Where was Kelly this year?

Jhye Richardson and Lance Morris. Sorted.

The better cricketer you are the less the rules should apply to you. Thus spake Mark Waugh. This seems to be Tom Curran’s thinking too at the time which caused the very problem.

Good on the umpire for doing his job, and the powers that be in imposing the penalty.

I don’t think that a self-inflicted gunshot wound is technically assassination.

Didn’t know that Naomi Watts was British. Still, played her formative years in Australia, like Marnus, so she’s still ours in my book.

~~~

I seem to recall a match in the 2019 WC where England were playing on a pitch that had something in it for the bowlers and they all of a sudden looked like a very average team. Maybe it’s as simple as that in this WC. Commentators talking a lot about them having lost confidence, and maybe that’s true now that they keep losing, but not what caused the losing in the first place. Or maybe it is. I don’t know, I really just wanted to talk about Naomi Watts.

South Africa and Pakistan in the final. Just a feeling. South Africa to win.

Could be a really good tournament.

> “The ODI series against India showed the gulf in class between the two sides, and it was only when Australia had their almost complete starting contingent return that they finally won a game against an Indian side that rested a lot of players.”
Australia won because the top order all made decent scores at a good rate, and Maxwell’s bowling tied down the Indian batsmen and also got them out. Green was the next most economical bowler.
The main difference in the Aus side from the previous games was the inclusion of all Cummins, Starc and Hazelwood. If the quote is suggesting that it was their inclusion that won Aus the game, which has been said elsewhere on this site, then I beg to differ.
What would have been useful would be to play those three more alongside the other bowling options across multiple games and see how they all compare. To find out who really are the best options for the starting lineup. Maybe it indeed is Cummins, Starc and Hazelwood, maybe it’s not. Injuries prevented that from happening, I know.

The Ashes in England is hands down the best cricket competition. Another cracker. It feels like a year ago Khawaja was celebrating his century.

Many saying that a draw feels fair. I agree.

Marsh’s ton was the highlight for me. It (and he) just came out of nowhere. And he looked so relaxed and capable at the crease across most of his innings.

Woakes was excellent. Batting too. Player of the Series was he? Yet he only played for half of it.

Before the series there was some scepticism of how this England approach would go against Australia’s pace attack. It was a shame to see Boland get knocked out – doesn’t quite feel like the Aussie side without him – and there was some good bowling by all (including Boland) but pretty underwhelming stuff overall. Flat pitches, sure, but also batsmen looking to score fast and therefore with risk.

Bring on 2027.

“Kelly: 2022/23 – 35 wickets @ 15.77 (8 matches)”
Crikey.

Congratulations WA. A great way to end the summer.

Even a second XI WA team would be a strong contender judging by the number of guys who didn’t play.

Turner’s my hero. Great support from Paris in that knock and Hardie was going well too.

Boland and Sutherland were excellent. All of the seam/pace bowlers looked dangerous, a good pitch! Still I thought that Murphy would have been given a bit more of a go.

Nice little send off for Shaun Marsh in the speeches. Farewell sir, you will always be one of my favourites.

There was a brief period yesterday (day 3) with some reverse swing. Murphy tying them down at one end and Green swinging at the other. Not huge swing but, I thought, dangerously enough of it. Gill was up to the challenge but it was very good bowling and felt like something was about to happen. Then the ball was changed and everything was back to normal. Does anyone know what triggered the ball change? Surely Aus wouldn’t have asked for it … did India? Did anybody?

There was an interesting stat yesterday that Lyon’s average is about the same whether Starc plays or not, actually slightly better if he doesn’t. Which, on the face of it, calls into question the argument that Aus needs Starc so he can rough up the surface for Lyon. In any event, Starc spent a lot of his time yesterday bowling on the wrong side for that to even happen. And, if Starc wasn’t there, couldn’t right hand bowlers spend a few overs each bowling around the wicket to ‘Starc’ the pitch? Is Starc needed as much as we’re told he is? It seems like years since he cleaned up a tail and has done nothing special in the last two pink ball matches – his two specialities the commentators still tell us – and (could be wrong here) hasn’t provided anything with the bat of late either.

I wonder how Boland would have fared in this match.

As for Morris, it feels like they’re not game to pick him because they don’t know how he’ll go. A strange tour to take him on given they knew (?) that they were only going to have two pace bowlers in any side. Not much room there for trying out somebody new.

Shout out to Murphy’s batting on day 2. Third highest score for Aus. It was an easier time for batting by then but he played some nice shots.

“…winkling out Virat Kohli after beating him in flight and seeing Alex Carey whip off the bails.”
Commentators said, unless I misheard, that this was Carey’s first stumping in Test cricket. And Kohli’s. The first was a little surprising. The second was a shock.

Great match! Then day 3 began.

Michael Clarke was going to commentate? Dodged a bullet there.

What I would love is a mute button that only mutes the commentary. Stump mics and crowd mics only.

I really enjoyed Shaun Pollock’s commentary this summer. Not so much what he was saying, simply the sound of his voice. It was like a warm bath of cotton wool for my ears, in contrast to, say, Mark Howard which is like some insane combination of drill and leaf blower.

As for what they are saying, I’ll take blunt honesty over cheerleading any day of the week – no matter who the player is.

I get the feeling that if Aus had another pace bowler here then Cummins still would have bowled Lyon and Murphy as much as he did. Boland hasn’t bowled at all today from what I saw (missed the very end of the innings). He was at least worth a shot, surely.

Well done Murphy! Welcome. In hindsight, would have liked to see Agar here too, just to see how that went down. It would still be good to see him in one of the other matches but I fear that won’t happen now. They can’t drop Murphy now and no way they’re game to drop Lyon, even though that should be a realistic option.

118 was there for the taking, less than a run a ball from the get go. Sixers showed how not to bat on that wicket, then Heat copied them and almost blew it.

Brilliant by Neser. Four fours in a row, during the power surge when the field was up and still found the gaps. Excellent execution of an even better strategy: don’t hit it in the air!

“If they keep making pitches like this then I’ll hold off on retirement,” or words to that effect, said Steve O’Keefe before the match. 0-23 off his first two overs.

A curiously low crowd turn out. Thursday night, sure, but the last chance for Sixers fans to watch their team, for a place in the final no less.

Best outcome for the final, for mine. If Sixers had won then it would have been Scorchers vs Sixers at Perth Stadium, a finals match that has already been played, a week prior. That’s a flaw in the finals design. I think that finishing first on the ladder should guarantee a spot in the final, as a reward for being the best team of the tournament which the previous gazillion matches have decided.

Heat were all but out of the competition with a few home and away games still to play. They could easily have been fighting the Stars for last spot. Instead this. I’ll have my Hollywood contacts on standby.

I’ve enjoyed the season. Some really good moments, some really good matches, some really boring matches, too many matches. At the end of the day, literally, it’s cricket on the tele and I miss it when it’s gone.

“Won’t happen” and “no-brainer” are compelling arguments indeed.

My only concern about moving it to Adelaide is that by the last test the series winner is already known. Adelaide is the best test match: best venue* (love the trees!), great crowd, good pitch, good weather. Would be a shame to waste it on a dead rubber.

* Hobart’s great too: trees, hills and ocean. All other major venues just feel like the Colosseum.

Instant mute. But now they’re showing shots of the commentary team more than the cricket.

…Pat Cummins, who averages just 16.37 with the bat in Tests.

And still going down I imagine. He used to be okay with the bat, could at least stick around, but should be batting below Lyon these days.

Time to take him off the ICC’s “all-rounder” table, surely. Not sure why Starc’s on there either.

The headline and Cummins’ comment make it sound like Hazlewood sacrificed himself for the team. Selfless act? Surely this is self-preservation instead, and rightly so. If he knows he’s not right then he knows that aggravating it could see him out for even longer. Simple as that. No need for a PR beat up.

I have really appreciated your comments Jeff. They will be missed.

Well done Scorchers. Hats off to Turner for the batting and captaincy. It seems that he and Agar laid a trap for Henriques which he dutifully walked into. Great effort all tournament from this team.

Speaking of Agar, Ponting copped him some flak over that missed second run. On reflection, I wonder if it was on purpose. One ball left in the over, Agar could hit a six, four or a two (all better than a single), or even a zero, giving Evans the strike next over. Of course, getting out instead was less than ideal. I do like Ponting’s honesty though. He’s not afraid to call it as he sees it, no matter who the player is. The same cannot be said for most cricket commentators, quite the opposite.

Sure, Sixers were depleted here, but less so in the earlier final where Scorchers also flogged them, even including Dwarshius’ too-late-to-matter slogfest. And Scorchers beat them in both matches of the main tournament, where one match was missing some key players in both sides (Scorchers 3, Sixers 2) and the other where only Scorchers were (3).

Hardie and Kelly couldn’t even get a game in the finals. Imagine if WA boys Philippe, Stoinis and Cartwright were playing for the Scorchers.

Maybe Sixers need to rethink how they’re spending their salary cap. We know how much they spent on Steve Smith ($0) but what about their internationals Vince, Jordan and Curran who seemed to have disappeared as quickly as they arrived?

Honourable mention: the Aussie bowlers batting in the first innings at Adelaide. Particularly Neser, who had only been allowed to carry drinks for the previous ten years. Swashbuckling stuff, under lights, brilliant.

Aus vs NZ grand final. Mark my words. Unless I’m wrong.

“…and we can slowly be proud of the way our cricket team plays again”.

I already am. The absence of boofheadedness and send-offs has been a delight.

I’m not expecting Australia to win the tournament but they’ve done a bloody good job, quite possibly to finish top of the ladder*. Without behaving like goons in the process. All the sweeter. Fantastic.

* Although that might come down to weather, with India missing a match, so equal top.

I’m quite sure that Tendulkar predicted as much while he was commentating at the start of the Eng/Ind match. Roy and Bairstow had no trouble, Sharma certainly did.

Last night’s was even worse than normal. A cringefest.

Seriously, how did Slater get the gig?

Not a huge fan of Clarke either but he does have some insightful comments.

On the whole I have enjoyed the commentary of the WC, though I’d still love the ability to turn it off when I want to. Watching Australia play and not having an Aussie commentary team cheering them on (a la Nine and now Seven) is all the more enjoyable. Sadly, for the Aus WC games somebody has decided that the Michaels should get extra turns.

At least Warne isn’t there! Or Healy. Speaking of which… why do Nine bother with their little panel sessions? Every wicket: let’s cut back to Australia to hear what some other Australians think about that, from an Australian point of view. It kills the atmosphere.