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.

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.

Johnson took a fourfer

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.

After New Zealand put on a hard fought 470 at a brisk 3.6 rpo in their first innings, The England came out and started batting for a draw.

The England managed in their 41 over first day stint to amass a total of 89 runs. They’ve made up for that exuberance today however, succeeding in slowing down their scoring rate to 1.6 over the last 10 overs.

It’s worth remembering that this enzed attack is minus their spearhead Shane Bond, leaving a fine collection of medium paced all-rounders and off spinners. Plus they’re playing in Hamilton, the ground which is so large it can hold up to 10,000 spectators. Those boundaries must be HUGE.

As I write this Vaughan has departed which brings saffa skunk to the crease, hopefully he’ll stir things up a bit.

Consider the alternatives:

New Zealand Win, series is 1-1 and sets up a decider for the final match. Australia would go into game three treating it as a final, just ask India or Sri Lanka what happens when we apply ourselves in finals.

The third outcome of the match being rained out is by far the best option for enzed. That they looked hapless with the bat and crumbled to 3/f’uckall is even better.

They now go into the final game with the trophy still alive. To retain the trophy they had to win in Hobart regardless, now Australia will have their guard down, and despite talk of how much this series means to us we’ve gone and rested Gilly for the final.

The game is in Hobart which will probably suit the choice bro’s style, small boundaries and decent pitch for their plethora of medium pacers. Vettori will be a handfull, and if Flemming or McCullum choose this day to fire they’ll be saying “sweet as” for another 12 months as our cabinet is 1 from full.

Sure they’re down on momentum, but really what is that in a 50 over game anyway? For me it’s just a buzzword that Buchanan used to make the opposition feel inferior, and one he often used cause Australia always seem to have it!

]]> http://beerandsport.net/the-kiwis-are-singing-in-the-rain/feed/ 0 http://beerandsport.net/have-the-saffas-got-their-mojo-back/ http://beerandsport.net/have-the-saffas-got-their-mojo-back/#comments Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:20:00 +0000 Moses http://beerandsport.net/?p=34 Continue reading →]]> South Africa DIDN’T CHOKE! This shocking revelation is up there with the Titanic not sinking or Jaguar making a reliable car. It’s just not cricket.

I suppose there are a few grains of normalcy that we can cling to to believe that all is still right and just in the cricketing universe. I mean South Africa with their mojo back? Please.

• It was a home game (didn’t seem to help them in the 2003 world cup)
• It is a nothing series
• It’s against a Kiwi side routed by injuries and low on morale
• The Kiwi’s went out of their way to lose (Smith dropped by Vettori, AB Devilliers dropped by Taylor, and the final nail

49.2 Gillespie to Nel, 1 run, dropped! Nel slashes a full and wide delivery up and over backward point, a fielder runs after at is it dies on him, diving out in front and failing to hold on! Very tough catch

Boucher hit a single off the next ball and Andre won the game with another two fours.

Poor kiwi’s. But in reality though it’s a promising sign, there are several reasons not to worry just yet.

• They weren’t playing Australia
• It was a nothing game
• Duckworth Lewis didn’t come into play

]]> http://beerandsport.net/have-the-saffas-got-their-mojo-back/feed/ 0 http://beerandsport.net/kiwis-v-saffas-and-some-blog-updates/ http://beerandsport.net/kiwis-v-saffas-and-some-blog-updates/#comments Sun, 25 Nov 2007 12:38:00 +0000 Moses http://beerandsport.net/?p=33 Continue reading →]]> Anyways, I’ve been watching the Kiwi’s take on the Saffas and they’ve finally grown some Bollingers. Maybe not big brass ones, but there’s something dangling and just in time for their Chappel-Hadlee defence…

249 on a fairly difficult wicket with a great knock by How bringing up 90. One funny incident when he was on 49 the african cameraman was going for a walk in front of the sightscreen as Botha was coming in to chuck. How at the last second backed away and dead-balled the delivery while the cameraman ducked and tried to be invisible. Then they were waiting for him to get out of the way and he was completely clueless, walking back and forwards before finally Andre Nel went and ‘escorted’ him out of the way. Laughs all round.

Now they’re backing it up with the ball – the evil Saffas 2/9 with Kyle Mills grabbing some quick wickets. Best of all Kallis is gone and the Saffas are looking a bit vulnerable with their chief probot back in the shed. Gillespie just trapped Smith right in front, but going over said umps. Quite possibly was, not a bad call I guess. 11 runs without scoring and the evil saffas are under some pressure.

Thought I’d whip out photoshop and chuck together a header for the new blog while the Saffas are blocking. Also added a cricinfo scores widget.. not convinced as to it’s usefulness as yet..

This chick is sweedish apparently. I thought they all had blonde hair with blue eyes, but am happy to be proven wrong.

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