No one could quite understand how he kept getting a game, or the new ball. Is a very talented young kid, but maybe, just maybe, he should perform at the level below before he is given an opportunity.

David Hussey – Kolkata
98 runs @ av 24 sr 166 hs 43
0 wickets econ 8.5

Came late onto a ship that had already sunk, and decided to swing away. Looked in top touch, but kept getting out after amazing starts. Had a way better strike rate than McCullum or Gayle.

Lee Carseldine – Rajasthan
81 runs @ av 20.25 sr 119 hs 39
1 wicket @ 6 econ 6 bb 1/6

Came in first game and just smacked the ball everywhere when no one else could get the ball off the square, sadly that was about all he did in the tournament. Interestingly only bowled one over.

Rob Quiney - Rajasthan
103 runs @ av 14.7 sr 100.98 hs 51

Hit his first ball in the IPL for 6, then went out. Only really got two starts, and showed glimpses of his talent, but good spinners slowed him down or got him out. Hopefully he has learnt some good lessons, and will be able to score more consistently for Victoria.

Shane Harwood – Rajasthan
9 runs (no outs) sr 62 hs 6*
3 wickets @ 24.3 econ 7.30 bb 2/25

Only played 3 games, but did look dangerous. Rajasthan were more worried with making runs so he and Morne spent most of their time on the bench.

Luke Ronchi – Mumbai Indians
0 runs from 1 game

Sachin went into panic mode about half way through the tournament and threw Luke one game. He was run out for a duck.

Simon Katich – Punjab
145 runs @ av 16 sr 123 hs 50

His 50 was sensational, as good as I have seen the krab time the ball, but struggled other than that. 2020 really wasn’t made for him, and had his coach not been Moody, I doubt he would played too often.

George Bailey – Chennai
45 runs @ av 22.5 sr 115 hs 30

In both of his innings he looked in top form, and in both of them he ran himself out. The good news was smilin’ George looked completely at home at this level of cricket.

Andrew McDonald - Delhi
3 runs @ av 3 sr 75 hs 3
0 wickets (3 overs) econ 7.33 bb 0/22

Only played the one game when Delhi were resting players, and got a sensational Yorker from Anil Kumble.

Luke Pomersbach – Punjab
41 runs @ av 10.25 sr 83 hs 26

Looked out of touch, and small. When Luke is at his best he looks like a Hayden type bully, here he looked like a mouse imitating a flea.

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…

Travis Birt, Unlucky

Birt, TR 86(66), 94(80), 67(56), 25(15)
Smith, DLR 29*(13), 28*(26)
Manou, GA 48* (39)
Warner 31(20), 97(54), 165*(112)
MG Dighton 59(58), 87(76)
Klinger 133*(128)
Ferguson, C 52(35), 32(26), 101(83)
Hopes J 76(61), 42(40)
Bailey, GJ 32(28)
Divin, MA 38(31)
Ronchi, L 80(64)
AK, Heal 43(34)
Quiney 42(40), 16(15), 92(85), 73(63)
Crosthwaite, AJ 52(49), 29(17)
Thornely, DJ 108(90)
Doropoulos, TP 92(75)
Henriques, MC 41(37)
Borgas, CJ 39(35)

I’ve quite possibly missed some, if anyone can point me towards a tool that pulls out domestic data rather than having to manually read the scorecards, that would be most appreciated.

Looking purely at the numbers, the standout domestic performers are:

Travis Birt from Tasmania

Travis is the form pinch hitter in the domestic T50 competition with his 7 innings yielding 363 runs at 60.5 and at a strike rate of 122! His returns this year are:

• 1/11/08 56*(37) vs SA
• 12/11/08 25(15) vs Vic
• 29/11/08 34(38) vs NSW (the game where Warner scored 165*(112)
• 07/12/08 67(56) vs NSW
• 10/12/08 94(80) vs SA
• 14/12/08 1(5) vs QLD
• 07/02/08 86(66) vs VIC (this low scoring game Tas made 197 and VIC made 189)

David Warner from NSW

Dave has already been given a shot in the national setup with promising signs but too many failures. From his 8 starts there have been 3 good innings, yielding 89(43) on debut, 69(60) in his 4th match, and 22(29) in his 6th match when he was very unlucky to be run-out.

Combine these scores with Dave’s domestic highlights of 31(20), 97(54), 165*(112) and it’s easy to agree he has the destructive power hitting would really dominate the batting powerplay without the additional pressure of opening. I’d like to see Dave given a go down the order, where he’ll have a chance to perform without the added pressure of opening.

Callum Ferguson from South Australia

His stand out performances include 52(35), 32(26) and 101(83). It’s good to see him given a shot in the Aussie side, though I would have picked Birt first purely on the numbers. Callum played well last night before a Bucknor howler cut short his opportunity. Who did the BCCI ask to wipe him from their fixtures, and can we please be added to this list?

James Hopes from Queensland

In the two games that Hopes played for Queensland he’s opened in both, scoring 76(61) and 42(40). I’d like to see him given an extended run at the top of our order, his tight straight bowling will keep him in the squad regardless. Ideally we’d have a run of 2 or maybe even 3 ODI’s without changing our openers, wouldn’t that be nice.

Adam Voges from Western Australia

Conversely, Adam Voges has made the squad without topping a run a ball all year. Now he’s the one our selectors have picked to apply ‘pressure’ to Hussey and White, yet even if he were to continue his domestic results at the higher lever I don’t believe this would be enough. His 295 runs at 49.2 certainly doesn’t constitute bad numbers, but his strike rate of just 70.2 is not get our 300+ mojo back.

• 8/10/08 13(35) vs NSW

• 24/10/08 56(78) vs Tas
• 16/11/08 104(119) vs SA
• 26/11/08 39(72) vs VIC
• 20/12/08 78(108) vs VIC
• 23/12/08 5(8) vs NSW

If we were after a reliable batsman then Simon Katich would have to be the first picked, selecting Voges in this form to me makes little sense.

NSW Opener

New South Wales have secured a major coup with Brendon McCullum, the big-hitting New Zealand wicketkeeper, drafted in to the state’s squad for the Australian domestic Twenty20 final in Sydney on Saturday. McCullum owns the most famous century in the format for his 158 off 73 balls in the opening match of the inaugural Indian Premier League and by playing for the Blues he will immediately qualify for the lucrative Champions League Twenty20 in October.

However, in the same article are these comments from NSW CEO Dave Gilbert which I find most disturbing

“With the potential losses the New South Wales squad may suffer depending on which two IPL teams qualify for the Champions League, it is vital that we strengthen our squad ahead of that tournament,”

What the FúCK! If the qualifying IPL “franchises” contain any New South Wales players, they get to pick OUR players to play for them AGAINST US! I can’t fúcking believe this. Stupid bloódy Indian franchises with their 9 months of history and poxy names, throw cash around to loan our players for the IPL, fair enough they can use the money, but to then have first pick of OUR players AGAINST US is a fúcking outrage.

I think of players such as Dave Warner, Moises Henriques and Stephen Smith who’ve come through the junior development programs we have in place, and there’s obviously a fair investment over a period of time in these players. Now some bollywood wánker gets first bite cause they pony up with a barrow full of rupees?

Surely, at the very least they’ll need to get the player released by their home state, at the discretion of the home state, and with a very large wad of cash exchanging hands. The very notion that these Indian blow-ins own our fúcking players makes my blood boil.

I don’t know all the facts, yet, but that never stopped me before.

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

This may be the last year I can do one with any authority,

We’ll start wit the reigning champs.

NSWales, the speedblitz blues

Players that won’t be available for large parts of the season.

Bollinger, Bracken, Clark, Clarke, Haddin, Jacques, Katich, and Lee.

That is a fair list, and looking at the “a” team, there are a bunch more in the wings.

What have they got left, youth, youth, and yup, youth.

Last year I though there youth was ordinary and wouldn’t make much of a splash, they did, bastards.

The Reigning Shield Champions seem to have an uphill battle to do the same.

This year they will need that youth to kick on either further as Haddin, Katich and Bollinger will be available far less.

Leadership

Katich is a huge loss, not just for batting, but he was the steel, but the captaincy, when you have a young team you need a captain who can bring them together, but he will be there and thereabouts for Australia, and may miss large portions of the season.

Whoever has the captaincy for the games Katich is not available will be the key, I would say they would go with Thornely, Daniel Smith, Mail or Ed Cowan.

Bowling

With their top 4 bowlers all busy, Cameron and Henriques will have to take a lot of wickets.

Henriques is the highest rated young player since Michael Clarke, but so far he hasn’t done much other than look impressive.

Beau Casson will be trying to prove he is the number one spinner in Australia, which he isn’t, but with this bowling attack, he should get a lot of overs.

Batting

Hard to see where the runs are coming from. Mail, Cowan and Thornley are experienced, but none of these players are top flight state batsmen.

The class would appear to come from Hughes and Khawaja. Neither have the experience, but they do look like the way forward.

Khawaja will also provide Australian writers the opportunity to call him wristy which is nice.

Henriques, Casson and Steve Smith are all supposed to be all rounders, and they will have to make a few runs between them.

Long in the tooth

The Mail Man may be paying his last season. Should get a game for the first half of the year, but when the young bucks start circling, he is the one Matthew Nicholson and the other selectors may get rid of. Although Nicholson probably thinks 30 is young.

Ready to shed the nappies

Steven Smith is the highest rated youngster since Moises Henriques, sorry couldn’t help myself. Played in a few 2020 games last year and tripped over wickets with his leg spin. He may be the Cameron White, Cameron White never proved to be, a genuine top six batsman who can bowl.

Nostradamus

Shield

3rd to 4th.

One dayers

2nd to 3rd.

2020

Last, they never take this shit seriously.

The rub

They is young, and held in high regard, but can they play?

The Ryan Gosling side

I can never tell if they are out, and it’s just a sh1t way for a batsman to go.

Today Hussey went out on the last ball before tea, caught down the leg side, off Dominic Thornley.

If that isn’t enough to slit your wrists over, he was on 86.

Then Hodge does the same thing off Beau Casson, mind you his pain was less cause he made a ton.

Mind you by then Victoria had used the flat wicket to score more than enough runs for one day.

6 for 340 on the first day is better than a slap in the face from an angry woman.

Yet again the money men held us up, but at least Whitey made a fair dinkum contribution and we still have McDonald to bat with the tail.

The weirdest thing for the whole day goes to the NSWelsh and their selection process.

The game was played at the SCG, as far as I’m aware. And yet when Matthew Nicholson, the 52 year old fast bowler, got ill before the game they replaced him with a debutant opening batsmen to bat at number 6.

Good luck to Usman Khawaja, but he obviously wasn’t going to take the new ball.

I’m glad the kid got a go, but isn’t it odd, that they would replace a bowler with a batsman.

NSWales only has 2 full time bowlers in this side, the game they have to win to get a home final, how stupid is that.

Beau Casson had none for 58 off ten at one stage, he may have been a full time bowler once upon a time, but no more.

Moises Enriques is a kid with more talent than Spiderman, but he is still young and is nowhere near a first tier bowler.

So if it is a home game, and Nicholson came down with the sniffles, why would they not replace him with another bowler, it defies all logic, unless we are in bizzarro world, are we in bizzaro world?

The Vics are in a good position, but their bowling line up scares me.

McKay and Pattinson may be good bowlers, but at this stage I do not have a zealotry belief in their talents.

However if we get to 450 tomorrow and then bowl them out for 83 I’ll prostrate myself before them.

I got to the ground just after the wild man Dirk Nannes (say it out loud now) finished his spell and 3 New South Welshman.

Shane Harwood came up with a new variation on the Tony Greig theory of straight and full in one day games. He decided to keep the straight, but forget about full and just bounces the batsmen with two men out. Slowed Haddin down, next over he went out forcing a ball that wasn’t there.

Brett Lee was sent out as a pinch hitter. Not every intimidating when a batsman walks out with an arm guard though is it. He then made 11 off 14 before Thornley scorched him. Probably all for the best though, because Moises Henriques came out next.

The kid looks nothing like a cricketer. But he sure acts like one. He could be the complete opposite of Shane Watson. He made 11 off 5 balls, and he made them so damn easy you wonder why they even bothered giving Lee an arm guard and sending him out there. His bowling wasn’t brilliant, but it was fresh and certainly more potent than Thornely’s.

Future PM (next election) took a blinder at long on after miss reading the ball and then plucking it one handed. He then ran in from long on and did a weird rock the baby dance.

Being that I am a MCG member, I sit next to the players area. Which means I get to see all the players girls, families and such. It’s good for a couple of reasons, one because you get to see the players off the field. And where there are fit and talented men there are bottle blondes, which are good to look at. Oh and also Bryce McGain’s mum, who seems like a nice lady.

Is it wrong I sometimes hope Klinger goes out? I’m sure he is a nice guy, and he is talented, but he just aint fun to watch.

Nsw definitely think Hussey doesn’t like it short and fast, I spoke to Sime on the way home and he said on the telly they were saying similar. He actually seemed to handle it ok I thought, and it certainly didn’t get him out.

Hussey has the best wrist work of any Australian I’ve ever seen. Nope scratch that, I remember this chick once, she was a magician.

Quiney is an interesting dude to watch bat. He looks like a club cricketer, he seems to over balance a lot, and he plays these weird guiding shots all the time. Then its like a switch is flicked and he just turns it on. He still bats like a club cricketer mind you, at no stage does his technique look perfect, but who cares, and the boy hits a mean ball.

Just as Quiney and Hussey got their funk on, Katich brought on the power play. Not earlier when the small and diminutive Klinger was batting. Twas odd. It lost them the game, as Quiney and Hussey smashed Brett Lee and Stuart Clark everywhere. Not even Lee’s pompous did I tell you I’m the leader of Australia’s attack slow the Vics down.

In the massacre Hussey charged and then backed away as Lee followed him with a bouncer that he sliced away for four. Don’t try it at home kiddies.

Michael Clarke sat in the dug out, with a tracksuit on, even though it was hot, maybe he has the mumps too. This didn’t stop him giving advice to Katich all game. Auditioning for Punters job are we?

As Nsw lost the game I tried to come up with a traffic pun about them being the Speed blitz blues. Then I realised something, the name is funny enough on its own.

Victoria made light work of an attack with Bracken, Lee, Clark and Hauritz in it.

Quiney especially, the man was brutal, I haven’t seen a non Hussey/Elliott/Jones/Hodge guy dominate for Victoria against a good attack like that. He was unbelievable, he really did treat the bowlers like they were club grade and he needed to get home and feed his cat.

Should I get excited?

Memo to MCG, the sightscreen at the city end makes a weird high pitched screeching noise when moved. Is there anything we can do about it, I know it won’t be a problem during internationals, you know the games with the crowd and such.

Special mention to Dirk Nannes (say it) who tried to imitate Quentin Lynch, the west coast eagle forward by charging at a ball so hard he forgot to use his hands and chested it away instead. Nice work Dirk.

I won’t take into account the 2020 Kentucky fried rat crap, and as for the one day ing cup thing I think the Victorians and Tasmanians look good. But what would I know.

New South Wales-

This looks to be the weakest NSW squad ever. Richard Chee Quee would be a walk up starter in this side. However the team could be given a major boost if Bracken or MacGill don’t play test cricket.

Batting is very light on, Brad Haddin and Simon Katich are going to have to carry the team. Thronley is handy, but he is a good five or six, in this side he may have to bat higher. Moises Henriques is only 20, but I’ve already heard so much about this kid. So far he hasn’t shown much at the top level. This could be his year. He will probably have to bat top 6. Hopefully they don’t over bowl him as well.

Bowling could be interesting. Bollinger has been spruiked up, and the dude looks 45. He played well for Australia A, I’ve never rated him, but when Bracken is playing for Australia Bollinger is the man. Matthew Nicholson is 33 and was really never that good. Hauritz and Casson are vying for the back up to MacGill, Casson would be my choice. Will be interesting to see which way they go.

The rub, they look weak to me, but they are NSW and they are very rarely bad. They look a little shallow in batting and fast bowling, but as usual they seem to have shit loads of spinners to decide from. Likely finish 4-6.

Queensland (new texas)-

They look strong, they always look strong. They are old Bichel, Maher, Kasprowicz, Perron and Love are all on the wrong side of 30.

Their batting is classy, Shane Watson opening the batting is interesting. Martin Love the sex symbol of state cricket is still a good player, and is unlucky to have not played more tests. I haven’t heard of any young batsmen coming through, but they have 4 classy performers and Chris Hartley the keeper is a damn fine batsman himself.

Bowling, Nofke, Bichel, Kasprowicz and Jurgenson is a good fast bowling quartet. But its Queensland what else would you expect. Still no spinner, but its Queensland what else would you expect. Watson may be playing more games for Queensland than he expected this year, but he won’t be bowling.

The rub, a lot of these guys are getting ready to retire and move to the gold coast. They still have class, Watson and Kasprowicz are under injury clouds. Love and Maher must be nearing the end. Barring trips to the old people homes and emergency wards they should finish 1-3.

Now I’m tired I’ll do two more tomorrow.