"The hurdy-gurdy/whirligig six-hitting/machine" and other media reports of day 3

The title comes from David Fine's piece on - who else but? - Adam Gilchrist .

Other commentators/ commenters/ pundits have offered their assessments of the Gilchrist innings. Gideon Haigh in his Cricinfo blog opines that he is the "greatest batsman wicketkeeper", whereas Alan Knott is the "greatest wicketkeeper batsman", and, relying on Sir Donald Bradman's judgment, that Don Tallon was the greatest wicketkeeper of all.

I never saw Tallon, but I have seen Knott on a number of occasions in both England and Australia. While I agree that he was a good wicketkeeper, I also recall that many people considered him inferior to Bob Taylor as wicketkeeper.


Haigh's Guardian piece is more focused about Gilchrist's achievement, though this time his comparison of Michael Hussey to the old movie actor Erich von Stroheim "the man you love to hate" takes artistic licence (or bluff) to its limits. He assumes that his readers are familiar with (or know something about) both Hussey's batting style and von Stroheim's films, an unlikely combination even for Guardian readers.

Enough digression, Here are some links to other comments about day 3:

Andrew McGlashan's Cricinfo Bulletin.

Kevin Mitchell at Guardian Unlimited (via The Observer).

Simon Wilde at Times Online:

You’ve got to wonder now, though, whether England’s dressing-room won’t soon be carrying the memo-to-self: Don’t Ever, Ever, Ever Think of Winning the Ashes Again.

This series in Australia has had a text and a subtext. The text has been Australia’s utter determination to reclaim the urn that was surrendered to English hands last year. The subtext, eerily evident from some of the rum goings-on of the past few weeks, is that Australia are intent on not only beating England but breaking them. They want to win in such crushing fashion that their old jaw-dropping supremacy is restored, all the more to diminish what happened in England in 2005, and to lay the ground for victory back in England in 2009. In a bloody hot country, it is chilling.

The Age has a summary of English press comment plus a comment from Peter Roebuck about Stuart Clark and Hussey.

In The Hindu Ted Corbett has another succinct summary of the day's proceedings.