It's just a matter of age

What's better than a 37-year old wrist-spinner who concedes 4 an over and bowls a lot of long-hops?

A 25-year old wrist-spinner who does the same.

To give him some credit, Beau Casson definitely showed, after drawing a blank in West Indies' first innings, that he had the ability to keep his head even when Dwayne Bravo went after him like a maniac. Also don't forget that he got two of the most important wickets in the 2nd innings - Xavier Marshall and Bravo.

West Indies ran Australia close for a while, but once they lost Bravo and Chanderpaul, the game was up. In the first test, the game was made even by West Indies' bowling in the second innings but Stuart Clark blew away any hope of a West Indies win.

Overall, the series was quite a good one. Even the second test potentially had a twist at the end, but West Indies hung on. I was surprised with the way West Indies played. Unlike in the past, they didn't seem to turn up expecting to lose against Australia. There could be multiple reasons attributed to it: Warne & McGrath having retired, Brian Lara's absence or the injury to Hayden.

But I think the main reason West Indies did well was because their bowling attack had Australia in trouble on multiple occasions. That they couldn't go on and finish the job could be attributed to incompetence (their own as well as the umpires') and the famous Aussie ability to wriggle out of every troubling situation.

West Indies need to make sure they have at least 4-5 fit quick bowlers (Edwards, Taylor, Powell did play the series, but what happened to Collymore?), 1-2 spinners that they need to groom over a period of time and some better batting (only Chanderpaul & Sarwan made centuries, neither made 130 and a tail that can make at least 70-100 runs).

As for Australia, I guess they'll really be hoping that Casson is good enough to play for a decade at least. From what I've read, the reserve spinners are really not good enough. If Casson doesn't do well, then I guess Australia will end up having Symonds and Clarke as the spinners.

Then again, like I wrote when Warne & McGrath retired, Australia only have themselves to blame for not giving the likes of Nathan Hauritz and Dan Cullen enough opportunities, especially to bowl in tandem with Warne in international cricket.

Labels: australia, casson, macgill, spin