Australia dodge bullet as Hussey scores hundred
It was no coincidence that Australia's 16 Test winning streak began when Adam Gilchrist joined the side. Whenever we got into trouble, Gilchrist would come in at number 7, smack a century of as many balls and bat us back into the match. Lately, we've lost our safety net with Gilchrist's disturbing drop of form. However, we may have found a useful replacement in Mike Hussey who today took Australia from a hopeless position into a strong one on the 2nd day of the 2nd Test. We started the day at 8 for 239 and McGill fell quickly. Ntini set him up nicely and you could almost see it coming the way McGill cut the first 5 balls of an over only to be clean bowled on the 6th. The turning point came when Kallis dropped a relatively straightforward slips catch off Hussey when he was only on 27. At that point, Australia would've been all out for 250. Instead, Hussey built a great partnership with Glenn McGrath, scored a century and took Australia to 350. That's two catches in the 1st innings that cost South Africa around 200 runs. If they'd held their chances today and yesterday, Australia would be on their knees in this Test. Considering their grassed chances in Perth may have cost them a victory, we better hope they don't learn how to catch before the series is over. It's also a disturbing sign if we need to depend on bad opposition fielding to stay in the match. Hussey's Test average is now 94 - it's a shame it was he and not Glenn McGrath that fell for the 10th wicket as his average would've risen to 112! I know it's early in his career but it's still fun to speculate about such things.
Unfortunately (from a cricket point of view), I had to go out to a family Christmas get-together in the afternoon so I didn't get to see the South African innings. By all reports, the pitch does seem to be flattening, hence only 4 wickets fell all day and the match is set up to go deep into the 5th day (which makes me very happy). At this point, 5 frontline bowlers would be nice, don't you think? The game is delicately poised and continues to match the Perth Test as both teams' 1st innings began strongly. At this stage in Perth, South Africa's middle order crumbled so let us hope history repeats itself on the 3rd day.
| Posted by JC on Tue 27 Dec |  9 comments |
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