airliebird9 wrote: worthing wire wrote:Isn't Shezhad (sp?) down there particularly to exploit possible reverse swing at Adelaide? May be horse$hit, but I'm sure I read this in the press somewhere. For whom though?? Finn after a 6 for?? Swann is a given as is Jimmy. Which leaves Broad unless a batsman gives way?? Mike Selvey's view, FWIW: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/nov/30/england-australia-adelaide-test-brisbane

airliebird9 wrote: worthing wire wrote:Isn't Shezhad (sp?) down there particularly to exploit possible reverse swing at Adelaide? May be horse$hit, but I'm sure I read this in the press somewhere. For whom though?? Finn after a 6 for?? Swann is a given as is Jimmy. Which leaves Broad unless a batsman gives way?? Mike Selvey's view, FWIW: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/nov/30/england-australia-adelaide-test-brisbane

The pitch at adelaide will produce a positive result either way weather permitting

sally cinnamon wrote:Well all of this talk about tame pitches has only come about in the last few years as the last of the greats (McGrath, Warne, Pollock, Murali) have been retiring. The overall standard of bowling now is very average, there are still lots of great batsmen in the game, eg Tendulkar, Kallis, Graeme Smith, Chanderpaul, Sehwag, but the bowling cupboard is bare at the moment, it has been in decline for a few years but there were still some good bowlers around at the end of their careers. Look at the top ranked bowlers in the world today: http://www.reliancemobileiccrankings.com/ 1 Dale Steyn 2 Graeme Swann 3 Zaheer Khan 4 Mohammed Asif 5 Jimmy Anderson 6 Morne Morkel 7 Mitchell Johnson 8 Harbajan Singh 9 Dougie Bollinger 10 Shakib Al Hasan Compare this to the top ranked bowlers 10 years ago, Nov 30 2000: 1 Glenn McGrath 2 Shaun Pollock 3 Allan Donald 4 Muttiah Muralitharan 5 Courtney Walsh 6 Anil Kumble 7 Wasim Akram 8 Darren Gough 9 Saqlain Mushtaq 10 Chris Cairns Top ranked bowlers 20 years ago, Nov 30 1990: 1 Malcolm Marshall 2 Curtly Ambrose 3 Wasim Akram 4 Terry Alderman 5 Courtney Walsh 6 Waqar Younis 7 Merv Hughes 8 Imran Khan 9 Kapil Dev 10 Ian Bishop Excellent point backed up by solid stats! Many of the names on lists 2 and 3 are true legends of the game. I don't see anyone list 1 making it to legendary status or even an excellent player status for many of them!!!

sally cinnamon wrote:Well all of this talk about tame pitches has only come about in the last few years as the last of the greats (McGrath, Warne, Pollock, Murali) have been retiring. The overall standard of bowling now is very average, there are still lots of great batsmen in the game, eg Tendulkar, Kallis, Graeme Smith, Chanderpaul, Sehwag, but the bowling cupboard is bare at the moment, it has been in decline for a few years but there were still some good bowlers around at the end of their careers. Look at the top ranked bowlers in the world today: http://www.reliancemobileiccrankings.com/ 1 Dale Steyn 2 Graeme Swann 3 Zaheer Khan 4 Mohammed Asif 5 Jimmy Anderson 6 Morne Morkel 7 Mitchell Johnson 8 Harbajan Singh 9 Dougie Bollinger 10 Shakib Al Hasan Compare this to the top ranked bowlers 10 years ago, Nov 30 2000: 1 Glenn McGrath 2 Shaun Pollock 3 Allan Donald 4 Muttiah Muralitharan 5 Courtney Walsh 6 Anil Kumble 7 Wasim Akram 8 Darren Gough 9 Saqlain Mushtaq 10 Chris Cairns Top ranked bowlers 20 years ago, Nov 30 1990: 1 Malcolm Marshall 2 Curtly Ambrose 3 Wasim Akram 4 Terry Alderman 5 Courtney Walsh 6 Waqar Younis 7 Merv Hughes 8 Imran Khan 9 Kapil Dev 10 Ian Bishop Excellent point backed up by solid stats! Many of the names on lists 2 and 3 are true legends of the game. I don't see anyone list 1 making it to legendary status or even an excellent player status for many of them!!!

On the 1990 list, Bruce Reid who destroyed England in that Ashes tour, was not even in the top 10. He was 11th, with Angus Fraser at a very creditable 12th. Surprisingly, the world no.14 at the time was Neil Foster, who was a year into a Test ban for going on a South African rebel tour, but despite the ranking system which depreciates a players rating for every missed Test, he still had enough points to be up at 14 in late 1990!

Also interesting to see Alderman, one of the most underrated of the Aussie bowlers, up in 4th....he is never talked about as one of the greats probably because he was missed a lot of cricket after he rugby tackled a pitch invader and needed a shoulder reconstruction. But in two Ashes series (1981 and 1989) he got 40 odd wickets which is more than any other Aussie fast bowler ever did. And in the 1990 series down under, he destroyed England again. Alderman was probably the Aussies best ever bowler in English conditions, he took stacks of wickets in county cricket for Kent and Gloucestershire, I always reckoned if he had been English, playing half his Tests in England, he could have been England's best Test fast/medium bowler since the war.

Dale Steyn and Harbhajan Singh will both go down as very very good players IMO. Harbhajan is the 13th on the all-time wicket taking list already and will have 400 Test wickets pretty soon. That has to be regarded with the utmost respect, however much of a c*ock he is!!

Another player missing from that top 10 of bowlers who will go down as a top, top bowler is Daniel Vettori.

Mitchell Johnson dropped for Adelaide: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket ... 249347.stm "I was a little out of form in the last Test."

Mitchell Johnson dropped for Adelaide: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket ... 249347.stm "I was a little out of form in the last Test."

Had a couple of good nights sleep, ready for more cricket now, just hope the rain does not spoil it!

Speculation that Shazad might play, can't see it myself!

Aussies bring Harris and Bollinger in for Johnson and Hilfenhaus, England team not confirmed but likely to be unchanged.

What a start! Aussies 0-1!