Brad Hodge – Kolkata
365 @ av 40 sr 117 hs 73
7 wickets @ 23 econ 8.05 bb 3/29
Started off terribly, but as the team fell apart he became their banker. Eventually showed why he had made so many runs in this format of the game, happy to be 30 off 30, and then explode at the end. Was used as a front line bowler at times, which he isn’t, but he did bowl some very good overs.
Brett Lee – Punjab
28 runs @ av 14 sr 82 hs 14*
5 wickets @ 22 econ 5.55 bb 3/15
Only played a handful of games, but looked more like the late 07/08 bowler, and less like the heart break kid of recent times. Always does his best work with the white ball, so not a huge surprise he was too good for most batsmen at this level. His batting looked rusty but he will just be happy to be out in the middle and thinking about cricket.
Andrew Symonds – Deccan
249 runs @ av 35 sr 150 hs 60*
7 wickets @ 22.85 econ 6.66 bb 2/18
Won the final with 2 wickets in one over, and his medium pace bowling was swinging a lot, and was hard for most people to hit. His batting always looked murderous, but couldn’t quite cash in as he would like. Would be happy with his form though.
Ryan Harris – Deccan
21 runs @ av 21 sr 116 hs 9*
6 wickets @ 38 econ 7.41 bb 3/27
Couldn’t buy a wicket, but no one found him easy to hit. His bounce made him an ideal bowler. Was bagged in the South African press for not being up to it and then played as one of the imports in the final winning side.
David Warner – Delhi
163 runs @ av 28 sr 123 hs 50
Outshone Sehwag and Gambhir at the top of the order, but never really broke free. His fielding was probably his highlight, some of his efforts were amazing.
Dirk Nannes – Delhi
15 wickets @ 24 econ 7.51 bb 3/27
Started off with an average performance or two and the commentators and press questioned why he was in the side. 5 games in and he was being pronounced as rare diamond. Probably didn’t take as many wickets as he would have wanted, but was unplayable when he got it right. Definitely the best performed of this bunch, and even with Gilly’s punishment in the semi, has come away with a lew legion of fans.
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Pause for gasp.
That is some sort of season, and as far as I can tell, this may be the first time in history that a team has down this.
This is not the best year for shield teams, South Australia, NSWales, and New Texas have L plates on.
Western Australia have completely imploded, and Tasmania don’t seem to be able to get the most out of their vast talent pool.
On paper, I picked Queensland to come last this year, next week they play off in the final.
This latest game has shown how much better Victoria are than the second best team, and last week they showed how much better they were than the third best team.
Bowling New Texas out for 300, and then making over 800.
800, huge numbers.
This is a classy line up.
Brad Hodge has been in average form shield this year, no Brad I wont take that down, and to be fair, was in average shield form last year, that stays too Brad.
But the ego loves making runs against Queensland, and when their attack is lacklustre, which it is, he really likes cashing in.
Rogers is the 4th best opening batsman in Australia, but he made his 4th hundred for the year, to go with 5 half centuries.
Matthew Wade, back to back hundreds, is making a huge run to be Australia’s back up keeper, 2 tons at an average of 47 for the year.
Cameron White has been flirting with Australia this year, he comes back home for a hundred.
Rob Quiney was good enough this year to warrant selection for Australia’s 2020 side, and an IPL contract, but is still a nearly man in shield cricket with a 94.
Nick Jewell failed in this match, but has averaged over 40 with 600 odd runs at the other end of Rogers, and was the man who scored a 90 against a rampant NSWales in the shield final last year.
And Future PM David Hussey made ANOTHER half century.
Unless the Junction Oval wicket throws up a corrugated green strip, Victoria should win, or draw, with ease.
Should is the important word here, we all know that no one chokes like Victoria, but too lose from here, that would take something very special.
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The final is at the junction, who is going to kick the bushfire concert off, so they are relaxing.
Blooding people we haven’t heard of as well.
I mean who is Gilmour?
And Eyelids is playing, has an import ever played less for his state while being fit than he?
Ofcourse the team still starred, first team of the year to survive day one at Bellerive.
And they did so with a pair of run outs.
Son of Tony Jewell and Chris Rogers put on a lazy 160 odd at the start.
That makes it hard to get bowled out on day one.
The ego of Hodge came in and made 70 odd.
366 on day one of a match is pretty good, especially when you are
batting on a pitch covered with the skeletons of previous bad first day
totals.
The ball really zips around when it hits skeletons.
And all this is a good thing, because Victoria’s bowling does look as flimsy as it has been in a long, long time.
Pattinson and Wright are obviously proper bowlers.
John Wayne Hastings is a all rounder, albeit with a 5 for against NSWales, and Gilmour, who the fuck is Gilmour?
How many injuries do we have to our bowlers?
Because I have never heard of Gilmour.
True.
We don’t need to win this ofcourse.
But while we’re there, we might as well.
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While the other teams are trying to put enough crumbs together for a chance at playing.
We is there.
For a team to book the home final, which we really have, this early it means that we must have had a full team all year.
We haven’t, which is the sexiest part.
Look at the players we had missing for this game.
C White
D Hussey
B McGain
P Siddle
A McDonald
R Quiney
and then after day one.
D Nannes
S Harwood
So the usual excuse that NSWales use when we win, oh all our players were busy laying for their country, can be shoved well and truly up their anal passage.
Victoria won this with Brad Hodge bowling a quarter of the overs.
With Lord Mash and X man in the top 5.
With 2 frontline bowlers injured.
And with an innings to spare.
That is huge.
Bigger than huge.
Massively large.
I have questioned this Victorian side, and they have basiaclly told me to go fuck myself.
And quite rightly.
Now with the shield final in their pocked, they turn to the white ball game to make up for last years final.
Can they reverse last season, in which they won the 2020, and lost the other two.
Why the fuck not.
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Man Cry
Here’s who they’ll be missing tomorrow night
- Brad Hodge – avg 42, sr 136. Top Twenty20 run-scorer in Australia. Top Twenty20 run-scorer in the world. Injured in Elimination Final.
- David Hussey – avg 32, sr 140. Second top Twenty20 run scorer in Australia. Restrictive bowler. Playing for Oz.
- Cameron White – avg 35, sr 154. Destructive batsman and part time bowler.
Boo fúcking hoo. I realise it’s a new experience for Victoria to lose players to the national setup, but this is something that happens to us all the time. Here’s the first choice players on our books that we’ll be missing tomorrow night:
I can’t work out why these articles only mention the absent Victorians. On the balance I’d say NSW are in fact more weakened through injury/abscence than Victoria, but obviously both teams are missing a lot of quality. Regardless, it’s hard to agree with the sob story coming from south of the border.
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Man Cry
The Victorians are píssed off, as having their top players unavailable due to national service is a new problem for them. Now they’ll have to go without the services of Cameron White and David Hussey, who have a ODI on Friday and need their beauty sleep. There is no factual basis to reports that Cameron White Cried, again, at hearing the news, though it does sound likely.
Ryan Harris has been dropped from the national squad so will be available for Queensland, however they’ve replaced him with Mitchell Johnson so that’s probably worse for the New Texas Bulls, who’ll also be missing James Hopes.
CA have also denied requests for the players to be available of for the final, so NSW will be missing David Warner, Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin and Nathan Hauritz.
This could well end up a good experience, as Michael Hussey is keen to explain IPL loyalties come before the state that bought you up, so depending on which IPL teams make the club championship any Australian side could be without their stars when the big bucks are on offer.
Victoria squad: Brad Hodge (capt), Aiden Blizzard, Rob Quiney, Aaron Finch, Andrew McDonald, Matthew Wade, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Damien Wright, Shane Harwood, Jon Holland, Bryce McGain, Dirk Nannes.
Queensland squad: Chris Simpson (capt), Wade Townsend, Ryan Broad, Lee Carseldine, Nathan Reardon, Glen Batticciotto, Craig Philipson, Chris Hartley (wk), Ryan Harris, Nathan Rimmington, Ben Cutting, Alister McDermott, Ben Laughlin.
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Ranga and Proud
The domestic “Big Bash” Twenty 20 tournament has gone far from the script, with a depleted but still mighty New South Wales outfit topping the regular season and booking their trip to the promised land of rupees and curry.
Western Australia are awfully píssed off and seeking compensation after the original club championship was postponed due to men with guns. It’s a lot of cash they’re missing out on, and I feel a nice gesture would be for NSW Cricket to buy them a meaningful gift to ease the pain, perhaps a bronze statue of Simon Katich to stick up in the WACA headquarters..
You can bet the team we send to compete in India includes some names that have until this point played no part in the tournament such as Michael Clarke, Phil Jaques, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Brad Haddin. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as any NSW cricketer will know it’s the privilege and also the curse of representing the state that breeds the big names.
I’ve put together a short synopsis of the 5 matches that have earnt us entry into the World Club Championship, and awarded 3-2-1–1 ratings as I feel they’re warranted.
Game 1 vs Queensland in Brisbane
Scorecard
A good bowling effort led by Doug Bollinger‘s 3/22 and well assisted by Moises Henriques 2/26 restricted Queensland early on, however Beau Casson 0/37 and Mark Cameron 0/34 got spanked allowing the Bulls to amass to 161. Thanks to opening batsman Phillip Hughes scoring 80(20) the total was chased down with 2 balls to spare.
Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Doug Bollinger
2 Phillip Hughes
1 Moises Henriques
-1 Beau Casson
Game 2 vs Western Australia in Homebush, Sydney
Scorecard
Tight bowling by Aaron Heal and Marcus North restricted NSW to 6/148 off 20 overs. 18 year old newcomer Stephen Smith was my pick of the batsmen with 34*(21), Dave Warner 28(22) scored freely early on, while Phillip Hughes 35(34) and Dominic Thornley 23(24) got starts but failed to up the tempo sufficiently against WA’s slower bowlers Marcus North 1/27(4) and Aaron Heal 0/22(4).
Nathan Bracken 2/24 was the pick of the bowlers, Dominic Thornley, Stephen Smith and Moises Henriques generally restricted WA to the required rate of 6-7 rpo, while Beau Casson was again spanked leaking 0/26 off his two overs which gave WA the win and led to his being dropped for the remainder of the comp.
Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Stephen Smith
2 Nathan Bracken
1 Dave Warner
-1 Beau Casson
Game 3 vs South Australia in Adelaide
Scorecard
A solid batting performance by South Australia saw all of their batsmen scoring at 6.5 to 8.7 rpo, however they lacked one batsman to deliver the killer punch in their accumulation of 160 runs.
Mark Cameron was tidy with 1/22, Thornley 1/27(3) applied the brakes nicely and Aaron Bird 3/35 contributed vital top order wickets while leaking runs. Nathan Bracken 3/38 gets the bogey rating despite 3 late wickets saving his figures from absolute embarrassment.
Dave Warner 35(35) got the Blues response off to an absolute flyer, nicely assisted by pedestrian Phillip Hughes 30(29) and Dominic Thornley 28(18)
Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Dave Warner
2 Dominic Thornley
1 Mark Cameron
-1 Nathan Bracken
Game 4 vs Tasmania in Homebush, Sydney
Scorecard
A destructive top 3 saw the Tassie Tigers belt 194 thanks to Lockyear 51(29), Dighton 43(29) and Birt 44(17). Dominic Thornley 0/22 was pick of the NSW bowlers with his 4 overs going for less than Stephen Smith’s 1 over 0/23. Doug Bollinger while moderately expensive took the essential wickets of Dighton and Birt, thus keeping the Tigers total below 200.
The destructive form of Dave Warner had him off to play South Africa, allowing the return of Simon Katich 18(12) and despite a solid opening stand with Moises Henriques 42(25) the fireworks were absent down the order and 166 was all we could muster.
Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Dominic Thornley
2 Moises Henriques
1 Doug Bollinger
-1 Stephen Smith
Game 5 vs Victoria at Homebush, Sydney
Scorecard
The penultimate match, NSW entered this 4th on the table with nothing to lose. A brutal bowling spell by dirty Dirk Nannes 4/11(4) hit the Blues hard early on, with Henriques 1(3), Smith 4(6) and Rohrer 7(8) his early victims. O’Keefe 6(6) fell to a run out and only opener Simon Katich 35(26) was able to resist the dark side of Dirk Nannes. Dominic Thornley 36*(36) came out in the 4th over with the score at 4/39 and steadied the ship, batting with the tail and taking the Blues to a depressingly low 128.
Douggy Bollinger 0/12 applied the pressure with some superb tight swing bowling, and Mark Cameron 1/17 kept the other almost as tight. Falling behind the run rate the Victorians shat themselves, giving up 5 run-outs, one each to Cameron, O’Keefe, Rohrer, Bollinger and Smith. I’ll give Simon Katich some credit for these as captain he would have been setting the fields. Victorian captain and serial whinger Brad Hodge summed it up nicely with “It’s a script on how to stuff up a cricket game”. Bravo.
A wonderful team effort from the Blues who now book their tickets to India, there is no villain from this match.
Moses’ Player 3-2-1–1 Ratings
3 Simon Katich
2 Doug Bollinger
1 Dominic Thornley
-1 None
Leaderboard
At the end of the regular season, the Moses’ MVP stands as follows:
6 Dominic Thornley
6 Doug Bollinger
4 Dave Warner
3 Moises Henriques
3 Simon Katich
2 Phillip Hughes
2 Stephen Smith
1 Mark Cameron
1 Nathan Bracken
-2 Beau Casson
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Brad Ego made all the runs, a few others sort of chipped in.
Cameron White took a Australian Selectors erecting 4/10.
And Surprisingly Dirty Dirk and David Hussey did very little.
Well Future PM did put a little icing on it with 37 off 22, and two wickets.
But with the Vics making 180 and the warriors strangling themselves to 105 it was hardly a game where two super heroes like them were needed.
Dirty Dirk didn’t even feel the need to prove my assertion that he should have been picked ahead of harris in the 2020 side.
He doesn’t have to though, he is Dirty Dirk, he does what he please, when he please, and he don’t have to prove nuffin to no one.
Big ups to Andrew McDonald for playing in this game, I’m sure he would have been allowed to miss it, but he played anyway.
Also well done in the test Andrew, was a top effort with the ball.
And ofcourse Peter fucking Sizzle, you is on fire boy.
Have we won this tournament yet, i thought these things were supposed to be over quickly.
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Chris Rogers and Damien Wright sensed this.
David Hussey has always known.
Oh, so you don’t believe me.
Brad Hodge, test spot.
Bryce McGain, test spot*.
Cameron White, test spot.
Peter Siddle, test spot.
And now, from no where, and here is where we thank Merv Hughes, Andrew McDonald.
How the fuck is this happening.
Is Merv beating Andrew Hilditch up.
Suddenly it is raining Victorians, and not before time.
Remember when a test player was injured, or dropped, or retiring, and you said to yourself, I think whatshisname could go straight in, shame he is a vic.
No more.
Now even when there are other options, even NSWelsh ones, a vic goes in.
White/McGain before Casson.
Siddle before Bollinger.
Now McDonald before Noffke, Henriques, Geeves, North, and Smith.
There is a chance that there has been a huge mistake, and that Andrew McDonald is not the man who was supposed to be picked.
Congratulations to Andrew, and lets hope we can get a Vic to stick in the side for a while.
*He did get a spot, if not a test.
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The hair is real
While there I came across an interesting story about Nathan Bracken learning to bowl spin to get himself back into the Baggy Green Test squad.
For mine the idea has a lot of merit. The selectors get wood when someone can bowl slow. Spinning the ball does not appear to be a necessity, nor is a decent record at shield level. As long as you claim to be a spinner you can get the baggy green for a test or two before getting dumped quicker than a knocked up Britney.
In recent memory we gave Beau Casson a test in the West Indies before dropping him and tearing up his central contract, Bryce McGain was a virtual selection before his shoulder imploded, Cameron White got 3 Tests as our very own answer to Ashley Giles (not that anyone ever asked that question), Jason Krezkya played a test and took 12 wickets to be dropped then picked up a training injury, and Nathan Hauritz also had a shot in Adelaide.
Bracken is tending towards the Funky Miller style of right-arm off breaks in the 90-95 kph range, and this makes a hell of a lot of sense. As the worlds’ top ranked one-day bowler he has the experience, temperament and man-hair that will help him become a success in the spinning role.
Also it’s refreshing to see a player who on paper really could be in the Baggy Green squad go and do something about it rather than just bítch to the media about non-selection. Brad Hodge if you’re reading this, give yourself an uppercut.
The final reason this is a good idea is that Ricky and the selectors are abnormally excited by any player who has a dual purpose. We’ve got Andrew Symonds as a specialist no 6 batsman who doesn’t score any runs/gun fielder, Shane Watson as a bowler/opening/no 7/catwalk diversion, Michael Hussey who bats 5/bowls impotent medium pace/couriers hats to fine leg, Simon Katich to open the batting/not bowl cause Ricky doesn’t give him the ball and Matthew Hayden to apply pressure to the top order/preach the gospel/píss off the 3rd world.
Curiously, Bracken claims his biggest obstacle in becoming a spinner is talking his captains into throwing him the ball on a short run-up. Here’s a brainwave, bowl well in the nets and prove yourself to them. Or even better, bowl the first ball normally then just fúck ‘em and bowl your spinners. If you’re half decent they’ll be on board in no time.
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