Musings about sports in general, & Cricket in particular. With baseball season coming up, will look into that, too. And lots of good cricket in 2007, including the World Cup.
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This is where you stick random tidbits of information about yourself.
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20030528
The mighty Aussies have finally fallen, but they managed to win a record 20 ODIs in a row, & only the genius of Brian Lara, in the Caribbean, could stop them. Even though the Windies won the game, the Aussies still have won the series, as it now stands at 4-1. England is, as expected handling Zimbabwe well.
10:00 PM
20030522
Morning rain and bad light saw just 59 overs bowled, and after being sent in to bat in trying conditions the hosts reached 184-3 at stumps. Trescothick's 59, his first half-century since the first Ashes Test last November, was complemented by Butcher's admirable, if lucky, unbeaten 52. England handed Test debuts to James Anderson and Anthony McGrath, while the visitors also boasted a new face, 20-year-old all-rounder Sean Ervine. Matthew Hoggard was given the nod over James Kirtley, and Ashley Giles became the first England spinner to play at headquarters since Chris Schofield against Zimbabwe in 2000.
Opener Michael Vaughan struggled badly against the pronounced away-swing of Heath Streak and Andy Blignaut on either side of lunch. His first four runs were excruciatingly compiled off 40 deliveries. An off-driven four off Streak suggested Vaughan was warming to the conditions, but next ball he missed a regulation leg-glance and was bowled off the underside of his thigh pad. It was due reward for Streak, whose first spell was 12 overs long and littered with wicket-taking deliveries.
Trescothick, meanwhile, was reaping the rewards of a thoughtful approach. Zimbabwe's seamers were obliged to bowl straighter by the Somerset opener's reticence outside off-stump, and Trescothick was merciless on anything straying onto his pads. But the left-hander's old demons came back to haunt him and he was caught in second slip, chasing a wide Blignaut ball with his feet rooted on the crease.
Butcher's knock was notable for some impressive strokeplay among his seven fours, but he was lucky to survive two clear chances. The Surrey left-hander, playing across the line to Doug Hondo early on, survived a very interesting lbw shout and was dropped on 36 by Ervine off the first ball of Streak's second spell. Butcher took no chances after tea, leaving that to his rash captain Nasser Hussain.
Hussain did not look particularly comfortable in reaching 19, a 56-ball effort that saw him hook and miss on two separate occasions. It proved to be third time unlucky for the number four, with Travis Friend striking with his first ball and Doug Hondo gobbling up the chance at fine-leg. Rob Key looked assured, finishing unbeaten on 11 when poor light called an early halt to proceedings.
England will be content after losing an important toss, but not so happy their wickets were lost to poor shots rather than good bowling on a day tailor-made for seamers.
Kent are not doing so well against Warwickshire. With the Bears still batting at 289-9, the Spitfires can only pray for rain. That, at least seems plausible.
The Aussies are taking a break today from beating up on the Windies.
7:04 PM
20030519
The Aussies have quickly regained the upper hand over the Windies, with 2 straight & fairly methodical wins in the Caribbean ODI series. Perhaps they can seek the whitewash in this variety of the game.
Kent lost to Surrey at the Oval by 6 wickets in the National League, even though the Spitfires made 316-7. With all the rain we've been having lately, it's a real blessing to get one of those in; all the County Champ matches ended in draws this week, although Kent still picked up 12 points in their draw with Middlesex, as they scored 472 in that one. Perhaps they will ultimately avoid relegation this season, but that still seems up in the air at this point.
I was quite surprised at the Black Caps good fortune against the Lankans although, judging from the low scores, the pitch must have been absolutely awful. In the pictures, it looked sunny enough, though. Here, it's cold, rainy, & dreary: just a typical Spring day.
2:51 PM
20030517
Even though the Australians didn't quite make the whitewash, they still proved that they are capable of handling any team in the world (guess it's hard to avoid the letdown on the last day, & the Windies did have more to fight for at that point: their pride). Perhaps the one day series will be a bit more challenging. We shall see.
Middlesex will have a sense of deja vu after rain saved them in their County Championship match. They drew with Kent at Canterbury after rain again intervened when they were being completely outplayed. It was the second week in succession Middlesex had been forced to follow on and the their openers notched up a 100-partnership in their second innings.
Resuming on 61-0 on the final day, Andrew Strauss and Sven Koenig put on 176 for the first wicket and effectively salvaged the game for Middlesex. Strauss went for 93 and Koenig for 96 as James Tredwell and Ben Trott took two wickets apiece. But the rain again came to Canterbury with Middlesex still two runs short of making Kent bat again, with six wickets in hand. The umpires finally called a halt just after the tea interval.
That's all from the pavilion.
7:20 PM
20030512
Australia look set to complete the "whitewash" of the West Indies, although the Windies do have 2 more days & 10 wickets to play around with: that's long enough to try for a win, but a little too much to try for a draw. I hope the Windies go on the offense & try to knock it all over, but we shall see.
12:57 AM
20030505
KENT were out-classed in all departments as reigning Norwich Union League champions Glamorgan eased to a seven-wicket win at sunny Sophia Gardens.Last season this clash in Cardiff proved a tight affair as the 2001 and 2002 champions fought every ball of a day that ended with a tie, but this time around it was a no-contest as Spitfires misfired and got the basics all wrong. Their batsmen struggled for boundaries and timing on a slow pitch, the bowlers failed to bowl a good length or on one side of the wicket, while their fielding was downright shoddy as four chances and a couple of run outs went begging. It was a mystifyingly slipshod performance, particularly as it followed last Sunday’s sharp and victorious start to the NUL campaign at home to Leicestershire. Yet eight days on, Kent were never at the races.
Having won the toss Kent’s acting captain Mark Ealham elected to bat, knowing this would be a slow pitch that, in all probability, would get not better. He was right in that assumption but even so, Kent’s 45-over total of 192 for nine was 30, maybe even 50 short of a defendable target. Ealham’s pinch-hitting role was soon confined to history after he ran down the pitch in a bid to drive Andrew Davies and succeeded in yorking himself and losing off stump. Sensibly the visitors re-grouped through Ed Smith (33) and Rob Key who posted 80 for the second wicket before Glamorgan tightened their grip on the game with introduction of spin at both ends.
With off-spinner Robert Croft at the River End working in tandem with left-armer Dean Cosker from the Cathedral Road, Kent had trouble getting the ball off the square let alone hitting boundaries. Smith went leg before to a Cosker shooter, Greg Blewett (13) to a lofted sweep to long leg while Matthew Walker (2) played across a late-dipping half volley from Croft. Peter Trego (3) lamely hung his bat out to dry against Croft’s arm ball then Key, after hitting 68 from 93 balls, drove loosely to long-off and gave Croft three for 33 while Cosker finished with two for 30. A cameo 31 from Geraint Jones, who was easily Kent’s man of the day, was still insufficient to see Spitfires past 200 as Michael Kasprowicz and new-ball partner Davies returned to bag two apiece.
Kent needed early wickets if they were to apply any pressure on the Dragons reply and Martin Saggers duly obliged by trapping Ian Thomas leg before in his second over. But that was about as good as it got for Kent. Croft and Michael Powell both enjoyed lives on 13 after Blewett dropped chances off Trott and Ealham respectively allowing the hosts to add 108 for the second wicket inside 19 overs. Both second wicket partners went on to score half-centuries, by which time the result was beyond doubt. Tredwell finally accounted for Croft (59) when Trego caught one on the deep cover boundary, then Trego sent back Powell (58) courtesy of an excellent stumping by Jones from a leg-side wide. With his score on one Matthew Maynard also received a chance from the benevolent Spitfires when Tredwell downed a slip catch, an opportunity that hurt all the more when Maynard spanked the young Kent spinner back over his head for a six that ended in the river Taff.
It just about summed up the day for Spitfires – up the river, without a paddle and floating aimlessly to a sinking defeat with 52 balls of the match remaining.
11:22 PM
20030502
It may be all over but the shouting, as they say, for Kent. After 13 wickets fell on the first day of this match, a further 16 tumbled on Thursday. But at the end of it, Sussex looked favourites to gain a win on Friday as James Kirtley, Mushtaq Ahmed and Murray Goodwin all had good days.England seamer Kirtley and Pakistani leg-spinner Mushtaq took three wickets each as Kent conceded a precious first innings lead of 94. Matthew Walker and Greg Blewett both got into the forties before perishing to Kirtley and there was little further resistance.
In Sussex's second innings, former Zimbabwean international Goodwin was the form horse and he made 96. But Mark Ealham and James Tredwell took six wickets between them as Kent retained an outside chance of victory.
2:50 PM
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