Sure. I think it was implied that I didn’t completely agree with the selections of the other nine players in the team given that only about half of them are out due to suspension or injury.
If it was Australia in their position, I’d be spewing about the gutlessness of this decision. There is not a chance in the world that they’ll lose and there wasn’t at lunch either.
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Probably looking for just enough runs to make Australia bat a third time late tomorrow!!!
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Nup.
They want to cook our bowlers. Grind us into the dust. As they well should.
EDIT and as I was typing, they’ve declared at 6/181.
461 to win.
137 overs for them to get us.
Why on earth would they have declared any earlier ?
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The run rate required for that is well above what any team has achieved for this match. At lunch it wounld have been about 3 an over (435 off about 145 overs) which is still above the average run rate for the match so far. That’s a very solid indicator that the target was too much for Australia. Let alone the very low likelihood they’ll bat that long anyway.
Declaring later just reduces Pakistan’s chances of bowling Australia out.
Although it’s still almost certain they’ll win from here you’d think.
I might be coloured by my bet on pakistan therefore wanting them to give themselves the best chance of winning ($1.91 before the match was pretty good odds I thought once they won the toss)
Pakistan would need 60 overs to get this team out.
Grind starc into the ground and we lose any chance of winning.
The longer they battes the worse the pitch gets and the quicker the wickets fall.
You think Aus were a chance of making the total if Pak had given them 145 overs? 150?
It’s immaterial.
They’ll knock us over inside 4 sessions.
Keeping us out there longer just helps fatigue the Australian bowlers, will help them down the track.
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Both Marshes out for ducks
Lost 3-0
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Head on a pair, has an lbw review, looked to be sliding down and confirmed.
Whew!
Stumps at 3-136 with Khawaja on 50 and Head 34
Khawaja has played really well in this match. Finally showing something outside of Australia which is very timely but most likely to be futile. Finch has also made a solid and somewhat surprising start to his test career.
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We lost this test in the first innings.
We lost this test when we selected the Marsh brothers at 3 & 4
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There is (rightly) a lot of focus on Maxwell’s tour non selection. But I’d have Handscombe as probably the best player of spin in the country.As such, how he’s not in the squad for this tour, I have no idea.
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He had pretty average form on the Aus A tour.
Then came home and hit 4 x 50s in a row in the JLT, then 49 in the final.
Test Avg 43
Hmm.
Handscombe and Maxwell would definitely be in the top 5 players of spin, Mitch March on the other hand…
Head isn’t too flash against spin either
Maxwell and Handscombe are also two of the best fielders in the country
Don’t mind Labuschagne as a legspinning option tbh
efa
A grand total of 19 runs combined across two innings and a looooonnnngggggg history of underwhelming performances cannot offset the fact that they are from the same state as the new coach and their old man wore the baggy green yonks ago.
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i watched mitch marsh years ago in the u/19 and he seemed the answer to our allrounder spot but since then he has lived up to his brothers spasmodic form
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