Steven Smith, video link, general thoughts

Lets hope then he gets in amongst the action and comes out as the star bowler (Providing all your batsmen fail in an epic manner alongside all the fast bowlers and your Offie if they keep one - England have still got to win).
 
Smith in for North. Well the young bloke gets his chance now.

Like mark taylor was saying about smith, club spinners can pick up a lot from watching smith compared to warne , in a sense, because smith is more like a cub spinner ! Fields set to get catches on the off side rather than lots of close in guys. smith had his slip too fine in tassie, but that was whites call.

He needs to bowl with that shape that he started his second spell in tassie, it got Goochie to come out and grab a seat as close as he could to check the young N.S.Welshman out.

He has had a good game this week against South Australia with 8 wickets and half century so he is the form allrounder right now.

I'm stoke that Smith's getting a chance at test level. Like you said, Macca, he's the form allrounder. That 8 for in the last game was his best bowling in first class cricket.

Do you reckon the English batsmen will tear him apart? They're playing pretty well now. Cook in form and Pietersen having found his mojo. I just hope Smith doesn't become another casualty in the post-Warne Australian spinners trial. What's the general consensus on this Beer guy? Does is come as as much of a shock to you Aussie's as it does to everybody else?
 
I'm stoke that Smith's getting a chance at test level. Like you said, Macca, he's the form allrounder. That 8 for in the last game was his best bowling in first class cricket.

Do you reckon the English batsmen will tear him apart? They're playing pretty well now. Cook in form and Pietersen having found his mojo. I just hope Smith doesn't become another casualty in the post-Warne Australian spinners trial. What's the general consensus on this Beer guy? Does is come as as much of a shock to you Aussie's as it does to everybody else?

Notice how smith and everyone is saying he was picked as a 6 batsman, that gives him some cover but it could be a ploy. His bowling the house down at nets and blew Healey away with his flipper and other variations but these English pros wont be in nets. But i think his batting technique is so unusual and so baseball he might struggle in that spot.

Beer was a shock to all except his old st kilda teammate warne. Cameron Boyce from Qld is going to be our number 1 spin in a few years he is a great little legspinner. Beer fits in with the belief they have at the top that the good spinners slip through the cracks of youth rep etc. Warne was taken from 3rd grade club to test rep in 18 months.

Warne was 1/300 and something in his early tests. They will come after smith, which will suit him. He is our youngest legspinner ever and gee he looked like a kid the other day on tv. He is there to bowl at the tail and bowl on the 4th and 5th day. This Smith kid has been talked about for years now in NSW as a freak allrounder, 20 months ago on this thread i picked him to play this ashes. His fielding alone brings a lot to any side he is always in the game.
 
I'm stoke that Smith's getting a chance at test level. Like you said, Macca, he's the form allrounder. That 8 for in the last game was his best bowling in first class cricket.

Do you reckon the English batsmen will tear him apart? They're playing pretty well now. Cook in form and Pietersen having found his mojo. I just hope Smith doesn't become another casualty in the post-Warne Australian spinners trial. What's the general consensus on this Beer guy? Does is come as as much of a shock to you Aussie's as it does to everybody else?

I read Warne talking up Beer in the paper a few weeks ago. Seems like the selectors listened to his advice.
 
I read Warne talking up Beer in the paper a few weeks ago. Seems like the selectors listened to his advice.

Greg Chappell was a selector on the peter who taylor pick. But this is almost unbelievable. club to test via 5 1st class games. Except the jack iverson story is even more unbelievable.
 
Ah Peter Taylor. He was like a ballerina coming to the crease. I doubt there was ever a bowler more flamboyant or as graceful in his run up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwQVI9u-nfg&feature=related Check out 3:10 on to remind yourself. They actually featured the first match of this series on World series classics today.
Gutted I didnt go to North Sydney Oval today to watch the one dayer. Managed to catch it on tele though. What a finish. Brett Lee back and firing and 630 odd runs scored at the most beautiful ground in the world. Sorry Adelaide! Even has an old fashioned scoreboard.
Iverson's story is a fairytale. Unfortunately it didnt end happily ever after. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Iverson
 
What made the difference with Warne back in the day - was it nature or nurture that saw him rise from his initial shaky start? If you're saying that there's a few bloked out that there that seem to have the raw talent - what or who is there to turn that basic talent into a match winner at this level.

In answer to Antipodean's question about whether they'll take him apart, there's a good chance they will. You only have to look back at all the footage of Warne and you can see the fear and confusion of the batsmen when they face him. From very early in his career - possibly because of the Gatting Ball batsmen went to the crease already on the back foot and it strikes me that for years everyone till Pieterson followed in that mode and therefore he had the upper hand. Pieterson it seems to me was the first (Certainly of English players) to take Warne to task. It now seems that the English batsmen following in Pietresons footsteps have the ascendency and will look to be agressive rather than cautious with Smith, they'll want to destroy his confidence and the captains/countries belief in him before he gets a chance to prove himself. For the moment they can't expect him to be Warne, but they'll need him to do a job and putting him against the tail sounds like it makes sense. Lets hope he does well within reason and makes his mark and goes on to win matches for Australia against everyone but Englamd!!!
 
Where Smith will struggle is with his basic legbreak. He never got a good stock one before he tried to master the variations. I thought that the first time i saw him. He was bowling wronguns, flippers, zooters, and sliders every second ball almost, but the legbreaks in between were pretty weak and not much drift.

No doubt he has been working hard on the legbreak in the last 12 months. And those legbreaks he bowled at the scg the last few days had the drift you could see it plain on tv news. Some of them looked, dare i say it, Warne- like in their shape
 
What about Geoff lawson the other day, he was up close to warne coaching smith and said how warne was getting loads more revs on the ball even though he was in a suit, tie and dress shoes.

Smith doesn't look like a number 6 at test level yet, if ever, with his unorthodox technique. Looks like his pads are on wrong or something. I suppose derek randall did something similar with his pads. And he is forever playing with his pads sort of nervous habit like derek randall had too.
 
Macca what field settings does your son use and does he set his own? Let us know what they are and I'll knock up a diagram for the field settings thread.

Coach sets the field. He bowls legspin too, and he is pretty good at it. The field is almost exactly the Peter Philpott one you put up on the field setting thread already ! Yeah that is pretty much it.
 
Well we had to wait till the ashes were all but won by England till we tried legspin. And at the end of the day smith looked as likely as anyone of our bowlers to take a wicket. Benaud pointed out slip was a bit too deep and lo and behold smith had an edge off cook drop just short of clarke there.

He should have had one of the two guys he had deep on the legside in closer at mid wicket to start with because he was giving them a single to begin with. It worked better when they closed that gap. Hughes dosn't look too comfortable at short leg.

The worst bit was when he bowled a short ball followed by a real rank long hopping shocker. I was thinking at the time, gee my young bloke hasn't bowled one that short all season in a match, and can smith recover or fall to pieces?

Now warne has been really letting it be known he doesn't think smith is ready. And that he can be number 1 spinner and number 6 batsman is stupid. Every former test spinner on radio, t.v and newspapers is saying the same thing. I dont think it is the spinners club trying to keep pressure off smith by keeping expectations of his bowling low but there might be an element of that in their criticism.

I normally dont have the sound up but with warne commenting you have to listen. It broke everyone up when warne said macgill used to bowl a bit of poo. Warne was pleased smith was getting a nice rythmn up towards stumps. Just clearing some space to jump on any smith bandwagon if it did take off.

Smiths selection was real front bar of the pub choice, every man and his dog was saying put smith in for north. He doesn't look like number 6 so he has to make it as a bowler and bat 7 or 8. England will take after smith today and the kid hasn't got a lot going for him, given the match situation. He will have to learn quick or forget about test cricket for a while and stick to the shorter formats.
 
I suppose he bowled ok so far, for someone who looks like having been exposed as unqualified to hold the spot given him. The front-bar selectors are pretty harsh and now they have smith down as "boy on a man's job".

I dont know how to mark him yet, but if i took my kids bowling as a guide, i wouldn't be happy with smiths lack of side spin on his stock ball, someone told him to keep up the topspin on the drop-in pitch but he couldn't get the mix right.

And he couldn't hit those footmarks but once in two overs coming round the wicket and aiming at them. It gives us an idea how good his aim is under pressure. But those English guys played it smart, instead of doing the obvious and coming after smith with all out attack they just sat on him and had a look and waited for the bad balls that they were sure would come.

OK, so he looks too young, especially for a legspinner. But i hope they stick with him ,unless he proves completely out of his depth, because selfishly i like to watch legspin.
 
Yeah I reckon that considering how much pressure he's under because of the overall team situation and his age he's done okay so far from what I've seen of him. Yeah like you - I just like seeing leg-spinners in action.
 
i have a feeling Hauritz will be recalled for the last test, the Aussies are idiots if they dont. and if that proves to be the case then it could be a telling factor for Smith. its fairly safe to assume that the series will be done and dusted by tomorrow lunchtime, England can only win from here. so hopefully they will stick with him for Sydney alongside Hauritz and have their 2 pronged spin attack that nobody ever shuts up about at Sydney. and then he will have a chance to test himself against the established spinner, and the only man that is really threatening his place at the moment.

Beer and Doherty are equally as unready. a sensible selector would have put someone like Bryce McGain in the side i think. you cant put rookies in for debuts in the Ashes, its ridiculous, there is never more pressure, especially in a side that is failing. if you put Smith into the side that Warne made his debut with then its a slightly different story, the pressure is hugely reduced. in the Ashes, experience would have been much more valuable, so McGain or Hauritz for me.

England probably have the luxury of not needing a 2nd spinner at Sydney. Swann is so good by himself that they can stick to the 4 bowler attack and keep an extra batsman in. Panesar isnt the same player he was last time around though, so if they do decide to play him i think he could make the Aussie spin attack look even more pathetic lol.
 
Interesting to hear Boycott on TMS (the BBC radio commentary for the Aussies out there) comparing Smith and Rashid. He had plenty of time for Smith, just thought he was too young and shouldnt have been put in the position he has, but given a couple of years thought he could be OK. For Rashid he was less than happy saying he has all the talent but needs to do a lot of 'growing up' and that he hasnt progressed in the last three years. Now I know Boycott isnt everyones cup of tea and is prone to being a bit extreme (especially concerning Yorkshire players) but basically he was saying Smith was worth sticking with whereas Rashid the jury is still out
 
Boycs might have an axe to grind. Geez he had a great technique, I remember seeing boycott get a ton in a couple of hours against northern nsw here in newcastle 77/78. He played like a copy book lesson in batting. Every shot, all round the wicket, hooks, pulls ,cuts the lot.

He had a reputation for stodgy batting but that day at No 1 Sportsground Newcastle he put on one of the best batting exhibitions ever seen here. The best was Sobers though, he smashed some windscreens on some cars parked in the ground with a couple of his 6,s.
 
Boycott was also quoted in the paper yesterday as having said about 10 minutes into the first morning of this test when England had chosen to bowl first, that it was an awful decision and showed that England were just trying to draw the game. His fellow commentator questioned his opinion, and he told him "thats why I'm the expert and you're just a journalist" apparently. How stupid did he look an hour or 2 later when the Australian top order had collapsed!!!

Rashid has been very good in county cricket for about 3 years. In terms of his figures he has been up at the top of the bowling pile for the past 2 seasons, and his batting is always very strong too. to say he hasnt improved may not really be applicable because its hard to get better than already being the best. the only way he can improve further is if he gets his chance at international cricket. i dont think he can learn much more in the county game now without being slowly introduced to the international setup. i think if they just threw him in at the deep end he would probably drown. but he needs exposure to that level of competition to hone his craft. the odd ODI here and there isnt going to get him anywhere, he needs to be playing the long format, even if just for the performance sides. the fact he was left out of that this winter is only going to hinder him i feel.

personally i had him down as someone that didnt spin the ball much and bowled negatively. but having seen some video of him bowling in a county championship game, and then that article about how many revs he puts on the ball, i think he has some potential. he obviously bowls differently in ODI matches to what he does in the longer version of the game. i thought that perhaps the scrambled seam was part of his action and just poor technique, but he can bowl it quite cleanly as well when he wants to.

for me though Scott Borthwick stands more chance of making the England side. Rashid wont get his chance whilst Swann is still playing, and Borthwick is sitting in a better position in terms of his development timeline. i give Swann 3 or 4 years (maybe 2 more Ashes), and by then Borthwick should be hitting his prime if his development continues as it has. Rashid is ready now, and hes not going to get his chance. that is going to kill his development and he will probably end up just being a solid county cricketer that never makes it as an international player.
 
Borthwick - isn't he one of the blokes that Shane Warne was working with in the middle during the last ashes over here - and he didn't even know what a wrong un or a flipper was let alone bowl em?
 
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