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Australia vs New Zealand 1 Post Game Wrap

Australia win by 105 runs. Looks like I called this one almost exactly right. New Zealand got off to a bad start losing both opening batsmen very early one, at one stage 7/2. Astle looked badly out of form fishing for balls outside of stump before eventually edging one. In my opinion Brendan McCullum is wasted at the top of the order, he is a far more useful player coming in at 6 or 7 and steering the team home at the death.

Ross Taylor and Stephen Fleming steadied the ship with Taylor looking especially classy proving his 128 against Sri Lanka was no fluke on his way to 84. Other than Fleming and Taylor, the only other batsman to put up any resistance was Peter Fulton who made 37.

The bowling honours were evenly shared by the Australians with Ben Hilfenhaus taking his first ODI wicket in front of his home crowd, trapping Brendan McCullum leg before.

This match really showed how much better than everyone else Australia is. Having watched their opening two games I would be very surprised to see them lose a 50 over match in this series. The only chance England and New Zealand have would be to be given a favourable target by the Duckworth Lewis method in a rain shortened game.

On Tuesday we will get an idea of who is playing for second in this series as England take on New Zealand in Hobart. I’ll be providing a sort of “meta-coverage” from work. Should be an intersting excercise. See you Tuesday.

Australia vs New Zealand 1 Innings Break

Australia finished the innings at 289/8 with some superb hitting from Andrew Symonds and Cameron White as well as a hat-trick from Shane Bond. After an excellent start from Gilchrist and Hayden the Australians were slowed a little by the loss of 3 quick wickets. Symonds and Clarke consolidated well through the middle overs before the big hitting at the death. Bond slowed the hitting by dismissing White and Symonds on consecutive deliveries, then completed his hat-trick by bowling Nathan Bracken.

While 289 is a sizable total, New Zealand could get it if they bat well. As noted earlier the New Zealand top order is badly out of form and 5.80 per over is a daunting task. My prediction, Australia by 100 runs.

Australia vs New Zealand 1 Pre-Game

Australia have won the toss and chosen to bat first on a hard dry pitch in Hobart. The pitch will be fast and true with good bounce. Might make things difficult for the New Zealand slow bowlers, Vettori and Patel. Australia have left out Glenn McGrath for debutant Ben Hilfenhaus, much to the relief of the New Zealand top order.

Teams

Australia

1. Adam Gilchrist
2. Matthew Hayden
3. Ricky Ponting
4.  Michael Clarke
5. Andrew Symonds
6. Michael Hussey
7. Cameron White
8. Nathan Bracken
9. Mitchell Johnson
10. Ben Hilfenhaus
11. Stuart Clark

New Zealand

1. Brendan McCullum
2. Nathan Astle
3. Steven Fleming
4. Ross Taylor
5. Peter Fulton
6. Craig McMillan
7. Daniel Vettori
8. James Franklin
9. Shane Bond
10. Mark Gillespie
11. Jeetan Patel

Australia vs New Zealand 1 Preview

Today the second game of the Commonwealth Bank Series will be played in Hobart between Australia and New Zealand. Two rival nations who love to defeat each other.

Australia are coming off their 5-0 whitewash of England in the Ashes series as well as easy victories in the Twenty20 International and the first game of the Commonwealth Bank Series. New Zealand batted and bowled well in their series against Sri Lanka, just never in the same game.

The New Zealand bowling attack is inexperienced at this level due to injuries to front line bowlers Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills. However strike bowler Shand Bond will be in the team. Bond always seems to save his best for Australia and in particular Ricky Ponting. Bond has dismissed Ponting 6 out of the last 7 times the two have met.

New Zealand’s batting line up looks good on paper but is filled with batsmen out of form and lacking game time. Steven Flemming only played 1 game against Sri Lanka where he failed to score, Nathan Astle and Brendan McCullum looked good but failed to make big scores.

Australia have been in magnificent form in all forms of the game winning the ICC Champions Trophy last year and dominating the Ashes. Judging by England’s performance on Friday it would appear only New Zealand have any chance of beating them in the CB series, however given the Aussies’ dominant form a defeat seems unlikely.

I’ll be back with the teams and the result of the toss in about 20 minutes.

Australia vs England 1 Post Game Wrap

I’ve got to say first of all, I didn’t watch the end of the Australian innings for a couple of reasons. One, the game was effectively over after about 20 overs, and two I live in New Zealand and wasn’t going to stay up til after 11pm watching a game whose result was beyond doubt.

For those of you don’t know the result, Australia won by 8 wickets with just over 4 overs remaining. It took them a little longer than I expected but as I said in an earlier post, England simply didn’t have enough runs.

Once again England’s bowling was terrible. Andrew Flintoff gave up 11 runs worth of wides off the first over which largely set the tone for the rest of the match. Paul Nixon had a very nervous start to his ODI career behind the stumps, fumbling balls and missing balls keepers at this level should never drop.

The story of the match, however, was the injury to Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen broke his rib after being hit by Glenn McGrath and will take no further part in the Commonwealth Bank Series, robbing England of their best one day batsman.  Pietersen looked in excellent form during his innings, top scoring for England. However without his aggressive batting style, England is lacking an extremely important factor in one day cricket. England’s top order now lacks a batsman who is able to hit out. Vaughan, Strauss and Bell are excellent batsmen but their natural game is to work the ball around, not to his sixes.

Australia’s easy victory over England last night has shown the England team is unlikely to get close to the Australia during the Commonwealth Bank Series. I will be looking forward to Sunday’s match against New Zealand from Hobart where we will find out if New Zealand can come close to Australia.

Australia vs England 1 Innings Break

England 242/8

England batted very well with the stand out performer being Kevin Pietersen who scored 82 from 91 deliveries. Unfortunately for Pietersen he was hit by a Glenn McGrath ball that made him look genuinely uncomfortable for the rest of his innings. That one delivery could well have cost England any chance they had at winning the game. Had Pietersen gone on to get a century England would have most likely ended up with a score around 280, but once he got out wickets fell regularly and the English lost their way in the final few overs.

Most batsmen got a start but few went on with their innings. Andrew Flintoff scored 47 not out in rapid fire style towards the death but the regular loss of wickets limited his chances to score.

I noticed quite a few of the English batsmen walking around the crease line before the ball was bowled which struck me as very odd. Were they trying to put the bowler off? If they were the tactic certainly failed.

The only other talking point of note was that the Australians only received one home town decision when Dairymple was given out caught behind from a ball that clearly stuck his helmet. It neither looked nor sounded out, brought a very unconvincing appeal but was still given. Still, only one home town decision is a good result.

Australia begin their innings needing 243, or 4.86 runs per over. Well within their reach. As I stated earlier, England really came up 30 to 40 runs short of a defendable target.

My prediction: Australia win by 6 wickets in the 40th over.

Australia vs England 1 Pre-Game

England have won the toss and elected to bat first on a very dry MCG wicket. Looks like a glorious day in Melbourne with a huge crowd in. The pitch should be very good for batting with the ball coming on well and consistant bounce. Hopefully England can put up a good score to give themselves some chance of defending later tonight.

Teams

Australia

1.  Adam Gilchrist
2. Matthew Hayden
3. Ricky Ponting
4. Michael Clarke
5. Andrew Symonds
6. Michael Hussey
7. Cameron White
8. Stuart Clark
9. Nathan Bracken
10. Mitchell Johnson
11. Glenn McGrath

England

1. Michael Vaughan
2. Andrew Strauss
3. Ian Bell
4. Kevin Pietersen
5. Andrew Flintoff
6. Paul Collingwood
7. Paul Nixon
8. Jamie Dalrymple
9. Jon Lewis
10. James Anderson
11. Monty Panesar

Australia vs England 1 Preview

The Commonwealth Bank Series gets underway later today with the hosts Australia taking on England in the opening match from the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It would seem the Aussies are raging hot favourites to win not only this match, but the entire series. Given their recent whitewash in the Ashes series against England and New Zealand’s erratic performances against Sri Lanka, there are only two questions that need asking about this series. 1. Will Australia lose a game? 2. Who will they beat in the finals?

Today’s game will certainly answer some of the questions regarding England’s squad going into the World Cup later this year. Is Michael Vaughan recovered from his year long knee injury? And can the team regain any confidence following their dismal performance in the Ashes? On paper England have an excellent team with a formidable batting lineup including Kevin Pietersen who has the ability to turn a match around in a few overs. The bowling however is not so strong. Outsite of Monty Panesar and Andrew Flintoff the English attack won’t be striking fear into the hearts of their opponents.

Australia will be looking to blood some new players following the retirement of Shane Warne and the impending retirement of Glen McGrath. Their batting lineup remains formidable. Adam Gilchrist have a proven record as one of the most destructive opening batsmen in world cricket and is backed up by a very long lineup. Michael Clarke will be looking to move up the order to 4, allowing Michael Hussey to bat at 6. Hussey reminds me a lot of another Michael, Michael Bevan whose innings against New Zealand at the MCG in the VB series of 2002 is something I will never forget. Hussey has the ability to keep the score ticking over towards the death and the hitting skills to steer his side home when required.

I’m certainly looking forward to today’s game. I haven’t seen any good ODI’s this year. I’ve seen the rain shortened game from Christchurch, the disaster at Auckland and the pitter patter of rain from Hamilton. Bring on the big boys, bring on the games!

Welcome to Sports After Dark

This is Sports After Dark, my new blog devoted to the upcoming year of sports. It’s a huge one this year with the Commonwealth Bank Series starting on Friday, the Super 14 next month and both the Cricket and Rugby World Cups later in the year. So I figured I’d start a new blog to bring all the news and opinions about all these events.

So stay tuned, the fun’s about it begin.