I can understand this decision, as a must outright win game for the Blues it’s hardly the time to be blooding new openers… but if the story is true then they could have at least picked him in their second XI squad!

At least Warner’s useful in the field and will make a top notch 12th man, he’s got International experience after all.

Best of all, the papers can re-run their stories about his not even having a 1st class cap. Can’t wait.

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.

Outright Bástard

The future Australian XI did well to restrict the star studded Redbacks outfit to 313 after they won the toss and elected to swing the willow.

A pumped up Bluetongues blew off the demons of losing their 50 Over match off a last ball misfield by scoring 576 runs in reply to the SA total, a superb effort from the pre-pubescent future Baggy Greens against the recently pronounced sane reverse swinging demi-god and “India-Ready” Shaun Tait.. who spectacularly failed to take any wickets at all with the first ball, then managed a massive 1 batsman and 2 bowlers with the second.

So, Day 4 and we were looking at bowling the Redbacks out to add outright victory to our firsts innings points, however Younis Khan has finally shed the jetlag and has been batting most of the day. What’s more he’s now taken the SA total past ours meaning we’ll have to bat again, Bastárd.

Man Hair

Now I’m not going to make excuses for the loss, by all accounts Tait was devastating with the ball, and it’s not like losing our top 27 players to an India tour and another to a debilitating man-hair injury has adversely effected us.

As long as NSW continue to breed the big names we should pull through this season, and if we can find a way to make the finals then get our big guns back we’ll probably win the Shield, again.

So onto more distracting issues, like John Rogers. John is a simple man, and like many of his generation has strong values of honesty, integrity, and dignity. John believes in one club for life. This was made somewhat easier for John as he wasn’t very good and only played 4 first class matches, but true to his ethics they were all for his beloved New South Wales.

It pains John to recall the tale of his son Chris , who holds the rare blemish as the only Australian ever to hit a double century against Australia. It was Chris Rogers demorilising of Lee, Gillespie, Kasprowicz and Macgill that started the 2005 rot that led into a ODI loss to Bangladesh and concluded with the poms in an open topped bus.

The anguish that poor John suffers when regailing the career of his foreyed ranga slut of a son Chris is unbearable. Here is a one club for life man who’s son has so far graced the rosters of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Shropshire, Western Australia, Victoria, and Australia.

In April Chris walked out on his contract with Western Australia, a curious move considering he’d just cracked the national setup, and one must ask as to the motivation for this move. The official line from camp Rogers was his frustration at being ommited from WA’s One Day squad. He had offers from Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, and to understand where Chris Rogers’ priorities lay, the benefits of playing each state have to be examined.

Queensland would have been a disaster for Rogers. His gingah hair and fair complexion would have been no match for the harsh Gabba sun.

South Australia on paper offered the best package. It was rumoured he’d get the captaincy, they are completely and utterly shithouse in the batting department so he’d be worshipped by all 7 SACA members, plus the Adelaide Zoo offers free entry to Rangas, themselves an endagered species according to Zoos SA’s director of conservation programs Kevin Evans.

Finally there was Victoria, and this could prove to be the final nail in his loyal fathers coffin, a man who’s life has been spent fostering a hatred of those damn mexicans with mobiles.

The plusses would be playing in the countries second best state side, not having to face Dirk Nannes, and inclusion in the shortened format of the game. But when it came time to talk turkey, none of these things mattered.

Chris is 31 years old, mostly blind, and wholly red haired. Peroxide and laser eye surgery are not cheap so he’d gone to the Mexicans, and here is why: Victoria are playing in the world T20 club championship. This is in India. The IPL is in India. $$$$$$$$$$$

One scenario that plays out is Mr Junior making 300 while his team falls all around him. I’d like to see that, as I reckon he really should be in the Australian side. Not because he’s Victorian – he was born in Perth and in 2005 asked to be transferred back to play for his native Western Australia but was knocked back by Victorian Cricket even though they had dropped him – but because he brings a reliability that is missing from our middle order, and is more than handy with the ball. Perhaps we can drop Punter for him.

I almost felt sorry for the Victorians this morning – seems that Uncle-J is taking it pretty hard, and while still optimistic of chasing down the 533 on a 5th day SCG wicket against Lee, Clark, Macgilla, Bracken, Casson and Clarke, is starting to repress his inner monologue.

Then I remembered that he’s Victorian, and the sympathy quickly passed. Bring it home blues.

So, the sporting declaration comes leaving the Mexicans 108 overs to bring up the target of 629. 5.8 an over should be easy as.

Course they could try and hold out for a draw, but then we win anyway so presumably they’ll go for it.

What a great sport Katto is. Were it up to me I would have batted all day and maybe given them two sessions to get 850.

Ross emails “Why would NSW declare ?? Bat for the rest of the match and let Casson and Lee get maiden first class centuries and keep the Vic’s in the field for as long as possible. Isn’t that the whole idea of finishing on top of the table, have the final at home, need nothing but a draw !! “

which poses an interesting point. If this games a draw then we win. So the Vics HAVE to bat for a win regardless of how long we give them to bat.

That said, there’s been a marked improvement in the scoring rates since lunch, we’re going along at over 6rpo so I think the pre-declaration slog is in motion. Another 20-30 minutes should see that lead over 600 which I dare say will be a number too high for the Vics in 4.5 sessions. Still, if it guarantees bring home the trophy, lets bat till stumps.

Still, with the Aussie attack on our side less the short of a length outside off Johnson to waste the shine, you’d fancy us to wrap them up pretty quickly. Lee’s probably getting a bit of attention from side-siddle as we speak, nothing like firing him up to really do some damage when he does get the ball in his hand. Perhaps the Binger Beamer will make a re-appearance – and no that’s not the one that Lara gets when there’s a cold draft.

Apparently “the pitch is too slow” as cricinfo informs me. not really sure what that means but supposedly Macgilla and speciallist batsman Beau Casson can have a bit of fun out there.

Lets push on for the next session and a half and really make a lead of this. At the very least I want to win by 300, really put it beyond doubt.