25 November 2010

Good call by the Australian selectors?

I'm a bit a cautious in typing this, as I've only seen him bowl on the highlights package today, but Xavier Doherty looks a pretty good bowler. Certainly more threatening than Nathan Hauritz with some nice subtle variations. Plus an excellent delivery to Ian Bell as he beat him with the flight.

2 comments:

Ed said...

Too early to say I'd say. What I would say is it was disappointing that England gifted him his 2 wickets - if Bell had batted "normally" (as he was dominating already) I don't think Doherty would have posed a threat (on this wicket on day 1). And the less said about Anderson's reverse sweep the better. I'd fancy myself to get Anderson out if he kept trying to play premeditated reverse sweeps!

It'll be interesting to see if the spinners take wickets in the second innings. At the moment I think the likelihood is that the seamers will take the wickets (the game is unlikely to reach the final session and may not go into day 5 even if the weather holds) and perhaps it will cost Australia not to have Bollinger playing instead of Doherty....but time will tell.

Ed said...

It's not looking particularly good for him now. I hadn't seen him play before this series, but it would appear that he's not Hauritz's equal based on his performances in the first 2 Tests.