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.

The Great Saffattack Myth

There’s a lot of opinion around that the Proteas have the best fast bowling attack in World Cricket.

I disagree. While they have some brilliant quicks boasting impressive career figures, once you take them away from home and remove the minnows of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe they’re quickly bought back down to earth. What

  • Dale SteynRight-arm fast
    Career: 27 Tests, 136 Wickets at 22.67
    Excluding Minnows, away from home: 9 Tests, 40 Wickets at 27.68
  • Makhaya NtiniRight-arm fast
    Career: 93 Tests, 369 at 27.69
    Excluding Minnows, away from home: 37 Tests, 119 Wickets at 36.48
  • Morne MorkelRight-arm fast
    12 Tests, 40 Wickets at 30.92
    Excluding Bangladesh his figures are 8 Tests yielding 19 Wickets at 45.6

  • Jacques KallisRight-arm fast-medium
    Career: 125 Tests, 245 Wickets at 30.92
    Excluding Minnows, away from home: 51 Tests, 92 Wickets at 35.86
  • Monde ZondekiRight-arm fast
    Career: 6 Tests, 19 Wickets at 25.26
    Excluding Minnows, away from home: 4 Tests, 7 Wickets at 47.57

So, 4 right-arm quicks offering no variety and ordinary performances away from home. Their Spearhead, Dale Steyn had been, in my estimation, the best quick in world cricket until he toured England a few months ago. Now he’ll really have to lift his game to match Brett Lee and the rapidly improving Mitchell Johnson.

They’ve left out Andre Nel, and while I’ve not closely followed the Saffa scene I do recall him being omitted from a recent Bangladeshi tour due to his whiteness. Perhaps the stigma associated with his being dropped for Charl Langaveldt then is still around? Either way, they’re a weaker side without his aggression and passion, and he’ll be sorely missed by the Aussie crowds in need of a villain.

Compare this to the variety offered by the Aussie pace attack:

  • Brett Lee ; right-arm fast

  • Mitchell Johnson ; left-arm fast
  • Stuart Clark ; right-arm McGrath
  • Shane Watson ; right-arm male model

Here’s to a cracking series, and to no Perth Based Saffa ex-pats yelling racist remarks and tarnishing Australian crowds with their brush.

New Zealand Dis-Envowelled by Johnson

Johnson took a fourfer

Johnson took a fourfer

Looks like there’s some life in this wicket, with Mitchell Johnson again being our best bowler as EnZed are dismissed for 156. Proving the wicket was good for all the quicks Lee, Clark and Watson were all able to add 2 wickets to their career totals.

Regular wickets from the Baggy Greens choked the kiwi’s of any momentum, their highest partnership being 35 between Taylor (40) and Flynn (39*).

Daniel Flynn was still there at the end, which is likely what he was hoping for. How else would you explain taking a single off the first ball of a Stuart Clark over when super-bunny Chris Martin is at the other end?

The Aussies take a 58 run 1st innings lead and will look to improve on their first innings effort, and with more favourable conditions they certainly should. At this stage the low and slow scoring match looks typical of the Gabba this year, and will likely be over by day 3!

Tea’s been taken early in the innings break so we’ll be looking at a long third session. Perhaps we’ll go off if it starts to piss down again, unlike last night when Clarke was dismissed in the rain.

No heroics please Hayden and Katich – you both owe me from píss-poor scores in my fantasy league from the first innings.

Cricket WAGS Deathmatch – Round 1

Welcome to Round 1 of the Aussie Cricket WAGS DeathMatch. The rules are simple, just vote for the hottest missus in each pool. If you’re torn between two of the lovely entrants, I suggest you give bonus consideration to the one with the uglier cricketer who would never have scored such a hottie were it not for his sporting career.

All up there’s 8 votes this round, and the images are in the same order as the poll choices. You can hover your mouse over the pictures to see the names, and can also click the thumbnails for the full size and un-cropped picture to open in a new window.

{democracy:2}

Annika McNamara Christine Padfield Sue Langer

{democracy:3}

Georgie Willis Jacqui Morris Simone Warne

{democracy:4}

Haley Bracken Anna Gillespie Kellie Hayden

{democracy:5}

Elizabeth Lee Jessica Bratich Meredith Jenkins

{democracy:6}

Mel Gilchrist Lara Bingle Amy Hussey

{democracy:7}

Danielle Small Lee Furlong Michelle Clark

{democracy:8}

Katie Johnson Karina castle Meg Hodge

{democracy:9}

Amber van Schiajik Lindsay Kasprowicz Rianna Ponting

There’s a bomb in the stadium

Like Tim Nielsen and Shane Watson I’m still supremely confidant of a win, and the way these two are batting we’re just 81 4′s from victory in Mohali. I wonder if a 9th wicket partnership between Clarke and Johnson of 368 would break any records?

Or I could blog in a bomb threat, you know, to save the Indians. I advise the Mohali officials to urgently look under seat 22B in the rhaji bhajji stand. And don’t go under 88 mph.