Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

sharp work from Jordan Silk in the field to save a six

https://www.cricket.com.au/video/jordan ... 2020-12-10

MelSta's Nathan Coulter-Nile finished with match figures of 3.5-0-10-4 as Brisbane were bundled out for 125 in match 2.

Melbourne made light work of it thanks to their fiery middle order.

More sharp fielding, this time from Hilton Cartwright to run out Dan Lawrence

Stars already laying down a marker

Scorchers out of sorts

has any team used the super sub yet?

Difficult to know if there has ever been a worse run chase in the history of T20 than the pathetic effort of the Renegades today. They managed to score 60 of the 200 runs needed before being bowled out in the 11th over. Even Durham have never been that hopeless and there are very few barrel bottoms that Durham haven't scraped in this format of the game.

I'm tempted to think that this may well have been a consequence of the half time point. Having lost 3 very early wickets in a big run chase they may have simply decided to throw everything (including the bat and the kitchen sink) at the more modest 1 point target of 76 in 10 overs. If that was the plan, it went spectacularly wrong. Is this what CA envisaged when they introduced the new rule, or an unintended consequence? Who knows

50,000 miles down the road (such is the size of the country), Hurricanes made it 2 out of 2 with victory over the Strikers in a much more competitive match.... and presumably a more competitive spectacle

the daft thing is that the Sixers only achieved a 10 over score of 75 because of the 14 runs they scored in the 10th over (which might have been the point of the rule change), yet they went on to score another 130 in the second half, so a more judicious approach from the Renegades once the 3rd wicket fell in the 3rd over might have made for a much more interesting and entertaining game instead of the humiliating and embarrassing carnage it ended up being.

I suppose net run rate is now a thing of the past in the BBL, so maybe for the impartial spectator trying and failing to hit every ball into orbit was more interesting than nudging and nurdling to protect NRR.... If nothing else it got the thing over quickly..... although that will be of little consolation to the Renegade fans who've just had to suffer watching their team being humiliated

A lot of people speak very highly of Josh Phillipe - that performance made it look justified.

Picked up a great stat today. Chris Lynn has scored 152 BBL sixes. Aaron Finch, who is second on that list has 68 fewer.

His five this morning did not help him much however as Brisbane lost to SydThun quite comfortably.

Durhamfootman wrote:I suppose net run rate is now a thing of the past in the BBL, so maybe for the impartial spectator trying and failing to hit every ball into orbit was more interesting than nudging and nurdling to protect NRR.... If nothing else it got the thing over quickly..... although that will be of little consolation to the Renegade fans who've just had to suffer watching their team being humiliated

I guess so, the point of the change is presumably to try and keep teams pushing hard at all stages of the game, rather than just pootling along between overs 6 and 13 preserving wickets then cutting loose. Or giving teams something to aim for if a chase is hopeless early. NRR can result in some odd outcomes if there's nothing to gain from scoring quickly but everything to gain from batting out the overs, even if you have no chance.

But it's still a bit odd.

Amazing comeback from the Thunder - comfortable win, but from an apparently hopeless position. Daniel Sams hit 7 6s and a career best 65* to rescue them from 80/5. For once I seem to have made a decent fantasy pick by including him. Unfortunately I also included Cameron Green, who it appears will be out all season on test duty. Oops. Wasn't expecting him to get the call for the first test...

I suppose my problem with these rules changes is that the governing bodies are always trying to get teams to play cricket the way they think the game should be played rather than the way it is. In the last couple of decades (and maybe even further back than that), the rules of white ball cricket have been continually tweaked in an attempt to force teams to play a certain way. Furthermore they seem to think that entertaining cricket is all about runs... and sixes, whereas most watchers know that the best matches to watch are very often low scoring affairs that go all the way to the wire. Ultimately though, teams always work around the new rules and do whatever they think gives them the best chance of winning despite, rather than because of them, which is presumably why the authorities constantly feel the need to tweak... they rarely seem to get the outcome that they envisaged when manipulating the way the game is played

T20 has always been a short, simple game... hugely popular and highly lucrative, so it's hard to see that it needs more rules to make it better. All the evolution in T20 and all the improvement in the product has been player driven and that's perhaps the way it should be. If teams don't fancy the half time point, they'll ignore it. I suppose the test will be if and when other leagues adopt the rule changes

Finally... a match with a couple of 10 over substitutions

Peter Siddle today proving that looking like an idiot is no impediment to success as he got his best T20 figures of 5-16 in Adelaide's victory over Hobart.

Shhh... don't tell anyone, but one of us had the wit to pick him in the FL

Been a bit out of the loop on this but was woken up by a screaming child and as a result saw Dan Christian score a 16 ball half century to see SydSix beat Adelaide.