Tag Archives: Jason Krejza

Krezja’s Case – a Peach and Pie analysis

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Peach or Pie?

Peach or Pie?

I’ve always loved Ashley Giles as an English bowler, he was so brilliantly useless and provided much glorious banter at various Ashes Tests over the years. “Hey Ashley, bowl the one that goes straight the other way” “Show us your googly” and “Nice Doosra” were all heard whenever the wheelie bin threw the arm over as Shane Warne spun our way to yet another Baggy Green victory.

Following upon Perth it was our view that we really did need to be maintaining more pressure through the spin bowling at one end, so we could use the fast bowlers in shorter spells

This quote from chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch makes very little sense to me. If we truly wanted a spinner to maintain the pressure, surely Ponting could have given Andrew Symonds a single over during the 414 run chase where his off-spinners may well have fulfilled that role. He’s still an all rounder right?

Krejza has a genuine wicket taking ability. It was just two tests ago that Krejza took 12 of the finest spin bowling players around. One should also note that he took as many wickets as both Lee and Siddle at the pace friendly WACA.

I’ve done a Peach/Pie analysis (c) of his bowling from the cricinfo commentary, whereby I identify each delivery as either a Peach, a Pie, or a “Pressure Ball”.

1st Innings Analysis

25 Overs, 151 Balls, 1 Wicket, 102 runs
12 Peaches, 16 Pies, 124 Meh
Peach to Pie ratio: 11/16
Peaches per over: 12/25 = 0.48
Pies per over: 16/25 = 0.64
Pie-Runs: 54
Average Pie Punishment: 54/16 = 3.375

1st-innings

Looking at the distribution of his balls it can been seen that Jason’s 1st Innings performance started very strongly and fell away after his 10th over (37th of the Innings). This period of bowling co-incides with the start of a 124 run partnership between Kalls and DeVilliers. Many factors could explain the drop in performance, among them Krejza’s fitness and Pontings fields/instructions.

2nd Innings Analysis

24 Overs, 144 Balls, 0 Wickets, 102 runs
15 Peaches, 7 Pies, 122 “Pressure” Balls
Peach to Pie ratio: 15/7
Peaches per over: 15/24 = 0.625
Pies per over: 7/24 = 0.29
Pie-Runs: 20
Average Pie Punishment: 20/7 = 2.88

2nd-innings

From my analysis he bowled markedly better in the second innings, this being the innings where South Africa scored 414 and Krejza took the fall for releasing pressure. In fairness to Kreyza I feel that one pie every third over is quite acceptable for an attacking spinner, especially with recent history telling a story of Macgilla who was a renounded pie chucker but so long as he took wickets no-one seemed to care too much.

Cutting back on the pies is something he’ll need to work on, but sending him back to shield with the message to trade in some peaches for accuracy and Gilesness is not the message we want to be sending.

The Pies and Peaches

Peaches

10.3 Krejza to Smith, no run, Krejza forces the false shot from Smith, he tried to close the face of the bat too early to play on the leg side but was beaten by the flight and got a leading edge towards the off side
10.4 Krejza to Smith, no run, loud shout for lbw as Smith strides forward to defend and gets hit on the pad, not out says Aleem Dar, that was pretty close but Smith was a long way forward
10.6 Krejza to Amla, no run, good ball! Amla goes back to defend but gets an inside edge on to the pad, Krejza’s first Test over in Australia is a good one
25.1 Krejza to Smith, no run, turn and bounce! Smith moves back and plays an unconvincing shot, he could have easily edged that to slip
29.6 Krejza to Smith, no run, Smith drives away from his body at one that spins away from him and gets an outside edge behind point
31.1 Krejza to Amla, OUT, bowled him! Lovely ball! Krejza loops the ball up outside off stump, drawing Amla forward with the flight, he beats the batsman in the air, pitches the ball outside off stump and spins it through the bat pad gap as Amla tries to whip it on the leg side, that turned a long way to hit the stumps
31.6 Krejza to Kallis, 1 run, that’s mighty close! Krejza gives the ball air outside off stump, Kallis sees the width and tries to play the big cover drive, the ball dips on him and spins into him, it hits the inside edge and whizzes past his stumps
33.3 Krejza to Kallis, no run, Kallis moves back and across to work the ball on the leg side but misses and gets hit on the pad, the impact was outside off stump
33.4 Krejza to Kallis, no run, huge appeal for the catch at slip, Kallis got down on one knee to sweep but the ball lobbed off the forearm towards Hayden at first slip, the Australians thought it was off the glove
35.6 Krejza to de Villiers, no run, Krejza thinks he has a case for lbw after de Villiers pads up to one outside off stump, Asoka de Silva disagrees
37.3 Krejza to Kallis, no run, Kallis moves back and across outside the line of off stump and tries to play the ball on the leg side, he misses and gets hit on the pad

Pies

25.5 Krejza to Smith, FOUR, Smith gets down on one knee and sweeps Krejza against the turn towards the square leg boundary, he hit that with a lot of power
27.2 Krejza to Smith, FOUR, too short outside off stump, Smith waits and waits before cutting the ball hard through point, Hussey sprints after it but even his desperate dive can’t stop the four
27.5 Krejza to Smith, FOUR, that’s another long hop from Krejza, Smith moves back and pulls the ball from outside off stump between midwicket and mid-on for four more
35.1 Krejza to Kallis, 2 runs, Kallis leans forward to drive a low full toss through point, Kallis runs the second to get back on strike
37.5 Krejza to Kallis, FOUR, that’s a freebie, a nice and friendly full toss and Kallis capitalises by lofting down the ground for four, Krejza’s visibly annoyed with himself
39.3 Krejza to Kallis, FOUR, that’s too short outside off stump, Kallis is quick to move on to the back foot and cut the ball through cover point for four
41.1 Krejza to de Villiers, 2 runs, too short from Krejza and de Villiers moves across his stumps and pulls to deep square leg
41.4 Krejza to de Villiers, SIX, that’s an awesome shot! de Villiers steps out of his crease, gets to the pitch of the ball, swings his bat like a golf club, and smashes the ball with the turn over the deep midwicket boundary
43.6 Krejza to Kallis, FOUR, that’s a terrible long hop outside leg stump, Kallis gets inside the line and pulls towards the long leg boundary
53.4 Krejza to de Villiers, FOUR, that’s too short again from Krejza and de Villiers moves back and across and pulls the ball firmly to the deep
55.4 Krejza to de Villiers, FOUR, another long-hop, and de Villiers dismisses it towards the deep midwicket boundary with a pull off the back foot, Krejza bowls a long-hop every once in a while
57.2 Krejza to de Villiers, 1 run, that’s a full toss on middle stump and de Villiers swats it towards wide long-on
57.3 Krejza to Kallis, no run, Kallis moves back in his crease and defends a flighted delivery towards leg slip
57.4 Krejza to Kallis, 1 run, that’s too short again and Kallis has the time to move back and work the ball past the man at leg slip
59.6 Krejza to Kallis, SIX, that’s one of the longest long hops of the day, Kallis waited an age for the ball to get to him, he got under it and heaved it over the deep midwicket boundary, that ball deserved nothing less, even Chris Martin might have fancied his chances against that
69.1 Krejza to Kallis, FOUR, South Africa haven’t hit a boundary in a while so Krejza gives Kallis a full toss outside off stump, Kallis responds with a powerful cover drive for four

2nd Innings

Peaches

20.1 Krejza to Smith, no run, flighted on leg stump, flicked away towards a close in catcher on the on side
20.6 Krejza to Smith, no run, turn and bounce for Krejza! He drifts the ball into the left-hander from round the wicket and spins it away from the outside edge of Smith’s forward push
24.1 Krejza to Smith, FOUR, Smith moves back towards leg to make room and cuts the offbreak fine past the fielder at slip, that’s a risky shot but he gets four for it
28.4 Krejza to Smith, 2 runs, Dangerous shot, Smith gets down on one knee and sweeps a ball from off and middle towards long leg, he brings up 50 with that shot, well played! South Africa need much more from him though
38.3 Krejza to Smith, no run, Smith moves deep in his crease and plays the ball, he misses and is hit on the pad, Krejza appeals but that also pitched outside leg stump
40.6 Krejza to Smith, no run, oh brilliant! Krejza draws Smith forward and drifts the ball into him, Smith tries to defend but the ball beats him in flight and spins past the outside edge
91.1 Krejza to Duminy, no run, loud appeal for lbw! Krejza tosses it up outside off stump and Duminy strides forward to defend, he was a long way forward when the ball hit pad
93.2 Krejza to Duminy, no run, Krejza tosses it up on leg and spins it across the left-hander, Duminy goes to defend but the ball hits the pad and lobs towards the off side
95.1 Krejza to de Villiers, FOUR, caught? No it’s past Lee! de Villiers charges and smashes Krejza flat towards mid-on, he hit that extremely hard and Lee didn’t time his jump, the ball flew over his head, tough chance
95.2 Krejza to de Villiers, 1 run, de Villiers comes out of his crease and defends, the ball bounces off his bat behind him and Haddin comes forward and flicks the ball back at the stumps, he concedes an overthrow but it was worth a rty
97.1 Krejza to de Villiers, no run, Krejza spins the ball into the right-hander from outside off, de Villiers was caught on the crease as he tried to defend, he played the ball towards short leg
97.6 Krejza to de Villiers, no run, that nearly rolled back on to the stumps, de Villiers moved forward to defend and didn’t do a very good job of it
99.1 Krejza to de Villiers, no run, de Villiers gets down on one knee to sweep but gets on the pad, Krejza appeals but the impact was outside off
106.1 Krejza to Duminy, no run, nice flight and dip from Krejza, Duminy moves forward and defends
106.2 Krejza to Duminy, no run, Duminy defends on the front foot, shouts of “catch!” as the ball falls towards the short leg region

Pies

26.4 Krejza to Smith, 2 runs, full toss on middle and leg, driven wide of midwicket for a couple
30.2 Krejza to Amla, 1 run, too short from Krejza and Amla moves back to play the ball behind square
36.2 Krejza to Smith, FOUR, that’s a dreadful long hop and Smith helps himself, he moves back and pulls the ball powerfully along the ground for four
62.1 Krejza to Kallis, FOUR, Kallis is on fire at the end of the day! Krejza gives him a long hop and Kallis rocks back to pull the ball towards the wide long-on boundary, South Africa now need less than 200
62.2 Krejza to Kallis, FOUR, full toss outside off stump and Kallis moves forward and drives powerfully through cover for four, what’s going on? Kallis has exploded, he’s decided to hurt Siddle and Krejza for the short-ball treatment given to him by Lee and Johnson
91.6 Krejza to Duminy, 1 run, that’s short and wide outside off stump, Duminy moves back and cuts the ball towards cover where Hussey mis-fields
104.4 Krejza to Duminy, no run, Krejza drops short outside off stump and Duminy uses the width to cut towards point where Hussey fields
106.3 Krejza to Duminy, FOUR, JP Duminy! He moves back and takes advantage of the short length by cutting the ball powerfully through point for four

On the 13th Day of Christmas…

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Angry Queenslander can fúck off

Angry Queenslander can fúck off

the selectors could give to me

  1. Simon Katich (c)

  2. Phillip Hughes
  3. Ricky Ponting
  4. Michael Clarke
  5. Michael Hussey (vc)
  6. Andrew Symonds [needs big runs]
  7. Brad Haddin
  8. Mitchell Johnson [strike bowler - gets new ball and first massage]
  9. Jason Krejza
  10. Brett Lee [on a stern warning]
  11. Peter Siddle
  12. Doug Bollinger

However, I fully expect they’ll completely ignore the Moses XI and trust their instincts of picking out of form has beens with

  1. Matthew Hayden

  2. Simon Katich
  3. Ricky Ponting (c)
  4. Michael Hussey
  5. Michael Clarke (vc)
  6. Andrew Symonds
  7. Brad Haddin
  8. Jason Krejza
  9. Brett Lee
  10. Mitchell Johnson
  11. and a Siddle in a pear tree

Perth Test Player Ratings and Reviews

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Matty Crane

Matty Crane


Matthew Hayden

-15/10 – So completely and utterly shít that he destroys my “out of 10 scale” before it’s even begun. Useless fat bástard should have gone out on top in 2006, he’s surely only in it for the money now. The selectors talk about picking players on form, now is the time to act on this. I have so much rage for this Queenslander.. let me count the ways:

  • Not seeing off the new ball – The primary KPI for an opening batsman is to see off the new ball. In the 13 innings of the 7 Tests that he’s opened this season, Hayden has seen off the new ball twice.

  • Not scoring runs – Secondary KPI for opening batsman is to go on and make a total. During this season he has returned scores of 0(3), 13(40), 0(3), 29(20), 83(154), 16*(29), 16(26), 77(93), 8(16), 0(1), 24(36), 12(13), 4(22). That’s an average of 23.5 (35) [only 12 outs]
  • Old – he turned 37 last month. He’s got 1-2 years on India’s fab 4, even the retired Ganguly is a year younger.
  • severely out of form. His scratching around in our second innings was an embarrassment to watch and further degraded his legacy as a world class batsman. He is now the Denny Crane of Australian cricket.
  • In the way – so much talent is waiting for Hayden to just fúck off. If Phil Jaques were still fit I’d like to thin he’s already gone. Chris Rogers had a shot last year and since moving to Vic has been averaging 83. Sean Marsh top scored in the IPL against world class bowlers while retaining traditional straight strokeplay. Philip Hughes is averaging 59.52 and at only 19 years of age is a superb long term prospect.

Simon Katich

7/10 – Saw out the new ball in each innings in the face of a fired up new ball attack thanks to the moron scratching around at the other end. Played a solid intelligent knock in both innings by leaving anything not on the stumps and turning anything on the pads for a single. Rotated the strike in spite of his goose of a partner. Didn’t give chances until the ball that got him in each innings, and is responsible for turning Hayden’s best efforts at embarrassing team totals into respectable scores. Was unlucky I thought in the first innings to be given lbw to one sliding down leg on 83, but hey, shít gets wickets.

Ricky Ponting

the Batsman – 2/10 – Damn ordinary effort, first ball duck against a pumped Ntini and failed to make amends in the second innings. Still on track for 1000 runs this calendar year but his recent form is far from impressive.
the Captain – 3/10 – outplayed Graeme Smith in the first 3 innings, but that’s not really a glowing commendation. Could have tried something, anything while allowing the Saffas to accumulate the second biggest winning 4th innings total of all time for the loss of just 4 wickets. How about giving Andrew Symonds, Simon Katich or even yourself an over. How about slapping Brett Lee around the head with a wet fish. I’m no fan of this graceful meandering towards the inevitable loss, attack till the bitter death and go down bowling at their heads. At least it’ll quicken the pain.
I truly believe it’s time to hand over the captaincy reigns, Katich, Clarke or Hussey couldn’t do any worse than Rick the díck.

Michael Hussey

3/10 – A rare failure for the Huss, he’s fúcked his average (down to a depressing 61.56) and will be keen to make amends on Boxing Day. While some of the blame for his first innings failure can be given to the muppets above him, his dismissal immediately after Ponting in each innings makes me feel he’s a bit high in the batting order. Moving him back to 5 could be beneficial to the record books. Didn’t see much of him couriering caps around the field either.

Michael Clarke

5/10 – The saviour of our first innings collapse. No number 5 batsman should be coming to the crease at 3/15 in the third over, however Clarke stood up and stopped the rot. Scratchy early in his innings as seems to be his style, once he was in he gained composure until a brain fart cut short what could have been a match turning innings. Failed to make a meal of good conditions in the second dig and ultimately this test will go down as a disappoint for pup as it’s one that he could have taken out of South Africa’s hands.

Andrew Symonds

6/10 – Good starts but failed to capitalise. We need more than 57 runs from our specialist number 6 batsman and I don’t care how annoying their spinner is, spooning it to Mid-On is asking the selectors to reconsider his position. His form looks pretty good but to stick around as a specialist number 6 he’ll have to learn a Test match temperament and will need big runs in Melbourne to keep the sharks at bay. Maybe a few nights on the píss in the silly season will help him to regain his focus. Tough to gauge his all-round contribution considering Ponting didn’t give him a single over in the 4th innings, maybe he’s injured?

Brad Haddin

9/10 – Superb rear guard from the New South Welsh champunisher.. His batting with the tail is improving every knock and while we’ll probably never find another Gilly, we’ve found a new Healy. Can’t begrudge his getting stumped trying to bring up the ton with a 6, that’s the way he bats. Good to see someone wipe that smile of freaking Harris face too.

Jason Krejza

5/10 – I wasn’t expecting huge things from him in Perth and was predictably disappointed with his match aggregate of 1/204 is a very ordinary return when compared to his opposite number Paul Harris who accumulated 5/155! Lacked control and penetration with the ball, however he did trouble all the batsmen and if his control improves will be a real weapon, and his nut to claim Amla in the first innings was a deadset rip-snorter. It’s his batting that elevates him to a 5/10, as his 30* and 32 provided a real sting to the tail as his considered strokeplay and strong cutting made the saffas suffer long after they were due.

Mitchell Johnson

10/10 – Surely this must be the greatest performance in a losing test match? 11 wickets including the best spell of fast bowling I can remember, perhaps challenged by the West Indian greats of the late 70′s who at least had support from the opposite end. Seems to be loving the move to Western Australia and is now surely our number 1 strike bowler. It’s time for Mitch to get the new rock, he is now clearly leading our attack.
There is now solid proof that a player from the winning team will always win man of the match, regardless of the game situation.

Brett Lee

1/10 – Another disappointment from Lee. Bowled with fair pace but was consistently out-sped by Johnson. Match figures of 1/132 are a very ordinary return from an alleged spearhead who has never taken 10 in a match or 6 in an innings. Has struggled since his marriage brake up, and should be feeling some pressure from Watson.

Peter Siddle

3/10 – Has done a great job of learning Brett Lee’s tricks, and never looked very threatening with the ball. Match aggregate of 1/148 could have been so much more, last chance in Melbourne then it’s time to give Douggy Bollinger a shot at the project paceman spot.

The WACA

Two losses in a row to the home side, it’s time for the curator at the WACA to lift. Still not green, bouncy or swingy enough for my liking and heads need to roll for this.

Bloody Ponting

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Ponting changing his field, again

Ponting changing his field, again

Our over rate is a national disgrace. Ricky threw a test match in order to play New Zealand, apparently out of his love of playing for Australia. I’ve already had my say on that, now I’m going to say some more!

Ponting was fined 20% and the remainder of the team 10% of their match fees, which equates to roughly 0.05% of their annual IPL cashcow. But the really big loss was the Border-Gavaskar trophy which at tea yesterday we were a good chance to retain. I’ve read that a suspension for Ricky was not even on the table, a captain needs to be fined twice in a 12 month period for that to even be an option. Now he’s lost the test, the series, and still got the first fine.

Is 90 overs a day an unreasonable ask? So many teams seem to have trouble with this limit. After taking out drinks, wicket and injury allowances and adding the 30 minutes overtime that has become a rule rather than the exception in modern tests, the target is to bowl, on average, 15 overs an hour or 1 over every 4 minutes.

I’ve done the sums to get a better idea of just how slow we were on Day 4. By Tea we had bowled 50 overs, leaving us 10 short of the target. Of these, Krejza had 15, Johnson 13, Watson 12 and Lee 10. So with an off-spinner bowling 30% of the load, we’ve managed to drop 1 over in every 6! That is a seriously písspoor effort. The general consensus is that Ricky’s tri-overly field changes and general farking around between overs is killing the rate.

There are many ways to increase the over rate while still looking to take wickets – how bout bowling Simon Katich? Or Lee and Johnson off their ODI run-ups rather than the full test run-up? Why not move a bit quicker between overs? These highly pampered stars are professional sportsmen right, surely a jog from fine leg to long off every 4 minutes is not too much to ask?

Is bowling Hussey a good alternative? Sure he hides the ball when running it but who cares when it doesn’t swing? He still has a decent run-up, and I’m in no way convinced that Mike’s all that quick getting through his overs anyway, though I haven’t got out the stopwatch to be sure. Even when Ponting realised the lapse and bought on Hussey he still didn’t speed up his general farking around with the field. Is moving deep mid on 3 metres left then 4 metres right more likely to take a wicket than giving Shane Watson another over when he’s swinging both ways? One excuse I heard from Nielsen was that the quicks were tired, perhaps they could have rested in the 20 minute tea break?

The entire team was fined for this, however with our díckless coach I choose to blame the captain. He’s the one leading out there. He’s the one constantly moving the field. He’s the one deciding the bowling changes, and the one who could be speeding things up.

I was also under the impression that Ponting has been going through a lean patch with the bat, turns out he’s scored 997 runs in the last 12 months so I’ll let that slide, for now..

Date Innings Runs Opponent Ground
Date Innings Runs Opponent Ground
08-Nov-07 1 56 v Sri Lanka Brisbane
16-Nov-07 1 31 v Sri Lanka Hobart
16-Nov-07 3 53 v Sri Lanka Hobart
26-Dec-07 1 4 v India Melbourne
26-Dec-07 3 3 v India Melbourne
02-Jan-08 1 55 v India Sydney
02-Jan-08 3 1 v India Sydney
16-Jan-08 2 20 v India Perth
16-Jan-08 4 45 v India Perth
24-Jan-08 2 140 v India Adelaide
22-May-08 1 158 v West Indies Kingston
22-May-08 3 5 v West Indies Kingston
30-May-08 1 65 v West Indies North Sound
30-May-08 3 38 v West Indies North Sound
12-Jun-08 1 18 v West Indies Bridgetown
12-Jun-08 3 39 v West Indies Bridgetown
09-Oct-08 1 123 v India Bangalore
09-Oct-08 3 17 v India Bangalore
17-Oct-08 2 5 v India Mohali
17-Oct-08 4 2 v India Mohali
29-Oct-08 2 87 v India Delhi
06-Nov-08 2 24 v India Nagpur
06-Nov-08 4 8 v India Nagpur

Bástard!

Australia in India preview

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I recall last last year how CA was pushing this as the most hectic 12 months in International touring history. That couldn’t have been farther from the truth, due in part to Pakistan’s terrorists inconsiderately using the wrong kind of bombs and the Aussie players preferring to play in the IPL for massive wads of cash.

Fortunately the Indian terrorists are cricket tragics, and only use the kind of bombs that permit Aussies to tour, presumably ones laden with rupees.

India have been granted their choice of umpires with Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson being dropped from the tour for a few bad calls in Sydney resulting in the biggest sub-continental hissy fit since Arjuna called for a runner.

Now we’re stuck with Damien Martyn’s favourite official Aleem bloody Dar who will be doing his best to forget the lbw law, again.

Australia’s preperation has ordinary at best. Fortunately the players who were rested injured for the Bangers top end tribute have all recovered in time, and some fool stuck a microphone in front of Hayden who is “seeking the runs”.

The great white elephant Nice Bryce McGain has been sent home for spending too much time on his facebook page leaving Jason Krejza with the spinning duties. Here’s hoping the young lad from Newtown can improve on his 43 first-class wickets at 45.46 from 23 matches. Fortunately Michael Clarke has a phenomonal record against and in India with the ball, if his back can hold up we’ll be hoping for another 6/9.

Our 2 day tour match with a near full strength batting lineup was a complete shambles. Surely we’ll lift from that effort.

Rick(y)’s been speculating that Anil might refuse his catching agreement! Who would have thought, just cause Ponting claims catches that bounce and Clarke didn’t walk, lets have a gentlemans agreement on catches.

Regardless, the Border/Gavaskar trophy is at stake and 2 test wins will ensure we keep the trophy. If we lose then maybe we get to choose the umpires next time.