Local News Wrap - January 1-14 2011

Cricket

England complete Ashes rout
There was a bizarre feeling at the opening day of the 5th and final Ashes test in Sydney last week. I can attest to it as I was there personally. Although it would be harsh to claim it was an anticlimax, with a packed house piling into the SCG, there was definitely a feeling of perverse irony in all the hearty gusto with which the local fans cheered for the Aussies. As a test match it fast became a never ending tedious anti-climax, or a four day carnival of wonderment if you're English. England were not as devastatingly good as they'd been in Adelaide and Melbourne with bat or ball. Nor were Australia quite so bad as they had been at times during the series. Yet the game ended up every bit as distressingly lopsided, with England amassing their highest ever score in Australia, 644, on their way to a third innings win of the series.

Full scorecard.

Old rivals split short form pair
Although there remains a semblance of novelty and superfluousness to the Twenty20 game, it provided two particularly enjoyable contests this week. The spectre of Australia's Ashes horror meant that the traditional early January T20s were treated with amusingly over exuberant gusto instead of the usual lazy indifference. There have been higher quality games, but both went to the last over and for once it was an intriguing contest between bat and ball, not a nauseating six-a-thon.

England took a thrilling Game One when debutant Chris Woakes scored the necessary 158th run from the last ball of the match, off the bowling of poor old Shane Watson who smashed a wonderful 59 and took four wickets to boot, and still couldn't find himself on the winning team. Game two followed a similar formula, with more frustrating middle order performances limiting Australia to only 147. It would have been worse if not for the efforts of young Aaron Finch who hit an enterprising 53 not out off 33 balls. England looked comfortable with openers Ian Bell and Steve Davies at the crease but after a vital two-wicket over from Mitchell Johnson, the middle order stumbled. Watson once again was a standout with the ball and the pace trio of Lee, Tait and Johnson managed to withstand some late scares and hold on for a much needed 4 run win.

Game 1 scorecard.
Game 2 scorecard.


Football

Socceroos survive medical nightmare

The Asian Cup continues to throw up drama and surprises into its second week. Three time champions and general Asian superpower Saudi Arabia have already booked their tickets home with a shock 1-0 loss to Jordan, following up their 2-1 defeat to Syria in the first game. China also find themselves with a face full of egg after an unexpected 2-0 lesson at the hands of hosts Qatar. Australia's group seems on schedule to finish with the Socceroos and Koreans tied atop the table on seven points after they played out a scrappy but enthralling 1-1 draw. The Socceroos had the better of the first half chances after some good set piece play but found themselves 1-0 down after a defensive lapse in the centre of the park. Mile Jedinak equalised midway through the second half with his first international goal as the Socceroos continued to show impressive elements, but made far too many silly errors and couldn't match the sensational fast passing game of South Korea.

The biggest concern for the Socceroos is a trio of potentially tournament ending injuries to Jason Culina, Luke Wilkshire and David Carney. Culina's central midfield slot should not be hard to fill with Carl Valeri and Matt McKay showing good form, but the respective flank positions in the defensive line could be a bigger problem.

Roar paddle through flood waters
The devastating floods in South-East Queensland have had a profound impact on many in the sporting community. Australian and English cricketers and their respective boards have gone to particular efforts to provide financial support, and today saw a novelty fundraiser featuring the stars of the Tennis world in the lead up to the Australian Open. But it is the A-League who have, in unimportant sporting terms, been affected most of all. The runaway league leaders Brisbane Roar have trained on four different grounds in the past fortnight, and this week found their iconic home Suncorp Stadium under water. Sunday's game against the Wellington Phoenix has been postponed until January 26 but it appears that potentially the entire of the Suncorp's remaining allotment of fixtures may need to be shifted to other grounds around greater Brisbane, or even to Gold Coast United's Skilled Park.

It remains to be seen what effect the troubles of the past week will have on the Roar, who have the luxury of an upcoming bye. If Monday was any indication though the plight of their friends and families will only spur the Roar on. As the crisis in Brisbane began to play out, the team played a thrilling high quality 3-3 draw against an impressive Central Coast Mariners in Gosford. The top 4 remains safe with the Roar, Adelaide United, Mariners and Gold Coast still by far the pick of the competition. But the battle for the remaining two places in the finals remains particularly interesting. Melbourne Victory are looking likely to qualify but are doing their best to throw it all away, with an awful performance at home last weekend, destroyed 4-1 by Adelaide following on from a 2-0 loss to the 8th placed Wellington Pheonix, keeping them within striking distance. Sydney F.C have kept their slim hopes alive with a 2-1 win visiting an inconsistent and injury ravaged Newcastle Jets who nevertheless cling to 6th. Both the Jets and 7th placed Melbourne Heart scored rather inconsequential wins over a decidedly average North Queensland Fury to start the new year, but neither have yet shown enough to consistent form to suggest a finals place is in the bag.

Tennis

Hewitt pulls Kooyong surprise
Preparations are complete for the Australian Open which begins tomorrow at Melbourne Park. Aside from the odd inspiring cameo from names like Molik, Stosur and Dokic, local fans have had precious little to celebrate in the recent past. 2011's edition may not be different in the grand scheme, with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal looking unbeatable and Kim Clijsters' favouritism shortening every day. But the signs have been promising this week. Hewitt, the clear outsider in ranking terms, took a somewhat unexpected trophy at the disappointingly tiny and insubstantial but still high quality AAMI classic at Kooyong. Hewitt scored three impressive wins over top players. Russian top 10 stars Mikhail Youzhny and Nikolay Davydenko were both quality conquests, and Hewitt wrapped up the title with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Gael Monfils. Hewitt will need all the form he can muster, for a first round clash with the class of long time rival David Nalbandian, who has come off a strong performance in Auckland where he was runner-up to David Ferrer in the Heineken Cup.

Aussie women reverse roles
There is massive hype around Samantha Stosur going into the Australian Open. The world No.6 who reached her first grand slam final in Paris in 2010, is seeded No.5 for the tournament, the highest Australian women's seed since Wendy Turnbull in 1984. However it was not Stosur who flew the flag for the Aussie girls this week but young up and comer Jarmila Groth. Groth took out her second WTA title this week at the Hobart International, beating fellow young sensation Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States. It follows Groth's maiden title at the Guangzhou International open in China just four months ago. Stosur meanwhile went out in the second round of the Sydney International to former World No.1 Svetlana Kuznetsova. Despite the setback, Stosur's challenge still looks on track. Kuznetsova was particularly impressive and Stosur gives every indication of being a woman who is peaking at the exact right time.

ASHES REVIEW: Where to for Australia?

At long last the Ashes are mercifully over. The final act of the series was a fittingly lazy prod at a short ball from Michael Beer that trickled lamely back onto the stumps. With this dismissal England won the 5th Test at Sydney by an innings and 83 runs, the narrowest of their three wins in the series. It is statistics like these which point to the magnitude of Australia's dismal failure. Due praise must be heaped on Andrew Strauss' men who performed with a discipline and consistent intensity unprecedented in my lifetime. But for any blatantly prejudiced and angry Australia, it is the systematic failure on and off the field of our boys which has been the true headline grabber.

The painful irony of this disaster of a summer is that it all started to spectacularly. England dismissed inside the first day at Brisbane on the back of a rousing spell of devastating fast bowler from Peter Siddle. Looking back, it was really only this opening day and the 2nd day in Perth when Mitchell Johnson showed fleeting heroics where Australia could be said to have truly shown any sort of dominance. The only perverse consolation out of the series is that England there were so many thoroughly humiliating days that they have blurred into one mind-numbing mesh, with nothing really standing out. After the series opener in Brisbane I thought it would take many years to forget the remarkable English 2nd innings, when they amassed 519 runs for just a single wicket lost. As it happens, it now sits long abandoned in the recesses of the memory, usurped by the comprehensive embarrassment of Adelaide, getting skittled for 98 in Melbourne, and England's mammoth 644 in Sydney.

It's tempting to award every player in the Aussie side a blanket single star but one must try to look through the petulant short term reactions of such a result and be more objective and mature. Here are my assessments on five of our best, if I can muster five.

 Michael Hussey - ****

Obviously a huge outlying shining light for Australia with his efforts. But even still, Hussey's performance is soured slightly by the fact that he contributed very little in the last two tests, always falling at particularly vital pressure situations after getting his eye in. Nevertheless, it was so refreshing to see a flowing Hussey in full flight, and 570 runs at 63 is a great series by anyone (perhaps except Bradman...or Alastair Cook's standards). His epic in Brisbane and crucial match winning hundred in Perth were true classics.

Shane Watson - ***

 There is something immensely frustrating about Shane Watson, a man with the technique and temperament to shadow most of his team-mates, yet who still fails to rack up the dizzying statistics he in reality should. He threatened even Hussey's status as Australia's most consistent batsman of the series, and in all the repeating calamitous collapses from the top order, almost invariably was the survivor, seeing out the new ball. Right as this storm was weathered, with 40 or 50 on the board and a big score beckoning though, comes the customary wicket, usually a frustratingly soft regulation catch behind or LBW. His running between wickets is also beginning to reach Inzamam-like status in its shoddiness. However he is still one of the few Australians who can hold his head up high at all. Adding to this was his underused bowling wares, which were always penetrating and often far outstripped the genuine quicks.

Brad Haddin - ***

 Haddin's performance kind of lies somewhere between Hussey and Watson. His triple stand with Hussey in Brisbane which produced a majestic innings of 136 was not even close to equaled by any other batsman throughout the series. The Hussey-like part comes from the fact that as the series went on and they became the proclaimed savious, the only pair we could rely on, Haddin like Hussey faltered and didn't match his early heights in Melbourne or Sydney. The Watson-like part comes from Haddin being unfailingly consistent but aside from Brisbane, not getting past that 50-60 mark.

 Peter Siddle - ***

I'm a sensitive new-age guy. I invest emotionally with women. I have an unhealthy reliance on the Internet. I'm partial to a bit of Chicago and Air Supply. Actually that last bit isn't true at all. Notwithstanding, my sentimental side wants to give four stars to Siddle just for being so likable and for trying so hard. Siddle's fighting batting when all was lost on more than one occasion was telling. Siddle's pair of six-wicket hauls in Brisbane and Melbourne were both extremely impressive, the first as a genuine match winning spell, the second for its grit and unwavering intensity over long periods. Unfortunately the snag in the series for Siddle was that he essentially was of little use for the rest of the entire series outside those hauls. The two innings' in question accounted for 12 wickets at 10.75 apiece. Outside this he took 2 wickets at 177.50, figures not even the consistently flat and unpenetrating Ben Hilfenhaus could match. In truth both bowled well many times, but fundamentally lack a killer variety, and are inconsistent in their sameness.

Ryan Harris - ***

The question to ask now as a perfect cliche, is what now for Australian cricket? Luckily, or perhaps not, there is no time to deal with such questions yet. The limited overs portion of the summer will soon begin in earnest, and while these games always retain a degree of superfluousness, they at least mean something this year as the world cup comes immediately afterwards. After three consecutive tournaments of utter dominance, it would be the final marker of the true end of an era if Australia failed in its title defence. After the world cup is completely in April, four months pass until Australia's next test series in Sri Lanka. Ponting's performance as captain and batsman in the world cup will make a big difference in final decisions for this tour. The talent is there in the Australian line-up, the discipline and seasoned winning know-how is not. With Simon Katich returning in place of the still promising but not quite ready Phil Hughes, Khawaja as the exciting new no.3, and Ponting at 6, we'd have a batting line-up able to dominate anyone on its day, if still slightly below the nauseatingly brilliant quality of India and South Africa.

The bowling is less simple. Still no spinner has stamped his authority on the team, thanks in part to the selectors' morbid wish to prevent anyone doing so. In the short term Nathan Hauritz must be the way to go, with his NSW team-mates O'Keefe and Smith needing to develop their bowling to become genuine Test all-rounders of the future. The fast bowling stocks are deep and talented. But if Johnson, Siddle, Hilfenhaus, Harris and Bollinger are really the most skilled in the country, is there cause for concern? It's all well and good to praise the England batsman or claim bad luck and a lack of consistency forthcoming in the future as responsible for the displays this summer, but the fact remains the heights England's totals reached, and the regularity with which they did so is unacceptable. If none of those men can prove up to the challenge in the coming year, there's enough in the drawer to replace them wholesale. If anything can rouse consistent quality from the quick men, surely it is that threat.

Again though, all credit to England. They are a side of the quality not seen in the motherland since the Gatting's, Gower's, Gooch's and Botham's reigned over Australia (but certainly not the world) in the 80s, perhaps even the Illingworth led era nearly four decades ago. Hopefully they go on to be an all-time great, record-setting, world-dominating No.1 team. As hard as this would be to swallow, it might just make this Australian team seem less mediocre in context.

1st Test - Brisbane

England - 260 (Bell 76, Cook 67, Siddle 6/54)
Australia - 481 (Hussey 195, Haddin 136, Finn 6/125)
England - 1 dec 519 (Cook 235 n.o, Trott 135 n.o, Strauss 110, North 1/47)
Australia - 1/101 (Ponting 51 n.o, Watson 41 n.o, Broad 1/18)


MATCH DRAWN
MotM - Alastair Cook (Eng)

5 Test series level 0-0 after 1 Test

Full scorecard here. 




2nd Test - Adelaide

Australia - 245 (Hussey 93, Haddin 56, Watson 51, Anderson 4/51)
England - 5 dec 620 (Pietersen 227, Cook 148, Trott 78, Bell 68 n.o)
Australia - 304 (Clarke 80, Watson 57, Hussey 52, Swann 5/91)

England won by An Innings and 71 runs
MotM - Kevin Pietersen (Eng)

England lead 5 Test series 1-0 after 2 Tests

Full Scorecard here.








3rd Test - Perth

Australia - 268 (Johnson 62, Hussey 61, Haddin 53, Anderson 3/61, Tremlett 3/63)
England - 187 (Bell 53, Strauss 52, Johnson 6/38, Harris 3/59)
Australia - 309 (Hussey 116, Watson 95, Tremlett 5/87)
England - 123 (Trott 31, Harris 6/47, Johnson 3/44)

Australia won by 267 runs
MotM - Mitchell Johnson (Aus)

5 Test series level 1-1 after 3 Tests

Full Scorecard here. 




4th Test - Melbourne

Australia - 98 (Clarke 20, Tremlett 4/26, Anderson 4/44)
England - 513 (Trott 168 n.o, Prior 85, Cook 82, Siddle 6/75)
Australia - 258 (Haddin 55 n.o, Watson 54, Siddle 40, Bresnan 4/50)

England won by an Innings and 157 runs
MotM - Jonathon Trott (Eng)

England lead 5 Test series 2-1 after 4 Tests (England retain the Ashes)


Full Scorecard here.




5th Test - Sydney

Australia - 280 (Johnson 53, Watson 45, Khawaja 37, Anderson 4/66)
England - 644 (Cook 189, Prior 118, Bell 115, Johnson 4/168)
Australia - 282 (Smith 54 n.o, Siddle 43, Clarke 41, Anderson 3/61, Tremlett 3/79)

England won by an Innins and 83 runs
MotM - Alastair Cook (Eng)

England win the 5 Test series 3-1
MotS - Alastair Cook (Eng)


Full Scorecard here.

This Week in Sporting History: THE TIED TEST

Australia vs West Indies,1960/61 - 1st Test
Wooloongabba, Brisbane
December 9-14 1960

West Indies: 453 (Sobers 132, Worrell 65, Solomon 65, Davidson 5/135)
Australia: 505 (O'Neill 181, Simpson 92, Hall 4/140)
West Indies: 284 (Worrell 65, Kanhai 54, Davidson 6/87)
Australia: 232 (Davidson 80, Benaud 52, Hall 5/63)

MATCH TIED

The West Indies celebrate as Joe Solomon 

affects the most famous run-out in cricket history.

This week exactly fifty years ago saw the famous Tied Test, the first ever instance of a complete Test Match finished with both teams equal on the same total (constituting a TIE as opposed to the common DRAW occurring when the 5 days expire without a completed result) in the 498 match and 83 year history of Test Cricket up to that point. The story of this iconic match has gone down in legend, indisputably the greatest ever cricket match (not just for the final drama but on overall quality throughout the match) to anyone lucky enough to have witnessed it.

The wider context of this historic match has perpetuated its legend. As the 1950s wore down Test Cricket was becoming increasingly dull and was entering a period of extreme divisiveness, with the real danger of losing fans in their drones. Frank Worrell, now a West Indies legend perhaps more for his endearing personality than his cricket, led a star-studded West Indies team to Australia which for the first time ever, was rated a genuine chance of challenging and beating the hosts. Worrell had in recent times become the first ever black West Indian captain, a major milestone in the history of a predominantly anglo-centric sport (India were still young in their independence and retained white-anglo elements, and Pakistan had barely yet registered as an international force). Worrell's team and the Richie Benaud led Australians gathered in Brisbane in 50 years ago this week for the series opener, two of the game's greatest ever figures as captains going out for the opening toss. What ensued was not only five days of competitive Test Cricket and pure theatre of the highest order, but five whole Tests of similar quality, resplendent with vibrant aggressive play and in played in a spirit consigned forever to the realsm of fantasy in the modern age. Record crowd figured flocked to all five Tests, matches which in many views, single-handedly recharged Test Cricket into its popular heights of the next decade and beyond.

As for the actual match, The West Indies won the toss and batted. Some wonderful enterprising batting from the god-like genius Sir Garfield Sobers saw him make 132, an innings Benaud described as the greatest innings he ever witnessed. An astonishing 50 from fast bowling No.10 batsman Wes Hall then helped carry the total to beyond 400, the Windies making a strong 453, at a 3.37 run rate which would be impressive even by today's standards. But the Australians were equal to the task, making full use of the flat wicket to amass 505, spearheaded by a majestic 181 from Norman O'Neill, an innings criminally underrated in the annals of cricketing history. As the pitch began to show signs of wear, The West Indies fought hard to 284, on the back of another stodgy captain's 65 from Worrell. This left Australia little more than five hours on a patchy final day wicket to make 233. Hall was in his element and ripped through the Aussie top order, reducing an ominous top order to 5/57.

At 6/92 midway through the day captain Benaud joined Australia's bowling hero Alan Davidson and the rest is history. Eschewing conventional logic which suggested attempting to defend for the draw, Benaud made the decision to attack and the pair put together an epic partnership, which took Australia to within a whisker of victory. But with just seven runs remaining a suicidal call from Benaud ran Davidson out for a magnificent career best 80. Enter the final either ball over and Australia found themselves needing six runs to win, with three wickets left. After a single from wicket keeper Wally Grout, Benaud was caught behind of a wild barely controlled bouncer from the bounding Hall from 52. A thigh-smashing scrambled leg-bye and a woefully grassed catch by Hall later and 3 runs were needed from 3 balls. No.10 batsman proceeded to slog Hall beyond where any modern rope would stand, but a spectacular chase and direct hit throw (from upwards of 75 metres) from Conrad Hunte caught Grout short going for the 3rd and winning run. This brought in Australia's final man Lindsay Kline with the scores tied. Kline tapped the penultimate ball square and called Meckiff through for a scrambling single. From almost exactly side-on, with one stump visible, Joe Solomon's aim was true and Meckiff was run out. The West Indians jumped for joy, most presuming they'd won. Australian players and fans were unsure which team had won, if either, so implausibly unlikely was the concept of such a long form contest finishing tied. Finally once the confusion settled the astonishing reality became clear. Cricket's first tied Test. Half a century later the result has only been repeated once, between India and Australia in similarly dramatic circumstances in 1986.

For the record Australia won the 5 Test series 2-1, after 25 days of supreme Test cricket and thanks largely to a miraculous draw in the 4th Test where Ken Mackay and that poor No.11 Kline again, batted for nearly two hours at 9 wickets down, preventing the West Indies from taking the final wicket to win the match.

*Insert beer drinking pun here*

Australia's unlikely new recruit Michael Beer,

still looking thoroughly shell shocked.

The Australian selectors look like they have come full circle in their horrendous desperation, and have now become a distinctly unamusing parody of 90s England revolving door policies. The squad for Thursday's 3rd Ashes Test in Perth includes unknown Western Australian left-arm spinner Michael Beer, who only made his first class debut in October and has been picked supposedly for a knowledge of the Perth pitch despite only moving there from Victoria in this past year. Clearly the move smacks of desperation and has been panned from all corners. However it distracts (perhaps not without intent) from what is for once a well chosen squad. Although Beer being selected in the 11 would be an eyebrow-raising move, logical evidence (which unfortunately can't be relied upon when it comes to our selection panel) would suggest that Beer surely will not play, and that consequently the squad is a clever one.

The hype over Beer has overshadowed some astute selection calls. Conventional wisdom said Marcus North, Xavier Doherty and Doug Bollinger must go, and they have. Steven Smith, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus have returned and although it would be nice to see a new fresh batsman like Usman Khawaja, the focus has to be on fixing the bowling horrors of the first two Tests. Australia have picked a perfectly balanced squad for this vital Perth Test. However this is all conditional (and its a big if) on Beer not playing. Make no mistake I rate young Beer, in fact as astonishing as it may seem I had heard of him properly before this week. But the other eleven in this squad of twelve must surely be the correct team for Perth, out of anyone not just this set of twelve.

Obviously, with reason, people must ask why Beer would be selected over the experienced and in form Nathan Hauritz. Or if the selectors insist on troubling England with left arm orthodox spin why not opt for New South Welshman Steve O'Keefe who impressed against the Poms playing for Australia A. But the selectors from what I can tell have their eleven decided already, and if the fight is for a position as token twelfth man Beer does no harm. The reason the eleven seems set is because the needs of a notoriously spin-unfriendly Perth pitch, and the rigidity of the squad means there can only be one plausible team. Watson, Hughes (replacing the injured Simon Katich), Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, Haddin, Smith, Johnson, Harris, Siddle, Hilfenhaus. Hauritz or O'Keefe may be obviously more qualified to play than Beer, but truthfully neither would fit into the team based on the squad picked. Furthermore having bowlers of that calibre could result in Ponting and the selectors failing to resist temptation and playing the specialist spinner, which would be a mistake. Playing a Hauritz or an O'Keefe with Smith would mean two spinners, something irrational for the demands of the Perth wicket. The only other option would be playing Hauritz/O'Keefe ahead of Smith, which would dramatically affect the balance of the side. Even with both Hauritz and O'Keefe being useful lower order batsmen, it would be very poor judgement to rely on a batting lineup with an out of form and short on confidence Mitchell Johnson at 7. Five bowlers only works when one of them is the all-rounder Smith.

On the surface it would seem that if a batsman like Khawaja or Callum Ferguson was picked instead of Beer, that would give the squad a better overall balance and offer more flexible options. Digging deeper even this proves untrue through. Playing an extra batsman at No.6 would mean one of two things. Either there would be four fast bowlers and no spinner, not the smartest option. Or Smith would play at No.8 which again is clearly a badly balanced side with one too many batsmen, and only three front line bowlers. With Beer in the squad he operates as a safe 'designated twelfth man' while the prescribed eleven can focus on preparation for the match.

It may seem rather cruel to hand the young man what looks like a miracle debut on his home track only to relegate him to 12th man, but I don't doubt Beer is aware of the plan. If the eleven is indeed set then there's no reason not to give a promising young player a week in the Aussie squad to really learn and help him develop as a player. I don't know if I'm being too lenient on the selectors but I just like the idea of bringing in an exuberant fresh face to remind the boys of the passion and excitement playing for Australia should bring, as opposed to bringing in an old hand like Hauritz to create needless selection dilemmas and dissatisfaction on the part of whoever is chosen not to play.

Maybe Hilditch and co are just panicking and we'll see our twelfth spinner in five years.

Australian Squad - 3rd Test vs England @ Perth, December 16-20
Ricky Ponting - Captain
Michael Clarke - Vice Captain
Shane Watson
Philip Hughes
Michael Hussey
Brad Haddin
Steven Smith
Mitchell Johnson
Ryan Harris
Peter Siddle
Ben Hilfenhaus
Michael Beer

FINAL REPORT: Pietersen stars in unprecedented thrashing

Australia vs England, 2nd Test - Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
Thursday December 2-Monday December 6 2010.

Australia - 245 (Hussey 93, Haddin 56, Watson 51, Anderson 4/51)
England - 5 dec 620 (Pietersen 227, Cook 148, Trott 78, Bell 68 n.o)
Australia - 304 (Clarke 80, Watson 57, Hussey 52, Swann 5/91)

England won by An Innings and 71 runs


MotM - Kevin Pietersen (Eng)
England lead 5 Test series 1-0 after 2 Tests


Full Scorecard here.

 A pained and perturbed Ricky Ponting forced 

to face the media music again.

What to say and where to turn as an Australian cricket fan? The four and a bit days of horror which transmitted out of Adelaide this week felt as close to watching a friend die as any arbitrary frivolous sports game could ever possibly feel. I personally, with the typical sleeping pattern of my age (and it must be said of a lover of worldwide sport) found myself accidentally slumped in a post-late night stupor on my couch at 11am EST this past Thursday. After my fleeting nap I jerked awake to see AUS 3/2 on the screen in front of me. Never has missing the start of an important cricket match felt so good. All in all, for all the consistently good bowling of England on Day 1, for all the heroics of Cook and Pietersen with the bat, and for all the final morning wiles of Graeme Swann, in reality I missed the decisive point of the Test match. The stunned silence and general sense of amazement that filtered through from the generous Adelaide crowd (a post Bodyline-record) and the commentary box gave off an air of exasperated desperation, as if the death of the modern golden age of Australian cricket was playing out in front of our eyes. It was the way it happened too. Simon Katich run out for an astonishing diamond duck after yet another woeful misunderstanding with Shane Watson in the first over of the match. Next ball the trump card Ponting gone and Australia 2/0. Then at 2/2 Michael Clarke gave yet another sign of his immature impetuosity, and general inability to make vital runs in pressure situations. The airiness with Clarke swatted a James Anderson full ball, inevitably edging to slip, was enough to fry the blood.

From 3/2 Australia started to dig itself out of the hole, but any time it got close to some sort of comfort another wicket fell. Watson and North both threw away solid starts at crucial times. Michael Hussey led the Australian recovery again with another beautiful innings. But he was snuffed out on 93 by a gem from Graeme Swann. This was the end of any meaningful resistance. Brad Haddin was last man out for a well made 56, but the damage was done, Australia out inside a day for a paltry 245, paltry on such a flat batting beauty of an Adelaide wicket. After Day 1 the dialogue from the Australians to the press was that batting was not as easy as it was made out and a similar tight bowling display to the English could keep the match competitive. When Andrew Strauss left the third ball of Day 2 to go through to the keeper and was bowled by Doug Bollinger for 1 there were fleeting hopes of fight. But Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott, extending their Brisbane vigil, showed the true virtue of the pitch, adding another 173 to their unbeaten 329 from the week before. Trott fell for 78 to Ryan Harris, the only Australian bowler to maintain any sustained pressure, but that only brought Kevin Pietersen to the crease.

It seems astonishing to think that Pietersen's fear factor was paramount in 2005 and 2006, and that the last 18 months of scratchy form had consigned this supposedly to the history books. After all his iconic efforts in helping England win that special series in 2005 however, nothing came close to his achievements in Adelaide. His second career double century, a career best 227, batting from late on Day 2 until the 4th morning. KP's effort even put Alastair Cook in the shade, despite the fact that he made another 148 following on from Brisbane's unbeaten 235. Cook now has a ridiculous aggregate of 350 runs in 3 innings at an average of 175. One stat I know doesn't exist is the scoring of a double century in every match of a 5 test series. Would you rule it out on the Australian bowling evidence presented thus far?

So after compiling all of 620 runs for just 5 wickets lost, England saw fit to declare on the 4th morning and set about their first innings win over Australia in 24 years. Shane Watson looked good for 57 (his dismissal on such scores is fast becoming tiresome) and Simon Katich fought hard for 43 through an Achilles injury that has proved fatal to his series. But all in all Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey (with a little help from some ominous grey skies) looked like they might just give us a chance of getting away with the impossible, and heading to Perth still locked at zero in the series. Then Michael Clarke padded an amicable little dolly from Kevin Pietersen straight to the short leg fieldsman, Cook no less, in the last over of the day. Going to sleep on the final evening all looked lost after that final blow but you never know, there's fight to come in the batting order and rain to be showered. But the feeble resistance showed by as stoic fighters as Hussey, North and Haddin

The post-mortem was as swift and decisive as it was predictable. Former English captain Duncan Fletcher stated that Australia's worst case scenario was a 3-0 series defeat.

"The only ground I can see Australia getting a draw at is Melbourne. If the wicket there is as flat as it has been in previous years then Australia should be able to bat out the match." Fletcher said writing for The Guardian.

Comparisons to the lowest depths of Australian cricket in living memory, namely the early to mid 80s period of Allan Border led struggle and revival, are coming thick and fast. Perhaps inevitably, but still somewhat astonishingly, the calls for Shane Warne's return are louder than ever. Respected Australian journalist and noted Warne-basher Peter Fitzsimons leads the crusade, saying that the emergency need to save and win the Ashes is more important right now than any longer term considerations. Always looking on the bright side, The Courier Mail's Robert Craddock expressed a view that such a hiding may be what is needed to push Australian cricket in a positive direction.

"Sometimes a serious kick up the backside can do far more good than harm. Losing the Ashes in 2005 was one of the best things that happened to Australia in recent times."

I can't help but feeling however that is clutching at straws to an extent, the long term prognosis is far more dire than it was in 2005 and it seems unlikely that any real substantive rebirth in Australian prospects is less than a few years away at best. Malcolm Conn's ironic comparison to Australia's last innings defeat at the hands of England, in 1986-87, also presents as a veneer of false hope. But perhaps it is too presumptuous to say a 4-0 Australian victory in England in 2013 isn't out of the question. Or perhaps it isn't.

For all the much deserved Australia bashing however, credit must go to England. They played perhaps their most complete near-perfect Ashes Test in decades. Brisbane showed the potential for batting dominance but in Adelaide in some ways, considering how many more questions were raised about the attack, it was the fantastic bowling performance, particularly of James Anderson and Graeme Swann that really stole the show.

The question for Australia now is what to do with their team for Perth. Panicky wholesale switching would do little to anybody's confidence and have no greater effect than sticking with the same 11. However in all likelihood Marcus North and Xavier Doherty at least must go, joining Simon Katich on the sidelines. Katich's replacement is the easy part. Selectors are likely to go straight for their default of Philip Hughes, despite the fact that older, more experienced both domestically and internationally and more technically sound Western Australian opener Shaun Marsh has been in epic Sheffield Shield form, with statistics dwarfing those of Hughes.

Usman Khawaja coming in for Marcus North is not as simple as it sounds, especially as Khawaja has very little experience batting so low down the order. Nathan Hauritz chose this week's vital match for NSW against WA to score a rather unexpected maiden first class hundred rather than taking any wickets. However he took an impressive five wickets on a test-reminiscent Perth pitch very recently and must be a safer option than Steven Smith (although he at least would bolster our fledgling tail). The questions are endless? Do we bring Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus back? Should the selectors bite the bullet and breed Khawaja, Ferguson, McKay, George, Copland, or countless other youngsters. Maybe Warne should come back. It would at least be less complicated and although I am not convinced that he could truly weave his old magic, his mere presence might be enough and certainly his tactical nous would improve the situation. It has been quite astonishing to see how freely and easily Warne has been able to pick holes in Ponting's tactics live in commentary and suggest more interesting options, and how often his suspicions tend to turn out right.

Maybe you'll consider it Shane? It would be spectacularly newsworthy if nothing else.

Highlights
*** - It's hard to think of any out of such a disaster. Michael Hussey must come instantly to the surface though. His form and timing still look impeccable and if we are to somehow stay in the series more big hundreds will help the cause, if we can't then at least Aussies have one shining light. His rash shot to start the rout early on the final day has left quite a big scar on the match for him though.

** - Ryan Harris. He may only have 2 for 84 to show for his work at the Adelaide Oval, but this is substantially better than any of his front line counterparts, all of whom conceded more than 100 runs. Aside from Siddle's first innings heroics in Brisbane a decade ago it now feels like, Harris is the only bowler available who really deserves to play in Perth at all. Ben Hilfenhaus surely must also return as he I felt did very little to deserve being dropped in the first place and certainly couldn't perform any worse than Doug Bollinger did in Adelaide.

* - As unusual as it may be to see me giving praise to Michael Clarke, his second innings 80 was a tough fighting knock at a time when Clarke didn't look to be any right state form wise to provide such an innings. It also could have gone partially the way in silencing those who say he doesn't make scores in pressure situations, if he hadn't of thrown it away on the last ball of the day. Nevertheless it gives hope that he might be able to put some sort of runs together in coming Tests.

Lowlights
*** - It's difficult to know where to begin. Yet when you consider that the last two English innings have cost 1037 runs for just 6 wickets, it isn't really. Five fast men, and a woefully underused Shane Watson, have tried and none have effectively succeeded in stopping the terrifying flow of runs from English bats. With every pitch in Australia usually playing decidedly flat, and with every logical fast-bowling option tried already, its impossible to think how we're going to stop them and frighteningly rational to wonder if England will just keep racking up 500,600,700 in every first innings.

** - Ricky Ponting. Today I will not speak of his captaincy, primarily because his shortcomings are now so visibly self-evident that I have little need to say anything. It is his batting which is really letting us down. For all the talk of being past his best (which he may be in terms of consistency at least), Ponting showed in India that his actual skills and talents have not diminished one bit. Watson is batting solidly enough, and Hussey so beautifully, that if Ponting could put some big innings together under pressure (as opposed to superfluous knocks like Day 5 at the Gabba) it would make a huge difference, not just in the obvious way but mentally for the whole team. Ponting is the talisman. Advancing he may be in age but he remains that golden prized wicket everyone wants. Like Pietersen, it doesn't really matter what form Ponting is in, you know he can take the game away from you and lift the whole team with him. If he can score a few hundreds now he might just save his place in the team post-Ashes even if his captaincy is beyond salvation.

* - Xavier Doherty. It may be harsh to give him his own star, particularly after all my praise for him as recently as Brisbane. But this star is more earned by the selectors and whoever is running the spin bowling program in Australia in general than for Doherty himself. For all his admirable effort and through my general enthusiastic support of him, must however go, he has shown with figures of 1 for 158 in 27 overs that he really isn't up to Test standard. Some may say that Shane Warne started similarly and faith should be shown? Yes it should be but only when all prevailing evidence says so. The faith should have been in Nathan Hauritz in the first place. Even if he comes back for Perth it's impossible to know how his sacking has affected his confidence.

FINAL REPORT: Cook and Trott ensure remarkable draw

Australia vs England, 1st Test - Day 5
Monday November 29 2010.

England - 260 (Bell 76, Cook 67, Siddle 6/54)
Australia - 481 (Hussey 195, Haddin 136, Finn 6/125)
England - 1 dec 519 (Cook 235 n.o, Trott 135 n.o, Strauss 110, North 1/47)
Australia - 1/101 (Ponting 51 n.o, Watson 41 n.o, Broad 1/18)


MATCH DRAWN

MotM - Alastair Cook (Eng)
5 Test series level 0-0 after 1 Test

Full scorecard here.

So the 1st Test of this summer's much anticipated Ashes series is complete, and the status quo is maintained. There was something distinctly anticlimactic about the last session on Monday as the match petered to an obvious draw, after weeks of hype and four days of high quality Test cricket. But nevertheless the status quo that the 0-0 scoreline claims to portray is far from how it feels, particularly as an Australian. The distressing manner of Australia's bowling meltdown resulting in the draw means the teams move to Adelaide for the 2nd test on Friday with a clear psychological field of play, England with the upper hand. The amazing feats throughout the first Test, combined with its eventual result after it all, mean this week feels almost like an extended hype and build up. Rather than a more down to earth feeling of 'OK the series has begun' leading to a 2nd Test, instead we remain in a pre-1st Test kind of agonizing limbo, but magnified a hundred times. It is still impossible to pick the outcome of this series. Spectacular highlights and glaring problems remain in both camps.

The 1st Test felt like a strange bastard child of the past three Ashes series, from the 2005esque spectacular drama and compellingness of contest, to Australia slowly but surely developing a 2006-07esque upper advantage at home. In the end, looking back at a Test littered with spectacular moments and feats from individuals, I am left with a 2009 reminiscent feeling that both these sides are far below the quality they should be and that The Ashes could be a case of who screws up the least over five tests.

Monday’s final day provided, as was feared, with more of the same following on from Day 4. Alastair Cook and Jonathon Trott, resuming at 1/309, continued to put Australia’s faltering bowlers to the sword as they quickly snuffed out any remote hopes of an Australia victory. Michael Clarke summed up Australia’s day with a truly atrocious dropped catch at first slip. That chance, as well as a late difficult grass from Ponting both came from the bowling of Shane Watson who looked easily the most threatening yet was barely used. Many arguments are made that Watson needs to be moved down the batting order so as to free up more bowling duties, but I wonder if such a move is necessary and if we, or more importantly Ponting, underestimate his fitness and ability to back up. Although the game was never realistically winnable, England nevertheless were always going to declare at some point, in order to get a thoroughly demoralised Australia back in grudgingly and cause more damage. By the time this call came from Strauss England was an astonishing and rather nightmarish 1 wicket for 519.

Alastair Cook finished with an epic unbeaten 235. Cook is a batsman free of large flourish who seems to be nothing but walking technique, and whose technique considering that is rather flawed, yet somehow he now has 14 test hundreds before the age of 26. England’s top 6 consists of Strauss, Pietersen, Collingwood and Bell, all vastly experienced and proven class acts (albeit less so against Australia for Bell). Before the series Australia surely spoke of two batsmen as potential strike zones. Firstly: Cook, the weak link with questionable technique and questionable precedent in Australian conditions. Secondly: Trott, the debut tourist with little Test experience. Yet it was these two who put on a mammoth and unbeaten partnership of 321, duly passing Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin’s two day old record for the biggest Test partnership at Brisbane. TrottAustralia with 135 not out. Thankfully Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting prevented further psychological haemorrhaging by overcoming the early loss of Simon Katich for 4 and batting solidly until stumps. Ponting looked fantastic in an unbeaten 51 at faster than a run a ball and fairly quickly broke apart the plans of the English quicks. But their late efforts couldn’t mask the disappointment and overall trepidation looking at the rest of the series. One for 517, as much as it may prove to be a freak one-off, nevertheless is not acceptable by any standard. For their part the selectors have taken the positive step of adding fast bowlers Doug Bollinger and Ryan Harris to the 2^nd test squad.

I only hope we don’t end up with a 0-0 series draw because neither team can take 20 wickets. This is an exaggeration but not by much, both bowling units look thoroughly unconvincing (thanks to Graeme Swann’s lack of substance in Brisbane). The Ashes may very easily be won and lost, just like in 2009, by the odd individual bowling brilliance. Andrew Flintoff at Lords and Stuart Broad at The Oval provided these in 2009 and coincidentally there were England’s only two wins of the series. Peter Siddle provided this time around and Australia weren’t able to capitalise. More to the point, in this landscape the Ashes may come down to which batting line-up avoids inexplicable collapses. It is through this criteria that I express frustration at Marcus North being retained in the squad, and continued annoyance at Michael Clarke’s soap opera. Australia only needs to bat solidly throughout the series and it could easily be winnable, especially as England showed a penchant for collapse in the first innings. There won’t always be a Hussey/Haddin partnership to save the day.



Highlights
*** - Ricky Ponting. Although it was to be fair, a completely inconsequential innings, Ponting's quick fire 51 not out to end the match did look suspiciously like his best form so hopefully, while I think he will still continue to fail on occasions, on those times he doesn't we might still get 2 or 3 vintage Ponting classics this summer.

** - Shane Watson. Although 41 runs and no wickets is hardly a memorable day. Watson again showed today that he is vastly underrated with the ball then backed it up with another solid looking stint with the bat. Ponting really must have faith in the man and bowl him a great deal more.

* - Alastair Cook. Shocking though it may seem I am in fact paying tribute to an Englishmen. As painful as it was to watch him bat for the best part of 11 hours, it was a wonderfully grandiose innings, one of those rare gems. Cook also unknowingly broke another of Bradman's precious records, namely taking the highest Test score at the Gabba from the Don.


Lowlights
*** - 1/517. I don't really know who I'm conclusively blaming but that score is quite absurd. Even in this new age of rebuilding and being No.5 in the world rankings, Australia have no right allowing oppositions to so thoroughly destroy us like that.


** - Surprise surprise it's Mitchell Johnson. He completed his wonderfully inadequate match by finishing with the inauspicious figures of 0/108. Rumours are that the selectors have bitten the bullet and sacked him for Adelaide. Although I wish him well and desperately hope for classic Johnson to win Test matches for Australia in the future, this man currently in the team is not the same man. Johnson must not play in Adelaide, I may not watch if he does. 


* - The Brisbane people. To be fair it was Day 5 of a Test match almost foregone to be a draw, on a working Monday. But I'm from Sydney and tend to enjoy slandering Queenslanders so I'll take this time to admonish the crowd on Monday, or lack thereof. While I too appreciate the general unimportance of a draw-headed last day, this is the Ashes and with the Barmy Army always out in force, if Aussie supporter numbers slip too low they can be usurped by English numbers. This got very close to being the case on Monday and there is a psychological principle of basic home country ethics to deal with. This is Australia, the dreaded doom land English cricket comes to die. It is insultingly unspeakable that they can play a single day of cricket in Australia in a partisan pro-English atmosphere.

Strauss and Cook turn the tide

Australia vs England, 1st Test - Day 4
Sunday November 28 2010.


England - 260 (Bell 76, Cook 67, Siddle 6/54)
Australia - 481 (Hussey 195, Haddin 136, Finn 6/125)
England - 1/309 (Cook 132 n.o, Strauss 110, Trott 52 n.o, North 1/22)

Full scorecard here.




The first two days of this opening Ashes test at the Gabba featured captivating to and fro Test cricket. The unfailing curatorial genius of Kevin Mitchell Jr has produced another sensational pitch in keeping with Brisbane's reputation as having the best pitches in the country. The balance between bat and ball had set up a fairly even contest before yesterday, Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin blasted away any lingering thought that the pitch was anything other than flat and true for a well set batsman.

To the despairing chagrin of Australia, England openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook vehemently reinforced this fact today. Cook is a strange case, going about his business quietly and usually at a slow pace and rarely being talked of with the sort of respect afforded to many players far less deserving. Here is a 25 year old man who has just achieved his 14th Test hundred. Few of even the greatest all time players can lay claim to such a tally at that early age. Today saw if not his greatest innings, certainly his most important. Cook batted through the entire day, starting slowly but ending unbeaten on a near chanceless 132.

Captain Andrew Strauss played the more exciting but also more danger-fraught innings. While Cook battled along, Strauss, after a slow start, surged past 50 and onwards on the back of devastating cuts and drives through the off side field. Ricky Ponting did his best to help the English cause, with some astonishingly petulant captaincy, at times changing his field after every ball to combat the latest inevitable English boundary. Australia's bowling was too short at times and inconsistency but, similar to England yesterday, not all that bad. Even Johnson looked better although he remains frustratingly short of spectacular best. Strauss and Cook were merely too good. Strauss brought up his hundred with a sublime cut for 4 off Xavier Doherty, who again bowled tidily and consistently but was slightly too full and fast to be truly effective on the unique Gabba surface. Marcus North, who bowled impressively for 12 overs, showed the more appropriate line and length with good flighted off spin. It was North who got the eventual breakthrough, ending the opening partnership on 188 when Strauss skipped down the wicket in a rather ungainly fashion, missed the ball as it spun away, and was calmly stumped by Haddin for 110.

This was only the beginnings of Australia's woes however, with new batsman Jonathan Trott immediately on the attack, just as Cook upped the ante and increased his scoring rate. 121 more runs came by the end of what was all in all a thoroughly depressing day to be an Australian. England go into the final day leading by 88 runs with 9 wickets in hand, with a draw now looking the most likely result.

Highlights
*** - The wicket. It is a testament to what a terrible day for Australia this was that this is the best I can do for a three star highlight. It was a sublime piece of bowling from a supposed part timer though.

** - For all my unabashed patriotism, kudos must go to England's 3 batsmen who played with great patience and judgement on a pitch that still has a bit in it, and whose cracks are really starting to show.

* - Ben Hilfenhaus. Hilfenhaus for mine was the best of the Australia bowlers, and the only one to consistently get his length right. Like James Anderson yesterday he toiled all day without luck.

Lowlights
*** - Where to begin. Although it is acutely mainstream and boring to always berate poor Ponting for his captaincy, it is with reason today, not so much for specific tactics as for his general lack of self assurance.

** - Mitchell Johnson. Poor Mitch. It's just not his Test match. First an average first innings bowling effort than making a duck. He bowled a lot better today but had the misfortune of dropping a catch off Strauss when he had 69. It wasn't an easy chance, above the head at mid-off, but it was one that should have been held.

* - This may be a bizarre point to make, and of course remaining positive is the most obvious way to keep yourself from feeling stressed and under pressure and therefore playing worse, but I was frustrated today by the happiness of the Australians, as strange as that sounds. While England smashed them to all parts of the ground, many of the Australian players, particularly Ponting, Clarke, North and Siddle seemed to be having a great laugh a great deal of the time. I admire that the Australians, for all their history of being over-intense sledgers, are showing that they can enjoy their cricket and have fun regardless of the situation. It is good to play in the spirit of the game like this but Jesus, when the opposition is 1/300 there needs to be more anger, the kind of anger that leads to a steely Aussie determination to win games of Cricket.

Heroic partnership gives Australia command

Australia vs England, 1st Test - Day 3
Saturday November 27 2010.


England - 260 (Bell 76, Cook 67, Siddle 6/54)
Australia - 481 (Hussey 195, Haddin 136, Finn 6/125)
England - 0/19 (Strauss 11 n.o, Cook 6 n.o)

Full scorecard here.

Australia resumed on Day 3 of the 1st Ashes test at 5/220, 40 runs in arrears of England's first innings effort. With exactly 80s overs bowled Jimmy Anderson would start the day with a brand new ball in hand. There was a sense of tension, that the game was at a vital crossroads. If England bowled sufficiently well they could take early wickets and restrict Australia to a score close to, may be even below 260. As it proved they bowled extremely well, and did take an early wicket, and yet the day was so utterly and convincingly Australia's. Only one run into the day Michael Hussey was plum LBW to Anderson for 82. Hussey logically reviewed the decision, his wicket at this time was too vital not too. The ball was straight, low, hit him line and clearly careening into the stumps. But it also had pitched marginally outside leg stump, and so Hussey was saved. 82 had become 83 when Hussey was struck on the pad again. This one was completely out in every way but in his first blemish of the game, umpire Aleem Dar did not raise his finger and with Andrew Strauss' having wasted England's two reviews wastefully on 50/50 calls, nothing could be done. So it was that the newest tactical consideration in international cricket, a captain's Decision Review strategy, defined a day's play.

None of this early fortune can detract from the partnership of Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin however. They came together at a precarious 5/143 on the 2nd afternoon, pushed through to stumps adding 77 runs came out this morning with the game potentially in the balance. England's quicks, particularly the luckless Anderson bowled fabulously in the early overs, according to Haddin it was "the hardest bowling of [my] career." But they saw this period through and remained together. Lunch and Tea would come and go before they would be parted with the score at 450. The pair added 307 runs, the first ever triple century Test stand in Brisbane and the 2nd highest Australia 6th wicket stand of all time behind the legendary 346 of Jack Fingleton and Sir Donald Bradman in 1937.

Hussey's innings was a masterpiece, potentially the greatest of his career even with lady luck's early help. The emotion he poured out upon reaching his 12th century spoke of the stress and frustration of his extended lean patch and the questions over his place in the team. But he wasn't finished, moving effortlessly for 195 before falling sadly short of a maiden double hundred when a rash pull shot from Steven Finn was caught by Cook in the outfield. Haddin's contribution hopefully will not be forgotten amidst the magic of Hussey. After an excruciatingly lethargic start, Haddin took off once he reached 25 and easily outscored Hussey. As he sat on 94 with Graeme Swann tossing the ball up enticingly, no-one was surprised when he brought up his hundred with a devastating straight six. Haddin went on to 436 before finally becoming the first wicket of the day when he edged Swann to Paul Collingwood who took a pearler in the slips.

Australia's tail showed a slightly worrying lack of resistance. When 307 of 481 runs comes from one partnership the nation can't rest easily. Mitchell Johnson lumbered for half an hour without a run then was promptly bowled. Peter Siddle made 6 before a Finn bouncer fired off the back of his bat to Swann at slip. Xavier Doherty on the other hand looked very solid and continued a good trot with the bat for Tasmania by moving quite gracefully to 16 before hitting out and being caught. All these wickets fell to Ashes debutant Finn, the 21 year old taking a rather unexpected but still deserved six wicket haul.

England, with a demoralising 221 run deficit, at least managed to survive scratchily to stumps at 0/19 from 15 overs, although Strauss tried his best not to, leaving the first ball of the innings only to see it straighten into his pads. Had it been a few centimetres fuller Strauss would be going to Adelaide next week on the back of two ducks.

Highlights
*** - Michael Hussey. If Australia win this Test match, and go on to win the Ashes on the back of it, Hussey's 195 may go down in Australian cricketing folklore. As such it is already probably the best innings of his career. Hussey has been fundamentally struggling in his mind, irrespective of fluctuating performances, for the best part of two years. He has made hundreds in that time but few in the first innings and none with the kind of vibrant panache showed today. His potentially career-saving Sheffield Shield hundred for Western Australia last week looks to have profoundly shaken him out of what was starting to look worryingly like a permanent psychological rut.  

*** - Brad Haddin. It is amazing to think that today was only Haddin's 3rd test century. The years he spent waiting in the wilderness for Adam Gilchrist to retire have been followed by inconsistent performances by team overall, denying Haddin the potential conditions to make more runs. Then his 2010 was ruined by chronic tendinitis of the elbow. Today's 136 for Haddin was every bit the all time defining career milestone as Hussey's innings, the question is whether it will forever be his greatest innings, or if it will open the floodgates to more hundreds.

* - Mr Doherty. The mannerisms and general excitement of Xavier Doherty's father as he watches every ball of his son's overall rather impressive test debut have been a heartwarming quirk amidst the drama of the match. Today he showed extremely good humour and grace in dealing the thorough embarrassment of the Channel 9 cameras and commentators (whom he was listening to via the ground's cheap radio devices) when they saw fit to watch him in the stands with his wife more than actually follow the action on the ground.


Lowlights
*** - Although not a specific namedrop so much as a castigation of pretty much the entire batting order, people must remember to consider through all the hype surrounding Hussey and Haddin's mighty partnership that the entire team only scored 172 runs outside that partnership. Australia got away with bowling England out for a total lower than they are usually likely to make in the 1st innings. Our batting must be far improved to have any chance of regaining the Ashes.

** - Mitchell Johnson backed up his uninspiring bowling effort by steeling his resolve with the bat in hand. Boosted by a recent shield century Johnson is determined to show his worth as a genuine all-rounder, he needs to considering he could very soon be out of the team if his bowling is the only selection criteria. In this conscious attempt to be a serious batsmen Johnson showed a mature watchfulness in his innings which quickly descended into gratuitous pretentiousness. 33 minutes passed without a run before he was comprehensively bowled, his technique looking pretty much flawed throughout the innings in a fundamental way. Johnson needs to revert to the old idea of his carefree batting being a happy bonus for the team if he wants to score the kind of runs he did in 2008 and 2009.

* - Kevin Pietersen's moustache. Somehow in three days its awfulness has escaped by mention. But no more.

Brave Hussey leads tough fight

Australia vs England, 1st Test - Day 2
Friday November 26 2010.


England - 260 (Bell 76, Cook 67, Siddle 6/54)
Australia - 5/220 (Hussey 81 n.o, Katich 50, Anderson 2/40, Finn 2/61)

Full scorecard here.

Since day one (whenever that was, the end of last year's Ashes I guess), I have remained fervently in support of Michael Hussey's place in the team far more than that of Marcus North, despite no real ostensible difference in their performances. Hussey is Mr Cricket. He gives off a vibe of someone who when it really matters, at a defining crossroads in his career in the most important of cricketing contests, would rise to the occasion. Today he showed his true colours with a fine unbeaten 81 which has in all likelihood saved Australia's blushes.

Hussey's aggressive intent from ball 1, particularly on the back foot and against an oddly reticent Graeme Swann was a joy to watch. He came to the crease at the most highly charged and challenging of moments, with a fired up English attack having taken the double break through of Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting to bring the game back to an even keel. Aside from an edge just shot of first slip on the first ball he faced, Hussey looked totally in control. His crucially timed partnership of 77 with Brad Haddin, which will resume tomorrow, took Australia from the precarious position of 5 for 143 to a strong position at stumps.

The day started positively for Australia with Shane Watson and Simon Katich surviving a good spell of pressure bowling from England’s pace triumvirate. All the luck was on the openers’ side, including a reverse LBW decision when Katich was initially given out for 27. Watson soon took control, confusing the lengths of the English bowlers when he became the first person in the game to pick apart the full length he ironically had pioneered a day earlier. His ferocious drives down the wicket took him past Katich to 36 before Anderson had him caught at slip by the captain Strauss, the very next ball after an unsuccessful review of a not-out LBW decision.

Watson’s dismissal left Australia at 1 for 78 but Katich and Ponting were able to survive to lunch and ensure their front running position at 1 for 96. After lunch all hell broke loose. With the 2^nd ball of the afternoon session James Anderson, who bowled with great probing discipline all day, had Ponting out for 10 caught behind flicking off his legs. Four runs later, after reaching a well compiled 50, Katich offered Steven Finn a return catch and his first Ashes wicket. With this two-pronged blow, Australia had Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey new to the crease. Clarke had yet to answer questions about his bad back while Hussey as ever was fighting for his place in the team. But you wouldn’t have thought so by the way he played, quickly going on the attack against Swann and moving to 20 in no time. Clarke did not have the same luxury of supreme confidence, to say the least. He looked jumpy, rhythmless and overall rather third rate in his 50 balls of struggle before inevitably getting out for 9. Speaking of inevitability, Marcus North then failed. North had just 1 when he made an amateurish lunge at a fairly innocuous traditional off spinner from Swann and edged straight to Paul ‘Eddie McGuire’ Collingwood at slip. At 5 for 143, England’s score of 260 was suddenly looking decidedly competitive. But Brad Haddin, playing with admirable restraint, supported Hussey through to tea and then onwards. Australia would probably have reached a lead by stumps had the umpires not gone off 18 overs early on a completely arbitrary bad light basis. In a frustrating quirk of irony, the heavens then opened and ensured the day’s play was complete.

The match remains very alive, but save for a big collapse tomorrow morning, Australia should be well on the way to a healthy first innings lead, including a vintage Hussey hundred with luck. Bear in mind that Australia must bat last on a pitch of questionable durability, so they optimally need to reach as close to 400 as possible tomorrow and then bowl very well in the 2^nd innings. Any 4^th innings target beyond about 150 will not be easy.

Highlights

*** -  Mike Hussey without a doubt. A quality score is never out of the question but the intent and style of his innings was tremendous, possibly his best knock since the vintage of 2005-07.

** - Shane Watson and Simon Katich. Australia's unlikeliest all time great opening pair continue to impress with another solid 78 runs today. Their foundation could prove key to an Ashes winning summer.

* - Movember. I should really have mentioned them yesterday seeing as Australia were bowling, but in all the excitement I scarcely had time to even think about them. But Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus' moustaches are truly fantastic. There is a very pleasing three musketeer quality about Johnson's pornstar look, Hilfenhaus' cut short handle bar hash job (thanks to Mr Hilfenhaus who vetoed the full handle bar) and Siddle's grub which inexplicably somehow completely suits his face. All for a worthy cause too.

Lowlights

*** - Michael Clarke. Yes above Marcus North. I know everyone's allowed a bad day but Clarke's was a particularly awful day today. The demons that kind of an innings can cause don't usually heal fast. A first ball duck would probably have been far less damaging to his confidence and Australia's overall Ashes chances. 

 
** - Marcus North. I feel quite sorry for North because he's an honest hard-working cricketer and I have a lot of respect for what he does. Once he gets in he can reach Rahul Dravid-like levels of concentration and immovability, usually without the pervasive boredom as well. But he hardly ever reaches double figures nowadays. If he doesn't do something big in the 2nd innings this could be his last test, but I would hope Australia don't find themselves in a last innings position sufficiently desperate to need such heroism.

* - Bad light delays. As the Channel Nine commentators alluded to, a review is badly needed of the archaic rules relating to bad light. Leaving the field if ambient light becomes insufficient was implemented before the time of helmets and door-sized under-clothes padding specifically as an option if the umpires deemed it a hazard to the physical health of the players to continue. This is hardly a problem nowadays and Bad Light calls have become inherently tactical, especially as traditionally an umpire will 'offer' the opportunity to leave the ground to the batsmen. Late afternoon periods of fading light will always be supremely tough to bat during and no mentally sane batsmen is going to decline a bad light offer. Think of the drama we'd get in Test matches with some nice juicy periods of play in the dusk.

Simple Siddle does the trick

Australia vs England, 1st Test - Day 1
Thursday November 25 2010.


England - 260 (Bell 76, Cook 67, Siddle 6/54)
Australia - 0/25 (Katich 15 n.o, Watson 9 n.o)

Full scorecard here.

The halcyon days of McGrath, Lee and Gillespie and Warne may seem like a distant memory for the Australian bowling unit, but there is life in the old dog yet. What’s more, the sources of this revival in hope and enthusiasm are far from what you’d expect.

For all the talk of an inconsistent, inexperienced attack and their presumed struggle at taking 20 English wickets, Australia has surprisingly healthy pace stocks. The core of Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger, Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris are backed up by the promising young talent of Clint McKay, Mitchell Starc, Peter George, Josh Hazlewood, Trent Copland and Mark Cameron, just to name a few. Meanwhile on the spinning side of things, the plethora of been and gone candidates since the great one’s retirement, while hardly ideal, at least speaks to the depth of near-international quality spin bowling in a country not evolutionarily designed to support the art. But with the developments of the past 12 months, Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Bollinger and Hauritz locked in as incumbents and the vibrant young brigade being given their due, few would have picked Peter Siddle as Australia’s next great bowling hero, and surely none would have thought of Xavier Doherty as the man most likely to take the spin bowling chance and grasp it with both hands.

It is the variety of our quick men which makes them at once threatening and frustrating. The wild, unreliable and dangerous slinger Johnson. The McGrathesque (or maybe DamienFlemingesque would be more appropriate for his prodigious ability to swing the ball and his consistent if always varying spot of minimal facial hair) Ben Hilfenhaus. The left arm new ball specialist Doug Bollinger, with all the cult excitement he stirs up. Peter Siddle somehow appears to be the misnomer, the eggshell amongst broken glass. He is straight up and down, a hard-working, toiling, honest bowler with a mean 140something speed on his day. He’s not quite the gun slinging wild child that is Johnson or the ever-reliable Hilfenhaus. He inexplicably doesn’t even feel remotely like Bollinger, even though they both essentially fill that same intermediary role between Mitch and Hilfy. Siddle, and I mean no disrespect because he is a match for anybody in the world at being so, is one of those bowlers who seems to possess little variety in his arsenal. Invariably he bowls them straight, without prominent swing, at a consistently fast but not spectacular pace, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. While some may have doubted his natural ability, no-one I know has ever disliked Siddle. He is a man whose work ethic would be unmatched even in the most heinous Nazi concentration camp, and if that isn’t enough to miff any survivors of Auschwitz, the indecent joy and happiness with which he seems to do his work every day surely would. Now on perhaps the most important day of his short test career, he’s gotten all rewards he’s deserved for his years of passion, and then some.

A full decade has passed since an Australian last took a test hat-trick (Glenn McGrath against the West Indies in 2000). It is two years longer since the feat was achieved in an Ashes test, by Darren Gough in Sydney in January 1999, a match I was privileged enough to attend, my first as a spectator. Siddle’s hat-trick is reminiscent of Gough’s in that it was the most spectacularly pure and aesthetically pleasing that a hat-trick can get, with two shoe-splitting yorkers firing under Matthew Prior and Stuart Broad’s bats. The ball that got rid of the stubborn Alastair Cook to start the rout was a gem in itself, finally enticing the cautious opener to push ever so slightly outside off stump and edging to the slips.

Siddle’s 6/54 was the hallmark of engrossing day of test cricket at its absolute finest on a beautiful if somewhat sluggish pitch offering a little something to everybody, including the makers and sellers of sawdust. Australia fought hard to dismiss England for 260 by stumps. Simon and Shane Watson ensured Australia’s upper hand by lasting until stumps with the score on 25, Katich looking particularly confident in his aggressive welcoming of Graeme Swann to Ashes cricket at the Gabbatoir.

If the recent tradition of the nerve-jangling opening over providing a glimpse into coming fortunes is anything to go by, Australia are in very good shape. After the interminable pre-series hype and as the climax of the much anticipated first ball began to subside, England’s captain and most important batting stabilizer hit the third ball of the series straight to Michael Hussey. Short outside off stump is not what Ben Hilfenhaus had in mind for his first wicket of the series, but it was nevertheless an extremely clever delivery, deviating back at the left-handed Strauss just enough to cramp his cut shot, a sure fire way of getting yourself caught in the cordon. England 1 for 0. It was the kind of spectacular start that always seemed likely, and for a fleeting moment thoughts of England all out for 30 by lunch flashed through the mind. But a positive start from No.3 Jonathan Trott, and the typical uninspiring stoicism of Alastair Cook began what was a gripping contest all day.

Trott looked in fine touch and it needed a jaffa to remove him, Shane Watson seaming a full ball back in through the gap and disturbing his stumps. As ever Watson was penetrating and difficult to play, and it was Watson who recognised the need to be full and straight. With the slow pace and tinge of green in the wicket, a length bordering on the half volley becomes the new good length ball. So it proved as Watson removed Trott with the perfect ball for such conditions, and inspired Siddle when he returned to the attack after what had truthfully been a scratchy opening spell.

Siddle’s full deliveries outside off accounted for Kevin Pietersen on 43, just when he looked ready to take the match from Australia after showing a headache inducing streak of vintage form, and Paul Collingwood for just 4. At 4 for 125, the in form Ian Bell and the defiant Cook fought back, with a partnership of 72 before all hell broke loose. After Cook’s vigil ended on 67 in the waiting hands of Shane Watson, and Matt Prior was comprehensively bowled, Siddle had to wait an extra minute or two for confirmation of his hat-trick as Stuart Broad played the controversial Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) card to challenge his palpably plum LBW decision. Broad was struck on the toe on the full, not going close to digging out the searing if rather fortuitous yorker Siddle ended up delivering.

Siddle’s 6th wicket was Graeme Swann for 10, another plum LBW and another pointlessly wasted decision review. Pietersen and Ian Bell were the only batsman who looked to have mastered the conditions, and the overall consistent (apart from Johnson arguably) Australia bowling. Bell played perhaps his best innings against Australia, attacking test debutant Xavier Doherty with particular gusto on his way to 76 before rather inevitably become Doherty’s first test wicket.

My judging standard may be particularly low after all the spin troubles we have had, but Xavier Doherty had to me an absolutely sensational debut innings with the ball. His surprise inclusion over Nathan Hauritz and Steve Smith, despite a frankly woeful first class bowling average of 48 over nearly a decade, was said to be the result of a certain big game quality the selectors saw in him. His four wickets on One Day International debut recently against Sri Lanka gave the earliest glimpses of this and rose to the occasion today. Doherty, a containing one-day bowler by trade really, bowled typically tightly and with great discipline, every bit the match of Hauritz’s cool temperament. More than this, for a supposedly straight up and down containing limited overs bowler he seemed to get a notable amount of purchase out of the wicket, turning the ball far more consistently and often considerably further than Hauritz usually managed. He remains unlikely to ever really run through a team and no doubt the pitch offered him an unusual amount of assistance for a Day 1 Aussie test pitch, but given the context of his meteoric rise and distinctly unimpressive average, his performance was nothing short of sensational. The only blemish on Doherty’s day was a tough but catchable chance he dropped from Cook at cover point earlier in the day.

It is easy to get caught up in the hype of what was really a magnificent day of test cricket, silencing the long form’s doubters. But the truth of the matter is that England’s 260, if their bowlers can do the job tomorrow, may not be that far off the mark. Australia has the disadvantage of batting last on a pitch that has shown signs of likely wear and tear as the game progresses. Australia’s performance was far from flawless either. Ponting’s tactics remain decidedly questionable and Mitchell Johnson showed little to suggest he won’t be carted around the country for the next six weeks, although he will surely have one of those inevitable destructive spells in there somewhere. England were in a fighting if not dominant position of 4/197 before Siddle’s hat-trick, and without the collapse could very easily have gone close to 400, an ominous score on such a economical pitch.

These are all petty details though on a day that was first and foremost, enthralling top level sporting competition, and most importantly for the partisan Aussie, overall a very successful and promising day. These Ashes aren’t a foregone conclusion yet for the Poms.

Highlights
*** Siddle’s enterprising fast bowling and sensational hat-trick. Fast bowling of the like has rarely been seen in Australia or the world for the matter for some years. The last comparable spell I remember is Mitchell Johnson’s destruction of South Africa in Perth two years ago.

** Doherty’s mighty mature performance, the perfect foil for Siddle’s heroics.

* Channel Nine reigning themselves back from the uncontained idiocy of the early summer games to present a focused and, unprecedented within the past few years, almost passing for acceptable commentary. Michael Slater is still annoying as a commentator though. And Mark Nicholas is still a pompous idiot.


Lowlights
*** Kevin Pietersen. While his batting at full flight is always a highlight visually, his form today was worrying. It is too early to make elaborate judgements from one innings of 43, but he’s showing every sign of another return to form just in time for the Australians.

** Mitchell Johnson. My constant criticism may seem overly harsh and he didn’t bowl particularly atrociously today, certainly not compared to the trash he can throw down. My concerns remain however. If we get to about the 3rd or 4th test and his consistency hasn’t improved and his devastating spell hasn’t come yet, it might be time to bring Dougie back for Mitch. Hilfenhaus/Siddle/Bollinger is as formidable a pace attack as any. I think I’m just biased against Mitch because a tattoo artist has made his arm look like a charcoaled log after a bushfire. He was so attractive too.

* Mitchell Johnson’s tattoo. There are other Australian problems to bring up but they are not yet sufficient as to cause grave concern. After such a good day of cricket it’s a fitting tribute to only have two genuine lowlights. Besides that tattoo really is bad.