Cricket discussion
 

I guess this thread will be used only by Ben.Daly.

My PM inbox is full.

This was easily worst day in 20 years of watching cricket.

Incredible. No surprise it's the best bowling innings I've ever seen from Australia at least in a test match, there was an ODI against England (also at Adelaide Oval) a couple of years ago where we had England at 5/8 which was mad but I think today was crazier. It unravelled so fast that I'm not sure it fully processed, it just happened.

And as a bonus a win for Hobart in the Big Bash League this morning, it was also Ponting's birthday, and of course Tim Paine captaining the test team so overall a great day for Australian and more specifically Tasmanian cricket.

Now onto boxing day at the MCG, and I mean this in the kindest way possible but India will need all the luck they can get especially without Kholi. Maybe I've jinxed it here but if nothing else hopefully it's a more levelled encounter.

Most of us predicting 4-0 whitewash. Like Paine said, they weren't at their best in the match. It's going to be worse from here for Indian team.

Kohli is gone, Shami has fractured arm. Ishant was already out of series with injury.

I was looking up performances in last 6 years in SENA (South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia). Except Kohli and Pujara, no one has stood up.

Rahane has been tailender at #5 for long time and he is mentally shot also. Can't see how it can get better from here.

On top of that they decided to play Saha who is walking wicket. Pant - only batsman who has scored 2 centuries in mid-lower order is warming bench.

Is Warner joining in 2nd test? It will be painful to watch this sorry bunch.

Great day overall for Australian cricket. It was near perfect bowling performance. Somewhat similar to what McGrath did once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrl2bkxdCiQ

Cricket.com.au say he's "racing the clock as he recovers from a groin strain." so I suppose they're unsure if he'll play or not.

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/joe-...dia/2020-12-20

On a side note, I find it annoying that they couldn't play any of the 4 tests in Hobart, Tasmania. I get that the 5 biggest cities with the biggest grounds are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide (the same 5 that always host the 5 ashes tests) but when we've had all these complications with Covid-19 and 1 of the 'big 5' cities is missing out anyway, they may as well take the chance to have 1 of the tests in Tasmania, especially when we're one of the better performing states when tackling the virus.

Do you attend matches in Hobart?

Occasionally I'll go to watch a Big Bash League game there. But the National team rarely plays in Hobart, hopefully next time they do I'll be able to go.

There are some Big Bash League games played here in Launceston though so I'm able to attend most of those, though we always seem to lose whenever I attend those games, then on the rare occasion I don't attend we end up winning :( :facepalm:

I went to one about a week ago which was fun, we had some family members visiting so they attended also which was nice.

I like attending matches and so far watched matches at Eden Gardens (Kolkata), Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ranchi and Edgbaston.

Would love to go to MCG and Sydney some day.

Today was great day for the team.

And India made further progress today, I'm getting a little nervous about us chasing a big total from behind given our shaky batting so far in the series, but if Adelaide taught us anything it's that the match can turn on it's head almost in an instant.

We'll see what goes down tomorrow.

That's why everyone is just hoping for this lead to go as far as possible. Everyone is scared of what might happen in 2nd inning.

Smith is yet to activate beast mode. That seems to be a possibility.

Edit:

Btw, I will talking to Simon Taufel in January.

Looks like you don't have much to be scared of. At one point it looked like India wouldn't even need to bat a 2nd innings. You will now but I can't see our tail end putting up any sort of total that will be difficult for India to chase.

Especially seeing Smith and Paine go out for the smallest of margins, can't say they were unfair or unlucky calls but it was demoralising to see them both go out early.