Baggy Green vs Seth Efrika preview

Test Cricket!

I swear I’ll get zero work done today. I’m so excited with the Aussie vs South Africa Test Series about to start. When it’s summer, in Australia, I can tell you that cricket’s the number one game in town. Just ask anyone around.

Pitch Report

Have been reading from the curator, he reckons the wicket was slow last year due to the domestic T20 final being 3 days prior to the WACA test and that stuffed his preperation. Surely we can chuck this garbage cricket indoors or something, just don’t fúck with our Test Cricket.

So here’s hoping for a green top that gives the Aussie and Saffa quicks all the assistance they could ask for. I want to see the WACA back to being the fastest and meanest pitch on earth.

Injuries

Stu Clark’s elbow giving up is terrible news for the Baggy Greens. Fortunately Side-Siddle is no slouch, he’s got a lot of heart and will bowl all day uphill into the wind, then rather than rest up in the lunch break he’ll get out his favourite axe and chop some wood in a relaxing David Foster tribute.

Fantasies

My fantasy team, the “Hairy backed sheilas”, is looking pretty good, despite being unable to afford all the NSW players and Hussey. Seems the folks at cricinfo have priced the Blues out of contention, which is understandable as we fúcking rock. In the end Lee had to be dropped, his pricetag of 100k was making it tough to get Clarke and Haddin.

The only good thing to come out of Clark’s injury is Siddle happens to be the cheapest bowler on the park, meaning I can afford more NSW players.

It’s time to claim my prize from the Chappell/Hadlee series, I’d like JRod to write a review of the 2007 Sheffield Shield final in the style of a madly patriotic New South Wales supporter.

Cliché Tossers

I’m honestly not too worried about the toss in Perth, it’s more what we do with it. Batting or Bowling there’s going to be opportunity to impose your will on the series. I’ll be upset to miss the cliché’s due to work so will have a go myself. The bowling team will want to take early wickets to put pressure on the middle order. They can do this by bowling in good areas and pitching it up to allow prodigious swing with the assistance of the good Doctor Fremantle.

What colour was the couch?

South Africa certainly used to be the All Blacks (Rugby World Cup vintage) of Cricket, but have they grown up? Ponting’s been trying real hard to get Smith to talk, alas young Graeme’s learnt a lot from his chronic foot in mouth of 1995. The saffas have Duncan Armstrong on the staff too, and I hear that he’s been involved in beating Australia in the past.

Donald Duck forgets to run

Donald Duck forgets to run

Anti-Siphoning

On advice from a Beer and Sport reader that I met in the pub (how random, I have a reader!), I’m going to keep my bítching about institutions to a minimum and will seriously try and get it out of the way in advance.

Perth Tests are always the worst for Aussie audiences getting rectªlly reamed by Channel 9. The schedule of play for NSW/VIC is

  • 1st Session: 1:30pm to 3:30pm
  • 2nd Session: 4:10pm to 6:10pm
  • 3rd Session: 6:30pm to 8:30pm

For those of us who have jobs, that third session looks prime for watching on the telly, however, those fúcksticks put on their shíthouse news and current affairs shízer so we get nothing between 6pm and 7pm. Sometimes they’ll delay the news by 10 minutes, so we’ll see the end of session two, but miss the first 40 mins of session 3.
Best of all Foxtel are forbidden from showing it as channel 9′s right to exclusive coverage is protected by law. Even though they’re not actually showing it, so, by law, they have the right to deny me coverage of the cricket. C9′s Sydney number is (02) 9906-9999 and I’ll be sure to call and yell abuse at 6:31pm.

Crystal Ball

Sure the Saffas have 2 guys who bowl over 150kph and swing it. We’ve got three.
Sure they’ve got a spinner who can contain, we’ve got one who turns it and takes wickets.
Sure they’ve got a settled and in form batting line-up. Um.. oh dear.
I’m with Oooh Aaah. 3-0 to the Aussies.

Winning stuff at Beer and Sport

So much serenity

So much serenity

I’ve been on a bit of a roll lately. First up I topped the test leg of JRod’s cricinfo fantasy cricket for the Trevor-Barry Trophy. I’m not sure if this event carries on into the ODI series next year, but I’m happy to claim victory now and have all bow down in my presence.

My policy of selecting players based on links to the great state of NSW has certainly been reaping dividends. Michael Clarke did a stand up job as captain of “Jessie ate all the pies”, and Brett Lee was a bit weak early on but redeemed himself with both bat and ball taking me 475 points clear of the nearest challenger. Even Brad Haddin chipped in with a timely 169.

I’ve also picked up the coveted yellow jersey from the Cricket=Action=Art guessing competition. Sure I got there a little late and the clue pretty much gave it away, but I was the one who guessed that it was Western Australia’s pre-cursor to Cameron White, the original and sookiest crying cricketer, Kimberly Hughes.

Marty was kind enough to make me a prize for this guessing competition, a delightfully retouched image of David Boon in the most natural of positions. Be sure to click the thumbnail to admire Boony in all his splendor, or go over to Cricket=Action=Art for more of these superb artworks from the Cricket World.

Slaying Demons on the Delhi Road

Katich Beard's a Hatrick

Katich Beard's a Hatrick

I’m off to Cairns for the next 10 days so it’s unlikely that I’ll blog in that time. So to fill the gap I’ll bring out the crystal ball to predict the remainder of this test.

Day 3 in Delhi will be a day of demon slaying. Simon Katich doesn’t shave this morning and now has a beard, which is instrumental in his bearding up a quick century, before a mid-pitch collision with Gambhir that leads to his run out. Both players are summoned before Chris Broad for spirit of the game violations.

Ricky Ponting comes in last over before lunch and hits 28 off Kumble to get his eye in. The next two sessions are absolute mayhem with Ricky and Haydo’s going at 9.33 runs an over. By stumps Ricky is on 281* and Hayden 401* of which 202 came off Zaheer Khan, or Haydo’s bítch as he’s now known. Australia are sitting pretty overnight at 1/788. Brian Lara is spewing to have lost both big records in the same series.

Ricky and Haydos retire overnight and Australia open Day 4 with T20 specialists Cameron White and Shane Watson batting. They bat for exactly 20 overs and put on a further 220 runs (White 118* and Watson 102*) before Ricky declares 395 runs ahead at 3/1008.

Katich opens the bowling with Brett Lee. In his first over he has Sehwag caught and bowled off the back of his bat when his reverse sweep gets all tangled up. Next over Gambhir charges down the pitch at Katich, but Simon says no and fires the ball hard down leg. Haddin completes the stumping.

Dravid is caught the very next ball by Ponting who still refuses to wear a helmet at silly mid and Katto’s on a hatrick. VVS walks to the crease to the sound of 350 Indian fans screaming (another great day for crowd attendance). Katto bowls him the wrongun and VVS again fails to pick it, shouldering arms to the ball that beards him outside the line of off but has done enough to convince Billy to raise his crooked finger. 4/28.

Tendulkar is next to go, retired hurt by a corker of a delivery from Stuart Clark, that picthed on a good length and reared up viciously, smashing him on the neck. A helicopter is flown in and Tendulkar is medically evacuated. I hope he’s ok.

Play resumes and Ganguly takes 6 minutes to appear at the crease, and even then with two left gloves. Ponting appeals and the Prince of Calcutta is timed out.

Full credit for Dhoni’s wicket goes to Steve Waugh, though I doubt you’ll hear that story from Cameron White. Dhoni blocked a regulation straight delivery then it bounced back towards the stumps only for Dhoni to knock it clear with his gloved hand. Handled ball. White cried. Again. 7/84, 311 behind.

Brett Lee and Stuart Clark cleaned up the tail, with only Mishra providing some resistance with a hard fought 120. Australia win by an innings and 240 runs. Katto beards man of the match. True Story.

The Bastard Monkeys

I’ve joined JRod’s Fantasy Cricket League, should be a bit of a laugh. Here’s the steps to choosing a Fantasy Cricket Team

Step 1 – Pick a name

I thought Bastard Monkeys would nicely capture the spirit in which I hope for this series to be played. Unfortunately CricInfo had other ideas, advising me that “Your team name seems to contain objectionable words. Please modify your team name in order to proceed”. Seems you can’t say Monkey even in your fantasies.

Step 2 – Identify the team lists.

This is a hell of a lot harder than you might imagine. Even the Cricinfo Scorecard shows 15 players in each team, and kickoff is 2 or 3 hours away. It’s fair to say there’s some guesswork involved here.

Step 3 – Identify NSW Representation

We all know that the best cricketers come from New South Wales, so it makes sense to fit as many of them as possible into any Fantasy. Thus my fantasy team has:

  • MJ Clarke
  • SM Katich
  • SR Clark
  • B Lee
  • BJ Haddin

    Step 4 – Conform to Comp Restrictions

    This comp requires a mix of Aus/Ind players. Fortunately there’s only 5 from NSW in the likely Aussie squad so I haven’t broken any rules yet. The good folks at cricinfo generated some random numbers for the salary caps as they appear to completely ignore form and ability. Taking this into account, the remainder of my squad is:

  • VVS Laxman
  • M Kaif
  • SR Tendulkar
  • SR Watson
  • Z Khan
  • I Sharma

    Step 5 – Annoint a captain

    Obviously he would have to hail from NSW, Michael Clarke is my choice due to his hot missus all round record against India.