Phillip Hughes or JP Duminy?

[King Pietersen]

I never doubted that Australia swings, I actually said it does. But conditions are not as bad as England in April. It's dreadfully cold, players are on and off for rain, there's always moisture in the pitch, it's overcast so swings and the bowling's not much worse, if at all. Guys like Mark Davies, Matthew Hoggard, Kabir Ali, Simon Jones, Tim Bresnan, Liam Plunkett are all swing/seam bowlers and thrive in English conditions, check out Mark Davies' record in FC cricket for example.

My point was that the sheer change in conditions (South Africa isn't much different to Australia in terms of conditions) compared with Australia, plus the workload, lack of preperation and the break up of play thanks to rain delays makes things much harder for a young overseas player to perform at the same high levels they did in Australia. A few players have done it, David Hussey and Brad Hodge spring instantly to mind, but they were not 19 when they came into County Cricket, they'd played alot of cricket, especially Dussey who was 27.

I just don't think the difference between the 2 systems is much different in terms of difficulty to perform. In Aussie State cricket the standard is generally abit higher, but in England the demands are different. It's taken a player like Bopara a long time to find his feet in County Cricket and now that he knows his game he's scoring runs. If Hughes comes to England early season and makes big runs, then good on him, and I'll applaud him for it, but I don't think he'll be averaging 68 like he did last year in Australian Domestic Cricket.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Hobart is exactly how you described England.

 

[King Pietersen]

Temperatures are higher though. The Aussie summer starts in December (according to the t'internet), where the average temperatures in Hobart are between 11 and 21 degrees, in London the temperature averages between 6 and 13 degrees in April. So our maximum temperature in April equates to Hobart's minimum effectively. There may be more rain in Hobart, with 46mm in England and 53mm in Hobart at the start of Summer, but that's not a huge difference, and the conditions feel far worse when the temperature is 6 degrees. The Australian weather comes from the warmer seas, we get our rain from the North Sea, which isn't pleasant at all.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Cricket season starts in October in Australia.

 

[King Pietersen]

Ok then that changes things some what, but even in October/November (which is when the first Sheffield Shield game was held in Hobart this season) Hobart's hotter, has more hours of sunlight, a far higher maximum recorded temperature and not much more rainfall. The difference isn't as large as I thought it was, but England is still colder, and feels much colder than it actually is due to the winds from the North sea which are freezing.

 

[aussie_ben91]

What's those statistics matter? If it's rains it rains, if it doesn't it doesn't. For example, Bopara could play in a one-off week where England's sunny, etc and the pitch is flat and he would make runs but if Hughes makes runs in Hobart when it overcast for the entire match and there is a few rain delays then whos innings would you judge better?

 

[Harrypotter_fan]

I like Hughes very much but Duminy has proved himself in all forms of the game. Truly looks to be a great player. He has saved SA many times too. Hughes' role is to provide a solid platform while Duminy's is to carry on the good work or get his team out of trouble. Both do an excellent job for their team. Can't say one of them is better than the other.

 

[mrtwisties]

I have been persuaded, and will vote for Hughes. It was a bit of a knife-edge, but I read some stuff about how quickly Hughes learns and that decided it for me. Well, that and I started poking through his first class performance (not just the stats) after Ben linked to the Bellerive Oval match. What a guy.

 

[Harrypotter_fan]

I have been persuaded, and will vote for Hughes. It was a bit of a knife-edge, but I read some stuff about how quickly Hughes learns and that decided it for me. Well, that and I started poking through his first class performance (not just the stats) after Ben linked to the Bellerive Oval match. What a guy.

You got recruited in Ben's army!

 

[aussie_ben91]

Duminy's made 1 hundred in 55 International innings
Hughes' made 2 hundreds in 6 International innings

 

[venom2011]

Hughes - 170 odd Tests, average 50-52
Duminy - 140 odd Tests, average 50-54
Pietersen - 125 odd Tests, average 50-52
Bopara - 120 odd Tests, average 40-43

Hughes will be the best batsman.

aussie_ben91 added 1 Minutes and 43 Seconds later...


Graeme Smith hit 2 double hundreds in England against arguably a better side. His styile is just as ugly, if not uglier then Hughes. Smith has some serious technique faults against swing bowling, Hughes doesn't.[/QUOTE]

Haha that first bit is just dumb

Smith has an unorthodox grip sure, but during that series he had great balance, head position, watched the ball right on to the bat. Nothing wrong with his technique back then. Later on he had balance issues which was why he struggled against swing bowling, but he's sorted that out and that's why he has been very good for the last 18-24 months. There's a big difference between having an ugly technique and having a bad technique.

Duminy's made 1 hundred in 55 International innings
Hughes' made 2 hundreds in 6 International innings

Duminy started in 2004 in the ODI team and it wasn't really the best form of the game for him. He then batted at 8 in first 3 innings. He was messed around in the order for quite a while, hence the poorish ODI average.

 

[Slowcoach]

Just noticed that no Australian grounds feature in the top 10 "happiest hunting grounds" this decade for either pace or spin.

Also 2 Australian grounds (Sydney and Adelaide) feature in the top 10 (might even have been the top 5) for being the easiest grounds to bat on this decade.

Seems the stats are saying I was right in calling Australian pitches the flattest in world cricket, or at least the equal of India and Pakistan in terms of being easist to score on.

As far as Hughes stats go, he is off to a very very good start, and just watching him you can tell he is going to be something special. I don't care about his technique, it is his balance, timing, and hand eye co-ordination that impresses me. His ability to alter his shot at the last moment to hit boundaries no matter where the ball pitches is unique, he is not just some batting robot who needs the ball to be pitched in "the slot" or his "scoring zone".

Hughes technique is just unorthodox, that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it.