People are actually buying into this dukes propaganda no ways hey, we’re just not very good. Besides Curran and Welch will have played with it in county.
Perhaps we can fit in three tests at Trent Bridge over the 5 days?
Neil Johnson, Alistair Campbell, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), Grant Flower, Dave Houghton, Guy Whittall, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Ray Price, Eddo Brandes
Next time you hear that our depth is better or we don’t need the big 3+2, remember this match. Then remember the same match last year.
This isn’t England A. This is Durham.On home turf.
Cricinfo profile of the 'James Bond' of cricket:
FULL NAME: Angus James Mackay
BORN: 13 June 1967, Harare
KNOWN AS: Gus Mackay
Disaster. People have to remember SA and NZ are coming this year as well. You would hope at least 2 of these guys stood up and be counted. Ideally from these guys what we are looking for is an opening pair who can smother the threat plus 2 of them who can at least support the big 3. Then a keeper who can get some runs. With Gumbie effectively out, I think Mayavo is doing just enough at the moment because he is a better keeper than the rest but he is scoring the same 20s and 30s his competition would probably score.
. Well where there is a crisis there is opportunity. A lot of the guys who aren't expected to be picked are playing in the next game. Get a score there and you are immediately in with a chance of going to Bangladesh initially. You never know. Tanu, or both Matthews could get a score. Naqvi probably will but we all know the story there. Prince is another one who im expecting something from
A Duke ball on that pitch is not easy. We need a bit of context here. Their bowling was outstanding and our bowling was terrible.
You hit the seam with that Duke and its nipping. Even at 120 you're getting deliveries that are beating the bat. Our guys are not hitting the seam and they're bowling too full, too short and too wide for 4 balls an over.
Kaitano, Curran, Welch in particular are accomplished up front. The best experiment would have been their bowlers bowling at their batsmen. They'd also have been 60-5 I guarantee. Next best is put Ervine, Raza and Williams in there and they'd have struggled, I also guarantee that.
It was crazy seam movement that our bowlers couldn't take advantage of.
That Ireland game was played with a Kookaburra. All our internationals are. A Duke here moves more than a Duke on English pitches.
I'm just saying our bowling is more worrying than our batting.
Go and watch Kaitano's, Curran's and Welch's dismissals and tell me who's keeping those out. 6 really good deliveries that are beating most every batsman. That last one of Welch's is front on and you can see it very clearly. Nobody is putting bat on that. Plus a replay would show it possibly just clipping leg stump, he was a long way down the crease. Our umpires are very quick to trigger our own. Durham survived some good LBW shouts.
Our top 3 didn't do much wrong. They played the line and there was prodigious seam movement at high speed.
I'll say it again, our bowling is more of a problem.
Why are Durham deciding what ball they want to use?
A Duke here seams more than in England. Ask the Durham batsmen if you don't believe me.