Australia v. Sri Lanka

Today, with a spin-friendly minefield predicted, we get a chance to see if Tim Nielsen and the subby at The Age have jumped the gun:

Gamble on pace pays off: coach

THE unresponsive subcontinent pitches that were supposed to thwart express-pace bowlers are instead tending to play into their hands, Australia coach Tim Nielsen believes.

If Johnson, Lee & Tait can rattle Kumar at No.3 and his mateys like they rattled Zimbabwe and New Zealand (as well as handle the Shree spinners) then the gun jumpers might be on to something, but I am skeptical.

Comments

[David Barry]

Coverage will be on Channel 513 for the first hour.

[Tony]

BJ to Moods: "Murali, has he got game?" Yo, bro. Don't give me the shizz.

[Tony]

Tawny at the toss: "We have one of the best match referees in the world in Chris Broad." Bet that goes down well in Shree Lunka.

[Lou]

Tawny never misses that! A chance to overhype something that is.

[Tony]

Overhyping the match referee is setting new standards in overhype; especially Chris Broad in Shree Lunka, where he cited Murali.

[Lou]

I think it's up to Taity to pitch it up and knock 'em over early doors or we are stuffed.

He seems to be the only one who is interested in yorkers.

[Tony]

Early wickets an absolute must. If we let them get away there is no way we will reel them in chasing.

[Tony]

Whoa! Love to see Brett Lee's fifth ball again. Looked like a slow ball, but delivered with a strange elbow position, if you know what I mean.

Mind you, caught it as I looked up, so I could be mistaken.

[Tony]

Tait making a cvnt of himself to Tillers.

[Tony]

And next ball Tillers baulks Tait.

Feisty.

[Lou]

Thank you Tait. Shut Dilshan up nicely.

[Russ]

Dilshan isn't one for getting his eye in is he? Love to see Tait's back foot on that ball, looked half way to mid-off at first glance.

[Tony]

Wicket!

Tillers caught at second slip off Tait (couple of balls after another wild slash).

1/6.

Tillers LTP (Lost the plot). FTB.

[Lou]

Brett Lee and Tait nearly always look like they are chucking to me. Doesn't mean they are though.

A lot of spin bowlers do too, apart from Afridi and Krazy. Ajmal and Botha look insanely like they are.

Afridi has a lovely action, nice and high and kind of elegant if you can say that about a spin bowler.

[Lou]

I hope he leaves 2 slips in for Tait.

[Tony]

One thing you can bank on with Ponting, he will pull second out of the cordon at the slightest provocation from an attacking batsman.

[bruce]

Some top slot bowling in the 3rd over there.

[Lou]

Brett Lee going into default mode.

[Tony]

One of the by-products of the 15 degree rule is that is has given bowlers the freedom to experiment with new deliveries that could not previously be bowled with a straight arm. Slowies, zooters, shooters, back of the handers.

I use "freedom" advisedly because even though the umpies are supposed to call crazy elbow work (that is the sop offered by the authorities, anyway), no umpire can accurately judge the 15 degrees in the heat of the action so they aren't going to call a bowler.

[Vindicate]

Lovely atmosphere Tawny? I can't hear it over that cacophony of incessant noise.

[Lou]

I don't think I can bear listening to Tawny's ever increasing gleefulness if the Aussies get thumped.

[Tony]

Tamil proverb: One man's "atmosphere" is another man's "fvcken racket".

[Lou]

Do the Aussies ever hit anymore?

[Vindicate]

Another gem from Tawny: "normally very accurate"

Sure, if you last watched Punter field five years ago.

[Tony]

"These Aussies - they never hit anymore!"

[Lou]

Good heavens, it's PC.

[Lou]

Punter doesn't hit at all now. He doesn't score tons and he doesn't do run-outs.

[Tony]

Tawny is right that Ponting might have under-armed his shot at the stumps, but Ponting has been side-arming it for ages. It's Ponting's throwing version of his crouch & catch. Ricky seems determined to do absolutely everything his own way.

[Russ]

Is it just me or is the Invulnerable Paper Cut of Steel looking more and more like the Invulnerable Paper Cut of Flab. It makes sense, by the by, that the best way to avoid injuries playing cricket is to avoid bulking up the wrong muscles at the gym.

[Tony]

The Indestructible One was flabby as fvck in the Ashes. There were times when he looked like an 80 year old chasing the ball in the field. But if his previous chiselled-but-injured has given way to flabby-but-playing, I'll take it.

[bruce]

That is a scorching catch!!!

[Lou]

What a corker of a catch.

[Lou]

Got to get one of these dudes out soonish.

[Tony]

Wicket!

Upal-T plucked by Baby Smith at gully/point off Slotty.

2/31.

These post-wicket umpire referral can get well & truly fvcked. Although, granted, it would have been all Lee's fault.

[Lou]

Punter should be keeping two slips in all the time. His attack is actually that, it has to take wickets.

Sometimes I hate him.

[Tony]

You are right that Ponting should keep second in place, but Tawny was wrong that that edge would have gone "straight to second slip" when it would have been a tough take for third.

[Lou]

Or even bloody one.

[Tony]

Kumar has a ridiculous amount of time to play his shots. Gun.

[Tony]

Is the Former Sri Lanka president Ranasinghe Premadasa Stadium the ground at which Kumar at No.3 and Jaya have scored 23,678 Test runs between them?

[Tony]

If Mick Jagger was the cricket tragic he proclaims himself to be he would have the Stones release a song called Dive in Vain.

[Lou]

Yes. The pitch is as dead as a dead thing. Kumar and Jaya pretty much take root whenever they are together at the wicket.

[Tony]

Wicket!

Baby Smith runs out Jaya with a direct hit.

These Aussies, they never miss!

3/75.

[Vindicate]

Keep goin Lou, you're two from two tonight.

[Vindicate]

These Aussies, they just hit!

Fixed that for ya Tone.

[Lou]

Huge wicket there! Those Aussies...

Sanga's looking fantastic isn't he? Really easy at the crease. The sweet spot in his bat is about the size of Brighton Pavilion.

Is that overdoing it?

[Tony]

What sort of score will Australia chase on this pitch? Looks like anything as low as 200 will be a struggle.

[Lou]

Considering they are loaded with spin bowlers, I can't see the Aussies chasing anything over 250 at all.

[Tony]

Krazy's got it talking... Murali... Herath... Mendis... sigh...

[Lou]

Yes, he has, 200 is probably more like it.

But to give Krejza his due, he does actually spin it a fair bit regularly. He's not like Hauritz or Doherty

[Tony]

I'm liking this proper sized ground. Cricket is a much better game when it is not played on a miss-hit-for-six postage stamp.

(That said, it will no doubt transpire all the grounds here are the same size and my insightful observation was a load of bollox.)

[Lou]

That was plumb. That hit him as good as in line... what a load of tripe.

[Tony]

Was certainly worth a referral, but my original instinct was not out.

[Lou]

Mind you, I should have known as Haddin was so sure.

[Tony]

I love the way Klutzy always whips the bails off, except when a stumping is on.

[Lou]

This pitch is really taking spin. I should think we are stuffed chasing anything over 150 unless Clarke lives up to his reputation and some of the others get some big blows in.

[Tony]

Baby Smith's footwork when he ran out Jaya was outstanding. Big side-step to line up his approach, stoop, pick, quick sight, throw.

[Lou]

And that's both referrals done. I wouldn't have gone for that one. Krazy's been spinning it too much to trust it would hit the stumps.

[Tony]

Never looked out.

[Harry]

bloody rain!!! wot a bummer........was shaping up to be a tight contest

[Tony]

Not sure about that, Harry. Looked to us (you can probably garner a theme running through the previous 15 comments) like Australia dodged a bullet. Elsewhere the consensus also appears to be that the rain saved us.

[Tony]

Ponting's post match comments:

Australia escape spin challenge on 'rolled mud'

"That wicket is vastly different to the wickets that have been used in the previous games that have been played here in this World Cup so far. It seemed that they had a pretty good idea that it was going to be that slow and low and was going to spin a fair bit, hence the reason they played their spinners."

"You could tell that it was going to be a lot different than the wicket that was played on the day before, because you could see that one right beside it. That one had a bit of grass on it, and the one we were going to use today was basically rolled mud. It spun quite a bit early in the game. What you associate with most one-day wickets is they generally don't do much in the first innings of the game and they might just spin a bit towards the latter half of the second innings of the game. It appeared that this one was going to be a difficult one to chase runs on."

The shorter Ponting: suck on the washout, you pitch doctoring cheats.

[Tony]

Surely Peter Badel's paper version of this article about last night's match is a little extravagant:

Tait's five overs of fire were ultimately doused by a burst of heavy rain, which gave Sri Lanka welcome relief after Australia dominated from the outset.

Welcome relief? Australia dominated from the outset? At 3 for 146 and not having lost a wicket to the bowlers since 2 for 31 and with the pitch certain to turn square...

Tait also "surged" past Kapil Dev (with his one wicket; guess he means career-wise) Sangars and Samars were also on a "rescue mission" and the wicket was "looking firm".