New Zealand fight back but get pipped in a thriller
The second Chappell-Hadlee match reminded me a lot of the second Ashes Test in Edgbaston. Australia had just crushed the opposition in the first match. The losing team were bagged mercilessly by their own media. Then the second match came right down to the wire in a thrilling finish with the series teetering between staying alive or sewn up by Australia. Things started badly for New Zealand as their bowlers were absolutely caned by Andrew Symonds, scoring a whopping 156 runs off 127 balls. He built a formidable 220 run partnership with Michael Clarke, the highlight being 3 consecutive sixes off Chris Cairns. Cairns dropping Symonds when he was only on 13 turned out to be a major turning point in the match. Symonds is on the verge of getting dropped from the Test side but today's awesome innings couldn't hurt his chances of playing in Perth. It's weird to contrast his tentative Test batting to his dominant one day belters. Michael Clarke played second fiddle but he still scored 82 off 77 balls. Australia ended up setting a formidable target of 323 to win and with the prospect of Brett Lee steaming in with his firebolts, the match looked hopeless.
But the Kiwis burst out of the blocks, caning Brett Lee in his initial spell with Lou Vincent blazing 71 runs off 48 balls. But New Zealand failed to build a substantial partnership with wickets falling regularly and they seemed just behind the 8-ball for most of their innings. Throughout their innings, it felt like they weren't gonna make it - but nevertheless, the runs kept ticking over and Australia were never quite able to land that killing blow. Brett Lee went from hero in Game 1 to villain tonight as his last over and the second last over of the match had 16 runs taken from it, including a no-ball beamer, a no-ball from a fielding violation and a wide bouncer. In total, Lee conceded 85 runs in his 10 overs - quite a difference to his 3 wickets for 5 runs in game 1. Cricket is a fickle mistress! That left New Zealand only 6 runs to win in the last over off poor Mick Lewis in his debut. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end! But with only 2 wickets in hand, New Zealand squandered what should've been a spectacular victory with 2 run-outs in 5 balls, finishing 2 runs short. 2 runs - the same margin in Edgbaston. This time however, Australia pulled off the victory. In a way, it was deflating as New Zealand showed great character to come back after their shelacking in game 1. On the other hand, the last thing we want is another Edgbaston so while the edge has gone off the 3rd match, a dead rubber is not the worst thing in the world.
| Posted by JC on Wed 7 Dec |  14 comments |
Well there's only one thing better than belting the Kiwis by a couple of hundred runs; it's beating them by less than a handful!!
Great game though. If the NZ X1 was a racehorse, there'd be a thorough investigation into any doping allegations.
Listened to this match on ABC Radio. The commentary was inept,
biased, hopelessly inadequate. I think it was simply a direct feed from NZ. There were times when an Aussie would take a wicket and we didn't even get to hear who took the catch. It was just a self-indulgent chat-a-thon by the so-called commentators. ABC, lift your act and get some decent coverage!!
Posted by Dan Darwin on 2005-12-07 03:29:31
Great game though. If the NZ X1 was a racehorse, there'd be a thorough investigation into any doping allegations.
Listened to this match on ABC Radio. The commentary was inept,
biased, hopelessly inadequate. I think it was simply a direct feed from NZ. There were times when an Aussie would take a wicket and we didn't even get to hear who took the catch. It was just a self-indulgent chat-a-thon by the so-called commentators. ABC, lift your act and get some decent coverage!!
Posted by Dan Darwin on 2005-12-07 03:29:31
Symonds should shurely take the same approach he has in the shortened version of the game into the test arena. I can see him carting Andre Nell around the park in Perth. When he gets to 100 forget being a bowler.
Posted by Chrisso on 2005-12-07 03:55:31
Posted by Chrisso on 2005-12-07 03:55:31
Yeah, the ABC/NZ coverage has been woeful as DD says. These dills make SBS's Latvian news round-up positively enthralling in comparison. Apart from the lack of description, if they can't make a game like this entertaining to the ear, ABC needs to fly Skull and a microphone in for the 10th.
Posted by Virtualgaz on 2005-12-07 07:05:27
Posted by Virtualgaz on 2005-12-07 07:05:27
I actually don't mind hearing extremely partisan commentary from other countries. The english radio commentary was particularly illuminating and my favourite moment of the Ashes was England's 2nd innings at Edgbaston. England were struggling to set us a decent 2nd innings total when Flintoff started to let loose, smacking boundaries. At one point, the commentator exclaimed "Lee bowls. Botham hits it out to the midwicket boundary!", then you hear all this muffled laughter in the background and someone calling out "That's not Botham!" A bit of a Freudian slip that encapsulated English hopes that summer. Yes, the commentary was more professional when the ABC ringers were on the air but it's still interesting. As for Skull, well, describing him is like a primary school report card - "can do well if he applies himself". He's got a great cricket brain but he's so damn self indulgent with his personal anecdotes. Reign it in, Skull!
Posted by JC on 2005-12-07 11:47:20
Posted by JC on 2005-12-07 11:47:20
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