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gbatman

gbatman

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Johnson - Got wickets early on from his
pace and a hell of a lot of luck because batsmen would have a got at his wide
shit and nick it. Now the luck's gone and batsmen have him worked out.


He can't stand the seam up which means he can't swing it or seeam it off
the wicket. He's slowed his bowling down to get more accuracy but this is not
working for him because he doesn't move the ball and his accuracy is not really
good.

Hilfenhaus - has a great ability to get the seam in a
perfect position for swing and he will swing a new ball in any conditions any
where if he pitches it up to a certian extent. He's probably the most
unintelligent bowler I have seen.

Good swing bowlers bowl full and
straight. He bowls short of a length and often wide. Watching him bowl short and
wide with the second new ball today was a disgrace.

The guy is at least
bowling a straight scrambled seam ball these days which is great because he used
to have no variation at all. He bowls like a 150km/h seamer with his back of a
length short shit.

Pitch it up, get the batsmen driving on the front
foot, bowl straight and give it a chance to swing.

Also ponting MUST set
fields that allow the bowler to bowl full and straight.

Siddle -
The first innings he bowled full and straight and got 6 wickets and a hatrick.
The second innings he bowled short shit that got smashed. I rest my case.
Dumb.

Bollinger - Should be more accurate and needs to bowl fuller
and straighter. He bowls back of a lenght and too far outside off stump like
most of our bowlers. Full straight, stump to stump trying to hit the top of off
should be his game.

Watson - Our best bowler by a long long way.
Bowls full and straight and swings the ball. Would be nearly worth giving the
new ball. Thank god we have him, he's the only bowler we have who does the
simple stuff right and bowls well.

Doherty - Bowles too fast. Has
a good stock delivery. Doesn't get enought over spin and drop on his balls
though. Needs to use his arm/straight ball more. Needs to vary his flight and
pace more.

Hauritz - Not a big spinner so needs to be really
accurate. Has lost that accuracy of late. Doesn't use enough
variation.

Conclusion
Our bowling plan is up shit creek. We
don't bowl full, we hardly bowl any balls at stump height or fuller. Our swing
bowler bowls short and often wide. We bowl that short that when the ball does
move the batsman can play it easily. We don't set fields that force bowlers to
pitch it up. Our bowlers lack accuracy. Johnson can't get the seam up and move
the ball. Our spinners don't have any tricks up their sleeves. Our bowlers and
captain don't have the guts to bowl full and invite the drive. They'd rather get
spanked off the back foot.

What to do
Drop Johnson until he can
get it right. Have the finger spinners vary their speed and bowl more straight
balls. Get Doherty bowling with more over spin. Set fields that protect the
bowlers more against straight shots and bowl full and straight. More yorkers
with the new ball.
Basically bowl the areas Siddle bowled in the 1st innings
instead of a foot shorter to get the batsmen on the front foot.
 
Pains me to say it after standing up for him, but Johnson's got to be dropped for the next Test. It seem like all this fuss about getting his wrist into position, raising his arm, trying to get swing has hurt everything, he's not bowling fast anymore and doesn't look natural. He has one of the best actions in the world to watch, so graceful, but lately he's become jerky and painful to watch. He has to get that pace back, I'm wondering where it's gone. The best place to do that is domestic cricket, he can get his form back there and has age on his side. By the looks of things nobody is going to take his place too soon, everybody's having trouble so when he does find that form again I'd find a spot for him very quickly.
 
gbatman, try looking at some of his early footage. Boris is right he looks quite different especially in ODI's when he first started playing for Australia. I don't know what has happened between him and the coaching for him to wind up such a mess but his action is very different from what he was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3afe2wpA4c

Look at this clip, it takes a while for the action to start. His arm is not anywhere near the umpire and coming out as straight as I have seen it and he is getting swing. What the hell has been done to him?
 
Beeswax said:
gbatman, try looking at some of his early footage. Boris is right he looks quite different especially in ODI's when he first started playing for Australia. I don't know what has happened between him and the coaching for him to wind up such a mess but his action is very different from what he was.
Click to expand...
Beeswax said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3afe2wpA4c

Look at this clip, it takes a while for the action to start. His arm is not anywhere near the umpire and coming out as straight as I have seen it and he is getting swing. What the hell has been done to him?
Click to expand...


He is getting swing both ways, the third and last wicket of his go in and then out respectively (to a right hander, but since one is left and the other right, technically both in swingers). The seam is in a good position and he's bowling relatively quickly.

I have found that he bowls the best with his action a tiny bit lower than that, as it generates a little bit more pace. But only a little bit. Now his arm is close to 45 degrees and the balls become dead straight, the most he can do is an off cutter, but not accurately. And because of this low arm action he can't bowl bouncers that effectively because he has to pitch them so short that the batsman can see it straight away.

Troy, get him back to what he was. This guy is a superstar bowler that has either stuffed his action up or had his action stuffed up by someone else.
 
I think there's a lack of belief and courage by the Australian players. Bowlers
too afraid to pitch it up full and straight beacuse they are afraid of going for
runs and bang it in too short and end up going for runs any way.

Either
this or poor captaincy and/or poor coaching.

I don't think it's a lack of
skill or ability except for Johnson who can't stand the seam up but even he's
lost pace.

Our two greatest pace men ever. Lilly and McGrath bowled the
length to hit the top of off stump. Our bowlers bowl to get it a foot above off
stump, except for Siddle in the 1st innings who bowled full and straight and
funny enough got wickets. Then in the second innings he and Hilfenhouse bowled a
lot shorter.

Is ponting too gutless to set fields to allow the bowlers to
bowl full?

Are Cooley and Nielson complete duds?

This is exactly what our bowlers are doing wrong

The plan
with the new ball used to be to load the slips and gully up and stop straight
safer shots, Bowl full and straight and try and hit the top of off and try to
move the ball and bowl the odd yorker.

Get the batsman driving and on
the front foot.

Then suprise the batsman with a short of length delivery
that comes through at hip height. Because we'd bowled full we'd have the batsmen
camped on the front foot and set up for a bouncer or short of a length delivery
and catch them on the wrong foot and often nick them out this way.

What we are doing now is bowling that short of a length delivery as a stock delivery.
This doesn't work as it has the batsman camped on the back foot which is not
what you do in Australia or any where for that matter. This just mean the extra
bounce here in Australia is used against the bowler instead in their favor.

What we are doing is the equivilant of a leggie getting a bag of
wickets with his wrongun and then deciding his wrongun is to be his stock
delivery. It's stupid. The short of a length ball is a suprise ball, not a stock
delivery. You can't swing it and if you do swing or seam it the batsman can play
it easily. We are not trying to get the batsman on the wrong foot and are not trying to set batsmen up in any way.

By bowling short of a lenght all the time instead of using this length as a suprise ball we are rendering any
movement useless as well as rendering slowe balls and bouncers useless. It even
renders yorkers useless as the difference between the lenght of the yorker and
stock delivery length is too great and easily picked by
batsmen.

Tactically dumb cricket from our Captain and Bowlers. I really
don'r believe that the guys we have can't keep a full and straight line and
lenght. I really don't believe all our bowlers have this 1 problem, I believe
they are doing it deliberatly and stupidly.
 
Beeswax said:
gbatman, try looking at some of his early footage. Boris is right he looks quite different especially in ODI's when he first started playing for Australia. I don't know what has happened between him and the coaching for him to wind up such a mess but his action is very different from what he was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3afe2wpA4c

Look at this clip, it takes a while for the action to start. His arm is not anywhere near the umpire and coming out as straight as I have seen it and he is getting swing. What the hell has been done to him?
Click to expand...

SWING! MJ has swung the ball very rarely IMO and that is why he is being found out. I agree he should have been left alone and just told to run in and bowl fast. Whether that would have worked at the GABBA????????????

His arm was certainly lower and prevented any possibility of swinging the ball. So what was TC employed for if he could not see this problem? I think a lot of hangers on who have made careers as support staff must be under scrutiny. Just how much can a coach change a players processes at this level. If he hasnt got it right by the time he has international representation then what coach is going to change that?

For mine there are a lot of people in smart caps with sun glasses , that have absolutely no bearing on the real performance and are merely tolerated by players committed to their task because this is part of the new image.

When the going gets tough,without an inswinger you are finished and that could well be ,unfortunately, his fate. He came from nowhere and may well go there again but I will always remember him as an exceptional talent that perhaps lacked the initial coaching that would have allowed him to bowl a stock inswinger.

Trying to do these major corrections at this point in his career is impossible and perhaps TC has recognised this?
 
Johnson needs to come back to Queensland, get the good pace and swing coaches to help him out. WA are pretty decent, though, so hopefully he goes back to the domestic scene and works out these kinks. He seems pretty determined to get his head in the right place as well, which is good.
 
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