Ranga and Proud

Western Australia are awfully píssed off and seeking compensation after the original club championship was postponed due to men with guns. It’s a lot of cash they’re missing out on, and I feel a nice gesture would be for NSW Cricket to buy them a meaningful gift to ease the pain, perhaps a bronze statue of Simon Katich to stick up in the WACA headquarters..

You can bet the team we send to compete in India includes some names that have until this point played no part in the tournament such as Michael Clarke, Phil Jaques, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Brad Haddin. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as any NSW cricketer will know it’s the privilege and also the curse of representing the state that breeds the big names.

I’ve put together a short synopsis of the 5 matches that have earnt us entry into the World Club Championship, and awarded 3-2-1–1 ratings as I feel they’re warranted.

Game 1 vs Queensland in Brisbane

Scorecard
A good bowling effort led by Doug Bollinger‘s 3/22 and well assisted by Moises Henriques 2/26 restricted Queensland early on, however Beau Casson 0/37 and Mark Cameron 0/34 got spanked allowing the Bulls to amass to 161. Thanks to opening batsman Phillip Hughes scoring 80(20) the total was chased down with 2 balls to spare.

Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Doug Bollinger
2 Phillip Hughes
1 Moises Henriques
-1 Beau Casson

Game 2 vs Western Australia in Homebush, Sydney

Scorecard
Tight bowling by Aaron Heal and Marcus North restricted NSW to 6/148 off 20 overs. 18 year old newcomer Stephen Smith was my pick of the batsmen with 34*(21), Dave Warner 28(22) scored freely early on, while Phillip Hughes 35(34) and Dominic Thornley 23(24) got starts but failed to up the tempo sufficiently against WA’s slower bowlers Marcus North 1/27(4) and Aaron Heal 0/22(4).
Nathan Bracken 2/24 was the pick of the bowlers, Dominic Thornley, Stephen Smith and Moises Henriques generally restricted WA to the required rate of 6-7 rpo, while Beau Casson was again spanked leaking 0/26 off his two overs which gave WA the win and led to his being dropped for the remainder of the comp.

Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Stephen Smith
2 Nathan Bracken
1 Dave Warner
-1 Beau Casson

Game 3 vs South Australia in Adelaide

Scorecard
A solid batting performance by South Australia saw all of their batsmen scoring at 6.5 to 8.7 rpo, however they lacked one batsman to deliver the killer punch in their accumulation of 160 runs.
Mark Cameron was tidy with 1/22, Thornley 1/27(3) applied the brakes nicely and Aaron Bird 3/35 contributed vital top order wickets while leaking runs. Nathan Bracken 3/38 gets the bogey rating despite 3 late wickets saving his figures from absolute embarrassment.
Dave Warner 35(35) got the Blues response off to an absolute flyer, nicely assisted by pedestrian Phillip Hughes 30(29) and Dominic Thornley 28(18)

Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Dave Warner
2 Dominic Thornley
1 Mark Cameron
-1 Nathan Bracken

Game 4 vs Tasmania in Homebush, Sydney

Scorecard
A destructive top 3 saw the Tassie Tigers belt 194 thanks to Lockyear 51(29), Dighton 43(29) and Birt 44(17). Dominic Thornley 0/22 was pick of the NSW bowlers with his 4 overs going for less than Stephen Smith’s 1 over 0/23. Doug Bollinger while moderately expensive took the essential wickets of Dighton and Birt, thus keeping the Tigers total below 200.
The destructive form of Dave Warner had him off to play South Africa, allowing the return of Simon Katich 18(12) and despite a solid opening stand with Moises Henriques 42(25) the fireworks were absent down the order and 166 was all we could muster.

Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Dominic Thornley
2 Moises Henriques
1 Doug Bollinger
-1 Stephen Smith

Game 5 vs Victoria at Homebush, Sydney

Scorecard
The penultimate match, NSW entered this 4th on the table with nothing to lose. A brutal bowling spell by dirty Dirk Nannes 4/11(4) hit the Blues hard early on, with Henriques 1(3), Smith 4(6) and Rohrer 7(8) his early victims. O’Keefe 6(6) fell to a run out and only opener Simon Katich 35(26) was able to resist the dark side of Dirk Nannes. Dominic Thornley 36*(36) came out in the 4th over with the score at 4/39 and steadied the ship, batting with the tail and taking the Blues to a depressingly low 128.
Douggy Bollinger 0/12 applied the pressure with some superb tight swing bowling, and Mark Cameron 1/17 kept the other almost as tight. Falling behind the run rate the Victorians shat themselves, giving up 5 run-outs, one each to Cameron, O’Keefe, Rohrer, Bollinger and Smith. I’ll give Simon Katich some credit for these as captain he would have been setting the fields. Victorian captain and serial whinger Brad Hodge summed it up nicely with “It’s a script on how to stuff up a cricket game”. Bravo.
A wonderful team effort from the Blues who now book their tickets to India, there is no villain from this match.

Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Simon Katich
2 Doug Bollinger
1 Dominic Thornley
-1 None

Leaderboard

At the end of the regular season, the Moses’ MVP stands as follows:

6 Dominic Thornley
6 Doug Bollinger
4 Dave Warner
3 Moises Henriques
3 Simon Katich
2 Phillip Hughes
2 Stephen Smith
1 Mark Cameron
1 Nathan Bracken
-2 Beau Casson

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

• Jacques Kallis – Right-arm fast-medium
  Career: 125 Tests, 245 Wickets at 30.92
  Excluding Minnows, away from home: 51 Tests, 92 Wickets at 35.86
• Monde Zondeki – Right-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.

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.

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.

It was a good toss to win, but so was the toss we won in Bonnydoon or whatever they’re calling Bangalore this month.

Rudi Koetzen is having a barry crocker. He’s happy to refer 4′s to the third umpire but when it comes to a close stumping on Ganguly he’ll just say not out. Turns out Gangers foot was in the air as Haddin removed the bails, and Gangers went on to notch up a hundred, so yes this did hurt Australia. It’s the worst mistake the Colonel has made since not referring Kumble’s caught and bowled on Ponting in Bonnydoon, though that mistake only cost India 10 runs.

The writing was on the wall for Australia when Kumble was dropped. Not only do they get a proper leggie in Mishra who turns it a mile, has 300 domestic wickets, and possesses one hell of a deceptive wrongun, but they get Dhoni as captain who has inspired them in the field and suddenly remembered how to bat. Assuming his fitness returns Kumble may get to carry the drinks in the third test.

Credit must go to the Indian Batsmen, though it must be said if they were to have any concers, it should be all of their batsmen making starts on a road against undisciplined bowling and not going on with it. Still, to have a question mark over the batting and make 470, it could be worse.

And by worse, I mean Australia. Hayden failed again, and this time he can’t blame the umpire. Had Jaques not gone home with a buggered back he would be looking good for the 3rd test. I was most upset when Hussey gave Clarke the strike for the last over on Day 3, as Clarke is now officially a final over bunny. Each time he goes out right before stumps I die a little inside. Hussey has ridden one hell of a lot of luck and still only made 50. Ponting went to the new ball that Hayden shouldn’t be exposing him too, probably too early to judge.

This is hardly news, but we are sorely missing a quality spinner. White has bowled better than expected, but I expected him to bowl 3 pies per over and he has only delivered 1 every 12 balls. So he’s been tight, but not threatening. Mishra has given him a lesson in turn, deception and bounce.

Johnson must have pissed Punter off, cause as our best paceman in both tests he would have expected to get the new ball. Siddle must be the chosen one in Pontings eyes, and his treatment couldn’t be further from that given to Tait, who was hyped all week in the press then held back till the last over before lunch on a juicy WACA wicket. He has bowled pretty well on debut, with lots of short stuff and the standard Victorian debutant first wicket of Tendulkar, but in truth offers little difference from Lee and really Bollinger should be there.

A fit Stuart Clark is sorely sorely missed. Nesta best articulated what he provides to the side

It’s been a long time since we haven’t had a clever back of the length bowler in the team – McGrath debuted in ‘93 – and although the Indians have problems too, this is the least confident I’ve been about a winning a Test since petrol broke the 50 cent barrier.

The only department in which Australia have been ahead is bums on seats – we’ve got a clear majority for paying patrons. If it weren’t for the Mohalians giving away free seats to kiddies Tendulkar would have broken the record in front of 240 travelling Aussies and his Mum.

Jim Maxwell and Spanky were on the radio and went into some detail on how one goes about securing a ticket to the match. You have to go to a bank in central Mohali and buy a 5 day pass. There is no single day pass, and no option to buy a ticket at the ground. The bank was presumably closed on Sunday. Go India.

Hayden was out on the 3rd ball of the day, and you could not have written a better start for the Indians. Sure it was a dodgy decision by Rauf, and a lesser team would have fired up the learjet to fly home, but not Katich and Ponting, who got stuck in and for a 166 run partnership which swayed the match back to Australia’s favour.

Katich eventually fell to a lapse in concentration and India were back with a sniff, yet the Aussies regrouped immediately, denying the Indians a collapse. The 60 run partnership between Hussey and Ponting gave the BaggyGreens control of the first day. Punter was lucky to get away with a half-volley caught and bowled, however swings and roundabouts had him given lbw 10 runs later to one that hit him outside off, while he was playing a sweep shot, and would have struggled to hit a 5th leg stump.

Time for another partnership, and Michael Clarke was the next to step up and looked good against the spinners before falling to a peach from Khan with the that got some sideways movement off the pitch, ending the days play.

With his experience opening in ODI’s and T20, Watson was the obvious choice to face the 8 ball old rock with Hussey on day 2. Unfortunately it didn’t play out that way with Sharma bowling him early in the piece, bringing Haddin to the crease. A very watchful innings by Haddin has seen off the new ball and taken Australia through to lunch.

Ishant has been the pick of the Indian bowlers, which re-affirms my suspicion that Stuart Clark will be a real handful on this pitch. Believe it or not they are both the same height, Clark just has some meat on his frame and as such doesn’t look like a praying mantis.

Australia added just 74 in the session, though it must be said that for a team bowling spin from both ends to only get through 28 overs is truly appalling. It’s not like they were constantly chasing the ball or anything!

Day 1 – Good Areas and some bloke called Hayden
was a rain interrupted affair with Haydos bringing up a century as the Cane Toads plodded along at a mere 3 runs an over, due in main to some tight bowling and superb fielding from the mighty blues.

Day 2 – Bad Guys Out, Good Guys In
Haydos pushed on today to contribute 179 to the dark side’s tally, eventually falling to Stuart Clark. The norterners’ tail rallied hard before being shown the door for 467. The mighty blues sure had their work cut out for them at this point, and with Cowan and Jaques falling cheaply the blues were in need of a captains knock. Enter Simon Katich stage left. Michael Clarke was in superb touch before being run out by Katich off the last ball of the day. Allegations of Queenslanders cheating have proven completely unfounded, though somewhat comforting to Clarke.

Day 3 – Katich draws faded curtains on QLD hopes
The Queenslanders showed up an hour late for play today, unable to grasp the intricacies of Daylight Saving Time. Katich continued his domination of the northern attack eventually tonking up his triple century and declaring the blues innings at 606, and taking first innings points from the powers of darkness in the process. Katto’s score of 306 off 351 was the highest score at the SCG since Bradman’s 452 in 1930. Haydo’s again proved his worth by batting out the 12 overs to stumps.

Day 4 – Not enough overs in the Day
Day Four started off well for the Blues, with 2 quick wickets to Stuart Clark. Queenslanders rallied for the rest of the session and managed to make it to lunch without further loss. 3 quick wickets (2 to Clark) after lunch and the toads were again on the ropes, effectively 5/5 after taking off the first innings deficit. A heartbreaking stand from Simpson and Nofke of 105 really took the game away from the NSWelshman, the pivotal moment coming when we took the new ball only for Simpson to see Maroon and belt 22 off Bracken and quickly bring up his ton after that.

Day 5 – Please sir, can we have some more?
This match had all the hallmarks of a great test and tomorrow could have provided a fantastic conclusion, alas there is no Day 5. I remember when the 4 day tests came in and have never agreed with it. Personally I’d rather see additional bonus points for finishing in 4 days, but still have day 5 there for the much wanted result.

I guess it’s fair to give these 4 day tests some credit for the Aussie’s recent improvement in turning draws into wins, however I believe the extra bonus point would provide adequate incentive to finish them off in 4.