Showing posts with label The Ashes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Ashes. Show all posts

Friday, January 07, 2011

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Third Ashes Test Observations From Day One

A day of carnage for the Aussies on the opening day of the Third Ashes Test in Perth against England. Here a few observations made.

The Cancer Council's message has gotten through to the Aussie cricketers - stay out of the sun.

Including Beer in the team would have been akin to the Aussie selectors admitting that we had an ailing side. Terrible pun that.

There's no truth in the rumour that the Australian selectors were all lined up at the booth at the WACA near the entrance which was entitled "CHANGE".

Only Shane Warne is sticking it up the English.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Michael Clarke's Bat - Collector's Item

The Sunday Times has a competition whereby you could win Ashes tickets to the match in Perth and meet and greet Michael Clarke and grab his signed Slazenger bat.

Win Michael Clarke's signed bat

Okay, tickets to the match sound great. But will Michael Clarke be at the match as I, and many others, think that he should be dropped as his form with the bat is abysmal? He doesn't deserve to be in the team even if he is the vice captain. Assuming he does get picked for the starting 11 you won't have much time to meet him as he'll either be spending most of the time fielding as the Poms are rather difficult to dismiss currently. If the Aussies are batting you may miss your opportunity to meet him in the frenzied rush to and from the pitch.

At least his bat will be in mint condition. There shouldn't be any nicks or red marks on it as he's hardly put bat on ball this series. Should look just like a bought one.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Funny Cricket Scorecard

I thought that I saw a funny line in the cricket scorecard at the second Test match today in Adelaide.

WatSON c. PieterSEN b. AnderSON for 51.

Ok, not quite as funny as Lillee c. Willey b. Dilley for 19 which happened in a test match in Perth in 1985 if my sources are correct. Wikipedia says that it happened in 1979.

And what about the Patel match?

Cricket Masterchef - New Program

You've seen Masterchef Australia. You've watched, but not necessarily understood, Iron Chef. You've been amazed by Junior Masterchef Australia. Now prepare for the latest culinary and gastronomic tv series - Cricket Masterchef.

Cricket Masterchef stars the Australian Test Cricket team but you'd have to say that the variety of dishes is sadly lacking. There's very little spice and not much zest included in the ingredients. Let's have a look at some of the dishes forthcoming from the second Ashes test match being held in Adelaide.

Simon Katich - he's prepared a duck, the platinum (or diamond) version after being out without facing a ball.
Ricky Ponting - he's also prepared a duck, a golden duck, after departing first ball.
Michael Clarke - his speciality is goose, of which he's made himself out to be, after only making two runs. It could be said that his preparation was unassisted and that he has cooked his own goose.
Ryan Harris - another golden duck. So litte imagination in the kitchen these Aussies.
Doug Bollinger - he's a bunny.

I'd like to have seen a batsmen score zero and play at his best. That would be a Peking (peaking) duck. You'd have to say that it was a pressure cooker situation for the Australians in the middle at the Adelaide Oval today. And didn't they get a basting from the Poms? Mind you, the Poms aren't very imaginative when it comes to cooking either. They just had the Aussies on toast.

The Australians didn't get to enjoy their dishes today and the only cooking that they've tasted for a while is humble pie. Well Ricky, revenge is a dish best served cold and we can see that the Aussies are not cooking with gas. With the Aussies' cooking skills it will probably end up as Ashes anyway.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Who Wants To Bowl For Australia?

The Australian bowlers, with the exception of Peter Siddle in England's first innings, where he picked up a hat-trick, struggled to make any sort of impression in the first test match at the Gabba. So, who is going to be dropped and who will replace them?

Mitchell Johnson didn't have a great game. In fact, it was the first test match, his 39th, in which he failed to take a wicket. Coupled with his duck and a regulation dropped catch he didn't have a great match. By those figures Marcus North appears positively lethal with his score of one with the bat and all of the England wickets that fell in the second innings (one). North could even elevate himself to a frontline bowler with that effort.

I'm an admirer of Johnson. He's terrorised batsmen and performed very well for his country. On a wicket that offered nothing for the bowlers as the match went on I don't think that he can be singled out for his lack of penetration with the ball. Get rid of the moustache and the sleeve tattoo and he'll be back to his best.

Siddle will probably hold his place. Hilfenhaus, who bowled beautifully at times, is also under the pump. But the coach doesn't want to make wholesale changes. Let's see how much fortitude the selectors have.

Still, Dougie Bollinger looks a likely replacement and Ryan Harris, if he wasn't susceptible to injury, is also making a strong case for a call-up. I think that getting a match at the Adelaide Oval for a fast bowler is a bit of a poisoned chalice as it's usually a flat track and doesn't offer the quicks much. Look at England to post around 600 runs in an innings.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Ashes Prediction

In case you've been robbing a pub with a machete and been gunned down by the police (see previous post) or have just been living under a rock, there's going to be a huge cricket test series taking place called The Ashes. It starts in Brisbane on Thursday. Australia versus England (and Wales). Well, Australia versus England/Wales/Scotland/Ireland/South Africa/West Indies and any other cricket-playing nation that can provide them with decent cricketers. But enough of that.

The Teams:

Australia - Ponting, Clarke, Bollinger, Doherty, Ferguson, Haddin, Harris, Hauritz, Hussey, Hilfenhaus, Johnson, Katich, Khawaja, North, Siddle, Smith, Watson.

England (and decent players from Rest of the World) - Strauss, Cook, Anderson, Bell, Collingwood, Pietersen, Bresnan, Broad, Davies, Finn, Morgan, Panesar, Prior, Swann, Tremlett, Trott.

The Venues:

* 1st Test - The Gabba - 25th-29th November 2010
* 2nd Test - The Adelaide Oval - 3rd-7th December 2010
* 3rd Test - The WACA - 16th-20th December 2010
* 4th Test - The MCG - 26th-30th December 2010
* 5th Test - Sydney Cricket Ground - 3rd-7th January 2011

The Gabba. Brisbane. Usually steamy with the ball doing a great deal in the opening session. Nightmare for batsmen early on. If England were to bat and survive the first session without losing a wicket I'm afraid the Aussies are done for. If the Aussies were to have them 4 for then we're in with a shot.

Adelaide Oval. Adelaide (of course). Great batting pitch. I expect the Poms to bat better than the Aussies and this match could be a draw only because England decide to make 700 runs instead of 500 "just to be safe".

The WACA. Perth. Should be 38C. Every day. The heat should take it out of the Poms and I expect the Aussies to win this match. Extra bounce might be difficult for the Poms to get used to.

The MCG. Melbourne. One of the greatest sporting arenas in the world hosting a magnificent contest. That is if England isn't already 3-0 up and has won the series. Weather plays a bit part in Melbourne. Expect it to be dry, windy, cold, wet and then sunny. All before the first drinks break. Expect more of the same after the first drinks break. Should be just like playing in England. Except for the dry and sunny bits. England to triumph.

SCG. Sydney. Traditional turning pitch. Aussies having already lost the series will include Hauritz, Doherty, Smith, North and Clark as spinners desparate to win a match. Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar will show them how to bowl and England will still win. If the weather holds up.

betfair odds (23/11/2010):
Aust $2.06
Eng $2.86
Draw $5.70

Reasons that I think Australia will struggle to be competitive include;

Mitchell Johnson doesn't have enough support from the other bowlers to enable him to be the frontline bowler that we all know he can be. He'll try to hard to bowl England out and not concentrate on putting the ball in the right spot. Not enough discipline from the bowlers to keep the pressure on.

Michael Clark appears to just want to maintain a decent batting average and in no way attempts to push the scoring along when batting with the tail. Steve Waugh did this very effectively. Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise that he's injured and we might actually unearth someone who is a batsman.

Ricky Ponting is past his prime with regards to his batting and captaincy. Time for Brad Haddin to replace him. If we lose this series, as I expect, although the bookies don't, he'll lose the captaincy.

Hussey and North will be batting to retain their spots rather than batting with supremacy over England. Not going to be consistent enough.

Watson and Katich should be the best performing Aussies bats, followed by Johnson (at least in average) as the ball won't move around as much as the England bowlers are used to. But with Watson having injured himself in the last Shield match Australia will miss his bowling ability.

Collingwood will be a thorn as he is difficult to remove and a great fighter. Reminds me a great deal of Steve Waugh.

Broad is a great young bowler with some fire in the belly. Also a tad petulant but will give as good as he gets. Decent bat as well and with tired Aussie bowlers will score a fair amount of runs.

Pietersen could change a test match during one session. Expect to see this happen a couple of times during the series.

I’m tipping England 3-1. Hard to see any match not having a result.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Message For Australian Test Selectors

Once again the Aussies have underperformed in England and lost the Ashes. Crikey, that's hard to take after we played so well in the fourth test to win by an innings and 80 runs. Fact is we didn't bowl well and batted poorly in the fifth and deciding test. Having said that a total of 348 runs in the fourth innings isn't a bad return but it could have been so much better if the Aussies hadn't thrown their wickets away.

I have a message for the Australian test selectors - Australia is not the West Indies of the 80s, so, for crying out loud, play a specialist spin bowler! Marcus North, I think, would be the first to admit that he's a part-time spin bowler. At times he bowled beautifully and managed to take four wickets in the second innings. Imagine what a full-time spin bowler could have achieved. The pitch turned viciously from day one. What were the selectors thinking? Stuart Clark bowled excellently in the previous match and I thought he deserved his spot in the decider but only managed one wicket. Back to the horses-for-courses selection regime I guess.

I work with a few Poms so there will be a bit of stick at work. At least I didn't have a bet on the series.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

I Like Sir Ian Botham's Commentary Manner

I've been enjoying the commentary from Sky Sports this Ashes series as it has been beamed into our living rooms, or computers with HD TV tuners wherever they might be, on SBS. They've been mainly Englishmen including David "Bumble" Lloyd, Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain and David Gower, although Michael Holding aka Whispering Death, also has much to say and he is most pleasant on the ears. Much better than listening to droll old Richie Benaud.

But one guy that has surprised me somewhat is Sir Ian Botham. He analyses the game so well. When there is a puff of dust in the first session of the first mornings play he points it out. That indicates, to me at least, that the pitch is dry enough to crack and take plenty of turn and Australia will be bowled out chasing 120-odd in the 4th innings and lose the Ashes and be left to rue not taking a spinner into the match. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Hang about. I've derailed my train of thought here. Botham has introduced something that might have been innocuous and overlooked by other commentators but has introduced a very important happening to the viewing public. He makes you think about what's going on too.

I notice that the English commentators comment more about the things that you don't see, like goings on in the field, that have relevance to cricketers who follow the game, but would be missed by normal commentators. I find that the English commentate more like they are on the radio than on TV. There's a lot in the medium of TV that isn't noticed by the viewers and I think that that is an important aspect of commentating. This is a failing of AFL commentators on the whole as they don't observe off-the-ball incidents enough to really give you insight to the game as there is much more happening than just to the guys on the ball. I reckon that Botham comments succintly about these incidents but doesn't go into too much detail in his description and lets you draw you own conclusion in many places. He introduces topics for discussion and never appears to be a know-it-all.

Makes me think that Botham would have been a great captain with his analytical skills. He did possess that very English trait of saving his best with bat and ball for Ashes tests against the Aussies. Very English and very annoying. Perhaps as captain you don't have that much time to think about everything that is happening out in the middle and can't read the situation quite as well. But he does a marvellous job of it in the commentary box.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Chinese Criminals and Cricket Villains

Chinese criminals and cricket villains - they'll all related. I'll try to explain.

Stern Hu, a Rio Tinto executive, currently stands accused of bribery and corruption in China. He has allegedly bribed 16 steel mills in China into giving away secrets relating to the iron ore industry and seriously jeopardised the wealth of China as a whole. Just how is that related to cricket? Well, I have the distinct feeling that there will be 16 executives in China willing to “go into bat” for Stern Hu. Just as long as Andrew Strauss isn't fielding in the slips for them. I understand that China uses the death penalty to punish white collar criminals along with blue collar criminals. The 16, at least, involved will be doing their utmost to convince the authorities that Stern Hu hasn't done anything wrong at all. Maybe only to save their own skins if nothing else. It is also well known that the Chinese authorities send the bill for the bullet to the family of executed criminals.

Speaking of criminals that also ties in with the cricket currently. Just ask any dinky-di Australian how he feels about England captain Andrew Strauss at the moment and his claim to have taken a catch to dismiss Aussie opener Phillip Hughes although replays indicate that the ball hit the ground. He didn't even have the sportsmanship to ask for the umpires to send the decision upstairs to the third umpire for review. I have to say that the umpires made the decision on the ground though and didn't feel the need to get a second opinion. But with another wicket falling to a no-ball and a third top order batsman for Australia being given out caught when he didn't hit the ball it was almost a criminal outcome for the match for England to win. It's not so much sour grapes. We have the technology and we should be utilising it. If there is a catch then the third umpire should immediately review the video to see if the bowler overstepped the line. There would be ample time to recall the batsmen if something had been overlooked. Ricky Ponting must have been livid with the decisions that went against Australia. Perhaps he has a short memory though. Didn't he do things that antagonised the Indians when we last played in India? Is Ricky feeling tired or stressed? Maybe he'd feel better if he took his Swisse Ultivites.

Executives bribing Chinese companies for state secrets and England cricket captains doing anything to win a game of cricket. They'll all criminals. But the wrong guy might end up getting shot for his behaviour. He he.