McGrath declares Australia "unsinkable"
Okay, he didn't use those exact words but you get the point. Overnight, Glenn McGrath boasted that Australia would run through the World Cup undefeated:
"If we go out and play the way we have, I can't really see any team getting close to us. If we keep focusing on that and keep trying to improve ourselves, I think that's the way it will be."
Pigeon is famous for his bold predictions. 5-nil before the 2005 Ashes (that one didn't pan out). Possibly gagged by Cricket Australia, he didn't predict 5-nil before the 2006/07 Ashes but we all know he was thinking it (and was right on the money, it turned out). So now he comes out and predicts we'll go through the World Cup undefeated. Maybe he's right. Australia are playing pretty damn well, albeit against a few minnow sides, a hungovered England, an erratic West Indies and South Africa. One substantial win doesn't warrant crowing about how much better we are than everyone else. Instead, it puts pressure on our boys and hands a decent serving of motivation to the opposition. Guess it could be worse. He could be muttering about being "quietly confident" and "taking it one game at a time".
| Posted by JC on Sat 31 Mar |  4 comments |
Australia defeat West Indies but lose #1 spot
The good news is Australia thrashed the West Indies by 103 runs overnight. The bad news is there's no chance of us regaining our #1 spot after South Africa scraped a 1 wicket victory over Sri Lanka (4 wickets in 4 balls from Lasith Malinga, it's a pity YouTube have blocked World Cup clips as I would love to see that).
The West Indies innings started poor and didn't get much better. The pitch was difficult early on (as predicted), showing that the rain delay actually played in Australia's favour. My hopes were that Shaun Tait would run through the top order in the early overs but those hopes were dimmed when Tait bowled 3 wides in his first over. However, he did manage to trap Chanderpaul LBW (with a delivery that was missing the stumps).
Chris Gayle decided to parrot Matt Hayden, plodding along with an uncharacteristic 2 runs of 16 balls. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't emulate the rest of Hayden's innings and fell as soon as McGrath came into the attack. Pigeon's first over was a wicket maiden where he also struck Samuels in the helmet. His second over dismissed Samuels who had a brain explosion, attempting to send the ball into the stratosphere. There's life in the old bird yet!
By the end of the power plays, the match was effectively over. The West Indies had lost 3 wickets and were scoring at 2 runs per over. Even Lara's brilliance couldn't do much about that and his partners fell to increasingly desperate shots as the required run rate spiralled out of control. I confess I fell asleep around this time - I made the foolhardy decision to stay up till 11.30 (rather than the previous day's catnap before the start of play) and dozed off with the West Indies 5 down. When I woke up at 3.30am, the match was all over.
The game shows that Australia have got their aura back and big time. Their last 6 innings have all featured 300+ totals (although admittedly they lost two of those matches) including 3 centuries from Hayden. Haydos is going through another purple patch a la India 2001. You can also see it in Ricky Ponting's comments after the match:
"Two weeks ago everyone said we weren't frightening, now all of a sudden we are again - it's a funny game. Our squad hasn't changed in that time. You hear about other sides saying they don't fear us, and don't fear anything we have to offer. Well, it's all right saying that, but you have to go out there and play a certain brand of cricket to back that up. So far they haven't done that."If that aint verbal swagger, I don't know what is.
| Posted by JC on Thu 29 Mar | 13 comments |
Super 8's: Australia vs West Indies Part 1
I had it all planned out. Went to bed nice and early at 8.30pm. Set the alarm for 11.30pm. Somehow dragged myself out of bed at the appropriate time and staggered out to the TV, armed with a bowl of chips. Witnessed an awesome batting display as Australia racked up an impressive 6 for 322. But just as we got to the business end of the game, the Antiguan rain kicked in before the West Indies could face a ball. I dozed with the ABC radio droning in the headphones until 5am after which I staggered back to bed for a couple more hours sleep.
Brian Lara won the toss and sent Australia in (you'd have thought he'd learnt from Graeme Smith's experience). Australia started poorly on a skidding pitch. Gilchrist failed as to be expected in the first World Cup match I watched on TV (I'll take responsibility for this one). Matt Hayden seemed in conflict over his newfound Caribbean citizenship. He painfully took 18 balls to get off the mark and nearly ran Ponting out (later he also nearly ran Michael Clarke out for a diamond duck) .
Ponting on the other hand was crisp from the get go, driving cleanly and pulling Powell into the crowd. Unfortunately he was run out brilliantly for 35 by Sarwan who at cover was throwing at a single stump. At this point, Hayden recalled he was dressed in Australian colours and set about dominating the bowlers. Taking a leaf out of Pietersen's book, he advanced towards the bowler so often, I thought umpire Aleem Dar might warn him for walking on the pitch. Hayden's 158 off 143 balls is all the more impressive considering his ponderous start. Sure, he took nearly twice as many balls to notch a century than he did against South Africa but for once, I'll cut the guy some slack.
The momentum of the innings was stunted temporarily by a mid-order collapse. Bravo kicked things off, trapping Clarke LBW then Symonds and Hussey fell cheaply. Hussey's form slump has his batting average plummeting to 60 (also losing his #1 ranking to Kevin Pietersen). However and while fighting cramp, Hayden got things back on track, going into a boundary-fest in the dying overs. He found the boundary regularly, despatching the ball into the stands several times. Shane Watson (33 off 26) displayed some useful death batting, hitting 14 runs off the last over. Watson better get used to batting at the end of the innings. Haydos has relegated him to the middle order until he or Gilchrist retires.
And then the rain kicked in. Viv Richards might boast "it rains champagne in Antigua, mon" but I'm not impressed. Though that might explain why the English squad arrived at the ground late in the day. So the game will be continued again tonight but not televised according to the TV Guide. I don't think I'll be staying up for 3 hours of Quizmania, thanks very much.
| Posted by JC on Wed 28 Mar | 15 comments |
Sri Lanka could put Australia back at #1
An interesting statistical factoid has emerged - if Australia win their first two Super 8 games against the West Indies and Bangladesh (which they should) and Sri Lanka defeat South Africa on Wednesday, Australia will regain their #1 ODI ranking by the end of the month. The significance is the ICC one day championship "ends"on April 1. Eg - whoever is #1 at the start of April is crowned official #1 and wins $217,800 prize money.
Right now, both teams are equal on 126 points but South Africa pip Australia "when calculated to three decimal points" according to the boffins at the ICC. Maybe it's inappropriate to obsess over such minutae in the light of such sobering events of late. However, I think we should continue to celebrate cricket and anally retentive obsession with statistics to the nth decimal point is part and parcel of the cricketing experience. Any Australian cricket fan worth his salt will quote from memory Don Bradman's Test average to 2 decimal points. I'll be losing insane amounts of sleep over the next month watching Australia's games but I'll also be keeping an eye out for the Sri Lanka v South Africa result on Thursday morning. Go Team Murali!
| Posted by JC on Tue 27 Mar | 10 comments |
Australia's Super 8 schedule
Now the Super 8 teams are locked in, it's time to pencil in my sleeping schedule (or lack thereof) over the following month. Channel 9 are finally broadcasting Australia's games so I'm going to have to start adjusting my body clock to Caribbean time. Here are Australia's Super 8 matches:
- Tue 27 Mar: Australia vs West Indies
- Sat 31 Mar: Australia vs Bangladesh (payback time)
- Sun 8 Apr: Australia vs England (more payback for the Tri-Series!)
- Fri 13 Apr: Australia vs Ireland
- Mon 16 Apr: Australia vs Sri Lanka
- Fri 20 Apr: Australia vs New Zealand (revenge for the Chappell Hadlee debacle)
Australia begins the Super 8's later tonight against the West Indies (starts 11.30pm Brisbane time). Australia should win against the unpredictable West Indies although home side advantage could play a part. Or not. What with Matt Hayden being awarded Caribbean citizenship, perhaps we can claim some of our own home ground advantage this tournament. Does this mean if Australia fail to progress but West Indies make the semi-finals, Haydos can join their squad?
| Posted by JC on Tue 27 Mar | 10 comments |
India knocked out of World Cup, fan commits suicide
Last night, Bangladesh defeated Bermuda, officially knocking India out of the World Cup. Millions of fans on the subcontinent went into mourning and the repercussions are grave. I'm sure truckloads of money will be lost in TV ad revenue with India not playing in the latter stages of the tournament. Greg Chappell is fearing for his life, surrounded I'm sure by an army of hired goons.
It gets worse. A farmer from West Bengal committed suicide following India's loss to Sri Lanka. You would've thought after the Bob Woolmer tragedy, the cricketing world would've gained some perspective on what is just a game.
The farmer Mahadeb Sarkar had argued with his wife who wanted him to watch the game at home. Instead he watched it with a friend. Apparently the fight plus India's defeat was enough to tip Sarkar over the edge, hanging himself after the game. His wife also attempted suicide but failed. Can cricket get any more surreal at the moment?
| Posted by JC on Mon 26 Mar | 24 comments |
Australia defeat South Africa by 83 runs
If they weren't already, Australia can now be considered World Cup favourites as they defeated South Africa by a gaping 83 runs. South Africa won the toss and interestingly sent Australia into bat - we've developed a reputation of not being able to defend large scores and the Proteas hoped to exploit our weakness. Interesting move.
Australia knew they'd have to put on a huge total and started out perfectly. Gilly and Hayden burst out of the gate, starting at up to 10 runs per over. Man of the match Matt Hayden was on fire, notching 100 in only 66 balls - it was the fastest century in World Cup history. When the openers fell, Ponting (91) and Clarke (92) went on with it - we were that close to three batsmen scoring centuries.
Even Andrew Symonds hit a couple of boundaries although he fell for 18. The only downside in the batting was Hussey out for 5. What has happened to Mr Cricket lately? Nevertheless, Australia set an imposing total of 6 for 377. By no means a match winning total going by recent history.
South Africa started out like it would be a walk in the park. Smith and de Villiers put 160 runs for the opening partnership, motoring along at 8 per over. When Bracken was smashed for 10 in one over, McGrath came in to settle things down and had his first 3 deliveries struck to the boundary. It was Wanderers all over again. It took an incredible direct hit from Shane Watson out on the boundary to run out de Villiers and break the partnership. The momentum was further stilled when Graeme Smith cramped up and had to leave the field. Things went pear shaped from there and the Australian bowling, much maligned over past months (myself included), mopped up the batting with ruthless efficiency. The last 8 wickets fell for 74 runs, the poles were struck 4 times (and Kallis' nads struck once by a Shaun Tait lightning bolt - bad luck, Jacques!)
It was a huge victory - not so much the run difference as the psychological blow to South Africa and boost to Australia. I've been liking Sri Lanka a lot (especially after they just effectively knocked India out of the World Cup) and New Zealand are always a dark horse at these events (I wouldn't worry about England, they're just filling out the numbers). But Australia have got their groove back at exactly the right time and we head into the Super 8's with confidence (please don't tell me I'm jinxing them).
| Posted by JC on Sun 25 Mar | 5 comments |
Police announce Bob Woolmer was murdered
The worst possible news - Jamaican police have announced Bob Woolmer's death was caused by strangulation. The Pakistan team were questioned and fingerprinted although presumably not because any of the players are suspects but part of the investigation. Up until this morning, I had convinced myself that it had to be natural causes - no cricket fan could be this extreme.
However, a rumour has surfaced that match fixers from the criminal underworld fearing exposure may be responsible. This makes more sense than crazed, misguided fans, although no less obscene. It also means the timing had more to do with Woolmer working on two books than Pakistan's loss to Ireland (ironically neither book appears to expose illegal betting syndicates). Nevertheless, that Pakistan's cricket coach died from violent murder is unfathomable. Cricket has just lost any last shred of innocence.
| Posted by JC on Fri 23 Mar | 16 comments |
Sunny repents, Freddie doesn't
Sunil Gavaskar has apologised for his David Hookes remark where he'd earlier predicted one of the Australians may get whacked similar to the late Hookesy:
"I do regret it ... on the breakfast show I do with ESPN, I read out a statement regretting what I had said. On live television and radio, sometimes you respond on the spur of the moment with a remark that can cause hurt and pain to others. I realise and I accept that what I said was uncalled for and inappropriate. Having said that, I hope they (Hookes's family and friends) have the bigness of heart to forgive me for what I said about David Hookes."All kudos to Sunny. Sorry to harp on about it but at least Sunny responded with a gracious, unqualified apology. It contrasts with Ponting's reluctant apology to Pawar, only apologising "if it's relevant". It didn't help that Sutherland soured it further with his lame "different cultures" excuse.
On an unrelated but thematically similar topic, England insist everything is peachy despite all the recent drinking incidents. Michael Vaughan insists there's no drinking culture although that didn't stop him injuring his knee tripping over a pothole. Andrew Flintoff (aka the stupid bugger according to his wife) denies he has a drinking problem. Come on, Freddie, everyone knows admitting you have a problem is the first step in solving it! Instead, Freddie has said he won't give up drinking. Beefy would be proud!
| Posted by JC on Thu 22 Mar | 3 comments |
Police treat Woolmer's death as suspicious
Unfortunately, the post mortem into Bob Woolmer's death has proved inconclusive. Instead, police have started an investigation and are treating his death as suspicious. Blood was discovered on the bathroom floor, there was vomit on the walls and signs of diarrhoea. If it emerges that Woolmer was murdered, presumably poisoned by enraged fans seeking retribution for Pakistan being knocked out of the World Cup, the sport of cricket will be irrevocably changed.
I find this news quite depressing. Ideally, sport is a form of escapism where we shrug off the real world for a brief moment and revel in the contest (note - I stress "ideally"). If you want to get totally utopian, cricket should be an opportunity for fans from different countries to share their appreciation of the game and come to understand each other's cultures (I know, I'm a dreamer). The world is in a bad spot right now and it would be a grave shame if our great game of cricket was tainted with the hatred and anger that poisons the rest of the planet.
| Posted by JC on Wed 21 Mar | 8 comments |
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