Weather bleak, cricket not

Yesterday, I braved the bleak conditions and went to the Adelaide Oval for a short time to watch SA pursue, with some relish, Tasmania's modest first innings 236. James Smith made a fluent 116/189b while in the last session with the lights on Mark Cosgrove looked in extremely good touch for 46*/72b as his team reached 4/225.

The photo, taken from the Chappell Stands, shows the progress of the Oval redevelopment.

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One season shades into another

The emerging cricket world order now sees the northern and southern hemisphere seasons shading into each other. After the Ashes and the ODI series in the UK we switched swiftly to the Champions Trophy in South Africa and then on to the IPL Champions Trophy and, almost unnoticed even here, the Sheffield Shield.

Not that it's cricket weather here in Adelaide. Day 1 of the SA - Tasmania match spluttered fitfully throughout several interruptions from what after several drought years looks like unseasonal rain (though I can recall Octobers years ago when rain was common). In India the IPL has featured several wrist spinners including Steven Smith of NSW and Trinidad & Tobago's Dave Mohammed who is shown in the photo celebrating exuberantly a wicket he's just taken.

Australia win Champions trophy comfortably after some anxious moments against weakened NZ

Australia 4/206 (45.2 ov, S Watson 105*, C White 62) def New Zealand 9/200 (50 ov) by 6 wkts, Champions Trophy final at Centurion.

Shane Watson's 105* (129b 10x4, 4 x6), his second century in three days, took Australia to what on paper looked to be a comfortable victory but in reality was a tighter contest.

Daniel Vettori's very late withdrawal from the side was a hard blow to NZ's hopes. Both sides struggled against sharp bowling until Watson and Cameron White took control and by adding 128 for the 3rd wicket in 193 balls.

This has been a good tournament with many sides evenly matched. The absence of minnows (aka easybeats) enabled the event to be pared down so that cricket followers were less likely to be bored by the length of the series and the number of one sided games. The 50 overs a side ODI may still be a threatened species but this tournament may have given it a fresh lease of life.

Scorecard.

Ruthless Australian batting overwhelms England in semi-final

Australia 1/259 (R Ponting 111*, S Watson 136*) beat England 257 (T Bresnan 80) by nine wickets. Champions Trophy ODI semi-final at Centurion South Africa

Masterly batting by Ricky Ponting 111* (115b/12x4, 1x6) and Shane Watson 136*(132/10x4, 7 x6) swept the England bowling aside after the lower order, marshalled by the unlikely figure of Tim Bresnan 80 (76b/11x4), had staved off the looming disaster of 6/101 and posted a competitive 257 all out.


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To see video click< href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26159199-5019153,00.html"> here