The morning after the night before, and what a night! The hour and a quarter or so of play last night was one of the most enjoyable I've ever had the pleasure to experience - I hope there's more where that came from.
The one cloud on the horizon is Stuart Broad's injury, an abdominal tear ruling him out of the entire Ashes series. Broad has bowled well on the tour so far without taking many wickets, and has barely had a bat, but his absence will nonetheless be keenly felt.
It will surprise none of you to hear that I think Chris Tremlett is the man for the job of replacing Broad. The pitch at the Waca might not be the terrifying prospect it once was, but there is word that its getting back to some of its former glory - and surely Australia's only hope is to prepare a pitch with a bit of green and try and blast England out. This would play nicely in to Tremlett's ample hands.
His height and high 80s pace will make him a real handful on a pitch with any sort of bounce. We've seen in this test the trouble that bounce can cause (for both sides!), and the addition of Phil Hughes at the top of the order (who Tremlett dismissed in the Hobart warm up game by the way) will only magnify that. To have Finn and Tremlett operating in tandem, with Anderson making use of the Freemantle Doctor and Swann twirling away as well would be a frightening prospect for the Aussies.
I have long been of the school of thought that you back your batters to get you the runs, and in two out of three innings so far this tour England's top six have delivered in spades. Swann might not be the ideal number 8 but he can do a job and Tremlett can fling the bat at number 9 to decent effect. Bresnan might, might, get you a few more runs but I just don't think he brings enough of a threat with the ball and I'm not sure Shahzad is suited to the Waca surface. Tremlett is the man for the job in Perth - he won't let England down.
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The World Cup is here Again!
1 year ago
6 comments:
I hope you're right about Tremlett.
Any idea when was the last time an England Surrey player was Man of the Match in a test match?
Tim
Hi Tim
Yep, it was this morning, Kevin Pietersen named man of the match for this game!
Before that I imagine it would've been Butch or Thorpe, a good six or seven years ago at least, but I don't know for sure!
Am totally in agreement about Tremlett and backing the batsman. The Australian attack has so far looked pretty weak (with brief exceptions on the first day of the series) and as we've got six batsman and four bowlers anyway, I don't think they should worry about Tremlett weakening the batting line up.
There may be a Surrey bias here, but I would be disappointed if he wasn't the one picked.
Also, a Surrey player getting MoM ... hadn't clicked that! Good on KP - even if Surrey can hardly claim him as born and bred local talent.
PS. In the sky commentary last night, Dernbach got a couple of mentions, with the possibility he may play in the warm up game this weekend. If he ripped through them with a 6-for, what chance he gets a call up if there's another injury or two?! Highly unlikely, but that would be a real coup for Surrey - although am far from convinced he would be up to test standard.
Symo
The Aussie attack is poor, Siddle hasnt taken a wicket since day one of the series - that's 9 days of test cricket without a wicket! They are all over the shop.
I bloody love Jade Dernbach, and it'd be great to see him play in the game this week, but I think he's a long long way from test standard right now. You can be 100% sure that he'd give it absolutely everything, but he still needs to develop - which hopefully he will do and who knows what he'll do in three or four years time?! He is another Saffa mind you!
I'm a big Dernbach fan too - always seems like a team man and tries his heart out. And even though he's a Saffa, Surrey can take a lot of credit for him because he's been there years.
He seems to have a touch of the Salisbury's about him I think - in that he tends to send down at least one bad ball an over (or he did in most of the games I was at last season at least), and that needs to be ironed out.
But as you say, he's got time to develop - and it would be great to see him ripping through an Aussie batting line up in a few years time!
Symo
You're completely right, too many bad balls, and what's a bit worrying is that its been that way for two or three seasons now. Maybe this time with the performance squad is helping him to iron that out though. He's got enough pace to worry batsmen, just his radar is well out at times - too often really. But like you say he tries his heart out so I don't doubt he's trying everything to sort out his problems. England see something in him so he's obviously got some kind of x factor!
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