Tuesday 24 April 2012

Mini-session Analysis 3rd test WI Aus Dominica 12


Here is the final mini-session analysis for the 3rd test between West Indies and Australia at Windsor Park, Roseau, Dominica

A mini-session is (normally) half a session, either between the start of the session and the drinks break or the drinks break and the end of the session. Occasionally a long session will have 3 mini-sessions where it will be broken up with 2 drinks breaks.

1-1aAustralia 38/1 off 14West Indies
1-1bAustralia 31/0 off 14Australia
1-2aAustralia 25/1 off 15West Indies
1-2bAustralia 42/1 off 14Australia
1-3aAustralia 28/3 off 16.2West Indies
1-3bAustralia 48/1 off 16.4West Indies
2-1aAustralia 48/1 off 14Australia
2-1bAustralia 68/2 off 10.5Australia
2-2aWest Indies 39/1 off 15draw
2-2bWest Indies 36/2 off 16Australia
2-3aWest Indies 35/3 off 16Australia
2-3bWest Indies 55/2 off 18draw
3-1aWest Indies 36/1 off 16Australia
3-1bWest Indies 17/1 off 6.2West Indies
Australia 18/1 off 4
3-2aAustralia 51/1 off 15Australia
3-2bAustralia 25/0 off 15draw
3-3aAustralia 57/1 off 15Australia
3-3bAustralia 49/3 off 16West Indies
4-1aAustralia 52/3 off 15West Indies
4-1bAustralia 7/1 off 5Australia
West Indies 2/1 off 7
4-2aWest Indies 43/2 off 16.4Australia
4-2bWest Indies 52/0 off 15.2West Indies
4-3aWest Indies 46/0 off 16West Indies
4-3bWest Indies 30/2 off 12.1Australia
5-1aWest Indies 61/3 off 17.1Australia
5-1bWest Indies 60/2 off 12.1West Indies

Australia take the count 13-10

End of match: Australia won, and they won because they played the most good cricket. The turning point was the century from Matthew Wade, who was a deserved man of the match.

The other highlight was Shillingford doing something that none of the big 3 (Ramadhin, Valentine and Gibbs) managed, taking a 10 wicket bag in the West Indies.

Michael Clarke also picked up his second five wicket bag in a test (also his 2nd in first class cricket) and he was really the one that did the damage, removing 4 of the top 6.

West Indies put up a good fight. They are a better team now than they were 2 or 3 years ago. They still have a way to go before they are a top team again though. The New Zealand series will be fascinating. They are probably two very even sides, with quite different skills. With the turn that's been available in this series, Tarun Nethula will probably be confident of getting a test call-up for New Zealand.

End of day 4: And in 6.2 overs everything changes. Two quick wickets and it will take some amazing cricket for West Indies to win it from here. Now might be a good time to start praying for either rain, or some miracle batting from two of Deonarine, Baugh and Sammy.

Final drinks break, day 4: Some more quality test cricket. Australia managed to get 59 runs in the morning, followed by a very disciplined start with the ball. In the first 7 overs there were 4 balls that the batsmen attacked. One was caught, one went for 2, one was played and missed and one got hit straight into Cowan at short leg. It was advantage Australia, until Chanderpaul and Bravo came together. To get a big total, a team normally needs a big partnership. 98 runs so far, and as one of the commentators on DBS radio said "Chanderpaul has a fast 5th gear." Chanderpaul has been magnificent, taking the attack back to the Australians. There is still a long way to go in this test, but if these two can put on another 70 or 80 then it moves back to advantage West Indies.

Australia, however just need one piece of good cricket or good luck and then they are back in control.

End of day 3: A good day of test cricket.

West Indies are in the fortunate position of having a medium pace bowler on a slow pitch with variable bounce. He's bowled 6 overs for 9 runs. Why is Darren Sammy in the team if he's not going to bowl in this sort of situation? I rate him as a player and as a captain, but this is the sort of situation where you would expect him to be a good option.

West Indies are probably already too far behind in this match, but there is always hope of something special happening. If West Indies manage to take the final 4 wickets cheaply (which we've seen is not an easy prospect) then they have a chance at making a (very large) run chase to win the match.

End of day 2: More misery for the West Indies. This match is very quickly becoming one the West Indies will want to forget. The big question is if there is another twist in this match. A big partnership here, followed by some quick wickets and the game is back in the balance, but that is a big ask. West Indies need to produce a lot of good cricket to even this game up.

Tea day 2: The Australian tail wag. This must be something that the West Indians will be getting sick of. Australia's tail has actually been very productive. Over the last 2 years they have scored 38% of their runs after the 5th wicket fell, and in 20% of the matches they have scored more runs with the last 5 partnerships than the first 5.

This series has also had 20% of the innings with the last 5 partnerships score more than the first 5, but they have made an even greater total contribution, with 42% of the runs being contributed after the fall of the 5th wicket.

The big question for the West Indies innings was going to be how they combated Nathan Lyon. In his first 8 overs he has created 9 deliveries that have either taken an edge or caused a false shot. That is not a positive sign for the West Indies. It will be a good challenge for the techniques of the batsmen.

End of day 1: Very much West Indies day today. Shillingford needs one more wicket to be the first player from Dominica to take a 5 wicket bag at home. (Which is not a massive surprise, as he is the only player from Dominica to play a test at home, in only the 2nd test there.)

There is a cliche that Australia have never been very good against orthodox spin. Those sort of statements are often not as true as they seem, because we remember the matches where they have been ripped apart, and forget the times where some of the greats went wicketless against them. However it seems that this Australian team struggeled against Narine, and now are struggling against Deonarine and Shillingford.

I'm not sure who the West Indies spin coach(es) is/are, but they are obviously doing a good job. Recently West Indies have produced Benn, Shillingford, Bishoo, Narine, Cooper, Samuels and Deonarine. That's more quality spinners than either India or Sri Lanka have produced in the same time frame. Australia have been through more spinners, but they have been displaced through lack of form, rather than others stepping up.

No comments:

Post a Comment