Sport Today

by **willsutto** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 13:25:06

Tipped Australia to lose the Ashes series 12 nil even through they only
play 10 Tests :-)

Actually his big mistake is forgetting about the English weather

He also named the Australian side as the worse to ever contest the Ashes
which is most probably true even through they haven't named it yet

A quick summary :

England wins the top 3 batting positions by a landside

The next 3 are pretty even

Keeper batsman would also be pretty even if they pick Paine

Spinner is another landside if Swan is fit

The 3 quicks I would also say are pretty even

by **Mike Holman** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:10:32

tapped the keyboard and brought forth:

Quote:

>Tipped Australia to lose the Ashes series 12 nil even through they only
>play 10 Tests :-)

>Actually his big mistake is forgetting about the English weather

>He also named the Australian side as the worse to ever contest the Ashes
>which is most probably true even through they haven't named it yet

>A quick summary :

>England wins the top 3 batting positions by a landside

>The next 3 are pretty even

>Keeper batsman would also be pretty even if they pick Paine

Prior is probably the best keeper-batsman in England's history and is
obviously the best in the world at present. He's even the #7
specialist bat in the rankings these days.

There are two days' worth of light between Prior and any likely
Australian candidate.

Cheers,

Mike
--

by **CaraMi** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:30:32

Quote:

> Tipped Australia to lose the Ashes series 12 nil even through they only
> play 10 Tests :-)

> Actually his big mistake is forgetting about the English weather

> He also named the Australian side as the worse to ever contest the Ashes
> which is most probably true even through they haven't named it yet

> A quick summary :

> England wins the top 3 batting positions by a landside

> The next 3 are pretty even

> Keeper batsman would also be pretty even if they pick Paine

> Spinner is another landside if Swan is fit

> The 3 quicks I would also say are pretty even

Who is this Ian?

by **jzfredrick** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 15:54:00

Quote:

> England wins the top 3 batting positions by a landside
> The next 3 are pretty even

For 4, 5 and 6, it's 2-1 to England. KP+Bell vs Clarke. Obviously ignoring head-to-heads. Just picking the best 3 of the 6.

by **D Ramapriy** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 17:00:21

Quote:

> Prior is probably the best keeper-batsman in England's history and is

I'd agree although a bit harsh on Stewart who despite his dire record
in Oz, which was strange since his batting style best suited those
sort of pitches, arguably faced better bowling attacks.

Some interesting comments from Steve Waugh today: "I like the look of
Phil Hughes, he's got something deep within him that makes him a long-
term Test player", "I think England aren't as good as they think they
are" and "I think it's about time where we could have one female
player per Big Bash side. Going forward, I can't see why the girls
can't have representation in the Big Bash"!

Ramapriya

by **M..** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:46:56

@Mike

Australia were no chance until you said that.

by **John Hal** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 19:41:07

Quote:

>He also named the Australian side as the worse to ever contest the
>Ashes which is most probably true even through they haven't
>named it yet

Unfortunately there's something of a tradition of English cricket
writers/commentators doing that before almost every tour of England by
Australia, after which they proceed to beat us. For obvious reasons the
tradition lapsed in the 1990s, but it certainly happened in 1989.
--
John Hall
"Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable
of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it."
Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) to a lady cellist

by **John Hal** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 19:44:57

Quote:

>Prior is probably the best keeper-batsman in England's history and
>is obviously the best in the world at present.

I don't know about "obviously" if you compare him with Dhoni. Prior's
clearly the better keeper, but - fine batsman though Prior is - Dhoni at
his best is a genius with the bat. So though overall one might give the
edge to Prior, I don't think it's obvious.
--
John Hall
"Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable
of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it."
Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) to a lady cellist

by **Andrew B** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:07:05

Quote:

> Unfortunately there's something of a tradition of English cricket
> writers/commentators doing that before almost every tour of England by
> Australia, after which they proceed to beat us. For obvious reasons the
> tradition lapsed in the 1990s, but it certainly happened in 1989.

The Daily Telegraph cricket book said (before the '89 series) that it could be looked forward to with "guarded pessimism" by England, noting that someone at some point would call this the worst Australian team ever to tour England, which would spur them on.

by **Mike Holman** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:16:36

On Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:44:57 +0000, John Hall

Quote:

>>Prior is probably the best keeper-batsman in England's history and
>>is obviously the best in the world at present.

>I don't know about "obviously" if you compare him with Dhoni. Prior's
>clearly the better keeper, but - fine batsman though Prior is - Dhoni at
>his best is a genius with the bat. So though overall one might give the
>edge to Prior, I don't think it's obvious.

He averages 45+ while Dhoni averages under 40. While I'm not, as you
know, one for relying heavily on averages, that's a significant
difference given that Dhoni proabably gets in more road batting time
than Prior. I freely concede that Prior could (almost certainly) not
have played the double hundred that Dhoni did against Aus, and that
Dhoni has the field to himself as a limited-over player, but for
selection in the putative World Test XI, it's a no-brainer.

Prior is now a very fine keeper. He may not be quite up at the
standard of Taylor/Knott/Andrew, but he's by no means just a bloke
with gloves who stands behind the stumps.

And he has a skill which those fine gentlemen didn't, as a result of
third umpires which didn't exist in their day. He's become an expert
when standing up at taking the ball and holding it for a split-second
and *** the bails off if the batsman briefly overbalances and
lifts his foot. Pre-slo-mo-camera, no umpire could give those
attempted stumpings out, but Prior's picked up a few victims that way.
Cheers,

Mike
--

by **Mike Holman** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:25:28

the keyboard and brought forth:

Quote:

>Australia were no chance until you said that.

What? My commenting that England clearly have the edge in the keeping
department is enough to doom us? Oh, dear oh dear oh dear. All that
was meant to happen was that Bad Hands would have an impressive series
and book himself back into the Aus XI spot for another couple of
years.

Cheers,

Mike
--

by **Bharat Ra** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:38:30

Quote:

> On Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:44:57 +0000, John Hall

> >>Prior is probably the best keeper-batsman in England's history and
> >>is obviously the best in the world at present.

> >I don't know about "obviously" if you compare him with Dhoni. Prior's
> >clearly the better keeper, but - fine batsman though Prior is - Dhoni at
> >his best is a genius with the bat. So though overall one might give the
> >edge to Prior, I don't think it's obvious.
> He averages 45+ while Dhoni averages under 40. While I'm not, as you
> know, one for relying heavily on averages, that's a significant
> difference given that Dhoni proabably gets in more road batting time
> than Prior. I freely concede that Prior could (almost certainly) not
> have played the double hundred that Dhoni did against Aus, and that
> Dhoni has the field to himself as a limited-over player, but for
> selection in the putative World Test XI, it's a no-brainer.

What is the world coming to when Mike makes my argument. That Prior is more consistent, that the occasional great / incredible / Mt. Everest reaching knock that single-handedly transforms a game, can't compare with the metronome-like consistency of a bat who does significantly better on average...

Mike, I will make a stats-rat out of you yet :) It may be when we are watching the 2037 Lord's 3-day-night Test, but we'll get there,

Bharat

by **eusebiu** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 22:00:45

Quote:

> > On Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:44:57 +0000, John Hall

> > >>Prior is probably the best keeper-batsman in England's history and
> > >>is obviously the best in the world at present.

> > >I don't know about "obviously" if you compare him with Dhoni. Prior's
> > >clearly the better keeper, but - fine batsman though Prior is - Dhoni at
> > >his best is a genius with the bat. So though overall one might give the
> > >edge to Prior, I don't think it's obvious.
> > He averages 45+ while Dhoni averages under 40. While I'm not, as you
> > know, one for relying heavily on averages, that's a significant
> > difference given that Dhoni proabably gets in more road batting time
> > than Prior. I freely concede that Prior could (almost certainly) not
> > have played the double hundred that Dhoni did against Aus, and that
> > Dhoni has the field to himself as a limited-over player, but for
> > selection in the putative World Test XI, it's a no-brainer.

> What is the world coming to when Mike makes my argument. ?That Prior is more consistent, that the occasional great / incredible / Mt. Everest reaching knock that single-handedly transforms a game, can't compare with the metronome-like consistency of a bat who does significantly better on average...

> Mike, I will make a stats-rat out of you yet :) It may be when we are watching the 2037 Lord's 3-day-night Test, but we'll get there,

> Bharat

I'm not sure if you can sustainably make the argument that Prior is
superior to Ames, although I note the 'probably' in Mike's initial
statement.

by **Mike Holman** » Sat, 30 Mar 2013 23:55:19

On Fri, 29 Mar 2013 06:00:45 -0700 (PDT), eusebius

Quote:

>> > >>Prior is probably the best keeper-batsman in England's history and
>> > >>is obviously the best in the world at present.

>I'm not sure if you can sustainably make the argument that Prior is
>superior to Ames, although I note the 'probably' in Mike's initial
>statement.

Well, Prior's Test batting average is 45.5 to Ames's 40.5, so there's
a statistical argument on the batting side. On the keeping side, Ames
would have been proud of taking the catch Prior took off McCullum in
the last Test. I've never heard of Ames being regarded in the top rank
of keepers qua keepers, and I'd now regard Prior as being a top
second-rank keeper too.

If Prior has not yet overtaken Ames, which I happily concede he may
not have done, he's currently on his shoulder and could well
outdistance him in the not too distant future.

Cheers,

Mike
--

by **CaraMi** » Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:01:09

Quote:

>> Prior is probably the best keeper-batsman in England's history and
>> is obviously the best in the world at present.

> I don't know about "obviously" if you compare him with Dhoni. Prior's
> clearly the better keeper, but - fine batsman though Prior is - Dhoni at
> his best is a genius with the bat. So though overall one might give the
> edge to Prior, I don't think it's obvious.

No way is Dhoni a better bat than Prior notwithstanding Dhoni's 200.
Prior is good enough to get into all current Test teams as a pure batsman.

Sport Today

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian

Nice one Ian