The 2011-2012 Australian International Cricket season

[kenyan_cheena]

Down here in Australia it's the 1st of December, the first day of summer. It's also the beginning of our International "Summer of Cricket", with the 1st of two test matches between Australia and New Zealand set to commence in just over 75 minutes from now in Brisbane, Queensland.

I'm really not sure if this thread will get much interest at all, based on how successful my 2011 rugby league season thread was. But I was driving to work and thought, "What the hell, I'll do a cricket one, also".

The schedule for the season sees Australia play New Zealand in Brisbane from 1-5 December and then in Hobart, Tasmania from the 9th to the 13th of December. Following that will be a 4-match series against our second biggest rivals (behind England), India, commencing on December 26.

1st test: Melbourne, Victoria, Dec. 26-30
2nd test: Sydney, New South Wales, Jan. 3-7
3rd test: Perth, Western Australia, Jan. 13-17
4th test: Adelaide, South Australia, Jan. 24-28

Australia has a fantastic record in Brisbane, having not lost a match there since 1988. Meanwhile, New Zealand have not won a test match in Australia since 1985. However, Australia suffered a rash of injuries during their recent tour of South Africa which has led to no less than five frontline players being unavailable. They have named three debutants in the 11-man team just for this match, and I can't remember the last time that would have happened.

Most of the injured players are specialist bowlers, and so two of the debutants are, also. The team is a good mix of experience and youth, with the soon-to-be 37 years-old former captain Ricky Ponting, a veteran of 157 matches (including this one, which will make him 4th on the all-time list for matches played) and Michael Hussey (36 years-old) being the only two players remaining from Australia's period of dominance in the early to mid years of the last decade. On the other hand, the top three batsman in the lineup are all 25 or younger, with only a handful of test matches combined.

So New Zealand probably won't get a better opportunity to break their drought on Australian soil then right now. They aren't one of the top teams in world cricket, but I'm sure they'll test the Australians during the next couple of weeks.

Almost forgot to add, once the test matches are over there will be a month of one-day matches, a tri-series between Australia, India and Sri Lanka where each team plays each other four times, followed by a best-of-3 finals series between the top two. Those matches will take place between February 5 and March 8, bringing the summer to its conclusion.

www.cricinfo.com

[Doc_Brown]

Is Pat Cummins in the 11? Was most impressed with his performance in the 2nd test Vs South Africa.

[kenyan_cheena]

Nope. He's one of the injured players. Has a left heel problem, I think. Although some think he still could have played. Also out is Johnson with a toe injury (which requires surgery that would see him miss the entire summer), Watson with a bad hamstring, Harris with a knee injury and Shaun Marsh with a back injury.

New Zealand have won the coin toss and elected to bat first.

[kenyan_cheena]

Impressive start from NZ, racing to 0/38 off 8 overs. McCallum doing most of the damage on 24. He's hit five 4s.

[Doc_Brown]

Siddle with the break through for the Aussie's. Must be weird for Pattinson being a test cricketer for Australia and your brother is/was one for the arch enemy.

[kenyan_cheena]

2/62 now.

[kenyan_cheena]

The Kiwis dominated the first hour, but Australia has hit back strongly. 4/93 now, shortly before lunch.

[kenyan_cheena]

Collapse-a-rooney! 5-98 just after lunch.

[kenyan_cheena]

Some resistance from NZ during session two. They've gone off the field because of bad light. 5/176. Vettori 45, Brownlie 32.

[ukhotstove]

What are test match crowds like in Australia ? There's been a few news stories here that test match cricket is on the slide attendance wise specially in India, Sri Lanka and such. However we don't have a problem in England pretty much sold out every test match no matter who the opponent.

[ukhotstove]

In fact people are wanting more test match cricket, think it's South Africa we play this summer and people were wanting a 5 match series.

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

What are test match crowds like in Australia ? There's been a few news stories here that test match cricket is on the slide attendance wise specially in India, Sri Lanka and such. However we don't have a problem in England pretty much sold out every test match no matter who the opponent.

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

In fact people are wanting more test match cricket, think it's South Africa we play this summer and people were wanting a 5 match series.

The general belief here is that test cricket is the pinnacle of the sport and so it should be given priority over the shorter forms of the game. We had some huge crowds during the Ashes series last summer, as you can see from this wikipedia page: 2010

However, Cricket Australia has not been blind to the success of the IPL and have created their own version of it, the Big Bash League. It features 8 teams (Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Brisbane, plus 2 each in Sydney and Melbourne) and will run from mid-December to late-January. Apparently a number of International players will be involved, such as Chris Gayle. Shane Warne will be playing for the Melbourne Stars. 2011

[ukhotstove]

Wonder were LFC is, oh I know it's summer down under he'll be doing his summer job of cabana boy in Thailand

[kenyan_cheena]

Day two is gonna kick off a half hour earlier, to make up some of the time they lost yesterday. So they'll get started in about an hour from now.

[kenyan_cheena]

Solid start to day two for NZ. 5/212 in the 58th over. Vettori is 68 and Brownlie 45. Their partnership is now 116.

[kenyan_cheena]

Vettori has run himself out just 4 runs short of a century. NZ 6/254.

[kenyan_cheena]

Vettori's wicket lead to an unsurprising late order collapse, and NZ were all out for 295. Brownlie was undefeated on 77.

[kenyan_cheena]

Disaster for Australia before lunch, with debutant David Warner out for 3 in the 2nd over. It was the first ball of the over so they've gone to lunch now, Australia 1/3.

[kenyan_cheena]

Australia's shaky start continues. Hughes out for 10. 2/25.

[kenyan_cheena]

With his future in the team on the line, Ponting has been solid so far, moving to 25. Khuwaja is 37 and Australia are now 2/80.