Tag Archives: dominic thornley

The search for a Baggy Green Pinch Hitter starts here

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Travis Birt, Unlucky

Travis Birt, Unlucky

Now that I’ve dropped Cameron White and David Hussey, the search has begun for a new number 6 and 7 in the Aussie ODI squad. I’ve taken a look at the scorecards from our Domestic F50 competition and compiled a list of all the batting performances where more than 20 are scored at greater than a run a ball. The most recent performances are listed first.

Birt, TR 86(66), 94(80), 67(56), 25(15)
Smith, DLR 29*(13), 28*(26)
Manou, GA 48* (39)
Warner 31(20), 97(54), 165*(112)
MG Dighton 59(58), 87(76)
Klinger 133*(128)
Ferguson, C 52(35), 32(26), 101(83)
Hopes J 76(61), 42(40)
Bailey, GJ 32(28)
Divin, MA 38(31)
Ronchi, L 80(64)
AK, Heal 43(34)
Quiney 42(40), 16(15), 92(85), 73(63)
Crosthwaite, AJ 52(49), 29(17)
Thornely, DJ 108(90)
Doropoulos, TP 92(75)
Henriques, MC 41(37)
Borgas, CJ 39(35)

I’ve quite possibly missed some, if anyone can point me towards a tool that pulls out domestic data rather than having to manually read the scorecards, that would be most appreciated.

Looking purely at the numbers, the standout domestic performers are:

Travis Birt from Tasmania

Travis is the form pinch hitter in the domestic T50 competition with his 7 innings yielding 363 runs at 60.5 and at a strike rate of 122! His returns this year are:

  • 1/11/08 56*(37) vs SA
  • 12/11/08 25(15) vs Vic
  • 29/11/08 34(38) vs NSW (the game where Warner scored 165*(112)
  • 07/12/08 67(56) vs NSW
  • 10/12/08 94(80) vs SA
  • 14/12/08 1(5) vs QLD
  • 07/02/08 86(66) vs VIC (this low scoring game Tas made 197 and VIC made 189)

David Warner from NSW

Dave has already been given a shot in the national setup with promising signs but too many failures. From his 8 starts there have been 3 good innings, yielding 89(43) on debut, 69(60) in his 4th match, and 22(29) in his 6th match when he was very unlucky to be run-out.

Combine these scores with Dave’s domestic highlights of 31(20), 97(54), 165*(112) and it’s easy to agree he has the destructive power hitting would really dominate the batting powerplay without the additional pressure of opening. I’d like to see Dave given a go down the order, where he’ll have a chance to perform without the added pressure of opening.

Callum Ferguson from South Australia

His stand out performances include 52(35), 32(26) and 101(83). It’s good to see him given a shot in the Aussie side, though I would have picked Birt first purely on the numbers. Callum played well last night before a Bucknor howler cut short his opportunity. Who did the BCCI ask to wipe him from their fixtures, and can we please be added to this list?

James Hopes from Queensland

In the two games that Hopes played for Queensland he’s opened in both, scoring 76(61) and 42(40). I’d like to see him given an extended run at the top of our order, his tight straight bowling will keep him in the squad regardless. Ideally we’d have a run of 2 or maybe even 3 ODI’s without changing our openers, wouldn’t that be nice.

Adam Voges from Western Australia

Conversely, Adam Voges has made the squad without topping a run a ball all year. Now he’s the one our selectors have picked to apply ‘pressure’ to Hussey and White, yet even if he were to continue his domestic results at the higher lever I don’t believe this would be enough. His 295 runs at 49.2 certainly doesn’t constitute bad numbers, but his strike rate of just 70.2 is not get our 300+ mojo back.

  • 8/10/08 13(35) vs NSW

  • 24/10/08 56(78) vs Tas
  • 16/11/08 104(119) vs SA
  • 26/11/08 39(72) vs VIC
  • 20/12/08 78(108) vs VIC
  • 23/12/08 5(8) vs NSW

If we were after a reliable batsman then Simon Katich would have to be the first picked, selecting Voges in this form to me makes little sense.

NSW Blues – World Club Champions?

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Ranga and Proud

Ranga and Proud

The domestic “Big Bash” Twenty 20 tournament has gone far from the script, with a depleted but still mighty New South Wales outfit topping the regular season and booking their trip to the promised land of rupees and curry.

Western Australia are awfully píssed off and seeking compensation after the original club championship was postponed due to men with guns. It’s a lot of cash they’re missing out on, and I feel a nice gesture would be for NSW Cricket to buy them a meaningful gift to ease the pain, perhaps a bronze statue of Simon Katich to stick up in the WACA headquarters..

You can bet the team we send to compete in India includes some names that have until this point played no part in the tournament such as Michael Clarke, Phil Jaques, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Brad Haddin. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as any NSW cricketer will know it’s the privilege and also the curse of representing the state that breeds the big names.

I’ve put together a short synopsis of the 5 matches that have earnt us entry into the World Club Championship, and awarded 3-2-1–1 ratings as I feel they’re warranted.

Game 1 vs Queensland in Brisbane

Scorecard
A good bowling effort led by Doug Bollinger‘s 3/22 and well assisted by Moises Henriques 2/26 restricted Queensland early on, however Beau Casson 0/37 and Mark Cameron 0/34 got spanked allowing the Bulls to amass to 161. Thanks to opening batsman Phillip Hughes scoring 80(20) the total was chased down with 2 balls to spare.

Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Doug Bollinger
2 Phillip Hughes
1 Moises Henriques
-1 Beau Casson

Game 2 vs Western Australia in Homebush, Sydney

Scorecard
Tight bowling by Aaron Heal and Marcus North restricted NSW to 6/148 off 20 overs. 18 year old newcomer Stephen Smith was my pick of the batsmen with 34*(21), Dave Warner 28(22) scored freely early on, while Phillip Hughes 35(34) and Dominic Thornley 23(24) got starts but failed to up the tempo sufficiently against WA’s slower bowlers Marcus North 1/27(4) and Aaron Heal 0/22(4).
Nathan Bracken 2/24 was the pick of the bowlers, Dominic Thornley, Stephen Smith and Moises Henriques generally restricted WA to the required rate of 6-7 rpo, while Beau Casson was again spanked leaking 0/26 off his two overs which gave WA the win and led to his being dropped for the remainder of the comp.

Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Stephen Smith
2 Nathan Bracken
1 Dave Warner
-1 Beau Casson

Game 3 vs South Australia in Adelaide

Scorecard
A solid batting performance by South Australia saw all of their batsmen scoring at 6.5 to 8.7 rpo, however they lacked one batsman to deliver the killer punch in their accumulation of 160 runs.
Mark Cameron was tidy with 1/22, Thornley 1/27(3) applied the brakes nicely and Aaron Bird 3/35 contributed vital top order wickets while leaking runs. Nathan Bracken 3/38 gets the bogey rating despite 3 late wickets saving his figures from absolute embarrassment.
Dave Warner 35(35) got the Blues response off to an absolute flyer, nicely assisted by pedestrian Phillip Hughes 30(29) and Dominic Thornley 28(18)

Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Dave Warner
2 Dominic Thornley
1 Mark Cameron
-1 Nathan Bracken

Game 4 vs Tasmania in Homebush, Sydney

Scorecard
A destructive top 3 saw the Tassie Tigers belt 194 thanks to Lockyear 51(29), Dighton 43(29) and Birt 44(17). Dominic Thornley 0/22 was pick of the NSW bowlers with his 4 overs going for less than Stephen Smith’s 1 over 0/23. Doug Bollinger while moderately expensive took the essential wickets of Dighton and Birt, thus keeping the Tigers total below 200.
The destructive form of Dave Warner had him off to play South Africa, allowing the return of Simon Katich 18(12) and despite a solid opening stand with Moises Henriques 42(25) the fireworks were absent down the order and 166 was all we could muster.

Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Dominic Thornley
2 Moises Henriques
1 Doug Bollinger
-1 Stephen Smith

Game 5 vs Victoria at Homebush, Sydney

Scorecard
The penultimate match, NSW entered this 4th on the table with nothing to lose. A brutal bowling spell by dirty Dirk Nannes 4/11(4) hit the Blues hard early on, with Henriques 1(3), Smith 4(6) and Rohrer 7(8) his early victims. O’Keefe 6(6) fell to a run out and only opener Simon Katich 35(26) was able to resist the dark side of Dirk Nannes. Dominic Thornley 36*(36) came out in the 4th over with the score at 4/39 and steadied the ship, batting with the tail and taking the Blues to a depressingly low 128.
Douggy Bollinger 0/12 applied the pressure with some superb tight swing bowling, and Mark Cameron 1/17 kept the other almost as tight. Falling behind the run rate the Victorians shat themselves, giving up 5 run-outs, one each to Cameron, O’Keefe, Rohrer, Bollinger and Smith. I’ll give Simon Katich some credit for these as captain he would have been setting the fields. Victorian captain and serial whinger Brad Hodge summed it up nicely with “It’s a script on how to stuff up a cricket game”. Bravo.
A wonderful team effort from the Blues who now book their tickets to India, there is no villain from this match.

Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Simon Katich
2 Doug Bollinger
1 Dominic Thornley
-1 None

Leaderboard

At the end of the regular season, the Moses’ MVP stands as follows:

6 Dominic Thornley
6 Doug Bollinger
4 Dave Warner
3 Moises Henriques
3 Simon Katich
2 Phillip Hughes
2 Stephen Smith
1 Mark Cameron
1 Nathan Bracken
-2 Beau Casson