AGB Cricket

SECOND TEST: SEDDON PARK

So, we're staggering through to the end of the cricket season. Me, you, this blog, and probably the players (were it not for their cold, hard, folding inspiration). It could be because of the lame competition this season, but my enthusiasm would be waning even if the cricket had been hot. I don't know about you, but my sporting biorhythms were designed in the seventies when cricket was played in summer and footy in winter. I know that's a bit of a cliché, but cricket around the calendar doesn't work for me. I need a break.

Anyway, Ponting won the toss again, which means he will be losing tosses again by the Ashes.

DUD STUD

James Dunn is spot on at the new Back Page Lead:

Mitchell Johnson, however, did not have a good match. It has been officially airbrushed from history, and no-one in the Australian cricket set-up will admit it, but he hasn't had a good match against quality opposition since roughing up the South Africans a year ago. Back then he might have deserved being named ICC Cricketer of the Year: instead, picking up that gong after costing Australia the Ashes in 2009 with a series full of erratic rubbish – not remedied at any stage by the Australian hierarchy, either by coaching or giving him a rest – looks about as apt as the Nobel that Barack Obama won for his first three weeks in office. There has got to be a Plan B for when Johnson is being carted: no more pretending it does not happen.

This Malcolm Knox article is well worth a look, too:

Why North must make way for Smith

Australia's stuttering win in the Test match in Wellington will give comfort to those, such as the team and their fans on the selection panel, who are already prone to optimism. All the gang will be patting themselves on the back for a 10-wicket win over a reasonably competitive opponent, albeit one with a batting order that starts at number four and finishes at number seven.

FIRST TEST: BASIN RESERVE

A team:

Rick Ponting (c), Simon Katich, Phillip Hughes, Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke, Marcus North, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Nathan Hauritz, Doug Bollinger.

A shock:

Phillip Hughes in as Shane Watson breaks down

PHILLIP Hughes looks set to make a shock return to Test cricket in Wellington against New Zealand today with Shane Watson expected to be ruled unfit to play.

Hughes' shock return isn't the only shock. It's a shock that it's a shock that Watson is injured. Since the Ashes he has played just about every match and the general feeling was that he had overcome his chronic injuries, although Watson himself would have been touching wood every day. Will it prove crucial? Well, apart from Watson scoring the most runs, taking timely wickets, making slips catches look easy, and generally being our most important player...

The omens are looking ominous.

TRANS-TASMAN SQUAD

Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke, Doug Bollinger, Brad Haddin, Nathan Hauritz, Ryan Harris, Phillip Hughes, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Clint McKay, Marcus North, Steven Smith, Shane Watson.

CHADLEE

Just sat down for afternoon tea and there's an F50 in Napier.

Australia's 2/225 off 44.

Seems we can't go more than a couple of days without yet another cricket game being played.

The Beach Boys had a name for it: Endless Summer.

DESIGNATED NURDLER

Richard Hinds:

Twenty20 is not the future of cricket. It is the present.

How badly Cricket Australia initially misjudged the impact Twenty20 would have is apparent when you watch replays of the first internationals played here. The Australians wore silly shirts with their nicknames on the back, the commentators put on party hats and spinning bow-ties and the whole thing was as a massive knee-slapper.

No more. The Big Bash was the surprise hit of the summer, players now practise their overhead scoops and reverse-stance slogs more diligently than their cover drives and - to the relief of those who don't have seven hours to watch Michael Clarke push elegant singles - the joke is on one-day cricket.

(The rest of the article is well worth a read.)

Michael Clarke: 67 off 45 at 149% while chasing 215 off 120 at 179% doesn't quite add up; especially on a Christchurch billiard table / postage stamp.

Still, five fours and two sixes, despite the minuscule ground, says he was chasing the bowling. He had to.

For the first few years of Clarke's career he kept getting out to stupid shots. Then he reined in the tonks (almost: be nice if he put away that weird swipe outside off) and developed his nurdles. That can't be entirely his own doing. Looks to me like he's been sent out with a Michael Bevan brief to hold the innings together. All things point to him batting according to a plan, not batting selfishly.

As for his decision to bowl Tait in the extra over... well, let's just say I would have batted the extra over with Clarke & White, since they were already on the field, warmed up and eye in. Chances are they would have scored more than the six runs Haddin, Warner and White scored.

Is it true that Clarke didn't know there was to be an extra over? Do the extra over figures go into your records? Do you think the Aussies "left something in the shed" when they finished only four down?

WEE20

T20, New Zealand style. From Wellington & Christchurch.

Anyone feel NZ have the program right? Two T20, five F50, two Tests. How about we get the T20 out of the way in November, the F50 by the start of December, Tests from December through to Australia day. Good idea, what?