SA drop Cosgrove but don't reinstate Bailey

The SA selectors have dropped Mark Cosgrove from the team to play Queensland here in the Pura cup four day match which begins on Friday. They have not seen fit to reinstate Cullen Bailey, who in today's Advertiser (p 94, not online) is pictured, with Dan Cullen, receiving coaching from Shane Warne, who has previously anointed them as his long term successors.

Warne's comments don't seem to have been reported online in Australia, but they have been picked up by a South African website:

Shane Warne wants Australia to use this month's threatened cricket tour of Pakistan to re-build the nation's ailing spin reserves.

Warne, Australia's appointed "spin ambassador" following his retirement from international cricket last year, said an overseas tour was an ideal opportunity to build a potent spin combination for the future.

The Australian team have struggled this summer to fill the spin void left by Warne, who finished his playing career with a world record 708 wickets before it was overtaken by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan in December last year.

Warne spent Monday with South Australia's out-of-favour Cricket Australia-contracted spinners, Daniel Cullen and Cullen Bailey.

If Australia's squad was chosen by Warne, he would have all of Australia's leading spinners, Bryce McGain, Stuart MacGill, Brad Hogg and Cullen, included.

"Maybe for Pakistan they might have three or four in there and all just work together, a few younger guys around the Australian side, but they've got to warrant that as well," Warne told reporters on Monday.

"Hopefully we can have them perform consistently well in first-class cricket, talk to captains, get their fields right, understand how it works and hopefully see spinners performing well over coming seasons."

Domestic interlude

South Australia 344 and 9/318 dec drew with Tasmania 383 and 8/232: Pura Cup at Adelaide. Tasmania 2 pts, SA nil.

This afternoon I went to the Adelaide Oval to watch Tasmania, who had led on the first innings, chase 280 from 52 overs to secure outright points.

The Tigers lost two early wickets before George Bailey and Michael Di Venuto steadied the ship and prepared the ground for a possible late overs charge. They slowly accelerated the pace, aided by some indifferent SA bowling and fielding. Jason Gillespie reduced his pace and had the keeper up at the stumps for several overs - see photo on left -and had Bailey lbw.

Soon afterwards Dan Cullen had Di Venuto, who had batted well despite being missed off a sitter at midwicket when he was 50, caught at long off. Next ball Gillespie, now off his long run, had Luke Butterworth caught behind.

At 5/153 from 32.1 overs it looked as if the Tasmanians would concentrate on saving the game but Dan Marsh and Tim Paine, who had done so well together in the first innings, added 64 in 65 balls as the Redbacks attack wilted. As so often happens in such situations a run out turned the game around, when Callum Ferguson's throw cut off Marsh for 41/43b. 6/217 became 7/220 when Paine hit a Ryan Harris full toss to his namesake Daniel, who took a good catch.

At this point Tasmania needed 60 from 58 balls with the tail exposed, ie SA had the upper hand. Yet strangely they didn't press the point hard enough. Cullen took a further wicket but both he and Ryan Harris weren't able to break through again, partly because of the batsmen's defensiveness, partly because of their own waywardness (each bowled a wide in the last 4 overs) and partly because of some timid captaincy from Graham Manou, who didn't crowd the bat until the last couple of overs. Team selection could also have had a bearing on the tactics: Cullen Bailey's legspin might have helped to prise out the tailenders.

The draw has snuffed out whatever chance the Redbacks may have had of reaching the Pura Cup final. Apparently it is still possible for the Tigers to do so. I didn't watch enough of the game to assess their chances, but on today's evidence they are a competitive side, albeit one with a couple of modest performers with the bat. I'll reserve my judgment about the Redbacks, who are on course to complete yet another disappointing first class season, despite some outstanding individual performances, eg Ryan Harris' 9/171 and two thirties with the bat in this game, and a couple of good team ones.

Scorecard

Cricinfo Bulletin

Captain dropped

It hasn't exactly come as a surprise but Nathan Adcock has been dropped from the SA Pura Cup team:

The move had been anticipated for some time following Adcock's poor run with the bat - he averages 13.83 in first-class matches this year - but the selectors finally lost patience and left him out of the side to face Tasmania on Friday.

The Redbacks' chairman of selectors, Paul Nobes, said that Adcock remained in charge of the limited-overs outfit and the decision was purely based on his Pura Cup form rather than the players having lost confidence in him. "We pick the cricket team, then we pick the captain," Nobes told Cricinfo. "It's a theory that's been used in Australian cricket for a long time."

While it's not common, there have been times when a captain has been picked before the team, eg Bob Simpson was recalled to the Australian captaincy in the late 1970s when World Series Cricket threatened the traditional game; in 1959-60 Howard Mutton made his debut for and captained South Australia at the age of 35, and I seem to recall a time in the mid 1970s when Bob Blewett (Greg's father) was appointed captain ahead of some who thought they had better claims to both the office and to his position in the team.

Whether Adcock should have been appointed as captain in the first place is a moot point:

Eyebrows were raised when he was announced as captain in the off-season, given his struggle to nail a first team spot, and Nobes was reluctant to say when he thought he would return. "That's up to him about getting his form together and being ready to perform. We will give him opportunities to do that but it definitely goes back into his court to be able to perform.

"He still remains captain of our one-day side, because he still makes that team so it's nothing to do with anything other than form." In one-day cricket this season he averages 37.40 with the ball, at an economy of 6.23, and only 20.20 with the bat, whereas last year he was in the fifties. But he has overseen a handy run for South Australia in the FR Cup.

Whether [ replacement captain] Manou will also find the pressure of keeping, batting and captaining too much remains to be seen. His batting form has certainly picked up after he lost his position through most of last season, and he has made two of his three first-class centuries this summer.

SA's performances this season have been a hotch-potch of inconsistency. Apart from Darren Lehmann's and now Shaun Tait's retirements both batting and bowling departments, with some notable (and unexpected) exceptions, have underperformed. Contracted Australian players and spin bowlers Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey can't, as their coach Terry Jenner pointed out on tonight's ABC TV News, can't get a game, and this at a time when Australia's spin bowling resources are their weakest for many years.

It's all very well to talk, as Nobes does, if I follow his fractured English correctly, about picking the best team, but why doesn't the best team include at least one spinner? Couldn't the national selectors request that all their contracted players get as much top class cricket as possible? Even if that means letting them play for other states? Strings clearly have been pulled this year to allow Daniel Christian to transfer from NSW to SA after the start of the season. If it's OK for one, why not for others? Must as I like to see the Redbacks winning, I'm the first to concede that the needs of the national team must be paramount. Both Bailey and Cullen must be given a fair chance to show what they can do at state level and not left in limbo.

Congratulations Tasmania: well deserved winners of Pura Cup

Tasmania, which had progressively strengthened its hold on the game over the preceding two days, today administered the coup de grace to New South Wales and deservedly won its first ever Pura Cup/ Sheffield Shield at the 25th attempt. The Blues lost two early wickets, including that of Phil Jaques, and thereafter didn't offer much resistance, particularly to Ben Hilfenhaus (4/22) and Damien Wright's(5/13) bowling, and were all out for 149, leaving the Tigers victors by a massive 421 runs.

Congratulations Tasmania!

Scorecard.

Tasmania deservedly within sight of trophy: Pura Cup final Day 4

Today Tasmania exceeded perhaps even its own expectations and worked itself into a position from where it is inconceivable that it will lose, and quite likely that it will win, against New South Wales. The other possibility, a draw, will also deservedly give it the Pura Cup/ Sheffield Shield for the first time, a considerable achievement for the state team with the smallest player pool (which has also produced the current best batter in world cricket).

Overnight Tasmania were 6/203, a lead of 313. As I said yesterday, they were on top but not home and hosed. Today it took the NSW bowlers almost all day to take the last four wickets, and in doing so conceded another 257 runs.

The heroes were the same three who had pulled the first innings up by its bootstraps: Luke Butterworth, not content with his first innings maiden fifty, topped that with 106, his maiden century; Sean Clingleffer who made his first century for several seasons; and Damien Wright, a valuable 47 which took his match aggregate beyond a hundred.

The match has been well supported by the locals: more than 14,000 attended the first three days. I won't be surprised if that number is exceeded tomorrow, when NSW 0/3 after one over tonight, try to bat out the 90 (why not 96?) overs remaining.

A comment on online coverage.

Despite what I've said before, Cricket Australia's commentary doesn't hold a candle to Cricinfo's.
Compare how each described the first over of Tasmania's second innings.

Cricket Australia

2007-03-21 11:06:56	Over 0.2: Bollinger to Paine: FOUR! driven square of the wicket, off the mark with a lovely shot
2007-03-21 11:05:05	A bit of a delay as the Blues are waiting to see who will take strike, it's Paine so Bollinger grabs the ball

[When play is in progress the last five overs are shown in scorebook format, ie for this over .4...; once play stops so do the details.]


Cricinfo

0.1	Bollinger to Paine, no run, left outside off
0.2	Bollinger to Paine, FOUR, shot, positive cricket from the out-of-form Paine, not going to shoulder arms this innings, he blasts a cover drive away for confidence-building funs. And runs
0.3	Bollinger to Paine, no run, left
0.4	Bollinger to Paine, no run
0.5	Bollinger to Paine, no run
0.6	Bollinger to Paine, no run, bouncer, under it ... well navigated by Paine
End of over 1 (4 runs) - Tasmania 4/0 TD Paine 4* (6b 1x4) DE Bollinger 1-0-4-0 MJ Di Venuto 0* (0b)

Cricinfo's commentary is a bit quirky for some tastes perhaps, but it gives more details not only of each ball and also summarises each day and session using its well established house style.