler in 2012 ? Don't bowl !! And yet they wonder why these kids fracture something whenever the words 'back to back spells' are even whispered ! Who among us doesn't remember the days of not so long ago where as a fast bowler you'd turn up to club training twice or three times per week (and more in your own private sessions) and just bowl bowl bowl in the nets from 4pm until it got too dark !?

It defies the logic that our fast bowlers should be given LESS bowling as advances in strength and conditioning for athletes right across all sports becomes MORE effective and advanced ! It's totally out of whack ! The supposed fitness gurus who're driving this protocol should, imo, look up some of the 'high frequency' training methods used by Bulgarian athletes and trainers over the decades..

Anyway, end of rant … for now !

 

[m1c]

The problem with the fast bowlers is the junior rules. They need to bowl more. They have the workloads for the top guys about right.

 

[Big Pete]

Australia A 7/480 declared
A. Doolan - 161*
R. Quiney - 85
S. Smith - 67
Maxwell - 64
Paine - 60

South Africa 1/126
G. Smith - 60 (retired hurt)
Maxwell 1/33

 

[Bucking Beads]

Doolan has really put his name up in lights. Hasn't done a lot in Shield cricket but has been in superb form this summer.