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« Previous EntriesIshant Sharma to Ricky Ponting (video)
By Will 4 months ago, 5 Comments »
I managed to catch some of the highlights today of India’s rather epic win over Australia, and what an effort from Ishant Sharma. His long spell to Ricky Ponting, which lasted about an hour, was skilful fast bowling and must have been mesmeric to watch live. It reminded me of Andrew Flintoff’s over to Ponting at Edgbaston in 2005, but this was a sustained examination of the batsman’s technique - not just six crackerjack deliveries. Some brief highlights of it, and the rest of the fourth day’s play from Perth, are below:
If you can’t see them, click here or here.
5 Comments »The fading of the Australian aura
By Will 4 months ago, 12 Comments »
If Australia are to win their 17th game on the trot, treading into territory no team has ever tiptoed, they will have to score 413 runs to beat India. It will be the second-highest run chase in the history of the game. Consequently, every Indian and anti-Australia fan is salivating at the prospect of Ricky Ponting’s remarkable winning run being cut short. Is this the end of a dynasty?
Robert Craddock, who my colleague (hello Gnasher) refers to as Crash Craddock, thinks there is enough evidence to suggest the Australian aura is diminishing:
Since the start of the Sydney Test, India has stood toe-to-toe and eyeball-to-eyeball with Australia, highlighting some deficiencies and cutting down some lofty reputations.
Australia is still outstanding, but it is not what it was and nor could it expect to be after the retirement of a handful of long-serving champions.
The champs are not chumps but India has proved one thing — they are gettable.
The rest of the world will feed off the brazen Indian uprising in a series in which the great Ricky Ponting has averaged just 16, Michael Clarke just 23 and, shock of all shocks, a four-pronged Australian pace battery in this Test has been completely outbowled by three unsung Indian rivals.
The thought that Australia’s world dominance is coming to an end is always an enticing prospect, but champion teams tend to bounce back off the ropes quicker than most. After the 2005 Ashes, Ponting set out to really put his mark on the team and has done so brilliantly, if not so appealingly for the rest of the world. Or, indeed, for cricket itself. “Win at all costs” is a mantra most teams would like to obey, but only Australia have had the tools and balls to execute it in the past 20 years. In doing so, it hasn’t endeared them to the rest of the world; their cricket is pure, their method is not. As Mike Atherton said last week, “being nice will always be associated with losing in Ponting’s mind”.
I’m not convinced this is the end of Australia’s dynasty or aura - call it what you will. India have upset them in many ways, and although the rumpus of the past few weeks scarred cricket irrevocably, it does at least show Australia’s softer underbelly. Not that I’m advocating racism or severe sledging as the solution to beating them…
They hate teams fighting tooth and nail, eyeball to eyeball, and yet it is what they apparently crave from touring teams. England did it in 2005, winding up Ponting and co so much that they lost all composure and focus. The same has happened with India, albeit in far more contensious circumstances. It’s almost as though they’ve forgotten what it is like to be challenged, on or off the pitch, much in the same way England have forgotten how to win.
The thought of India winning is less than appealing on a personal level - I hope and pray they are gracious, for their (and the media’s) sake - but the prospect of Australia’s winning run coming to an end is far sweeter.
12 Comments »Here come the effigies
By Will 4 months ago, 36 Comments »
Surprisingly delayed, but here come the effigies of the three doomed members of the Sydney Test: Ricky “boooo” Ponting; Steve “Edges” Bucknor. And Mark “give us a” Benson:
Here’s how to make your point. LOTS OF FLAMES AND FIRE AND BURNING THINGS:
I have to tip my hat to this one though. Inspired use of the roadside donkey:
All in all, a disgraceful turn of events. Let them abandon it and let them bugger off home. Just spoken to my Indian friend who diplomatically asked my opinions on it. I told him how India have dug themselves a hole, and continue to act as though Australia have nicked their dummy. He and his mates, all Indian, agree. I fear he and they are in the minority.
Get over it.
36 Comments »Harbhajan banned; India apoplectic
By Will 4 months ago, 57 Comments »
So Harbhajan Singh has been banned for three Tests after calling Andrew Symonds a monkey. This is the correct decision, but the fallout could be quite monstrously messy.
There are already reports (from the never-really-to-be-trusted Press Trust of India) that India are considering abandoning their tour of Australia. Judging by the splenetic feedback we received today at Cricinfo (much of it was unprintable and vile), the issue many people have isn’t with Harbhajan but the umpires. I watched a TV news channel in India hold an impromptu discussion surrounding it. “Umpired out in Sydney” screamed the headline. “India fall victim of umpires” read another. One member of the audience said that if Bucknor were to visit India, he wouldn’t return alive. It was greeted with warm applause.
Yes, India, I’m afraid you were victim of some absolutely horrific umpiring decisions and I’m sure Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor will be penalised accordingly. But do not expect players to walk: this is not part of cricketers’ clauses in their contract. It is up to the umpires to adjudge whether a player is out or not and, if they say it’s not out - then live with it. There is a vast amount of luck involved in sport; what comes around goes around.
Frankly, I find the BCCI’s decision to demand an investigation into the umpiring pathetic. Every other country has series like these, where decisions go against them, but everything related to Indian cricket seems to be magnified to an extraordinary level; that they are victimised and the whole cricket world is against them, when it is not. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Indian government get involved in the next few days.
Equally, the attitude of Ricky Ponting and some of the Australians was extraordinary in the extreme. Appealing to Benson for Dravid’s wicket, which was turned down, Ponting sunk to his knees and was muttering away as though nothing had gone Australia’s way in the entire Test. Come off it, Ricky. In situations like these, when you’ve clearly had the immense rub of the green, some diplomacy and dignity would count for rather a lot.
What a shambles. Happy new year everyone.
57 Comments »Australia’s lone pessimist speaks out
By Scott 4 months ago, 4 Comments »
Happy New Year from a thoroughly sun-drenched and baked Adelaide, where we’ve just finished our 4th 40 Celsius day in a row. Any English readers who wish to swap some cold and rain, please leave a note in the comments.
Meanwhile, the media hereabouts are starting to get stuck into the Indian team after their performance in Melbourne. Steve Waugh came out and said that Australia could stretch their winning run, currently at 15 Tests, to 30, if they continue their current form. If Steve Waugh thinks that, I shudder to think what Glenn McGrath thinks.
I was glad to see that Ricky Ponting has generally looked to just win the next game and not come out with any big statements of this nature. I think Australia will have their work cut out for them to hold India in Sydney. It is worth remembering when you look back at India’s poor performance in Melbourne that they’d only been in the country a little over a week, and their one warm-up fixture was washed out. I certainly expect India to put up a much better showing on a ground that suits their game. There will be a lot of runs and it will be hard work for the Australian bowlers to get India out this time around.
I actually think India have a good chance of winning at Sydney- they have two quality spinners, and good enough fast bowling, and some quality batsmen. They just have to bat first, perform with the bat, and put the Australian batsman under some real pressure when India bowl. Australian batsman haven’t had to deal with pressure for a while, and if that happens it will be a real test for them.Anil Kumble’s team has one injury worry though that could put a spanner in the works, with a cloud over Zaheer Khan. Zaheer bowled well in Melbourne and would be sorely missed.
4 Comments »Another fine victory is just the present for Australia at Christmas
By Scott last year, at the end of December, 2 Comments »
Australia wrapped up the First Test against India today, winning by 337 runs in a commanding display. It would have been especially satisfying for Ricky Ponting and his merry men because it was done on a pitch which was tailor-made for Indian tastes, being slow, low, and having turn. But India’s batsmen were never able to come to grips with the tightness of Australia’s bowling, and so they were strangled to death by persistent bowling.
India’s bowling was honest, with Kumble in particular bowling some fine spells. But India’s efforts were totally sabotaged by the pathetic support that they got from the field. Time and again poor fielding from India turned ones into twos, and twos into threes. Over the course of the match, Australia probably stole close to 100 runs through poor Indian fielding, and saved close to another 100 through the excellence of their own fielding.
So Australia take a 1-0 lead. India must turn things around quickly as the Second Test in Sydney starts on the 2nd of January; only four days away. India made a present of this Test for Australia, and it remains to be seen how much more generous the Indians are prepared to be to the Australians; a team who don’t particularly need the gifts of their opponents.
2 Comments »Tait told to stop ‘mouthing off’
By Will last year, mid-December, 3 Comments »
Series between Australia and New Zealand are often spicy affairs, and that trend continued last week with New Zealand questioning the validity of Shaun Tait’s action. Ricky Ponting, his captain, acted all headmasterly by saying he was “disappointed” with New Zealand’s claims, and today Tait has offered to undergo ICC testing. But it doesn’t stop there; Brendon McCullum’s mouthing off and telling Tait to stop mouthing off.
“If he’s Glenn McGrath, he can probably throw comments like that out there,” McCullum told AAP on Saturday. “But my only advice would be to maybe get a few more statistics behind him before he starts mouthing off.
“I just thought it was a bit reckless from Taity. He’s a good bloke but he’s only played 15 games. When McGrath was very good at talking it up, he also had some unbelievable statistics behind him.”
Great stuff all round, really.
3 Comments »Australia trounce Sri Lanka
By Scott last year, mid-November, 15 Comments »
So much for my hopes of a good contest- Australia thrashed Sri Lanka by an innings and 40 runs. (scorecard) What went wrong?
Well, while there’s been a lot written about the Australian performance, I think the finger needs to be pointed at the Sri Lankans. They made every mistake in the book, and invented a few more.
Errors in team selection. Check.
Wrong call at the toss. Check.
Dropped catches. Check.
Players underperforming when they were needed. Check.
I must confess to some surprise though when Marvin Atapattu came out with an extraordinary attack on the Sri Lankan selectors, characterising them as ‘muppets’ in an interview after the third day’s play. That sort of mistake was one that was out of the book. It’s going to be interesting to see if he’s permitted to continue with the tour. One batsman has to make way for the return of Sangakkara, after all.
But questions have to be asked of the Sri Lankan bowling line up too. It was generally thought by Australian pundits in the prelude to this series that this was the best Sri Lankan attack that we’d ever seen in this country, but they conceded 551 for 4 at a rate of knots. Had Ponting not been in a hurry to get at the Sri Lankan batsmen, 700 might not have been out of the question. What might have happened if only Malinga had got a game? As it was, none of the Sri Lankan bowlers made much of an impression- of the four wickets to fall, only Ponting was actually beaten by the bowler- Jaques, Hayden and Hussey got out through poor shot selection.
And Muralithiran? Well 2 for 170 was a pretty fair reflection of how he bowled. He did bowl a good spell after tea on the first day but apart from that stint, he was pretty unthreatening, and he copped some hammer from Ponting and Clarke. It is worth pointing out that for all his success, he doesn’t have much of a record against Australia, and also worth noting that finger spinners rarely do well here. You have to go back to the days of Phil Edmonds and John Emburey to find finger spinners that have had success in Australia. Bearing that in mind, perhaps expectations should be lowered a bit.
The Sri Lankan batting was somewhat disappointing too. Only somewhat though, because they were under constant pressure, first from the scoreboard, and second by the Australian attack. It was easy for the Australian batsman as they were fed a steady diet of pies, but Sri Lanka’s batsmen had to take risks to score runs, and except during the Vandort/Jayawardene partnership in the second innings, no batsman looked secure. Of the Australian bowlers, Lee gave his best performance in a long time, Macgill was probing, Stuart Clark continued his McGrath impersonation, and Johnson showed enough to suggest he has what it takes at Test level.
Can Sri Lanka regroup in time to make things a bit more even for the Second Test? They have the players to do so, but it must be hard. The Hobart wicket isn’t the sort of wicket that bowlers who are low on confidence are likely to take wickets on. Australia’s bowlers on the other hand, will fancy their chances. But I still think that the margin in this Test isn’t a true reflection in the gap between the teams. Here’s hoping for a closer match starting on Friday.
15 Comments »Why didn’t the ICC award a ‘Blog of the Year’ as well?
By Scott last year, mid-September, 5 Comments »
The ICC Awards were held in Johannesburg, and there were gongs for everyone, it seems. Ricky Ponting got the best gong, but every entrant won a prize, except for The Corridor. We’re miffed, oh yes, we are!
5 Comments »Ponting in doubt for the Twenty20 World Cup
By Scott last year, at the start of September, 7 Comments »
Ricky Ponting has missed the flight to South Africa for the Twenty20 World Cup, due to “private family reasons”. I certainly hope that he can still make the tournament, as he’s one of the great sights in world cricket in full flight, even for a euphemerial event such as this.
7 Comments »Too highly rated?
By Ian last year, mid-July, 8 Comments »
I see Kevin Pietersen has been knocked off the top spot in the ODIs by Ricky Ponting. Very difficult to argue with that – Ponting is surely the stand out batsman in both forms of the game. Looking at the other batting rankings, it is difficult to find fault, although on current form, Shiv Chanderpaul ought to be in the test top three at least. Also, I struggle to understand how Mahela Jayawardene doesn’t break into either top ten, while Hussey retains a top five place in both. He’s very good, granted, but is he top five?
The bowlers are altogether more perplexing. For one, how can Shoaib Akhtar still be at number 10 in tests? He’s played four tests since the start of 2006 and taken only a handful of wickets. Maybe in the current game, not playing is the way to climb the rankings. Likewise, Jason Gillespie (22) is still deemed a better Test bowler than Lasith Malinga (28)!
Agreed, it must be difficult to devise a workable system. Also, stats don’t tell the full story. But things start to look decidedly suspect when you inspect the Best Ever Ratings, which is a list of players at their peak. Ponting at four is just about fair enough, given his recent dominance. However, Peter May above Viv Richards shows a flaw, while Matthew Hayden in the top ten is just crazy. KP (21) is one place higher than Sachin and two places higher than Wally Hammond. Enough said.
For the bowlers, I half expected to see the list packed high with bowlers of yesteryear, given how modern bowlers are meant to have struggled, but it does put Murali, McGrath, Pollock, Waqar and Warne in the top 15. Of course, Warne should be in the top three, if not top of the pile. Wasim Akram limps in at number 57 behind the likes of Ntini, Shoaib and Harmison, which doesn’t seem right.
That said, like most critics, I can’t think of a better way. There must be some bright spark at Cricinfo with a formula….?
8 Comments »The big one! Australia v England, Super Eights
By Scott last year, mid-April, 32 Comments »
Right then. Australia v England, 2007 World Cup. Actually Bangladesh kind of spoiled this by beating South Africa last night; had that gone to script, this would be a do-or-die dogfight for England. Now, England can still make the semi-finals even if they lose, as Andrew Miller pointed out. Still, Australia could take on England at Twister and there’d be an edge to the contest, and after losing the Commonwealth Bank finals, Australia’s quite keen to dish out some revenge to England. Revenge really motives Ricky Ponting.
The main question about the Australian team is if they will go with an extra batsman or an extra bowler to cover the injury to Shane Watson. Brad Hodge has a claim for scoring a century in his last innings, but I would prefer to see Australia go with an extra bowler.
Obviously an impartial writer would hope for a good close game, but I’m not impartial. I want England to be thrashed. I doubt it will happen mind you- England are getting to be good at derailing Australia’s best laid plans. In fact, I think England might just sneak a victory on this occasion. There’s been a few upsets about, and I think this might be another one.
32 Comments »A grotesque mismatch masked as an ODI
By Scott last year, at the start of February, 25 Comments »
Coming into Friday’s game between Australia and England, for what surely must be the final time this summer, the contrast between the two squads could hardly be greater.
The Australians are happy, confident, and feel that everything is on track going towards the winning of the series and into the World Cup. England look patently miserable, tired, out of ideas, and with no appetitite for the battle. The contrast between this side and the one that won the Ashes eighteen months ago is so stark it can barely be believed.
England fans have every right to be furious with their team and especially their administration for allowing such a state of affairs.
They go into Friday’s game against Australia without Michael Vaughan, and also without James Anderson, who is flying home after a back strain. All of England’s bowling hopes will therefore rest with Flintoff and the redoubtable Monty Panesar, who looks like he’s the only Englishman with both the ability and the desire to play at this level at this point in time.
Meanwhile, Australia are feeling confident enough to introduce Shaun Tait to their one-day side, who is replacing Brett Lee. It is very much a ‘like for like’ substitution. Tait is perhaps even faster then Lee these days, and similarly erratic in performance. England faced him in the last two Tests of 2005, and also in the first game of this tour where he played in the Prime Minister’s XI. He did so well in that game that there was speculation that he would be the third seamer in the Test lineup, but Stuart Clark got the nod, and did so well that Tait’s hopes subsided.
Ricky Ponting has a slight hip strain and is in some doubt, but if he fails a fitness test, he’ll be replaced by the in-form Brad Hodge, who scored 115 off 100 balls for Victoria against South Australa on Wednesday.
A quick check of the bookies has some amazing prices. Not many betting houses are offering better then 10 to 1 on for Australia, whereas you can get odds of 13/2 on England. Remarkable, in a two horse race.
25 Comments »But wait, there’s more!
By Scott 2 years ago, mid-December, 5 Comments »
I’m tired of reading post-mortems about the Ashes. The result is decided, but there are two Tests to go. As an Australian, I’m absolutely delighted that Australia have won the series. But the future of both teams is not set in stone yet.
It seems to me that both sides, but especially England, have a lot riding on the outcome of the final two Test matches. It is by no means a given that Australia will go on for the 5-0 outcome that is being loosely bandied about, but if that happens, 2007 will be a year of woe for England. The inquisition will be a sight to behold.
On the other hand, a fighting England performance, with England coming home 3-2, will give a tremendous filip to English morale. There will be positives for the English team to hang their hats on.
For Australia, a 5-0 win will be the peak for several of the team’s veterans to call it a day. While Australia will seek to manage the retirement of their key players, looking ahead to 2009, the batting looks strong, with Michael Clarke, Hussey and Ponting being a core middle order to build around.
So it is not over yet kids. The Fourth Test starts in a week, and Warne is one wicket away from 700 wickets.
5 Comments »So, will Roy deliver this time?
By Scott 2 years ago, mid-December, 3 Comments »
Australia have chosen Andrew “Roy” Symonds to replace Damien Martyn in the middle order for the Third Test, a selection that is strongly suggestive of Ricky Ponting’s clout at the selection table. Symonds, to my mind, has not done anything of note to justify his inclusion in Australian first class cricket this season, but Ponting’s faith in Symonds has been unbound for a long time.
I hope he’s as right as he was when as captain of the 2003 World Cup team, he demanded Symonds be included, despite the general consensus of pundits and wise men that Symonds, for all his talents, was a ne’er do well. He had been given multiple opportunites in ODI games since 1999 and had not taken them. However, Ponting’s faith that he would deliver when it mattered in one-day cricket was proved spectacularly correct in 2003, and he’s been doing it ever since.
And the likes of me have been happy to be proved wrong to boot.
Last summer, Symonds finally made his Test debut, and oddly enough a similar story of underperformance and hestitance that marked his early ODI career returned. He lost his place in the side, but clearly he hasn’t lost the confidence of his captain.
And I certainly hope that Ponting is right. For if Symonds unleashes as we all know that he can, then he can be the most devastating striker in world cricket.
He also brings some more bowling options for Ponting. The once feared WACA pitch is now on life support, with ground-staff scouring the West Australian countryside for the right sort of soil to bring it back to its old self. There is hope that it can be revived for the 2010/11 Ashes series, but this time around, it is likely to be a near-death experience for pace bowlers.
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