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.

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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

2901 and counting...

Since I last posted I've spent a few days in Melbourne and across the cricket world a dozen or so ODIs have been played.

In UK England managed to take the last game of the series to deny Australia a 7-0 result and in South Africa ODI #2901 , a match between India and Australia in the Champions Trophy has just been washed out.

Australia take series as England again underperform

Australia 3/221 (43.4 ov, M Clarke 62*, T Paine 51) def England 220 (46.3 0v, A Strauss 63, B Lee 5/49) ODI #4 at Lords. Australia lead series 4-0.

Looked like a glorious day at Lord's. Good bowling from the Australians, especially Brett Lee in the final overs, saw England, Andrew Strauss again the exception, underperform with the bat.

With Ricky Ponting restored to the team 220 was never going to be enough and so, though the skipper didn't match his opposite number his 48 plus Michael Clarke (who is improving with each innings in the series) and Tim Paine's contributions saw their side home in a canter.


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Australia lead 3-0 after comfortable win over England

Australia 4/230 (48.3 ov, C White 105, M Clarke 52) defeated England 9/228 (50 ov, A Strauss 63, S Watson 3/31) by 6 wkts: ODI #3 at the Rose Bowl Southampton.

Yet another below par batting performance by England against a tenacious Australian attack. Pity there weren't a few more in the Tests!

Andrew Strauss led from the front scoring 63 (72b, 7x4) of the first 98 runs. But he was fourth out. Eoin (how do you pronounce that?) Morgan and, lower down the order, Tim Bresnan and Ryan Sidebottom struck a few blows though no one remained long enough to set Australia a really daunting challenge.

A belligerent 105 (124b,9x4, 1x6) by stand in no3 Cameron White a more measured 52 (92b, 1x4) by stand in captain Michael Clarke saw Australia home comfortably (and predictably).

Why Adil Rashid, who performed well with bat and ball in ODI#1, was left out of the next two matches is beyond me. Now it's the England not, as in the Test series, the Australian, selectors who are under the pump. The only problem for the latter is who to drop to let Ricky Ponting resume the captaincy.

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This series has prompted criticism from several people including Patrick Smith in The Australian who described it as "pointless". He makes some reasonable points though I disagree with his conclusion for reasons which I may elaborate upon another time.