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Rahkeem Cornwall makes it to West Indies Test squad
He is an all-rounder from the islands of Antigua and is perhaps the heaviest cricketer ever. He stands at a towering height of 6’6” and weighs around 140 kg.

Cornwall made his first-class debut in 2014 and has since become a regular for Leewards Islands, even captaining them earlier this year. He has 260 wickets from 55 first-class matches and finished as the leading bowler in the most recent regional four-day tournament.

VTR wrote:Not a debut that Naseem Shah will be telling his grandchildren about. Insert your own joke about him probably having some already here.

Not sure Yasir Shah will have 4/205 on his cv

Alfie ....
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/25735771/yasir-shah-dropped-career-record-goes-south

Not only was that Shahs 3rd time shipping over 200 in an innings but it actually improved his average in Sanzar which had been in the 90s.

His not been the same bowler since he got done for chucking but even then has been awful in the SH and very patchy everywhere.

Oh boy ....

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/28159786/chris-gayle-never-get-no-respect-explosive-msl-goodbye

Afghanistan bowled out for 187 against the West Indies in a test match, Cornwall doing the majority of the damage.

Think 187 is a pretty good score on a turning wicket.

Bit weird the Windies won the toss and chose to bowl?

Yeah that was a surprise. Guess they thought that as the game is unlikely to make it to day four that the wicket wouldn’t offer that much of a disadvantage for the team batting last, and that Afghanistan’s batting was something they could run through with minimal fuss.

West Indies have made a decent start to their reply, but it’s the kind of wicket where you can lose five wickets for ten runs.

Cornwall 10 fer ...Windies making Afghanistan look like England.

Afghanistan let the Windies score at least 50 too many, and then fell victim to a collapse going from 53/0 to 59/4. At 19 runs ahead with just three wickets left, it looks a lost cause for them now.

Funny that the nation that could once rely on Holding or Garner or Ambrose or Walsh is now reposing its faith on...Cornwall.

At least England arent as bad as Pakistan.


Closed at 302-1 off just 73 overs ... ouch (poor Burns out for 4!) 
Shah took a real pounding 14 overs for 87 leaving him needing just another 113 to extend his record. 

Warner another century. Labuschangne making Smith look medicore, from the Ashes onwards hes averaging 83, prior to that 26. You gotta  admire the guy for taking his chance with both hands and making the decision to initially omit him form the Ashes side look a bit silly.

Tim Paine declares with Warner on 335* and chasing down Lara’s record. Paine protecting the great record with a pointless declaration

Does Warner have a twin, because the one we saw in the summer would have needed two years to score this many runs.

Think hes swapped shirts with Warner.

Dissapointed they declared with Shah three short of his double century

LondonTiger wrote:Does Warner have a twin, because the one we saw in the summer would have needed two years to score this many runs.

He's brilliant in Australia and good in South Africa but garbage every where else.

I was hoping they'd bat on for Warner to take Lara's record and the team to run down that team record of 952...

Might send a message about the boring nature of these wretched drop-in pitches that have ruined Australian Test grounds .

Name me the last really interesting , competitive , result in doubt after three days , Test Match played in Australia ...

Yet the aussie bowlers can take wickets on them...

Pakistan even got to bat first last time. And they are used to playing on drop in pitches.

A good portion of the blame has to go to their skill but even more so the attitude of the team to tests, especially away from home.

Yes true Pakistan don't travel too well to Australia (neither do England generally !)
But it's not the home ground advantage bothers me - that has always been quite pronounced in Australia , due to the difficulty for visiting batsmen in adjusting to the higher bounce. It's the way games are regularly resulting in these monster scores . Even when the visitors get 350 or more they end up squashed . FTBs like Warner set all time records . It isn't particularly interesting to watch.
Years ago Australian Test grounds were all different. Adelaide was a bit flat though it gave the bowlers a bit days 4/5. Brisbane was a lot more lively : still a home fortress but the games had more give and take ; Melbourne usually produced action unlike the bore feasts we've been paying to see lately. And Perth saw the ball fly - off the pitch as well as to the boundary if the bats got set , while Sydney used to spin. Now they're all the same : basically flat. Reward patience for the bats and essentially the same - allied to a bit of pace or skill - for the bowlers. All very good but that isn't all there should be to Test cricket. We want some variety.
No wonder the Brisbane crowds were down.

I guess my point was these are the same pitches ( and not dissimilar temperatures) to Pakistans "home " conditions, yet Aus can go there and be competitive.
Aus are just very good at flat pitch cricket it seems. Or at least Warner is anyway.
There would be more valids complaints about home conditions if they were lightening quick bouncy pitches where Aus just had to bring their two fastest bowlers and Pakistan would be gone before the balls old.
Plus the attitude of Pakistan has slid dramatically since Misbah retired. They had been competent for a while under him.

At least they should get 4 days of pointless cricket rather than 3.

I cant see England having another Ashes victory down here any time soon if they do stick with these mind. As you say in the past there was always at least one ground where they could come in with county bowlers and get some joy. Being incapable of using a kookabura after the 10th over just makes it even worse. At least Archers shown he can bowl 40 in an innings without breaking.

All in this does some up that test cricket is slipping and the test championship is yet to have a positive impact on changing that.
Next India vs Aus series is pretty much the only thing to look forward to, hopefully on some balanced pitches. Aus off their in Januart ....to play 3 ODIS and no tests. Slow hand clap.

Yasir keeping Pakistan - just about - afloat late on day three...

Just gone now for 113 so all out 302. So will it be the follow on or will Aus bat again ? Will be a follow on apparently ...unusual these days !

Starc the wrecker today and you'd think Australia will wrap this up sometime tomorrow...

One of the most dominant crushing victories of all time for Aus. Just 3 wickets down declared for an innings and 48 run victory.
 Aside form Warners triple century the most impressive stat is in 177 overs the only extras they conceeded were leg byes which often have no fault from the bowler or keeper (and just 8 of those). Not a single wide delivery or no ball, and suggests some very tidy keeping, despite bowling a lot of pace. Thats not down to the opposition being poor, its down to incredibly disciplined controlled bowling, even more impressive when you think they didnt even need to try to win these games at a canter. 

Awful awful series and a terrible indictment of the standing of test cricket in the global game, but it does signal that the return of Smith and the Ashes victory has given Australia the confidence boost they needed to start being a very solid unit again. 

New Zealand are off there soon, hopefully a more competitive series. Really want to see them face off against India, but as noted that doesnt seem to be scheduled yet just some pointless ODIs.

If all the key Kiwis are fit (concern about Boult) I reckon this could be a very interesting series.
NZ have a pretty solid outfit with the reservation that one of their openers isn't up to scratch...which will be an issue in Australia , I'm afraid. But I don't think they'll be conceding easy runs like Pakistan have done.
Hope the pitches are not totally sleep-inducing...

https://www.saca.com.au/news/final-report-wa-v-sa-marsh-sheffield-shield/2019-12-02

Bit of drama in the Sheffield Shield. South Australia were chasing 345 off 70 overs to win the game, they went after it and got to 255/3 in the 55th over. Then they collapsed dramatically losing their last 7 wickets in 14 overs and lost the game.

The kind of collapse England need tonight...!

The rather sorry downfall of MCG pitches continues

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:The rather sorry downfall of MCG pitches continues

After that wretched draw in the last Ashes series I declared they needed to dig the whole thing up and start again. But it seems recent efforts are not actually solving the problem...

Pity. Melbourne used to have one of the most interesting pitches for Tests - and other first class games - in Australia (or anywhere , I guess) But the advent of the drop-in pitch seems to have wrecked it.

Would be embarrassing if the Test pitch this year cops a "poor" rating.

Watched a clip of some of the deliveries that spiked wildly - an absolute danger

Saw the clips on sky too doesnt look smart does it!

New Zealand are very generous 6/1 outsiders to win the upcoming test series against Australia. I don’t make them favourites, but 6/1 is incredibly good value.

Starts tomorrow in 40 degree Perth. They’ll be glad it’s a day-nighter!

Does seem good value as you say. They can near match Australias firepower and star batting, and dont really have any more weak links than Aus.
Seems another where the odds and money has gone with what historically tends to happen, and also maybe shaped by the misleading level of dominance Aus had over Pakistan.

It's a big series for both teams, Austrlaia have really hit a high with the ashes win and utterly ruining Pakistan but one of the best New Zealand test teams ever have had a longer run of good results and have really flown under the radar as a force. Winning this would announce them as the legitimate number 2 side in the world, and a victory for Aus the same for them. Aus losing would be a huge blow for prestige and a setback in what seems to be a very positive vibe within the dressing room.

Labuschagne is continuing to defy logic by being a really good test batsman, closing in on a century now. Another Australian to get written off as a flat track bully or the new Steve Smith (cant bat or bowl properly all rounder turns out to be a world class top order batsman).

Either way Australia are looking pretty ominous and have a platform for a dominant first innings score.

248/4 on a flat deck where 400 is par. Was really impressed with New Zealand’s discipline and fielding which England can learn a lot from. They kept the scoring under control, and bowled superbly to Smith.

Game up for grabs really. Australia could power on and get to 450+, or New Zealand could stifle their advance with early wickets tomorrow. It’s in the balance.

The battle between New Zealand’s in form batters and Australia’s fearsome pace attack, on this fast wicket, should be excellent.

Will find out how flat it is tomorrow I guess, Aus still have a very soft underbelly from Head down (worst metaphor ever). NZ did get the key wicket of Smith and Wade cheaply after my previous post which does make their position look a fair bit better but Labuschagne is still there and well capable of going big.

Real grind today, NZ battling harder than Pakistan did despite Ferguson being unable to bowl. Wagner is shouldering an Archer like load. Suspect they will really struggle second digs after this effort in the heat. 
Aus seem very content to value their wickets which is keeping the draw a possibility of NZ can bat with the same level of application the have bowled with, but despite not having a dominant score on the board Aus still look favourites to me given how worn down NZs attack is and how reliant they are on part time bowlers without Ferguson.

Aussies score looking huge already. Something tells me they won't let someone like Mitch Santner randomly score a hundred. Saying all that Yasir Shah getting one is definitely worse so who knows

Well stepped out for 90 minutes and it moved on quickly with the Aus tail hitting out and two early wickets making what wouldve been seen as a par score look formidable. 
A lot to do for NZ here, as you say someone needs to play a blinder. Expect a CDG triple.

Kiwis have struggled early on at 82-3. Blinder of a catch to remove Williamson. Hazlewood, though, has hobbled off for Australia and is out of the test, evening things up a little and putting extra pressure and workload on Starc/Cummings/Lyon.

109/5 says only one result on the cards really although Hazelwoods joined Ferguson on the injured list which presumably means they wont be able to enforce a follow on and will have to gamble a bit on how much of a lead they want. Still a chance a kiwi could make a big score but even 300 would leave them a mountain to climb and Aus plenty of time to bowl them out again. 

Aus look a very much stronger team since the return of the cheats and when batting first on dead pitches 

It was brilliant, hostile bowling from Starc to damage New Zealand so heavily.

Don’t think NZ are quite defeated yet, especially with Australia down to three bowlers. They need Taylor to push on to 150+ and for someone to hang around with him.

Gooseberry wrote:109/5 says only one result on the cards really although Hazelwoods joined Ferguson on the injured list which presumably means they wont be able to enforce a follow on and will have to gamble a bit on how much of a lead they want. Still a chance a kiwi could make a big score but even 300 would leave them a mountain to climb and Aus plenty of time to bowl them out again. 

Aus look a very much stronger team since the return of the cheats and when batting first on dead pitches 

Quite some bounce at present so hardly a dead pitch, Goose.  
Even with the massive heat load expected to continue it still seems to be holding together quite well... for now.

An entertaining day's play. I feel a bit more sorry for NZ losing Ferguson (and Boult before the start) but a huge loss with Hazlewood out of it too now. I agree with some of the commentary that it wouldn't hurt to see bowling replacements (similar to the batsman concussion rule) for the benefit of the match. The substitution of both Henry and Pattinson would have made things interesting... however I do realise that the prospect of some sort of natural attrition is also exciting to many of us as well.

Hazlewood injury evens things up a bit but I suspect the damage to NZ had already been done - along with the excellence of Labuschagne's batting of course. That first innings score from Australia combined with cooking the Kiwis in the heat for five sessions always threatened to make the evening session a tricky one for the visitors and I think they've lost too many wickets to get back unto this game now.
Suppose they could yet battle away - as their later order did against England recently - to a decent score , especially with Australia down to three real bowlers : but with plenty of time left in the game you'd think they are going to be left with a very difficult last day or so batting last on a wearing pitch.
Kind of ironic they left Boult out for fitness concerns and his replacement breaks down on day one . I understand the thoughts about replacement for bowlers - now that concussed batsmen can be subbed out - but think that might be difficult to police to ensure it isn't taken advantage of : remember the short lived experiment with subs in ODI ? Think it is probably best left to the "luck of the game".

Starc , like Warner , seems to be relishing the return to home conditions...fine bowling effort last night to give his team the advantage

Kiwis still battling gallantly with the ball (Australia now 148/3 , lead by nearly 400) but that first innings collapse has condemned them to inevitable defeat sometime over the next couple of days. Paine's main problem will be timing the declaration given he is down to three real bowlers ; but he has so much time to make the kill that it isn't likely to be a problem.
As I suspected before the match - even without the Ferguson injury factor - the mismatch between Lyon (a genuine Test wicket taker ) and Santner (a worthy cricketer : but essentially NZ answer to Ashley Giles - holds an end but that's it ) was likely to tell on a flat pitch.
Kudos to Southee and Wagner but they are toiling in a lost cause...

Smith surprisingly mortal in Australia this season...out for 16 now trying to pull the worthy Wagner ...154/4.

Who knows ? Might not have to declare. Only Head and Wade and the tail to come. Wagner has bowled fifty two overs in this match but still giving it everything

Very commendable effort with the ball after folding with the bat.

450 odd for victory looks the likely target. Could they? Of course not. But could they?

Australia have now lost 3/6 in the last four overs , with Head and Paine following quickly...

Lead is 410 and only Wade and the bowlers left. But even if NZ could keep the chase under 450 I doubt they'll be able to chase it down...NZ having a lot of success here with the short ball and you'd think Cummins and Starc are likely to do so also on a forth/fifth day pitch.

But credit to the Kiwi refusal to lie down meekly

467 target and 2 down for loose change... surely a done deal. As Joey says theres something in the pitch for the quicks, it'll take a monumental effort for NZ to survive. Their only vague hope is tired/injured bowlers, but with Lyon striking early looks like theres some help for him too.

Props to Wagner who bowled 60 overs for his 7 wickets, worrying for the series that the Kiwi leads have been ground so hard though.

The Aussies are ridiculous at home. Some of the performances in the last away Ashes by England aren't looking too bad with hindsight!

VTR wrote:The Aussies are ridiculous at home. Some of the performances in the last away Ashes by England aren't looking too bad with hindsight!

Lyon gets Nicholls on the brink of tea. 5 wickets left for the Aussies to get - and that assumes the injured Ferguson bats. 

Only question remaining would seem to be whether the home side wrap it up tonignt or the morrow? Probably tonight, I reckon. Their tails up and bowling under the lights plus the Kiwis' gallant fight earning them respect but surely taking them near to mental and physical exhaustion.

Emphasising how ridiculous or strong the Aussies are at home, this is probably the best NZ team ever albeit still with the odd weakness.

Yes Australia have this very much in the bag...essentially won it by getting a big first innings score and early inroads when NZ batted : the rest has been just settling the final margin.

They'll be high on confidence by the time this is finished (possibly today ?)
Question is whether NZ will be able to fight back in Melbourne. I don't actually think they are hopelessly outmatched , despite the big margin here , especially with Boult - presumably - back. But I'd imagine they will need things to go their way in little matters like the toss because Australia will still have a huge advantage in Lyon>Santner (and even Labuschagne to bowl a bit ) so if the fast bowlers don't settle it...

Australia's Achilles heel remains the batting outside of the first three or four. Means they aren't invincible...but they are , as always , very hard to beat at home. One up , you'd fancy them to keep the trophy .

Hi Alfie - another significant advantage Australia currently have is Warner/Burns>Raval. I haven't seen much of Raval and don't know enough about him to judge whether he's not up to Test cricket or whether he's just going through a bad patch. However, his recent scores against England and in this match have been very poor and must be impacting his confidence.

Absolute cracker of a ball from Cummins and catch by Head to get Santner and then Starc gets Wagner caught behind. 

Only one wicket left as the injured Ferguson valiantly comes out to bat. These Kiwis have got shedloads of guts and fight but Aussies just too strong - in this Test anyway, mirroring Alfie's earlier line.

Comprehensive win by Australia

A thoroughly professional job. If you bat the first five sessions of any Test Match you almost certainly won't lose : if you bat the first five sessions of a day/night Test you will almost certainly win. They did.

Congrats to the victors ...but I do hope NZ can make the Melbourne match a closer contest...

Lyon gets the last wicket to finish it off - and deny Starc what would have been a deserved tenfer! Hospefully, 9 wickets and victory will still be sufficient reward for Starc. Hostile quality bowling throughout both innings from a top performer. Always thought he should have played more than the one Test in this summer's Ashes.

NZ always battled hard in this match but were on the backfoot almost throughout. It'll be very interesting to see how they respond. I don't doubt their resolve but still favour the hosts by some way.