Lucky it rained on the first day of the Test cricket season for the fifth year running. I didn’t miss a thing after losing a five-a-side footy game embarrassingly.
I also didn’t miss Watson and Hughes unceremoniously warm the hands of the knitted-vest-wearing Saffers.
Watson expertly played across the line while there was still movement in the air – a smart move for a Test opener. Hughes did one better, pushing hard at a ball that warranted shouldering arms.
Brilliant. Katich who? This is the future of top order Australian batting. Phillip Hughes: come back never.
Ricky Ponting is turning into a bit of an old fart of late, dispatching the Vernonator, who was impressing on debut, for six as if to say, “I only deserve to face proper bowlers”.
I can picture him with fake teeth and a bedtime of 7:30, the old dinosaur. While that was a good shot, he proceeded to get himself out in the most predictable of manners – it seems that if you bowl straight at Ponting, he will get out.
Anyway, I don’t really care, because Michael Clarke is skip now, and that makes him the most important person in the country in my books.
Pup was my tip for runs this season, which will probably mean he’ll average 14.6 and be dropped come April. And sure enough he looked as uncomfortable as J. Gillard in front of the cameras.
But luckily, Steyn fired him up and assured Michael of some runs. Never understood why a bowler does that. Absolutely nothing to gain in Test match cricket; is Clarke going to whimper away terrified?
He’s a professional, he’s competitive, only going to make him concentrate extra hard.
Maybe at your local park, the youngster will lose some of his poise, but a 73-Test captain of their country? No. (Unless you’re Andre Nel who apparently wore a heart monitor to track his own BPM to get himself into his”optimal bowling zone”)
Swampy Marsh was doing his best impersonation of Rahul Dravid at the other end, and the barrage of short of a length garbage from Steyn et al never really worked.
Clarke was cruising at a run-a-ball and even Marsh hit a few through the covers.
Imran Tahir: you little teaser. You promise so much after the World Cup and deliver so little. You promised good flight, pitching on middle and leg, but you bowled flat and pitching at Boucher’s feet.
Imran, you are why I can’t concentrate at work today. Apparently the “Ostraya”lians collapsed to eight down for 200 odd. I was sleeping by this point.
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