Punter has major weakness against short ball: Gayle

mcg pitch will be a cracker...help for the bowlers early good batting later...spin on the last day - pity we don't have a spinner

horace wrote:mcg pitch will be a cracker...help for the bowlers early good batting later...spin on the last day - pity we don't have a spinner

Apparently now that Roach has deformed Punter's elbow he can "bowl" a doosra

ace....bat him at no 11 and give him a new name - Richiah Runtitharan

The curator is hoping for a good balance between bat and ball, similar to last year's pitch after the last shield game was too batsmen-friendly.

Red wrote:The curator is hoping for a good balance between bat and ball,

That's unusual

G.Wood wrote:"And the Melbourne pitch is usually slow and spongy."

Things from Victoria not called Shane always are

Likewise things called Shane but not from Victoria.

PlanetPakistan wrote:thats bull...

Ponting is one of the best players of short pitch bowling.

He had some problems against Harmi and Fred in 2005. More surprisingly, Bunny managed to bounce him out in the Ashes.

It wouldn't be at all surprising if he became less adept against the short ball as he got older. Doesn't that pretty much happen to all batsmen?

Aye your eyesight starts deteriorating the minute you're born. Nice to know we'll have three or four pensioners come 2013.

Yeah, funny that one of the better players of the short ball in the last 20 years is being criticised for having problems with it. As shoeshine says though, not surprising if it does happen the older he gets due to his hand-eye co-ordination fading. It's because he picks up the length so early that more often than not he's 'early' on it - i.e. his pulls and even sometimes his hooks used to go in front of square. Now, if his reflexes are fading, he'll just be early on them.

The key to him is how he responds to that. Batsmen age, but just because he's getting older doesn't mean he won't be able to cope with it - if indeed he is starting to have a genuine problem rather than just simply struggling with a pitch and/or form slightly.

It may be he's not able to pummel short bowling the way he was, and has to adopt a slightly more conservative policy. I rather doubt that he's suddenly going to be hopeless against the short ball, even if he is now 35.

Players who remain outstanding even in their later years do so because they adapt their game to take into account the physical decline in their bodies. Although we might not think much of him as a captain, he's a truly outstanding batsman. I would think he'll find a way for a few years yet.

He may have a few years, I don't know. What I'd say to him is to play the pulls and hooks off the back foot moreso than the front foot (which has been his trademark). He seems to be doing so anyway, when he got pinned straight after he was on the back foot creaming them behind square, rather than in front.

taipan wrote:

Red wrote:The curator is hoping for a good balance between bat and ball,

That's unusual

Is it what happens in Subiland?