Personal opinions from a denizen of a land Down Under.
It’s difficult to understand why the Australian cricket authorities decided to stage the third Test of the current series against India in Brisbane, a city known for its rain and storms in December and early January.
For some strange reason, the powers-that-be gave the first Test to Perth, a venue that normally stages a match later in the series, especially when there are five Tests against the one country. Continue reading “Why choose Brisbane for the third Test and not the first?”
If Australia wins the current Test series against India, it would be the first time since 1968-69 that it has won a five-game series at home after losing the first Test. That season, Australia played the West Indies and lost the first Test at Brisbane.
But the locals then bounced back with wins in Melbourne and Sydney, before a thriller in Adelaide ended in a draw. The fifth and final game saw the West Indies thrashed by 382 runs in Sydney, giving the home team a 3-1 series win.
Australia’s win against India in the second Test of the current series has levelled things at 1-1, with three games left. Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney will host those three Tests. Given the way the series has see-sawed thus far, it is difficult to predict with any degree of certainty the outcome of these three games. Continue reading “After 1968, Australia has not won a five-game series at home after losing the first Test”
When a cricket team is set anything more than 400 to win a Test, the target is generally considered out of reach.
The thinking behind this stems from the fact that only on four occasions has a team scored more than this figure in the final innings to win a Test, beginning in 1948 when Australia scored 3 for 404 to defeat England in the fourth Test at Headingley.
Two Australian legends, Arthur Morris and Donald Bradman, made big centuries in the win, and this only made the target seem more difficult: the logic became that unless you had some top-notch batsmen in your side, you had no chance of achieving a target that big
Continue reading “Chasing big totals to win: Why are batsmen in such a hurry these days?”
There’s one little fact that’s been left out when talking about the incident in the second Ashes Test, when Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey stumped his English counterpart Jonny Bairstow. And that is the fact that this happened at the end of an over.
There have been numerous other cases of batsmen being run out in a similar manner cited, but none of them was at the end of an over. In earlier years, once the ball had landed in the hands of the wicketkeeper at the end of an over, it was considered to be dead.
In other words, you could not use the ball to effect a dismissal at that stage. Continue reading “Bairstow was out, sure. But it was the end of the over and…”
As Steve Smith makes his 100th Test appearance at Headingley — the game started at 8pm AEST on Thursday — an attempt is being made to rehabilitate a man who brought Australian cricket into disrepute at Newlands, South Africa, in 2018.
The Australian’s Peter Lalor writes that Smith was joking with his colleagues when the incident with Jonny Bairstow in the second Ashes Test at Lords occurred and the crowd started chanting “cheat” at the Australian players.
Apparently, Smith thought the team would now understand how he had felt after the Newlands incident, when Australian Cameron Bancroft was caught on live TV using sandpaper to scuff up the ball.
There’s a big difference, a gap as wide as can be, between the two incidents. Continue reading “Alex Carey did not cheat. But Steve Smith did, at Newlands in 2018”
The hype around AI is everywhere but the actual power of this technology is far from what it is made out to be.
I often experiment with ChatGPT and here is what this great piece of tech was able to produce about THE incident in the second Ashes Test between England and Australia.
My query: Write an article about the incident in the second Ashes Test.
What ChatGPT spat out:
Title: The Ashes Unveil Unforgettable Drama: A Recap of the Second Test’s Epic Incident
Introduction:
The Ashes, the historic cricket rivalry between Australia and England, has always been a showcase of intense competition, raw talent, and nail-biting moments. However, the second Test of the latest Ashes series will be remembered not only for the fierce battle between the bat and ball but also for an incident that shook the cricketing world to its core. In a moment that will forever be etched in cricketing folklore, an unforeseen turn of events unfolded, leaving fans, players, and pundits in awe and disbelief. Continue reading “ChatGPT on the incident in the second Ashes Test”
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam blew it. Which captain in the universe would choose to give the last over in a T20 match to an inexperienced spinner rather than a fast bowler, when the side chasing a win is on the wrong side of the equation?
The match one refers to is the T20 clash between India and Pakistan at the MCG on Sunday [October 23].
[India needed 48 off the last three overs and then 16 off the last, after Pakistan made 159 in their 20 overs.] Continue reading “Pakistan captain must take the blame for losing to India”
The second Test between Pakistan and Australia, which ended in a thrilling draw in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, brought to the fore one, rather puzzling question: why is Australia so afraid to enforce the follow-on?
It looks like the decision made by Steve Waugh in Calcutta in 2001 still haunts the Australian team.
On that occasion, Australia, 274 ahead on the first innings, asked India to follow on. Thereafter, what happened is well known: Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman put on 376 for the fifth wicket and India finally waltzed out winners by 171 runs (coincidentally their own first innings score).
Continue reading “Rawalpindi draw indicates Australia still fears enforcing the follow-on”
There is an unwritten rule in most human societies that one does not speak ill of the dead. You can be the worst murderer, thief, rapist or sociopath and beat your wife every day of the week, but the moment you die, you have to be treated as some kind of saint.
This kind of hypocrisy is so embedded that at least in one language there is a specific word to describe it: Sinhalese, the language spoken in Sri Lanka. [Despite all my efforts, I just cannot recall the word which was told to me when I was in the eighth standard many moons ago.]
That rule appears to be asserting itself in Australia following the death of cricketer Shane Warne, a player who revived interest in the art of spin bowling when he came on to the international scene in 1992; this was after fast bowlers, predominantly from the West Indies, had ruled international cricket for two decades.
Continue reading “Don’t go overboard with the sentiments, Warne was just another flawed human being”
Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne has shuffled off the mortal coil. He died in Thailand on Friday at the age of 52, felled by a suspected heart attack.
The leg-spinner arrived on the international scene in 1992, a blond-haired kid from Melbourne, but did not catch the attention of the game’s pundits right away.
It took a while, but under the captaincy of Allan Border he grew in stature and slowly became the go-to bowler when Australia needed a wicket.
Continue reading “Vale Shane Warne, the man who revived spin bowling”