Day 1
They won a vital toss which allowed them to bat on a flat deck in the sunshine. There was nothing for the bowlers, and combined with Johnson losing the plot the poms got a great start. Cook made the worst 95 I’ve ever seen before getting out to the same that took him down in Cardiff. Notably this was the 3rd straight one that Johnson had bowled to him, and he gets out playing across the line. Ordinary. Hilfenhaus bowled very well but with Mitch spraying faeces from the other end there was no pressure building.

After lunch we bowled very well, drying up runs and took some big wickets too (Cook, Bopara).

Strauss played a brilliant innings. Batted for 3 sessions and a ball while his entire team fell around him. Had Hauritz saved his finger from dislocation and caught the f’ucking ball then it would have been a very different story, but at stumps on Day 1 we were well behind.

Day 2
Low cloud and now there’s something in it for the bowlers. Ball is swinging around and generally making things difficult. Strauss gone second ball, and the pommy tail wagged a bit but they were mopped up by drinks. Our turn to bat and it’s looking decidedly different out there.

Hughes goes after one down leg and gloves it to Prior. Poor shot but a bit unlucky. Ponting misses it by a foot and gets given caught behind. Could have been close to lbw, but not close enough, terrible decision.

Hussey and Katich consolidate and we’re looking in decent shape before ‘group think’ takes over and 5 batsmen get out hooking. Farking stupid, but I’d hesitate to give the pommy bowlers credit for these collective brain farts. Hussey got a great ball, nipped back and made him look the fool leaving the straight one that took out off. Good ball though.

Day 3
Oh, the sun’s out again. Yay. Hauritz and Siddle show just how easy it is to bat on this deck when there’s no cloud around, putting on quick runs through the strangely vacant 3rd man position. Strauss neglects to plug the hole till they’ve added 40 or so, taking us past 200 and almost avoiding the followon.

Poms lead on first innings by 210, which almost works out to the headstart we gave them in the first session of day 1. Regardless, the Aussie batsmen mostly need to give themselves uppercuts for rash hook/pull shots and will look to make ammends in their second dig. Beware the scorned Australian batsman.

Strauss neglects to put us back in regardless, I agreed with him as batting conditions were again perfect, plus Anderson had bowled 20 odd overs and Freddy’s knee was falling apart, again.

Johnson still can’t bowl, Hilfenhaus and Siddle looking dangerous but the real performer is Hauritz with his new finger. Takes two wickets in two overs and is getting good bounce and some turn.

Ponting had a shocker just after Lunch, missed an easy runout of KP and dropped a sitter from Bopara. Those two batsmen then tried their very best to ruin any attacking position that England had gained, going along at 2 runs per over and boring me to sleep.

Day 4
Poms declare overnight, looks like the cloud is out again. Not quite sure why they didn’t declare a few overs before stumps, considering the conditions last night, but not to worry as the cloud is around again.

They quickly make inroads too, Katich is caught off a no ball but Rudi playing the one rash shot of his innings. He’s the kind of batsman who’d have really taken that legit second chance to heart and knuckled in. He looked very solid before the dismissal and had the look of one who would go on for a big score.

Hughes is dropped at 2nd slip by Freddie, wasn’t the toughest of chances either. Next over he edges another one and this one Strauss picks up off the ground in front of him and claims it. Fair enough too, if the umpires are stupid enough to fall for it then he deserves the catch. It’s the consistancy that sucks here – Hauritz caught Bopara 5 metres in front of Rudi, so he sent it upstairs. How he can refer this catch which was less dubious than the Strauss’ one and happened further away I’ll never know. Look for Rudi in the Queens honours list this year.

Ponting and Hussey build a decent partnership and it’s lunch, 2/50 odd and neither should have been out. After lunch Ponting cops a ball that nips in heaps and the Poms finally earn a wicket. Mind you, had the two left handers been in then he woulnd’t have been pitching it there to start with.

Hussey hits the ground instead of the ball and is given out caught. This one looked close on the first look but on the replays he missed it by heaps. A rough one no doubt, but three in a row, that’s ordinary.

One or two roughies happen, but to lose 4 top order wickets in one game in combination with your strike bowler losing it and copping the worst of the conditions, you’re up against it and need a superhuman effort to stay alive.

Enter Michael Clarke. This is by far the best knock I’ve seen from him. Huge pressure and he’s stood up big time. Hasn’t given any chances and we’re still a serious chance of taking out this match. How sweet it will be if he and Haddin can keep it up tomorrow.

Curiously the selectors have waited for his form to wane before selecting him, in this years (victorious!) Twenty20 campaign he scored 62 at 12.4 and took 3 wickets at 40.33. His one innings of note was 42 off 25 when he opened against Tasmania.

• v QLD – 3(4) and 4 overs 2/26

• v WA – 9*(5) and 2 overs 0/14
• v SA – 6(6) and 3 overs 0/27
• v TAS – 42(25) and 2 overs 1/24
• v VIC – 1(4) and DNB
• v VIC – 1(9) and 3 overs 1/30

Whatever, he’s made the cut and I fully support the inclusion of more young players from Australia’s best domestic Twenty20 team. An added bonus is his name is so similar to my own that it’s almost as if I’m playing for Australia, just look for the drunk, overweight and unfit guy (no, not Jesse Ryder) on Sunday.

Aussie Squad for Twenty20 on Sunday

Michael Clarke (c) – NSW , 27
Brad Haddin (vc) – NSW , 31
Nathan Bracken – NSW , 31
Callum Ferguson – SA , 24
Moises Henriques – NSW , 22
Ben Hilfenhaus – TAS , 25
James Hopes – QLD , 30
David Hussey – VIC , 31
Mitchell Johnson – WA , 27
Peter Siddle – VIC , 24
Adam Voges – WA , 29
David Warner – NSW , 22
Cameron White – VIC , 25

Hussey and Ponting have been “rested”, I suspect Rick’s never played a T20 against New Zealand.

They’ve name a 13 man squad, which is a bit rude for the one discarded player who’ll also miss this round of the Sheffield Shield. Hopefully they’ll give him a bucket to collect donations.

Darrell Hair gets hot under the collar

“It’s quite clear-cut. His [Haddin's] gloves were in front of the stumps and the ball hadn’t passed the line of stumps, so he’s in breach of the law and it should have just been an automatic no-ball. Of all the people on the ground, he would have been the one who was best positioned to know. I think he should have owned up to it. I saw that Ponting has gone into bat for him after the Kiwis called him [Haddin] a cheat, but I can understand why the Kiwis would be livid about it.”

“People think the square leg umpire [Bruce Oxenford] is out there for a rest, but the most important thing the square leg umpire is out there to look for are the things that happen the least and that’s hit wicket and the wicketkeeper encroaching. It should have just been called a no-ball from the square leg umpire. You can’t be stumped and you can’t be bowled off a no-ball. But it’s obvious that the ball missed the stump as well.”

Darrell, as usual, is absolutely correct. Haddin had a deadset shocker, and his being upset at Vettori for calling him a cheat is laughable.

I noticed at the end of this article that Darrell is now the “executive officer of the NSW Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association”, so it’s good to have him back home if the ICC are too easily influenced by politics to utilise their best umpire.

Had we won this game, it could have been up there with the underarm ball and another 25 years of Kiwi’s being bitter could be enjoyed by all. Nice.

We’re currently sitting in 5th place out of the 6 teams. At this stage, I’d book the MCG out as Victoria are a certainty to top the table. They’re sitting pretty on 30 points and have a big gap to the next placed Queensland with 3 matches to go. To improve our chances I’ll be hoping for as many Victorian wins to keep them ahead of the field.

There’s 4 matches remaining:

• Fri 30 – Mon 2 Feb vs Tasmania in Newcastle

• Sun 15 – Wed 18 Feb vs Victoria in Melbourne
• Thu 26 – Sun 1 Mar vs Queensland in Brisbane
• Thu 5 – Sun 8 Mar vs WA in Sydney

and of the matches on this weekend, QLD lost to Western Australia but picked up first innings points, Victoria should beat South Australia, and NSW should beat TAS outright for 6 points, which will leave the table 7/10ths of the way through the comp looking like:

• Victoria 36

• Queensland 22
• New South Wales 18
• Western Australia 18
• Tasmania 18
• South Australia 8

The real challenge for NSW, as always, will be when our Test stars depart for the South Africa tour. There is a 3 day game against South Africa A on February 20th, and I’m guessing that safety first Cricket Australia wont let those selected play the shield match against Victoria that finishes on the 18th.

Phillip Hughes is now looking a certainty for his Baggy Green, along with Simon Katich, Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin. Hopefully we can hold onto Phil Jaques, Dave Warner (to get his First Class debut), Nathan Hauritz and Nathan Bracken at least until the One Day squad is sent over for the 27th March. We’ll also be carefully monitoring Stuart Clark’s elbow and Brett Lee’s ankle – their return could well be the deciding factor in this years shield.

Our young blokes will have to step up against the nearer full strength Victorian, Queensland and Western Australian outfits, and if they do we’ll be looking good for another finals appearance. And then, just maybe we can lift the trophy for the 46th time of the 106 times it’s being contested.

Perhaps the corporate function is more to your budget, where you’ll get endless bottles of Crown Lager – officialy Australia’s worst beer in Australia’s prettiest bottle, not to mention Wolfblass Wines as endorsed by Stuart MacGill himself, unless Roy drinks them dry. Throw in accommodation at the Langham Hotel and the $1,175 per person is the cheapest night out this side of Sizzler.

Don’t delay in sending your cash as you could be up close and personal with the team who not only lost to India in India, but also lost at home to South Africa in both a test and ODI series. This is your very own opportunity to be amongst the exclusive and limited 1,500 guests and tens of thousands of TV viewers who get to see the former world number 1′s on big screen TV’s.

What’s more, you can join the rampant speculation of who’ll win this most prestegious of awards, judged over the 12 Test matches played since the 2008 AB gong was taken out by Brett Lee. There were tours to the West Indies and India, plus we hosted New Zealand and South Africa this year. Here’s the candidates for the AB Medal with Moses’ odds attached

The Good

• 2:1 | Mitchell Johnson with 54 wickets at 27.07 plus 327 very handy runs at 21.8 (comparable to Hayden). Mitchell is also unbackable favourite to bring the hottest date for the night.

• 2:1 | Simon Katich who made the most of his return to Test Cricket with 1129 runs at 56.45, and even managed a wicket from the 19 overs Ricky gave him
• 3:1 | Michael Clarke with 1019 runs at 56.61 and 6 wickets at 69.33
• 50:1 | Phil Jaques who scored 243 at 40.83 from 3 Tests before being dropped for Hayden, then picked up a back injury.
• 75:1 | Brad Haddin with 736 runs at 38.73, 42 catches and netting the record for most byes by an Australian ‘keeper
• 225:1 | Peter Siddle debuted quietly enough but has grown into a fair backup for Johnson. His 4 tests netted 17 runs at 31.29, while his batting picked up 75 runs at 15. He’s injured now too.

The Bad

• 40:1 | Michael Hussey with 721 runs at 34.33 and breakthrough wicket of Paul Harris
• 70:1 | Brett Lee battled divorce, poor form and injury yet still took 39 wickets at 36.69
• 80:1 | Shane Watson who’s body held up for 5 Tests was able to score 176 at 19.55 and take 12 wickets at 31.25. Then he broke his back.
• 1000:1 | Beau Casson went to the Windies as MacGilla’s understudy, then Stuey pulled the cork on his career and Casson got a Test. His figures of 1/129 were enough to have him not only dropped from the team but also have his CA contract not renewed.

The Ugly

• 40:1 | Ricky Ponting’s captaincy record of 5 wins (2 NZ, 2 WI, 1 SA), 4 losses and a 3 draws as captain. His batting has also slipped with 974 runs at 44.27
• 100:1 | Cameron White. Picked as our specialist spinner on turning tracks in India, he sort of tied up one end for a little while and scraped 5 wickets at 68.4, which surprised him so much he cried. Our very own Ashley Giles, he also hit 146 runs at 29.2. Dropped for the dead rubber for Krezja, who took 12 wickets.
• 500:1 | Stuart MacGill took 5 wickets at 65, and probably wishes Warney retired 5 years ago.
• 500:1 | Matthew Hayden dominating all comers with 383 runs at 23.93
• 300:1 | Andrew Symonds the “all rounder” who bowled under 6 overs per innings and picked up 2 wickets at 65. Oh, he’s a batsman now. Fair enough then. Well, he scored 431 runs at 39.18 and with a high score of 79 from his 13 innings with 10 starts he was unable to convert any to a century. Also made the front pages for all the wrong reasons. Faced a suspension for going fishing instead of playing Cricket, called Prince Brendan a lump of shit, enjoyed glancing at Hayden’s wife and was generally a prize clown

Man Cry

Here’s who they’ll be missing tomorrow night

• Brad Hodge – avg 42, sr 136. Top Twenty20 run-scorer in Australia. Top Twenty20 run-scorer in the world. Injured in Elimination Final.
• David Hussey – avg 32, sr 140. Second top Twenty20 run scorer in Australia. Restrictive bowler. Playing for Oz.
• Cameron White – avg 35, sr 154. Destructive batsman and part time bowler.

Boo fúcking hoo. I realise it’s a new experience for Victoria to lose players to the national setup, but this is something that happens to us all the time. Here’s the first choice players on our books that we’ll be missing tomorrow night:

Nathan Hauritz – avg 15, eco 6.3. Restrictive bowler. Playing for Oz.

I can’t work out why these articles only mention the absent Victorians. On the balance I’d say NSW are in fact more weakened through injury/abscence than Victoria, but obviously both teams are missing a lot of quality. Regardless, it’s hard to agree with the sob story coming from south of the border.

]]> http://beerandsport.net/victoria-cry-me-a-river/feed/ 4 http://beerandsport.net/prince-brendan-signs-for-the-premier-state/ http://beerandsport.net/prince-brendan-signs-for-the-premier-state/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:24:58 +0000 Moses http://beerandsport.net/?p=925 Continue reading →]]>

NSW Opener

Superb news for the Blues as we hope to break the dirty Vics run of 3 domestic T20 finals in a row, especially with our first choice ‘keeper Brad Haddin tied up against the Saffas. One can’t blame Prince Brendan for hedging his bets – if the KKR don’t make the pay day then he’s definitely in with the Blues, fair play to him.

New South Wales have secured a major coup with Brendon McCullum, the big-hitting New Zealand wicketkeeper, drafted in to the state’s squad for the Australian domestic Twenty20 final in Sydney on Saturday. McCullum owns the most famous century in the format for his 158 off 73 balls in the opening match of the inaugural Indian Premier League and by playing for the Blues he will immediately qualify for the lucrative Champions League Twenty20 in October.

However, in the same article are these comments from NSW CEO Dave Gilbert which I find most disturbing

“With the potential losses the New South Wales squad may suffer depending on which two IPL teams qualify for the Champions League, it is vital that we strengthen our squad ahead of that tournament,”

What the FúCK! If the qualifying IPL “franchises” contain any New South Wales players, they get to pick OUR players to play for them AGAINST US! I can’t fúcking believe this. Stupid bloódy Indian franchises with their 9 months of history and poxy names, throw cash around to loan our players for the IPL, fair enough they can use the money, but to then have first pick of OUR players AGAINST US is a fúcking outrage.

I think of players such as Dave Warner, Moises Henriques and Stephen Smith who’ve come through the junior development programs we have in place, and there’s obviously a fair investment over a period of time in these players. Now some bollywood wánker gets first bite cause they pony up with a barrow full of rupees?

Surely, at the very least they’ll need to get the player released by their home state, at the discretion of the home state, and with a very large wad of cash exchanging hands. The very notion that these Indian blow-ins own our fúcking players makes my blood boil.

I don’t know all the facts, yet, but that never stopped me before.

]]> http://beerandsport.net/prince-brendan-signs-for-the-premier-state/feed/ 27 http://beerandsport.net/stars-denied-leave-as-big-bash-heats-up/ http://beerandsport.net/stars-denied-leave-as-big-bash-heats-up/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:57:02 +0000 Moses http://beerandsport.net/?p=887 Continue reading →]]>

Man Cry

This evening will see Victoria and Queensland fight it out at the Gabba in a high stakes elimination final T20 match. The winner will not only gain entry to the lucrative world club championship, but also the privilege of a Twenty20 lesson from the top dog in Australian domestic Twenty20 cricket at the SCG on Sunday.

The Victorians are píssed off, as having their top players unavailable due to national service is a new problem for them. Now they’ll have to go without the services of Cameron White and David Hussey, who have a ODI on Friday and need their beauty sleep. There is no factual basis to reports that Cameron White Cried, again, at hearing the news, though it does sound likely.

Ryan Harris has been dropped from the national squad so will be available for Queensland, however they’ve replaced him with Mitchell Johnson so that’s probably worse for the New Texas Bulls, who’ll also be missing James Hopes.

CA have also denied requests for the players to be available of for the final, so NSW will be missing David Warner, Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin and Nathan Hauritz.

This could well end up a good experience, as Michael Hussey is keen to explain IPL loyalties come before the state that bought you up, so depending on which IPL teams make the club championship any Australian side could be without their stars when the big bucks are on offer.

Victoria squad: Brad Hodge (capt), Aiden Blizzard, Rob Quiney, Aaron Finch, Andrew McDonald, Matthew Wade, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Damien Wright, Shane Harwood, Jon Holland, Bryce McGain, Dirk Nannes.

Queensland squad: Chris Simpson (capt), Wade Townsend, Ryan Broad, Lee Carseldine, Nathan Reardon, Glen Batticciotto, Craig Philipson, Chris Hartley (wk), Ryan Harris, Nathan Rimmington, Ben Cutting, Alister McDermott, Ben Laughlin.

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