h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Doug Bollinger?

I'm sorry but I've been somewhat indisposed through illness since before the final Test so haven't been able to comment here.

So England has the Ashes and Ponting's a two time loser of them and yet his esteem seems to go upward. Perhaps it's because he is truly one of the all time greats and would slot into such a team but he'd have to accept life as fourth drop as Bradman would be in before him I'd imagine.

The test of England's resolve and ability is of course going to happen when you tour down here next year.
WD on your series win which personally I think of as a mistake riddled enterprise by CA but a win is a win is a win.

No mention here(h2g2) of the ODI whitewash that's happening at the moment and to fully sold out grounds as well. I'm sure Trout will say that no one is watching or interested in it down here but where I'm at we are watching it and also reading it on the Guardian's OBO to great delight

Ponting's century last night?
Sublime and an absolute joy to watch and irregardless of any bile directed towards him by a narky English media or even Australian media...he is far away the premier batsmen on display in the UK at the moment and inhabits a completely different stratosphere than anyone seen in many a decade wearing English colours and also way and above many, many supposed great bats from Oz's recent past.

The news that he wants to hang around till the next Ashes series in the land of perpetual gloom is great: More power to his willow and his hair transplant.

6-0, I hope they get 7 and then it's onto the round of the circus and battle with some seriously good sides, I wonder how the new team will go?

On another note: Will the two Test series between Pakistan + Aus' be well attended next year in England?

Keith,

Sorry you've been unwell.

6-0 great, 7-0 even better. Weather permitting, bring it on. Then maybe 50-over ODI cricket will be either consigned to the English dustbin or taken seriously by the administrators. I don't really care which, these endless fifty over series don't turn my crank anymore. What is 40/40 all about? Are the English the only ones who persist with this? To what end?

I agree with your assessment of Ponting the Bat. He'll surely eclipse Tendulkar and Lara. He's a craftsman at the crease, and seems to play more "captain's innings" when required than any other captain.

Thanks mate
I'm with you on the endless ODL series. If they played this before the Test series it might of meant something but like most short versions of the game they really are like sherbet: a quick zing and a thrill and then their gone. Forgettable really.

Yes 40/40...hmmm.

Yes forget the Ponting the bloke and just enjoy his artistry, to be honest I can't think of too many others that I've actually seen who come close to him. When he drives and in particular when he pulls he reminds me of G.A.Sobers, lovely ,lovely hands. I'm glad he wants to play on as he really does light up a ground when he fires.

Well back to the AFL final now between your city's team and my old team from Moorabbin and then it's Wallabies tomorrow ah sport...there's never enough of the stuff

My city's team? I think the Lions got rolled by the Bulldogs last week.

[I think like you] I'm a St Kilda man, though for not much more reason than S. K. Warne, and a tenuous connection to the southern suburbs.

My mistake I always think of the WB's as a Brisbane team but to be honest I don't really follow the AFL it's just a childhood link the St Kilda one.
Now their in the GF and I do remember Barry Breen's goal in their first GF win and that was against the Pies so I'm thinking that fate may well have already done away with Geelong's chances of entering the GF and a replay of 66 is in the offing.

Game Seven: We're at the Riverside, which U931109 has already assured me is in Durham, not Middleboro, whatever the difference that makes.

Australia are 158/8 after 41 overs. I should be thinking, why did it take them until they were 6-0 down before they gave Onions a bowl, what with the series already lost and the champions league but five days away, but what I am instead thinking is that England are the only "top tier ICC team" (the line in the sand being drawn between Zimbabwe and Kenya) that has the (in)capablility of stuffing this up.

Strauss out, all out.

***

For what it's worth, while we await the Champion's Trophy, South African cricket politics aside, would Petersen, Strauss and Trott have had a hope of getting into the current Protea side?

You mean on their talent alone? If you do, then Pieterson would probably get a start in the middle order and I think the other two would not.
I wonder how different a player would Pieterson be if he was playing for his country, I'd reckon he would be the world beater that he's just never become as a player for England: Nothing like playing for your country to bring out the best.

Well England has won the 7th ODI but still managed to make it look extremely hard and now head off to SA brimming with confidence. I see some wag has asked where the England team will be staying in SA to which the answer was given: With their parents. Boom boom.

'Will the two Test series between Pakistan + Aus' be well attended next year in England'

I think so. They've gone for venues with a large Pakistani population nearby (rumours that Earl's Court would be a potential venue were quickly quashed) and I'm sure a lot of English neutrals will go along.

England were truly hopeless in the ODI series. The forty-over game is seen by most of the counties as a way of blooding youngsters, and there are so many dead games that it's barely competitive. I've got much to say about the elitist and self-supporting nature of the county system over here, but my keyboard only has a two-year guarantee.

Australia didn't look like world-beaters, but they do have a lot of potential there - Champions Trophy too early for them? Shame to see Bracken out, as I think he's becoming a fine bowler.

It's great to see a healthy sport-related thread bubbling along nicely here. I 'discovered' cricket during the 2005 Ashes, like many, but I haven't dropped the ball since. I was in Oz for family reasons when the following Ashes series was on. I managed to slip away for a day and got a ticket for the Sydney Oval. England were pretty rubbish but it was great to see Shane Warne's last ever innings batting for Australia. Sleepy-eyed and necking two high-caffiene energy drinks in the Pavillion beforehand, you sensed it must have been a late night the night before. (My wife told me this later; she was watching a bit of the cricket on TV some place where she was having coffee.) Anyway, this lower order larrikin (I learned that word in Australia, and it always seem to be used in reference to Shane Warne) comes on swinging his arms to wake himself up and promptly biffed a four first ball. He went on to get something like 73. As for his bowling...

(Sam)

Ha ha. Larrikin indeed, indeed, he his and it's a particularly Australian description that.
Although that good English descriptive, 'prat' comes to mind as well.

Other Larrikins of note include: Errol Flynn (what a lad he was), Keith Miller(surprise surprise), The Right Honourable Billy Hughes (Churchill detested the man so he's OK in my book), occasionally the late great Sir Robert Helpmann aspired to that title and another politician absolutely murdered it...The Right Honourable R.J.Hawke, aka 'The Silver Bodgie' and a long term Prime Minister of Oz when you lot had to wear Thatcher and her, umm, ideals.

Plenty more as well and it's a tag of some notoriety and also carries a fair degree of social grace here in Oz, a lot of chutzpah is expected and usually given.

The Champions Trophy has started and most pundits would expect England to fall at about the second hurdle or possibly the third.

As for us, well we could fall at the first and just never recover but history is against Australian sides being abject failures like many an English side has been.
Time will tell whether the Lion roars or sneaks off stage with it's tail between it's legs.

That comes across a bit smug...
Sorry about that.

There was a time when I'd queue to bag Shane Warne.

But not any more.

Strangely, since around about that 06/07 Ashes Series, I've come to respect Warne the Bowler (rather than willing his failure) and to regret that he never(?) captained the national side. As a man (and acceptedly a man's man) he is charismatic, and a leader. Look at his success in Season 1 of IPL with, of all people, South African skipper Graeme Smith in his side. To me, it's surely no coincidence that Smith subsequently matured sufficiently to captain a victory over Australia in their own backyard last summer (southern hemisphere).

Too rough around the edges for even Cricket Australia's upper echelon maybe, but a wizard nonetheless. We should all be grateful for having had the opportunity to watch him bowl. And bat. A century was almost scripted for that final innings. If only ...

Well England beats SL and does it easily...WD. That's what we need more upsets.

@Trout: Yes Warne would of made an outstanding Australian Captain and most likely would of kept playing Test cricket if he'd been given it.
Gee, when you think of the blues Punter's made as Captain...how many of them would of Warne agreed with?

I like going to Youtube now an again and looking back at some of his performances, magic!

As I write, England are closing in on victory over South Africa.

But at the end of over 44 : "Smith asks for a runner but Strauss doesn't allow it"

What's that all about? Didn't England learn anything from the Collingwood/Sidebottom/Elliott incident at the Oval last year?

Well according to some in the English press corp it was the right thing to do(not give him a runner). Seems fairly petty to me but I'd love to see the reaction from the same press if it was Ponting who'd refused the runner. I can just see the indignation and bluster that would generate.

That it is petty and not terribly sporting is a given but in the end it had little to do with the outcome and the South African skipper will just have to grin and bear the lack of camaraderie from the South African English skipper.

I think the Saffers have choked yet again and most interest I'd imagine would shift to the Oz V India game now that the Kiwis have done away with S.L.

Oz is looking a bit shaky and India are smarting from a loss to Pakistan.

Kiwis play England soon, what's the odds on that match I wonder?

Interesting tournament and it's not going according to plan at all.

Why was Strauss even consulted?

Law 2.1:

(a) If the umpires are satisfied that a player has been injured or become ill after the nomination of the players, they shall allow that player to have...
(ii) a runner when batting.

(b) The umpires shall have discretion, for other wholly acceptable reasons, to allow a substitute for a fielder, or a runner for a batsman, at the start of the match or at any subsequent time.

And the special regulations for ODIs state runners should:

'...only be permitted in cases of injury, illness or other wholly acceptable reasons. 'Wholly acceptable reasons' should be limited to extreme circumstances and should not include what is commonly referred to as a 'comfort break'.'

It's the umpires' call, right?

Well that was an utter thrashing dealt out to England but it was also an opportunity to see an absolute gem of an innings by Ponting.
What a pleasure to watch, Watson's was flashier and his 3 sixes in succession were fun but his artistry was nowhere near that of Ponting's.

On to the final...