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Bruce

Watson / Kohli / 88 (169)

I disagree with this.

It should be Haddin / Kohli / 88 (169)

Tony Tea

Yes. I agree with that too. But I had to stick to the stats.

Russ

Lyon's catch: I've dropped them/seen them dropped. Sometimes it is hard to pick up the loop of those little dollies. It is inexplicable when you watch it, but it is easy to get muddled with your feet and hands when it is sort of hanging there.

Haddin, we'e said this for years. His footwork is shit, he gets up too early, and dives when he doesn't have to, or in the case of Kohli at the end of play, when he was already moving wide, and therefore able to, but not when flat-footed earlier in the day. Watson should have had it anyway, wasn't a hard catch.

Tony Tea

It's his footwork gets him in trouble for those chances that are low and not too far away either side. It means he's not set as he dives over the ball and subsequently has to reach down for the ball one handed. If he had good footwork, he would take the ball with both hands while crouching, not diving.

New Year's Firecracker

Just throwing this into the mix, could it be that the power bats used now have affected the dropped catch rate?

Commentators have been talking alot about the effect of the power bats on the game, with averages closer to 50 being the standard for a top flight batsman whereas a low 40s avge used to be the standard.

Chappelli even mentioned Rammer's point yesterday that the non-strikers end umpire is in a lot of danger these days and may well get sconned. On that point, just recently: Cricket umpire in Israel killed after ball strikes him in the face

So maybe the power bats are causing the ball to travel faster and harder resulting in more drops.

Professor Rosseforp

Lyon's miss fits in with my previously-expounded (ad nauseam) theory that many bowlers can train themselves to be good bowlers, but don't need to be good at sport in general. They do the same thing over and over, getting better at it. In areas like batting and fielding, they have to react to moving objects, so are not good at it, and more importantly, are virtually untrainable at it.
McGrath was an interesting example of a bowler who was trained to use 1 or 2 movements to improve his batting performance.
Batsmen tend to be good at a wide range of sports, and can usually pick up bowling pretty quickly, and tend to be slips or close-in fielders as they move instinctively. Usually they have a choice of sports in their sub-teen or teen years. Fatty Vautin, rugby league commentator and former player, was a case in point. There is footage of him taking good catches well after his league days were over. Viv Richards took up off-spin and was as good as many test spinners.
Haddin's flaws seem to be well-analysed here.

Russ

Prof, I'd agree in general, but not on Lyon. He is in the top-3 for Australia's fieldsmen, after Smith and Warner. This was the first bad mistake I can recall from him, actually, because in general he is brilliant.

Professor Rosseforp

Thanks, Russ -- probably a bit of psychological transference, here, as I have dropped easier catches.
In general, do you know if Lyon has excelled in other sports? When we were talking about him on a different topic, I had a think about how I perceive him.
My guess is that if Warnie went to the local park and joined in a game, he'd take 5 or 6 wickets for not too many, probably smash a 30 or 40. With Lyon, I suspect he could take 3/120 or 0/148, and grind out 15 runs -- what do you think?

Russ

Short answer: no idea. His u/17,u/19 career is interesting because he seems to be a number 6 bat, 4th change bowler. Scored quickly, but not consistently. Took plenty of catches. Tempting to think he just doesn't look like an athlete, and that meant he lacked for opportunities (being from the ACT didn't help there either). Warne, despite his girth, was obviously a good footballer.

m0nty

I dropped a catch like Lyon's once when I was on a hat trick. Gutted, I was.

As for the change in bats, most catches are taken (or dropped) behind the wicket so that wouldn't apply.

Tony Tea

Yes, after a little thought, I don't think the bats matter since most dropped catches come via mishits.

Tony Tea

Gideon Haigh steps up.

Carrot

Maybe something worth bringing up: when Gilchrist started dropping catches a la Haddin, he retired pretty swiftly. Will Haddin follow suit?

Big Ramifications

Speaking of which, check this pre-season training highlight. Richmond player drops a sitter....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNHr0hyLUA0

Professor Rosseforp

Tony, on the subject of mishits, when the beat boom started, our local school had a band called the Mishits, but the school requested they change their name to the Misfits -- at a time when "misfit" was a term not to be encouraged.
At a later musical period, I guess they could have done a Mi-sex and clarified their name as Mi-Shits

Big Ramifications

I suddenly feel like going to a Shiite restaurant and ordering a big plate of fried shitake mushrooms.

Tony Tea

That's not Richmond; it is Heidelberg in the Northern Footy League.

PS: Heidelberg got beat off by Greensborough in the grand final.

PPS: Shitcake mushrooms.

Big Ramifications

I changed it to Richmond for comedy / click bait reasons.

But thanks for the heads-up. I couldn't spot a VFL logo, was wondering what league it was.

ps: Didya notice dad had a choice of saving the Sherrin or saving his kid....

Big Ramifications

Greensborough beat off 22 fit young men from Heidelberg?!

// I missed your pun the first time. Much shame.
// But I improved upon it. Markedly.

m0nty

Speaking of stupid things said about cricket, I read in the Hun today that Punter's reaction to Glenn Maxwell getting bowled for a duck in the BBL by leaving an inswinger on middle stump was that Maxwell's life was too focused on cricket and he needed more vices. They're just making up excuses not to pick Victorians at this stage.

m0nty

Oh, wrong thread.

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