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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20030719
An emphatic century from Carl Hooper has thwarted Kent's hopes of a second successive Championship win at Stanley Park. Resuming the final dat 347-7, the hosts lost their last three wickets in the space of four runs and were forced to bat again 237. And when when Martin Saggers took a trio to leave the hosts 12-3 an innings defeat appeared inevitable. But Mal Loye and Chris Schofield both produced solid innings in concert with the former West Indies captain, whose first ton for the county was his 63rd in first-class cricket. Hooper moved to three figures off 191 balls, with successive fours of Rob Ferley. And he lofted the slow left-armer for a fourth six to take Lancs into the lead, effectively sealing a draw that keeps the Red Rose county third in the Championship.
All of this leaves Kent right on the cusp of relegation; Murali can't arrive soon enough!
Was going to chat a bit about the Australia-Bangladesh Test, but not much to write home about. Australia is kicking serious butt with little trouble from the newest Test member. I don't really have the heart to comment much more on it.
7:31 PM
20030716
Kent finally called a halt to their run spree by declaring on 602-6 against Lancashire at Blackpool - the highest score in a game at Stanley Park.
Following Ed Smith's 203 on the opening day, Matthew Walker made 150 and Mark Ealham 95 for the visitors, who made an early breakthrough as Lancashire reached tea on 14-1. Tony Cottey hit an unbeaten 103 for second-placed Sussex as they tried to surpass Leicestershire's first innings total of 320 at Grace Road. Cottey shared a second wicket stand of 103 with Richard Montgomerie (52) as they reached 261-5, with Phil DeFreitas taking three wickets for the home side. Ashley Giles narrowly missed a century as Warwickshire, totalled 496 against Middlesex at Southgate. The England spinner was last man out, caught by Abdul Razzaq off Chad Keegan for 96, and Middlesex reached 11-0 from three overs before the second rain interruption of the day.
If Kent can continue to perform like this, even before Muralitharan reports for duty, perhaps they can at last make something of the season. At the very least, avoiding relegation looks promising. This may be Murali's last tour of duty in the county side, so let's all enjoy it while we can.
Speaking of enjoyment, or rather the opposite, not many cricket fans can relish the idea of the Bangladesh-Australia Test coming up, unless they are true sadists. For many of us, a mis-match such as this has not been seen in our lifetime, & we can only hope will never be again, at the Test level. I doubt if many Aussie fans will care to follow this one too closely, as it comes downright close to bullying. Not that that's the Aussie's fault! Perhaps there were reasons for the ICC to grant the former East Pakistan Test status at the time they did, but the one-sidedness of this match should be hard to stomach, even for the cricket bureaucrats. This is no knock their fans, who are absolutely terrific & resolutely support their side against the most daunting circumstances. Of course, Australia could lose & I, for one, would be more than happy to eat crow, as it would be one of the most terrific sporting stories ever. It's just not going to happen, though.
4:34 PM
20030705
Finally, some good news to report about the Spitfires!: Kent have pulled off a major coup by signing Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for the rest of the season. He will arrive at Canterbury on 23 July and make his debut four days later in a National League game against Yorkshire at Scarborough. "We are thrilled to have Murali with us for the latter part of the season," said Ian Brayshaw, Kent's director of cricket. "As we found with Steve Waugh last year, to have a player of such international standing has a huge impact throughout the club and it will be a particularly good opportunity for our younger players to learn from one of the world's greatest bowlers." The 31-year-old will initially replace Andrew Symonds, who has been picked by Australia for a home one-day series against Bangladesh. Murali's been travelling the world for a number of years and I don't think there's going to be a problem with him coming in and landing it on a sixpence. But he will stay with the club following Symonds' return because Pakistani pace bowler Mohammad Sami's short-term contract will have come to an end.
Muralitharan is one of the greatest spin bowlers to ever play the game. He has taken 459 wickets in 82 Tests at an average of 23.55 and 342 in one-day internationals. Kent will be his second county, having previously played for Lancashire in 1999 and 2001.
5:28 PM
After a cracking start in the Test Series, things are beginning to come back down to reality for poor old England...call it the Henman swoon. An unbeaten fourth-wicket partnership of 145 between the two Jacques, Kallis and Rudolph, guided South Africa to an easy, emphatic win against England in this fifth match of the NatWest Series. Batting second under the Old Trafford lights, Kallis continued his sparkling form with an authoritative 82 not out, while Rudolph played with impressive control and maturity for an unbeaten 71: his second one-day international fifty. For England, however, they will be ruing a lack of runs and an un-enterprising bowling attack, which lacked in penetration.
Kallis and Rudolph were completely unflustered in their calm advance, with both concentrating on placement rather than power, despite the odd big shot towards the end of the victory march, as the match started to wind down. Kallis used his experience to pace his innings to perfection and play in the style the dry and slow Old Trafford dictated, which was to show application and the right temperament - and there aren't many than better than Kallis at that. Although the bulk of his runs came in singles, he treated the crowd to a few exquisite cover drives, and one towering six off the ineffective Ashley Giles.
While Kallis passed 300 runs in the series, Rudolph was like a mirror image at the other end. Left-handed and maybe not as elegant as Kallis with a dominating bottom hand, he too
made batting look effortless. His success was no secret: play the ones and twos and hit the bad ball for four. He did this to great effect.
After Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith fell early, Kallis and Rudolph - and, to a lesser extent, Andrew Hall - took the sting out of the England attack a little too easily for Michael Vaughan's liking. Hall's wicket (82 for 3) threatened to get things going again, but England showed little stomach for the fight, sort of like Henman against Grosjean.
Darren Gough started brightly but alas the batteries quickly ran out, while James Anderson had another disappointing game. He has set himself high standards to maintain, but he was
distracted when twice warned by Billy Bowden for following through on to the danger area. Even though he got his revenge on Graeme Smith, with whom he collided in mid-pitch with a peach of an inswinger, like the rest of the bowlers, he became more and more ineffective. And as to whether or not Gough can regain his former world-class form, maybe we will discover, once & for all, this summer.
Giles bowled round the wicket to the right-hander for the first time in the series, but rather than adding to his solitary wicket this summer, he conceded 18 from his first three overs. He later reverted to his customary line of attack, but it made little difference. The bloom is off the rose.
As Kallis and Rudolph drew ever nearer to their target, England were in desperate need for a wicket and Vaughan turned first to the old campaigner Gough to make something happen. But Rudolph was having none of it and cut him immediately for four. Kallis then cover-drove Richard Johnson for four in following over, the fifty partnership came up in 74 balls, and you sensed South Africa were winning the race.
England didn't bowl well, and despite a late repair job from Chris Read and Giles, they didn't bat well either. Marcus Trescothick, playing in a record 68th consecutive one-day international for England, and Anthony McGrath shared a rescuing record third-wicket partnership for England against South Africa, but their total of 223 for 7 was not nearly enough.
Shaun Pollock took a bit of stick at The Oval, and while questions were being asked about his form and hunger, he showed he was back to his miserly best, removing Vaughan for 3 in a stingy spell of 1 for 21 from his 10 overs.
For South Africa it was sweet revenge for The Oval, for England it revived bad memories of their defeat against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge where a lack of invention in the field cost them dear.
3:34 PM
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