The Socceroos are into the Asian Cup final, Steve Smith picked up three gongs at the annual Allan Border Medal night, but Nick Kyrgios’ Australian Open campaign came to a straight-sets halt, thanks to the wily Scot Andy Murray.
All three events were on at the same time last night, a couch potato’s heaven, with the remote in overdrive.
Three was one too many, so I chose to concentrate on Smith’s domination, and the tennis, and was kept up-to-date with the Socceroos’ efforts by my long-time colleague and co-Roarer Tim Prentice via text messages, with the 2-0 win over the UAE catapulting the men in gold into the final of the Asian Cup against South Korea next Saturday at ANZ Stadium.
The result was a big boost for Australian football, coach Ange Postecoglou, and the expected 80,000-plus crowd for the decider.
Steve Smith was the tearaway winner at the 16th Allan Border Medal presentation night, taking out the coveted medal, as well as the best Test and ODI player of the year. Only Ricky Ponting in 2007, and Shane Watson in 2011 have won the trifecta in the same year.
Smith was well clear for the medal with 273 votes, from David Warner’s 145, and Mitchell Johnson’s 126.
For the Test medal, Smith polled 27 votes, Warner 23, and Johnson 15. Smith just held off Aaron Finch for the ODI honours by 27 votes to 25.
What a night for the humble 25-year-old, who thoroughly deserved the triple recognition.
There’s a growing number of cricket lovers, including myself, who want the selectors to retain Steve Smith as the Test and ODI captain, even if Michael Clarke returns from his on-going injuries. At best, Clark will be a game-by-game proposition in the future with his chronic back issue, and both hamstrings under a cloud.
But Smith is super fit, he’s the premier batsman, the best fieldsman, and a visionary skipper. There was obvious delight among his peers as he repeatedly mounted the steps to the presentation stage. Smith is clearly a very popular skipper, who has constantly proved he leads from the front.
So selectors, ink in Steve Smith to toss the coin irrespective if Clarke plays or not.
The gala night saw Glenn Maxwell as the T20 player of the year, Meg Lanning the Belinda Clark Medal as the best women’s cricketer for the second time in a row, Sean Abbott the Bradman young cricketer of the year, and Jason Berendorff the domestic cricketer of year.
And that leaves Nick Kyrgios, now a spectator at Melbourne Park.
His golden run hit the wall, with Andy Murray changing his normal game plan to defuse the 19-year-old’s power.
Murray concentrated on Kyrgios’ backhand with softly sliced backhands of his own that skidded low, under Kyrgios’ radar.
Brilliant tactics.
Murray won 6-3 7-6 6-3 to book a semi-final berth with Czech Tomas Berdych who demolished Rafael Nadal in straight sets 6-2 6-0 7-6, ending a 17-match losing streak to the Spaniard.
Kyrgios however was far from disgraced, competing all the way through until the fat lady sang her farewell.
He would have learned a lot from last night, including keeping his cool, even through the frustration of not being allowed to play his own game was damning.
He did receive a code violation in the second set for racquet abuse, and when he smashed his racquet a second time on set point to Murray, that should have been an automatic point loss, and the set. But for some unknown reason, the central umpire didn’t enforce the penalty. It mattered not, Murray won the set anyway.
Kyrgios’ frustration was evident in his serving. In the previous four rounds he blasted 97 aces compared to Murray’s 37. Last night Kyrgios served just 9 aces to Murray’s 13, and to compound the loss of fire-power, Kyrgios’ return serve stat was well below par – just 21 points won out of 87, or 24 per cent.
Throw in Murray’s 48 winners to 36, and his 28 unforced errors to 38, and that’s why Andy Murray is in the semis to meet Berdych, and Nick Kyrgios will be watching the rest of the tournament on television.
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