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Loading ...bit late, aren’t you Mike? The shows half over.
The Matthew Hayden show
By Mike 3 years ago, mid-April Add your comment below
Prior to the penultimate game of the Super Eight’s, Matthew Hayden was just three runs behind the tournament’s highest run scorer in Jacques Kallis. He was favoured to move into pole position but has surged to it with yet another century of muscle and class. Is he playing better than his golden year of 2001? While most teams are struggling in the first ten overs (the average being 36 runs for 1.4 wickets) Hayden hasn’t set a foot wrong. Gilchrist seems to be rather quiet but is himself averaging 37 with the bat in the World Cup.
The pre-match news is Shane Bond is out crook and Jacob Oram having earlier been ruled out. Mark Gillespie and Michael Mason play in their place. Shane Watson makes a welcome return for Australia forcing Brad Hodge out. Shane Bond was the real danger man for Australia, a bowler who seems to have the wood over the Aussies. New Zealand will surely miss him.
Australia have moved into a more than healthy 215-2 after 32 overs and look to post a really big one. In light of recent adventures New Zealand might fancy their chances in getting them.
Check out the scorecard here and leave your comments below.
Tags: 2007-world-cup, australia, jacob-oram, mark-gillespie, matthew-hayden, michael-mason, new-zealand, shane-bond |
20 Responses to “The Matthew Hayden show”
April 20th, 2007 at 5.28 pm
April 20th, 2007 at 6.23 pm
I know I know… 
Being the new guy ’round here I don’t want to go stepping on toes you know? Gave some time to see if Will or Scott were posting first.
What a blitzkrieg by Watson at the end there ay? Eerily similar score to the Trans Tasman Series… let’s see how this one pans out…
April 20th, 2007 at 6.29 pm
Yes, can we hold them off? and can Shane get wickets?
April 20th, 2007 at 7.19 pm
It would be nice if Shane gets wickets, but I’ll be happy with his brilliant late hitting and if his bowling is relatively economical. He is a better option than trying to get 10 out of Clarke and Symonds.
Fleming was just out to a bad decision. Pity too.
April 20th, 2007 at 7.46 pm
Styris out! He deserved that! When are they going to learn to treat old man McGrath with respect!
April 20th, 2007 at 7.49 pm
Fun. Shane Watson hasn’t been dismissed yet in this World Cup. He’s got 5 innings for 142 runs at a strike rate of 173.17. Peachy.
April 20th, 2007 at 8.14 pm
150 runs is currently the largest margin of victory by Australia over New Zealand in ODI history [scorecard] (in terms of runs, not wickets).
New Zealand need to score 199….
April 20th, 2007 at 8.27 pm
I’m sure they’ll cut that down before it’s over. Anyway, they have the excuse that they weren’t fielding their best team.
April 20th, 2007 at 8.53 pm
You know that Shane Bond played two of the three games and Jacob Oram only one in the Trans Tasman games right?
That leaves the only difference being that of Shane Bond. It’s a big difference but not that big.
April 20th, 2007 at 9.20 pm
Depends how on form Bond is. But what eveyone keeps forgetting about that series , is that Australia were missing the Ponting factor.
Anyway, post-match, Fleming didn’t seem to worried. I”m sure they’l bounce back against the Sri Lankans
April 20th, 2007 at 9.42 pm
First time reader – looks a great site. Been reading baseball blogs for a while, hadn’t thought of looking for a cricket blog – thanks for doing it.
This being one day cricket tournament, shocks are possible, but Australia are looking very strong and red hot favourites to win.
Is this the greatest one day side in history? I believe it is. Maybe the addition of Warne would improve it, though obviously the fielding would suffer (sorry Warney!).
Anyone disagree with me? Which side would you like to see them play in the all time one day – probably one of the West Indies sides in the 1980’s…
April 20th, 2007 at 9.45 pm
Bad 24 hours for New Zealand. Australia just thrashed New Zealand in the Rugby league 30-6.
Tasty semi-final between NZ and SL it sounds like. I’ll be cheering for the New Zealanders. I like the sound of a Trans-Tasman World Cup Final, however the thought of gaining revenge after the World Cup Final in 1996 sounds nice too.
We gotta get past South Africa though. Would have loved to have beaten them in the Final.
Though I concede that at this point any of the 4 teams could win this. It’s do or die cricket, and mistakes will cost you dearly. Australia are capable of messing this up.
April 20th, 2007 at 9.47 pm
At least a few more Aussies batsmen got a chance today but I’m disapointed in the Kiwis. Probably decided it was just going to be one of those days after Fleming was given wrongly, and they might as well save their breath.
A relief to see Watson get through a match without clutching something, but makes it more nail-biting for the semis – what if he breaks down then?
April 20th, 2007 at 9.57 pm
Mike, I’m not sure that any team could win it at this point, unless there has a been a massive match fix going on, with all teams playing Australia secretly getting together and agreeing to lull them into a false sense of security by losng badly to them in the lead-up matches. All three of the other semi-finalsit have had big osses to them now. Even if they weren’t playing their best teams, it’s not as if Ponting and co. have never played Murali, Malinga and Bond before and success fully at that.
I’m not saying one of the other teams can’t win it, but I certainly don’t think the four teams are equal. I don’t think Australia are that capable of messing up that badly, at this point.
April 21st, 2007 at 12.08 am
I agree that Australia *has* been what seems like a light-year ahead of everyone to this point. And I agree, I don’t think the teams are equal.
It’s just that Semi Finals and Finals are different games. You screw up, you’re gone.
It would be a shame to mention match fixing if Australia loses. I’ve personally been involved in cricket matches where David toppled Goliath. International cricket is no different. And the last 4 are no David’s and Goliath’s.
April 21st, 2007 at 5.48 am
Yes, Hayden is in great touch. Just wait though, for him to fail twice in a row and we’ll see the commentators down south start to sharpen their knives. We’ve all seen it happen before.
April 21st, 2007 at 6.57 am
Form is such a mysterious thing. Hayden was dropped from the one-day side and only came back into it at the start of the year. How does form come? How does it go?
I remember Paul Collingwood, whose form has been up then down then up again, said recently that he went from thinking every ball was going to get him out to thinking that every ball could be hit for four and he didn’t know what he had done differently to get from one mindset to the other. All I did was change the colour of the grip on my bat, he said.
April 21st, 2007 at 10.37 am
Kathy, it’s the power of pink!
that sounds so wrong on so many levels.
Anyway, I figure Australia look completely unbeatable. They were beat in the Chappell-Hadlee because they had no Gilchrist or Ponting (not that Gilchrist’s been overly magnificent in this WC). Mike, it’s awfully lovely of you to say that they’re not THAT unequal, but I think the truth is that this is probably going to be the most embarassingly overwhelmingly one-sided tournament ever. Ever. Sure, Australia haven’t yet played against Bond and Oram and Murali-Vaas-Malinga, but honestly – as Rusty said, unless everyone’s been secretly ganging up against Australia, I think they’re going to rip everyone aside.
The thing is, while SL and NZ play tactics against Australia, Australia just win through sheer brilliance. They don’t have to hide their best weapon, they just beat teams because they’re awesome.
I wish I supported Australia, I’d be so happy all the time.
April 21st, 2007 at 11.05 am
I’m happy a lot of the time 
April 21st, 2007 at 11.49 am
I see Stephen Fleming has brought out the “They (the Aussies) are due a bad day” English style, but at least he followed that up with wanting to be the ones to bring that bad to them!
I hope The Black Caps make the final with Oz – it would be a great match! is there something about southern hemisphere teams? More grit and drive? for those who like rugby union, you should see the Saffers, Kiwis and Aussies head-to-head in the super 14’s.
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