The crowds flocked to North Sydney Oval yesterday to see the heavyweights of Australian cricket turn out for NSW against what they thought would be an easy win against a Tasmanian side who didn’t even field a specialist wicket-keeper.
Easy points and a chance to cement their selection in the upcoming Windies series? well, guys, take note, teamwork wins matches, not reputations.
It was the no-names of Tasmania who stole the show from the crowd favourites with smart, aggressive, and stylish cricket – something that had slipped the minds of the opposition.
They played as a team, all 11 starters contributing something to the win.
Jason Krezja again had us scratching our heads as to why he has been ignored these last 12 months, Brendan Drew and Brett Geeves, who are hardly household names in NSW, showed patience and skill to take the key wickets when Tasmania needed them, and undaunted by the sight of Australia’s test stars running in at them, the Tassie batters kept their heads and gave their bowlers a reprieve from taking to the crease again.
In contrast, Australia’s vice-captain Michael Clarke gave his wrist a workout. The queue for his autograph was longer than the bar – and given he only made 8, there was plenty of time to satisfy the fans!
Stuart Clark managed to take two wickets, but looked nowhere near the miserly bowler we have come to rely on in limited overs cricket. Phil Hughes did not have a happy time at slip, dropping two catches and making a certain run-out into a farce (I could only imagine Punter’s face if that had been a Test), and Brett Lee, who promised so much last week, again succumbed to his war-torn body.
NSW played the names on their backs, not the team in front of them.
Maybe next time we should be applauding the better team, not the individual stars?
Fisher Price
Guest
This was pyjama cricket. At Shield level, Krejza is even more ordinary... A hardened domestic cricketer he is not. That he does really well for Tassie is a complete myth. James - good call on Jaques. And I totally agree on Clarke. His back problems have rendered him a stodgy accumulator (albeit one that plays spinners well), which is great in the longer form of the game but limits his output in one-dayers.
Jameswm
Guest
Agreed and the match proved a few things, apart from how Krejza should be right in the selection frame (which you mentioned). The supposed one-day heavyweights like MClarke scratch around and bat for themselves. He went in at 3 solely to get a bit of match practice, which he or someone deemed more important than helping the team. On a flat wicket, NSW's scoring rate was too slow. When Smith and O'Keefe, two young guns briefly batted together, they put on 43 in 20 balls. The big names couldn't manage that and the only one that scored relatively freely was Katich, who should be opening in the one-dayers. Jaques looked in pretty good form too and I would have him opening in the first test team, ahead of Hughes. Clarke is no one-day or T20 batsman any more and the sooner the selectors realise this the better. The grooming of him as T20 skipper is absurd and illogical; he doesn't understand the tactics and with his slow scoring he shouldn't be in the team in the first place. Steve Smith has been awesome this season and is a more than handy leggie. As tempting as it might be to push him along too fast, I hope they let him play Shield cricket for the next two years, so he can be more match hardened when he inevitably comes into the test team. The T20 games on the other hand are different and I'd pick him and Henriques in the Aussie T20 team ahead of MHussey, Clarke and Hopes. You have to pick horses for courses and the selectors still have not realised this. By the way Tassie were hardly inexperienced - Dighton, Bailey, Cowan, Birt, Butterworth, Geeves and Krejza are hardened domestic cricketers.