Chris Gayle

It's safe to say that Chris Gayle now knows exactly who Bollinger is.

Too much slogging, Gayle, not enough batting; who do you think you are, Sehwag?

West Indies: Where to start...

Sorry I'm late to get on the topic but, busy weekend.

Well, that was rather cruel and unusual.  The pitch was lively enough for both sides, and on the third day you could see these terrifying longitudinal cracks in the pitch, like giant San Andreas fault lines.  The lack of Jerome Taylor beyond a nine-over contribution no doubt hurt as well.  But even those factors can't excuse a three-day slaughter. 

From what I could tell, the West Indies were simply in a ODI mindset.  As thrilling as the opening overs of the West Indies innings were, it wasn't test cricket and it wasn't being mindful of the pitch or the opposition.  With fifteen wickets falling on one day, they were certainly dismissed in an ODI fashion, and in doing so deprived me of my sunday afternoon viewing.

Chanderpaul probably stands out as the biggest disappointment.  Effectively the anchorman of the West Indies order, the calypso reply to Dravid, in the last outing with the Australians he batted an average of like five hours per innings.  A score of 2 & 2 makes it nearly impossible for the WI batting order to make the necessary chase.  Add into that the fact that Gayle and Chanderpaul racked up 3 of 4 referrals, all on exceptionally plumb decisions...

All in all, the Windies had two shining points, Adrian Barath's century performance, and Kemar Roach's bowling.  Both of these look like players who will go places if given the chance.

On the downside, the rest of their bowling was ho-hum, their star bowler couldn't bowl, their top order was brittle, their middle order was brittle, their lower order was brittle, their discipline with the referrals was lax and they simply couldn't perform on a lively pitch. 

Australia 480/8d
West Indies 228 & 187 (f/o)

And we're back

After a busy weekend, a little worse for wear from the company Christmas Party, and we're back again.

India and Sri Lanka batted themselves out to a dull and lifeless draw.
Sri Lanka proved they are too hyper-cautious to eke out wins.
Queensland vs West Indies, batted themselves out to a lifeless draw (curse that 4-day format!).

Seems the only actual victories allowed to take place these days are the Victorians over my Western Warriors!  Sad times...

Well, 2nd Test at Kanpur starts tomorrow, and the 1st Test between Australia and West Indies in three days time.  The first of these promises to be another close and hard fought match (to be inevitably be decided by if the pitch will allow a victory) and the second promises to be a rather one-sided and unpleasant (and don't just ask me; when Saint Lara the I say's they're in for a shellacking, that's a bad sign).  Ah, Test Cricket, what we live for.

Of course, Chris Gayle is back, which is great for the Windies (and many well wishes to Gayle's mother Heazlyn Gilroy!) and should make them a more competitive side.  Their baptism by fire in Australian conditions at Allan Border oval in Brisbane will have given them a heads up on how the pitches play here so playing the national team shouldn't throw up many shocks.  But it will still be an uphill battle; let's make no mistake, they were trending very badly for a loss if there had been a fifth day's play.  If I were to be a fool, I'd say 2-nil, Australia's way, in the series.  And if I were to bet on the India v Sri Lanka series, I'd say 1-nil, India's way.






Also, Glenn McGrath took 3/18.  I don't care what people say, to me the Human Metronome is the most terrifying bowler I can think of.  :)