Aus v Ind Test Series

[locky801]

nothing like Warne taking the piss out of Bill Lawry over his pigeons, shows how the cricket has gone off the boil as Haddin drops an absolute sitter

[The Dark Knight]

FFS Hads [emoji57]

[dedja]

poor footwork + brain fade + one hand = drop catch

[locky801]

Huge miss, new batter in this late brings a big chance of another wicket, Hazelwood been the best our of bowlers today

[locky801]

Taylor and Slater making excuses for the dropped Haddin catch, quite simply it was a sitter and a 10yr old keeper would have held it

[Jim05]

Disgraceful Haddin

[mighty_tiger_79]

Wade would have caught that with his eyes closed

[locky801]

Calling it earlier but i reckon a double hundred for Vijay here

[wristwatcher]

Steve Smith, wow. What a star he has become which got me thinking....

The origins of the nickname "The Blonde Don" began right here on SAFooty. With his huge improvement could 2015 see him average even more than the 87 he has averaged in 2014. Perhaps even more than the Don. Should this happen we may need to give the Don a new nickname as he will be Australia's second greatest batsmen. I suggest he be called "The Brown Smudge"

[whufc]

Steve Smith, wow. What a star he has become which got me thinking....

The origins of the nickname "The Blonde Don" began right here on SAFooty. With his huge improvement could 2015 see him average even more than the 87 he has averaged in 2014. Perhaps even more than the Don. Should this happen we may need to give the Don a new nickname as he will be Australia's second greatest batsmen. I suggest he be called "The Brown Smudge"

SAFooty should trademark the 'blonde don' line

[whufc]

I have never kept a day in my life so pull me up if I'm out of line

Is Haddin at an age and point in his career where at test match level he struggles both physically and mentally over the five days

Is it just a coincidence that he was in career best 'keeping form' while his been struggling with the bat and the minute he spends an extended period out in the middle batting his keeping standard drops away?

Probably needs to stay in the side for his leadership qualities while Clarkes not in the team but is this a sign Haddins on his absolute last legs

[locky801]

Reckon this was Smith's best test innings. He came in when we had lost 2 quick wickets and he really struggled to get the ball off of the square for a while. But he worked his way into his innings through hard work and ball placement. Had a bit of a partnership with Marsh but then today when Haddin came out blazing due to ridiculous bowling a field placements he just worked the ball around, Haddin went and then he did the same with Johnson and then in that great partnership with Harris where he only scored 26 or so out of over 100 and I reckon alot of those would have been singles. He then left fly, unfortunate he missed 200 but one would think he will score more than one of those in the future

[wristwatcher]

Reckon this was Smith's best test innings. He came in when we had lost 2 quick wickets and he really struggled to get the ball off of the square for a while. But he worked his way into his innings through hard work and ball placement. Had a bit of a partnership with Marsh but then today when Haddin came out blazing due to ridiculous bowling a field placements he just worked the ball around, Haddin went and then he did the same with Johnson and then in that great partnership with Harris where he only scored 26 or so out of over 100 and I reckon alot of those would have been singles. He then left fly, unfortunate he missed 200 but one would think he will score more than one of those in the future

He has a penchant for the big hundred. A trademark of great batters.

Without getting way way ahead of ourselves if he plays to 36 and maintains his average above 50 he will make more than 10,000 runs.

[wristwatcher]

I have never kept a day in my life so pull me up if I'm out of line

Is Haddin at an age and point in his career where at test match level he struggles both physically and mentally over the five days

Is it just a coincidence that he was in career best 'keeping form' while his been struggling with the bat and the minute he spends an extended period out in the middle batting his keeping standard drops away?

Probably needs to stay in the side for his leadership qualities while Clarkes not in the team but is this a sign Haddins on his absolute last legs

I left for holidays at lunch so only listened to today's telecast but finally saw the highlights and that was a terrible miss for an international keeper. Looked like he could have gone comfortably with two hands and taken a regulation albeit low catch.

Reading back I think someone labelled it a brainfart or maybe brainfade and I reckon that's pretty fair. He would back himself to catch that 9 times out of 10. Had he not made the fifty today I think the vultures would really be circling for Sydney to be his farewell test.

For Xmas I got Pups Captains diary from last years Ashes. Fantastic read BTW. One thing is for certain is that Pup loves the guy and is one of his biggest supporters. Very popular guy on the inner circles. From what I have read has a few credits in the bank. As long as he doesn't have anymore shockers or"brainfarts" he will be on the plane to England.

[bennymacca]

Reckon this was Smith's best test innings. He came in when we had lost 2 quick wickets and he really struggled to get the ball off of the square for a while. But he worked his way into his innings through hard work and ball placement. Had a bit of a partnership with Marsh but then today when Haddin came out blazing due to ridiculous bowling a field placements he just worked the ball around, Haddin went and then he did the same with Johnson and then in that great partnership with Harris where he only scored 26 or so out of over 100 and I reckon alot of those would have been singles. He then left fly, unfortunate he missed 200 but one would think he will score more than one of those in the future

He has a penchant for the big hundred. A trademark of great batters.

Without getting way way ahead of ourselves if he plays to 36 and maintains his average above 50 he will make more than 10,000 runs.

fox sports has an article saying that smith has made his first 2000 runs in 25 tests, which is less than border, ponting and clarke (and presumably steve waugh too given he was an allrounder early)

[wristwatcher]

Reckon this was Smith's best test innings. He came in when we had lost 2 quick wickets and he really struggled to get the ball off of the square for a while. But he worked his way into his innings through hard work and ball placement. Had a bit of a partnership with Marsh but then today when Haddin came out blazing due to ridiculous bowling a field placements he just worked the ball around, Haddin went and then he did the same with Johnson and then in that great partnership with Harris where he only scored 26 or so out of over 100 and I reckon alot of those would have been singles. He then left fly, unfortunate he missed 200 but one would think he will score more than one of those in the future

He has a penchant for the big hundred. A trademark of great batters.

Without getting way way ahead of ourselves if he plays to 36 and maintains his average above 50 he will make more than 10,000 runs.

fox sports has an article saying that smith has made his first 2000 runs in 25 tests, which is less than border, ponting and clarke (and presumably steve waugh too given he was an allrounder early)

Excellent stat Benny

Close to 1,200 in his breakout year in 9 tests with one dig to come. There will be years when they play a lot more than 9 in a year.

It is always fraught with danger to make big calls like 10,000 runs but I am a cricket tragic and tend not to miss any play that features Australia in a test. I have watched him evolve into a player that reminds me of guys like Martin Crowe, Kumar, Shiv and most recently AB. Technique is somewhat unique but doesn't look like getting out and has so much time to play the ball. He has complete control of his game. Great to watch and hoping he can continue his rich vein of form for a long time to come.

[whufc]

Also wouldn't think to many cricketers would have a combined first class and test match record at age 25 that includes

35 fifties
21 hundreds

Plus 2 ODI hundreds

Tendulkar is an obvious one who would have a better record but can't think of many others

[bennymacca]

Phil Hughes

[whufc]

Phil Hughes

Good call, shows what serious potential Hughesy had

[bennymacca]

He had 2 odi tons, 26 first class tons and 46 fifties