Have a copy and paste:

“Sorry about the long rant here,” begins Scott Roberts (who I suspect is not really sorry at all) but I have to agree with Barney’s piece in that the 90s was exactly the same comparison I made in my mind given the utter ineptitude of the bowling and fielding plans yesterday. I really don’t wish to sound like a broken record, but why we have such a mental block that creates such brainless bowling at Steve Smith baffles me.

Look (to paraphrase an Australian), it’s unlikely, especially on a flat pitch that you’re going to get Smith out using conventional methods such as bowling in the channel, as he obviously has a great eye and defence and is not going to go chasing the ball to create nicks. He uses the leg-theory law to his advantage (much like Graeme Smith, who we also bowled dreadfully at), as he knows that he can walk across his stumps and flick the ball behind square on the legside with a maximum of three fielders back there, meaning that the danger involved is minimal (yes, you could have a leg slip, but the downside of a leg slip is that they are unsighted until the ball suddenly flies at them). So what is Steve Smith’s weakness? He hates not scoring. You could see it late yesterday afternoon when Craig Overton, briefly, decided to bowl wide of off stump; Smith hated it and started playing wild shots and was walking way across to the offside to try to manufacture something, suddenly becoming vulnerable. But then we suddenly decided to not do that anymore. Why? Why such lack of patience from an international team? Either bowl wide of off stump with an offside field OR bowl very straight with a strong legside field, but either way, STICK TO THE PLAN!! I would even ask Leachy to bowl very wide over the wicket in the footholes with a packed legside field. No, there’s no chance of lbw, but can Smith really resist taking a huge risk and not trying to smash the ball for a boundary when his scoring rate has come to a halt?”

Posted By: megson on September 6th 2019 at 10:28:23

Message Thread

FAO Jim / Steve Smith haters (Other Sports) - megson, Sep 6, 10:25:38
- There may be an element of double bluff about it but Smith himself (Other Sports) - Jim, Sep 6, 11:07:19
  - Agreed, he likes to feel bat on ball, and likes to score. (Other Sports) - megson, Sep 6, 11:11:19
    - Cut off the leg side and get him coming forward driving i think. (n/m) (Other Sports) - DrDublin, Sep 6, 11:34:12
      - Got to be worth a disciplined try. He made a few errors yesterday (Other Sports) - megson, Sep 6, 11:55:49
        
        Very much what Holding was saying. Every time we appear to have a plan... (Other Sports) - DrDublin, Sep 6, 11:57:22
- Have a copy and paste: (Other Sports) - megson, Sep 6, 10:28:23

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