NSW v QLD – Day 2

Posted by Moses on February 26, 2009 under NSW, QLD | 10 Comments to Read

Day 1 was the story of Usman Khawaja. Prior to this outing, his highest first class score was 85, however on Day 1 he piled on a near chanceless 109* while all and sundry fell around him.

This morning while batting with number 11 Burt Cockley he was eventually caught down the legside chasing a wide one, the 4th NSWales batsman dismissed in this manner!

Usman’s 112 out of a team score of 269 provides a workable total on a Gabba wicket that’s been as tight as a nuns nasty all year.

The real issue for NSWales could well be lack of bowling penetration. We’ve gone into this match missing some real bowling stars, namely

• Nathan Bracken – injured
• Stuart Clark – injured
• Brett Lee – injured
• Doug Bollinger – 12th man in South Africa
• Marc Cameron – injured
• Aaron Bird – chucker

Turns out that Moises Henriques is opening the bowling with Burt Cockley at the other end, however Cockley has just broken the opening stand having Broad caught behind by Docklands Light Rail in the 4th over.

JRod’s mob look to be holding up their end of the deal by dominating the Tasmanians, here’s to a few more wickets and keeping the dream alive.

Here’s the Ball by Ball and Scorecard from Cricket Australia.

Time to rain on Love’s farewell dance…

NSW Blues – World Club Champions?

Posted by Moses on January 19, 2009 under NSW, TAS, VIC, WA | Be the First to Comment

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

CA Contracted Players – need more Bluetongues

Posted by Moses on April 8, 2008 under NSW, VIC | Read the First Comment

Cricket Australia have updated their millionare list, no doubt Uncle J will likely go completely bonkers over this despite his recent tough love campaign for Bryce McGain. Fair enough too. I think it’d be prudent for me to illustrate his pain as a pie chart.

Gee that’s a lot of blue. Some would say not enough blue, and they’d be right.

The big in’s for the Moomoo cup champions – the mighty New South Wales Bluetongues – are Doug ‘Ballbag’ Bollinger and Beau ‘Repair’ Casson and Simon ‘looks like Moses’ Katich.

Brad Haddin is the sole keeper in the squad of 25, seems like good thinking there unless we do anything rash.. like go on tour.

Shaun Marsh takes over Chris Rogers’ WA quota spot, while the Foreyed Gingah has been struck by the Mexican Meningitis – any link with Victoria and a cricketer should instantly be excluded from all contact with the national side. Serves him right really for leaving the Westies, he should have stuck around with the other NSW rejects if he really wanted to press for higher bank balances.

David Hussey is likely to be the first player tainted with the Mexican Meningitis brush to develop potent anti-bodies since the great Shane Keith Warne retired, as such he has gained a six figure package to go with his lucrative IPL cash cow.

Brad Hodge continues to be an exception to all rules of common sense and decency. Unless he goes and finds a hot blonde wife he has NO PLACE in the baggy green.

Both Cullen’s have been left Mullin over their new lifestyle choices after what can only be described as sh1thouse seasons. Some might say they were dropped for sharing a border with Victoria that isn’t protected by a river. They could well be right.

No royal commission required

Posted by jrod on January 31, 2008 under VIC | 5 Comments to Read

Memo to all fans of Victorian Cricket

There is no conspiracy

There is no selectoral bias

There is no grassy noll theory.

And the CIA has nothing to do with this.

Victoria does not have a player in the Australian team, because at this time there is no spot for a Victorian in the Australian team.

Test wise, only two Victorians are currently in the form to play for Australia, the other three are not quite there.

Future PM David Hussey is in breathtaking form at the moment. But the King Probot Hussey, Pup and Roy are all making runs. Generally selectors don’t drop guys making runs, I have stated my thoughts on Michael Clarke being dropped, but we all know they aren’t going to drop him on my recommendation.

CWB’s Nice Bryce McGain is the other player playing at the level of test match standard. He has two hurdles to over come, one is old agedness and two his lack of a first class record. Is he a better bowler than Brad Hogg, king oath, but he is not at Staurt MacGill’s level either.

Brad Hodge has not had a good year (except for the runs he made against a new texas eleven with 2 fit bowlers counts) and would now be behind Hussey, Katich and Pomersbach in the selectors mind. Plus do we really need more Brads in the side.

Peter Siddle is in good form, but he has only played 3 matches and Doug Bollinger had taken 2 ten wicket hauls this year at roughly the same average.

Had Andrew McDonald replicated last years form he would be very close to selection by now, but he hasn’t due to injury and therefore is down the list. Noffke is in superstar form and would be ahead of him at the moment anyway. Plus he does have red hair.

One day wise we were unlucky not to have a player in the side.

David Hussey is unlucky again, but the only batsman, I repeat batsman picked ahead of him is Brad Haddin, who on his last tour with Australia smashed the Indians everywhere. It is hard to drop a guy who performed so well the last time he played. Domestically Hussey has had the better year, but only marginally. Every other batsman deserves his spot ahead of Hussey at this stage.

Brad Hodge, well he had his chance in India, and he batted horribly. The selectors have picked the player in Haddin who made the runs there. He now finds himself on the list behind Hussey and perhaps even Voges, but Pontings love for the man means he could leap frog them if there is a spot available, especially if it is a top order spot.

McDonald hasn’t been in sensational one day form, but you know who has, Noffke and Hopes. And they were selected because of that fact. Case closed.

Dirty Dirk Nannes & Bryce McGain were the two best 2020 bowlers in the big bash, both are over 30 and one is injured.

If Nannes was fit I would have hoped he would have got a call up for the 2020 game ahead of Hilfenhaus, but he isn’t and there fore not in the side.

This isn’t all bad news, because this is the first Victorian team we have had in quite some time that has had multiple players with a shot of making the main team.

I didn’t even mention Cameron White or Aiden Blizzard, one who has played and one who in the future could be a chance.

But let us not be whiney little babies, as this means we have a full strength state team to pick from for the rest of the year.

And by then someone in the Australian middle order will be injured and Hussey will be there.

vics vs nsw day one

Posted by jrod on November 30, 2007 under VIC | 2 Comments to Read

Dirk “say it out loud” Nannes and Gerard Denton completely destroyed New South Wales today.

Unfortunately for them they couldn’t beat the West Australian Katich, the man who bats like a crab.

This year must have a new shell (boom). He’s made a kazillion runs, at an average that would make Hussey uncomfortable. He outscored his team mates by 30 runs. That’s a pretty good effort.

All day the Vics were only a Katich away from taking over. This didn’t happen until Dirty Dirk Nannes came on with the new ball.

Denton and he shared 4 wickets apiece.

You get the feeling that 250 may not be a terrible score in the scheme of things. Katich, other than a brief period against McGain, was mostly kept quiet, which means the deck must have had something in it.

Hodge sent the blues in, whether it was a strategic decision or he did a dravid/ganguly/tendulkar and was protecting his average we don’t know.

Wednesday’s destroyer Quiney lost his wicket on stumps to the oldest young dude on the planet Doug Bollinger.

If this wicket does have a bit of spice in it, then the majority of the runs will have to come from Hodge and Hussey.

Festival of HATE part 1

Posted by Moses on November 29, 2007 under NSW, VIC | Be the First to Comment

The Sheffield Shield history between NSW and VIC dates back to the summer of 1892 when those bloody mexicans beat us in the three way competition including South Australia. I’ve never forgiven them. Sure we’ve won 44 Shields to their 25 since, but we’ll never win the first Sheffield Shield, and that bites.

Some comfort can be taken from the fact that due to internal squabbling between the respective boards of the Mighty New South Welsh Bluetongues forebears and the Mexicans (the more things change the more they stay the same), Lord Sheffield’s generous £150 donation was not actually spent for several years and the Victorians while in essence held the shield, they did not in actuallity hold the shield.

So with the History of hatred recounted I can move on 215 years to the 2007 installment of the festival of hate.

The bluetongues go into this battle with their test stars returning. The return of Phil Jaques, Michael Clarke, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Stuart Macgill would be a real boost for any state team, let alone one that is already topping the shield table.

Alas inuries have plagued the returning superstars with Clarke succumbing to hamstring issues, Phil Jaques going down with the mumps, Lee got a last minute callup to the local Indian karaokee restaurant and Macgilla otherwise engaged at the bottom of a wolfblass bottle.

New South Wales: Phil Hughes, Greg Mail, Peter Forrest, Simon Katich (c), Domenic Thornely, Brad Haddin (w/k), Beau Casson, Mark Nicholson, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Doug Bollinger, Grant Lambert (12th).

Vics won the toss and are bowling.. dammit two early wickets not looking good.

Over 1.2: Nannes to Hughes, OUT, what a start for the Bushrangers, cracking delivery that was short and angled into the body, Hughes could do nothing but fend it away to Hodge in the gully.

Carn Bluetongues, do it for all things pure and blue and make Lord Sheffield proud

NSW Bluetongues leading the Shield

Posted by Moses on November 21, 2007 under NSW, VIC | Be the First to Comment

The Mighty NSW Bluetongues have returned to their rightful place at the top of the Sheffield Shield. As expected, Doug Bollinger took out Man of the Match with his match figures to 12/131. Advanced hair are said to be getting in touch.

Bracken’s hair is no doubt still appalling, Forrest and Haddin hit centuries in our only innings (declared) and now all is well in the world. Just waiting for cricket.com.au to update the table so we can see NSW at the top on 20 points. Stay tuned for next Friday when Macgilla warms the MCG bench for the top of table clash against the Mexican’s with Mobiles.