dice said:
How is jagging ten overs from the part timer spinners in Clarke/Hodge/White any different to the ten overs they were getting out of Clarke/Symonds/White? I don't think they could have done much worse than Hogg and certainly not worse enough to justify losing a specialist seamer.
Clarke was/is injured and isnt bowling...
Symonds is a more reliable one day bowler than white and hodge and can be expected to shoulder the majority of those 10 overs without being too costly if the others fail.
The reason we dropped a seamer is the seamers are all quite similar, we have very little variety in our 4 man pace attack leaving it vunerable to players getting used to them and scoring very quickly, i think this is one of the reasons we have struggled so much in the latter overs, all our seamers are quite similar and once you get used to one your used to the rest, meaning they struggle to contain sides. It also means they really struggle to pick up wicket sin the middle overs when batsmen are set, this is why Hogg was selcted, to pick up wickets in the middle overs...
I also think our 4 man pace attack has failed to be consistent enough as a team, most games one of them goes for a few runs, they fail to fire together consistenly (at least this summer)...I think we have a definate problem with our attack, it doesnt look strong, with or without Hogg, with or without Watson. I think the selectors are desperately searching for someone to make our attack a little more consistent and a little more intimidating.
Saying that our weakness in the finals was our batting, the bowlers did an OK job in both games and were let down by our batsmen who look tired and disinterested, unless they turn it around we have no hope in the WC
