Cricket

They were lifeless, uncovered pitches only caused an issue if it rained followed by sunshine. But if you read some reports of the 1940 era there does seem to be a common them - the pitches were dead.
 
Spoony, have you read anything about first class cricket back then?

My biggest surprise about Bradman was finding out that his first class average was 95 over 230 odd games.

Everyone knows about his 99.94 in test cricket which came from 52 matches, but he actually maintained that outside of test cricket for a hell of a long time.

I am guessing that domestic cricket wouldn't have been much good back then, but did the folks he play with also have such high averages in domestic cricket?
 
zing said:
Spoony, have you read anything about first class cricket back then?

My biggest surprise about Bradman was finding out that his first class average was 95 over 230 odd games.

Everyone knows about his 99.94 in test cricket which came from 52 matches, but he actually maintained that outside of test cricket for a hell of a long time.

I am guessing that domestic cricket wouldn't have been much good back then, but did the folks he play with also have such high averages in domestic cricket?
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I'm not belittling Bradman, Zing. He did stand out and was head and shoulders better than the rest. But as stats say the 40s had the best test averages. Headley, Compton, Sutcliffe all averaged over 60 and Hammond, Hobbs, Nourse, Hutton all were very close to averaging 60 in the 40s. I've no idea what domestic averages were like, would be interesting to compare them. Anyhow it's currently a batsman's game, well...it has been since 2000 but the 40s may have been an even easier era to bat in. Stats do seem to back that argument.
 
Oh wasn't a rebuttal to your post. My question was independent of what you were saying. Just thought you might know.
 
Spoony said:
I'm not belittling Bradman, Zing. He did stand out and was head and shoulders better than the rest. But as stats say the 40s had the best test averages. Headley, Compton, Sutcliffe all averaged over 60 and Hammond, Hobbs, Nourse, Hutton all were very close to averaging 60 in the 40s. I've no idea what domestic averages were like, would be interesting to compare them. Anyhow it's currently a batsman's game, well...it has been since 2000 but the 40s may have been an even easier era to bat in. Stats do seem to back that argument.
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I just think they were all great players and at the time when the perfection of a few techniques was still at the horizon, these got there first and showed the others how to do it. Greg Chappell averages 53 odd while playing throughout the 70s, Graeme Pollock averages over 60. Barry Richards smashed the shit out of Dennis Lillee at the WSC. Possibly it seems that the era was maybe a bit batsmen friendly, which it might be but I've never heard that it was due to the pitches. We'll never see an array of legendary fast bowlers as we saw in the Packer era, but we still had the likes of Bedser, Larwood, Tate operating during those times and couple of legendary spinners in Grimmett and O Reilly. Lindwall averages 18 in the 40s having picked 84 wickets in 21 games. Miller wasn't far behind as always, averaging a nice 22. I completely agree that batting was never as difficult as it was in the Packer era but that was partly due to the sudden aggressive wave the quicks had developed and what is commonly known as the death of the gentleman's game, but I don't know if there's enough basis to cite the pre war era as batsman friendly, despite that one ridiculous man who couldn't stop scoring.
 
Is it me or do the 'lesser' nations seem to be having a good year? Bangladesh have had some great results recently including a whitewash ODI series victory (think it was against India?). And yesterday Zimbabwe chased down 304 to beat NZ. In years gone by these have been the traditional whipping boys but I wonder if we are beginning to see more competitive cricket from them?
 
ChrisNelson said:
Is it me or do the 'lesser' nations seem to be having a good year? Bangladesh have had some great results recently including a whitewash ODI series victory (think it was against India?). And yesterday Zimbabwe chased down 304 to beat NZ. In years gone by these have been the traditional whipping boys but I wonder if we are beginning to see more competitive cricket from them?
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It was Pakistan. They did go on to beat both India and South Africa by a margin of 2-1 in the following series.

What kind of team were Kiwis playing? India beat them 3-0 with pretty much the B-team just recently.

The gap is definitely shortening in the one day formats of the game. The lack of quality bowlers and placid tracks are making contests more even.
 
Insanity said:
It was Pakistan. They did go on to beat both India and South Africa by a margin of 2-1 in the following series.

What kind of team were Kiwis playing? India beat them 3-0 with pretty much the B-team just recently.

The gap is definitely shortening in the one day formats of the game. The lack of quality bowlers and placid tracks are making contests more even.
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Ah fair enough when I hit post I thought it might have been Pakistan, should really have checked before posting! Agree the gap is shortening. NZ team was full strength except for Brendan McCullum, he may have made the difference but still a great win for Zimbabwe.

NZ: Guptill, Latham, Williamson, Taylor, Elliott, Neesham, Ronchi, N McCullum, Henry, McClenaghan, Sodhi
 
The gap is closing and that NZ team is still strong enough to beat Zimbabwe but it isn't full strength. Boult and Southee were missing too along with BMac.
 
True I suppose about Boult and Southee and NZ chased down 236 to win the second ODI yesterday by just the 10 wickets! Seems like normal order restored.
 
David Willey just took 3-27 and hit a 100 off 40 balls to take Northants to the Semis.

Outrageous hitting, hit Yardy for 34 in one over.
 
zing said:
I really dislike Jarrod Kimber's writing. Writes like an Indian movie script writer.
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I think you give too much credit to indian movie script writers..:lol:

But ya,I think I remember even him questioning Clarke a lot initially..
 
:lol: Last time I checked SL were 10/3 and trailing by loads. Thought the game was over then.
 
Skills said:
What a collapse by India.
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Samid said:
:lol: Last time I checked SL were 10/3 and trailing by loads. Thought the game was over then.
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Yeah, it seemed as if Chandimal inning really disheartened India. I think this is where the lack of hugely experienced and mature heads in India camp cost them the match. Kohli is a great player but still inexperienced as a captain. He needs to marshall his troops better and few of the players who had played handful need to take the initiative. I don't see such collapse happening in 4th day pitch had Dhoni still been in charge.
 
David Willey has agreed a 3 year deal to leave Northants and join Yorkshire for the start of next season. Makes a strong team even stronger!
Good signing for Yorkshire, but shame for Northants who seem to be in real strife off the field by all accounts. Hopefully they can make another strong showing at T20 Finals Day and get some money in the kitty. Willey's performance in almost single handedly winning their T20 QF aginst Sussex was stunning, as was his performance in the Final of 2013... Obviously loves the cameras!
 
Amir, Asif and Butt can return to all cricket in two weeks time. I'd pick them all against England just to wind them up. Would be a nice laugh.
 
Kohli out again after a decent score. Really needs to score big centuries, especially if he wants such a light batting line up. Should work with Sehwag and Dravid on that.
 
Skills said:
Kohli out again after a decent score. Really needs to score big centuries, especially if he wants such a light batting line up. Should work with Sehwag and Dravid on that.
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That's harsh. He scored 4 hundreds in Australia after that there was Bangladesh series and then this and here too he got 1 test hundred. He is not going score hundred in each match ffs
 
Skills said:
Kohli out again after a decent score. Really needs to score big centuries, especially if he wants such a light batting line up. Should work with Sehwag and Dravid on that.
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Give him a break. He scored a 100 in the last test :lol:

I'd rather we have Pujara in the team than Binny. The batting line up seems light without a genuine number 3. We don't have any test cricket standard all rounders. Binny will be under bowled in this test.
 
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So that's it for Sanga?

Great player, easily the best bat to come out of the island and comfortably in the league of modern day greats. Sachin and Lara aside, he's up there with the rest.
 
Legend of the game and absolute class act. Will be missed. Great career, Sanga. Comfortably among modern greats.
 
Sangakkara wasn't just a great batsman, also a great all round guy. One of my all time favourites...

Great loss to cricket.
 
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