Australia in West Indies 2012

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West Indies must put past behind them West Indies need to forget about their struggles against Australia in recent years and focus on the possibilities available to them in this series More...

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Chanderpaul keeps fighting for West Indies Shivnarine Chanderpaul was fighting a familiar battle against Australia on the second day in Barbados but a pair of wickets to the visitors gave them hope of knocking over West Indies in the second session More...

[rkt.india]

'Batsmen underestimate me' - Sammy Surprise rippled around the Kensington Oval when the West Indies captain Darren Sammy, not Fidel Edwards, took the ball alongside Kemar Roach to begin the third morning. That surprise turned to admiration in the space of 10 overs of the shrewdest fast medium from Sammy, which returned the figures of 2 for 14 and set the hosts on the path to a commanding position with two days remaining. Not the fastest bowler, nor the most prominent exponent of swing, Sammy instead relies on unrelenting accuracy and subtle use of angles at the crease for his wickets. Ed Cowan was asked to play at only one of his first eight deliveries, but the ninth was delivered from closer to the stumps and on a line the opener could only nibble at for an edge behind. David Warner fell in similar fashion, pushing firmly at a ball of precise line and "in between" length and offering a catch to Darren Bravo in the slips. Shane Watson, also, could easily have been given out lbw to Sammy, who said his team had planned well. "I think the batsmen really underestimate me," Sammy said. "They get through the quick men and see me and say 'ah he's not so quick'. But what I rely on is accuracy: frustrate them, frustrate them, take the ball away from them, then get a little closer, just in that little channel to play or leave. That's what I did today and what I've been doing throughout my career, just putting the ball on one spot. "Warner is new to Test cricket. So is Cowan, and Watto [Watson] has just come back after not playing Test cricket for the last Australian summer. We all knew what to expect from [Michael] Hussey as we saw today, they call him Mr Cricket, he always gets Australia out from crucial positions. We stuck to our plans. "We noticed [Michael] Clarke and [Ricky] Ponting love the ball closer to them we had our plans for bowling to them. Last night we didn't execute properly but the plan to Warner and Cowan was to be a little fuller with the ball slanting across, and once we did that we got the results. So we did plan well for their batsmen and bowlers - we were prepared for this series." Sammy's decision to take the ball straight away on the third morning was also driven by the pragmatism that has characterised his captaincy. By keeping the runs tight at one end, he allowed Edwards or Roach to attack from the other, while also leaving them fresher if the visitors did not lose early wickets. "We had the two quick men, and it could have been a longer day," Sammy said. "We don't want both of them going at full steam, then we've got to make a change to myself and then the spinner, so the plan was to rotate the two early in the morning and see how it goes, and it worked well for us. [Economy] was considered as well, because they were going at four plus an over and you needed someone to pull it back. "I understand my job in the team and I just go out there and do it. Everyone will have their opinions but as a unit going forward, I know I'm a crucial member in this bowling unit. If you look at Fidel and Roach they go at around four an over in Test cricket, Bishoo goes at three and I go at two. So my contribution is crucial in the team set-up and I go out and try to do that every day." Having top scored for his side on a third consecutive day of struggle, Clarke admitted his batsmen would need to learn to adjust their attitude and expectations to adapt to Caribbean conditions, which are slower and more awkward than they seem to have catered for. As in the tour match at the Three Ws Oval, the tourists found batting a struggle. "I think we, as a batting group, need to accept it's going to take a long time to score runs," Clarke said. "It's a lot different to Australia where you can go out there and cream the ball and hit plenty of boundaries. As we've seen today, once the wicket does get a little bit up and down you have to be willing to bat for long periods." Though Watson's involvement in run-outs has become an unhappy pattern, Clarke denied it was a matter that the vice-captain needed to address as a matter of urgency, saying the run-out of Ponting was unfortunate. "It's something we'd prefer not to talk about," Clarke said. "It is a part of the game and it is unfortunate, you never mean to run anybody out. It was a big wicket, losing Ricky, but it's no one's fault. It's a part of the game, you've just got to try your best not to have it in any form of the game. It's hard enough for all the batters, especially chasing a total like that. "Every player's different, everybody runs at different speeds and sees the game in a different light. I don't think [Watson needs to look at it], it's just unfortunate it happened today and that it was a good player in Punter [Ponting] who's had a really good summer and is in pretty good nick. His runs would've been handy out there in the first innings but what it means is, he's going to get a second chance." http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/560584.html

[cameron_black]

i think he said exactly the same thing after taking a couple of wickets during their indian tour?

[cameron_black]

haha http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-west-indies-2011/content/story/541920.html

[Era of Gold]

And it still remains a fact ^

[Cricket Tragic]

Rkt starting a thread on Sammy. :omg:

[rkt.india]

Rkt starting a thread on Sammy. :omg:

:winky:

[Crookbond]

The bigger question is - Once they don't, will he survive?

[f.b.m]

I think that skillful medium pace bowling is hugely underrated and under-appreciated at the international level. Even the likes of Andrew McDonald were hard done by in my opinion just because Australia wanted a spinner (regardless of how bad the spinner was) despite McDonald being better at the role that the spinner was supposed to play (that was to contain and give the quicker bowlers a rest). The extra 'dimension' that <130kmph bowlers bring into play is that the keeper can stand up to the stumps and frustrate the batsmen like Sammy did with Sehwag or bring in reverse swing/cutters in play with the old ball like Watson did in Sri Lanka. If the nibble the ball around like PK they can be useful with the new ball as well (wish Dhoni was competent enough to stand up to the stumps). I dont know why you hated on Sammy before. It was quite obvious that he was a decent bowler ever since his 7-fer on debut in England. He would get selected even if he wasnt the captain, or at least he should be purely on merit. If there was a choice, I'd pick him over our own unlucky Sharma because he knows how to work a batsman out. *related rant* The fact that Rampaul, Taylor etc have to sit out while bowlers like Lakmal and Ishant are playing test cricket is a flaw in the way that top level cricket is structured. This is something that I have repeated a million times but predictably, no-one cares about the root causes of the problems facing cricket and babble on about fighting the symptoms rather than the root cause. */end rant*

[rkt.india]

I think that skillful medium pace bowling is hugely underrated and under-appreciated at the international level. Even the likes of Andrew McDonald were hard done by in my opinion just because Australia wanted a spinner (regardless of how bad the spinner was) despite McDonald being better at the role that the spinner was supposed to play (that was to contain and give the quicker bowlers a rest). The extra 'dimension' that <130kmph bowlers bring into play is that the keeper can stand up to the stumps and frustrate the batsmen like Sammy did with Sehwag or bring in reverse swing/cutters in play with the old ball like Watson did in Sri Lanka. If the nibble the ball around like PK they can be useful with the new ball as well (wish Dhoni was competent enough to stand up to the stumps). I dont know why you hated on Sammy before. It was quite obvious that he was a decent bowler ever since his 7-fer on debut in England. He would get selected even if he wasnt the captain, or at least he should be purely on merit. If there was a choice, I'd pick him over our own unlucky Sharma because he knows how to work a batsman out. *related rant* The fact that Rampaul, Taylor etc have to sit out while bowlers like Lakmal and Ishant are playing test cricket is a flaw in the way that top level cricket is structured. This is something that I have repeated a million times but predictably, no-one cares about the root causes of the problems facing cricket and babble on about fighting the symptoms rather than the root cause. */end rant*

My point is that Sammy is not good enough to be a 3rd fast bowler in a good test team, but since WI is an ordinary test team, he is good for them. Otherwise, look at SA, Aus, England's third seamer in tests. Regarding comparison with Ishant, Sammy is no greater than Ishant. Yes, on current form, Ishant has done well, but has taken as many wickets per test as Sammy and remember, Ishant's record at home was even better than Zaheer before WI test series. He has overseas mostly.

[Crookbond]

Clarke finds inspiration from Adelaide '06 heist http://www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-australia-2012/content/current/story/560982.html

"I remember Warney telling me back then that with a day and a half left in the Test match that we would win the game and I was trying to work out how," Clarke said of 2006. "At best surely we'd get a draw but he had no doubt in his mind. For me as a young player I thought 'right-o, that's my attitude, I'm going to win'. A few years on and I'm in the change rooms telling the boys we're going to win this Test match. Hopefully a few of them believed me the way I believed Warney back then.

Is it just me or does anyone else see how timid India abandoned the chase vs West Indies in Dominica a year ago.

[Cricket Tragic]

I don't think it would have happened if it was the first test of the series. We're usually happy to win 1-0. Happened in England in '07, Australia '03/'04 and also on the last tour of NZ. Target of 600? :WTF:

[Dhonuts Dhoni]

This kind of attitude is ingrained within the Australian team and sporting culture in general. For the AFL savvy, teams such as Geelong have an unrelenting belief that they can win, no matter what position they may find themselves in, and as such are incredibly successful. It takes more than a few poor seasons/years to wash away such a culture. Kohli seems to possess this, if his last few innings here are anything to go by. He needs help though, and he won't get it from the old guard.

[Crookbond]

Australia 2003 wasn't the same but I agree about England 2007 and New Zealand 2009.

[Cricket Tragic]

Why not? We batted and batted and batted to score 700. Then we didn't enforce the follow-on. After that we set them 450 to win in basically 1 day. The attitude was to ensure that we don't lose first.

[Chandan]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-australia-2012/content/current/story/560982.html Is it just me or does anyone else see how timid India abandoned the chase vs West Indies in Dominica a year ago.

That Dominica test where Dhoni didn't go for a win where he could easily go and was afraid of losing the test in the pursuit of victory was the beginning of his downfall. If you won't have the intent for winning, how will you win?

Why not? We batted and batted and batted to score 700. Then we didn't enforce the follow-on. After that we set them 450 to win in basically 1 day. The attitude was to ensure that we don't lose first.

Lack of faith in bowlers in those two cases and I don't blame them there. We've seen how bad Indian bowlers can be. But there was no such scare at Dominica, India had to chase and they didn't go for it.

[Cricket Tragic]

Whatever the reason, the point is that we were happy to take the draw. A win was seen as a bonus. Also, lack of faith in the bowlers in England? They were fantastic.

[vvvslaxman]

They have so many test wins to get inspired from lol.

[Crookbond]

Whatever the reason, the point is that we were happy to take the draw. A win was seen as a bonus. Also, lack of faith in the bowlers in England? They were fantastic.

I presume Chandan was referring to SCG.