I’ve been a bit quite around here lately, spending most of my time on www.greenandgoldrugby.com. I’ve also disabled comments on this blog as the amount of spam coming through is unbearable!

Anyway, as I watching Australia dominate the T20 it’s much more interesting to listen to www.testmatchsofa.com than the tripe being served up on Fox. Better still, I’ve added a widget to the right so just press play and enjoy!

Couldn’t help myself…

Mitchell Johnson is in terrible form, you can read about it here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and according to google there are 520 more such stories here.

However, when one looks at aggregated bowling figures, Johnson has 8 wickets and is just trailing Hauritz (9) and Hilfenhaus (9) for series honours.

Mithcell’s bowling average of 41.38 looks terrible, until you consider the roads prepared to date and observe that he’s ranked 5th best in the series, ahead of JM Anderson (42.1), PM Siddle (45.1), GP Swann (56.1), SCJ Broad (64.1), MS Panesar (115.1) and all the part timers.

Johnno’s overall economy rate is poor at 4.00, with just Collingwood (4.47) and Onions (4.55) returning inferior resutls. Still, I haven’t read too many stories calling for Onions to be chopped.

On paper his bowling to date is more than acceptable, it’s impressive. He’s taken 8 out of 34 English wickets, namely Strauss, Cook (twice), Bopara, Flintoff, Prior, Broad (on 19) and Anderson (on 29) so there’s no ‘soft’ ones padding his stats, unlike SuperFred.

Are we asking too much of a guy who’s had the ‘spearhead’ label placed on him after 3 good spells and an injury to Lee? If we’re going to drop any bowler for Clark to come in then Siddle should be first in line.

Give it to me big boy

Sure it would be easy to discount the wickets of Phil Hughes and Simon Katich from Freddie’s performance, however Flintoff’s brilliance transcends Rudi’s howlers. I’d like to think it was Fred’s aura that blurred Rudi’s view of the front foot line, and his presence that persuaded Rudi to forsake consistancy and just adjudicate the Strauss “catch” out. Well, either his precense or his presents, either way Hansie would be proud of his countrymen.

In remembering this outstanding bowling performance it should not be forgetten that he legitimately dismissed a wicket keeper and two bowlers, a phenomonal effort for a bowler passed fit by England’s medical staff just 4 mornings earlier.

Then there was the spirit in which he bowled his fiery 10 over spell, surely this is the stuff of which legends are made. That he celebrated his wickets like an ‘outraged camp duck’ shouldn’t take the gloss away from this memorable performance.

Freddie deserves to be eulogised and immortalised, though probably not as much as the 62 English bowlers who have superior innings figures at Lords (even after including Rudi’s freebies).

Here’s some thumbnails of Freddie accepting the well deserved praise that came with his 6 wickets…

Katto pushes to cover

Not hitting a single run from three overs while Philip Hughes knocks around 17(26) at the other end, this is the sort of knock that I want to see more of from Katich. This is the form that bags him triple centuries in domestic competition, and god wont save the Poms or our Queen if he continues this sort of form in Cardiff.

We can but hope that Katto has removed that foul swipe outside off from his arsenal and from this scorecard I have determined that his mind is 100% focussed on redeeming the failures of 2005… although Aleem Dar must also take his share of the blame for the cleansing to be complete.

Let us pray that he’s been able to utilise his full arsenal of non-scoring shots in this dig, the ambitious and exaggerated leave wide outside off, the late bat swerve and shimmy round the ball which just misses the off stump, the forward defensive, the back foot punch, the push to cover, the duck, the swerve and the mis-timed pull to mid-on, all are integral parts of the Katich defensive suite.

This knock is honestly what I like to see from Katto. In that tough period approaching stumps with 5 overs to negotiate I applaud a non-scoring not-out.

He took a wicket too, in the 8 overs that Ponting gave him. If Punter stays true to form he wont bowl again this series.

Bugger, now I feel like a Tooheys.. but not two, no-one would make that mistake twice!

Hat-tip to Cricket-Blog for digging this one up.

Rain Dance

What a crock of shíte! Surely this rain is not a new phenomena, perhaps even something they could have considered before awarding the series to Sri Lanka in the first place?

Presumably Cricket South Africa have guaranteed a mid spring dry spell, and have their best witchdoctor slaying the finest vírgins to ensure no rains eventuate.

Can’t they just say it’s cause of terrorists? No-one wants to get shot so they’ve moved it and blamed it on the weather. There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

Howzatt?

My solution is to implement a protocol similar to that used in Rugby. Leave the on field umpires in charge, their authority can not be challenged and once the finger goes up you are out. However, allow the on field umpires to utiise the technology in their decision making. If they are not 100% convinced about an aspect of the decision then let them go upstairs and ask the third umpire for clarification.

Some questions you might hear:

• “I’m happy with the height and that it was going to hit the stumps, however can you confirm that the ball pitched in line?”

• “Can you check hot spot and advise if that was bat or pad?”
• “Did the ball hit the bat before or after hitting the pad?”

While we’re changing the umpiring laws, lets have the third umpire check all dismissals for front foot no-balls as a matter of course.. if he happens to see one then call the batsman back.