Hayden overated?

[acker]

Dont you think he played a little bit to safe ?

We did have to win this test; not draw it...

[Beny]

And we could have won it, regardless of how quickly Hayden played his innings... It's not like He could just press a button which would gaurentee that he would make 70 and then get out if he played a fast game. I'd hardly encourage a man who was expected to be dropped, to go out knowing that the rest of his team was also struggling and play a smash and grab innings.

[acker]

He could have accelerated later on. I still have the gut feeling that the innings was designed more for his benifit (future contract negotiation) than a team orientated innings (a quicker 80) would have been more use in the game sense.

Considering we had to win, Haydens was an innings more trying to draw.

[Beny]

I take it I was the only one watching some of the slashes and pulls that Hayden was playing? You can't make quick runs if the bowlers are'nt giving you anything to score off... And it's not like he was holding back the likes of Ponting and Martyn who quickly got themselves out and we crashed and burned.

[acker]

Obviously improvisation is no longer part of the game. I saw mainly a guy playing predominently straight batted shots and most of them defensive.

[Beny]

Improvision? What you expected a guy who was struggling to play his drive, to start dancing down the pitch and reverse sweeping Harmison?

[acker]

He could have had enough faith in his off side shots to have a go out there regardless of the 7 feilders, cripes they bowled enough balls wide of off stump to open his shoulders and have a go at.

[Django]

Of course Hayden is and always has been overrated. Drop in the bowling standards world wide in the past decade has over-inflated the achievements of many Australian batsmen (martyn is another example).

Unless the authorities have mechanisms in place to improve the quality of game rather than exploit the commercial aspects, I do not believe the situation will ever improve. You might see scattered incidents of what England achieved in the recent ashes series. The art of swing bowling is almost extinct as is good quality spin bowling.