Geoff Lemon's Blog, page 12
June 16, 2024
Australia throwing a game is the grim fantasy of conspiracy theorists | Geoff Lemon
The idea any international team would deliberately lose a match is something easily said, and almost impossible to do
For a couple of hours, as the night wore late on the island of Saint Lucia, you could feel it bubbling. In the bars of the Caribbean, spreading through the travelling tourists watching muted televisions. Across the reaches of the internet, slowly because most of the likely candidates were in England asleep, but it was there among the late-night listeners and the expats scattered across time zones. Reflected in the kind of profiles with St George’s Cross emojis in their display names, bristling at the one concern.
Scotland beating Australia would knock England out of the T20 World Cup. Scotland were not supposed to be good enough to beat Australia. But Australia had dropped six catches while Scotland marauded to 92 inside the first nine overs.
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June 12, 2024
Australia are the team to beat as they lay siege to T20 World Cup title | Geoff Lemon
Test nations are falling to the minnows in the US and Caribbean but Mitch Marsh’s team are looking ominously good
If we’re blunt, it’s easy to see why modern cricketing countries hate Australia. Or at least why they resent Australia. Beyond anything about historical disagreements or abrasiveness that observers could reasonably cite, one part has nothing to do with personality. However pleasant the individual players, it must eventually be impossible not to be fed up with a team that among such a small pool of contenders keeps winning such a disproportionate amount of the time.
In the current T20 World Cup, Pakistan lost to the United States of America and battled to a win against Canada. The tier-down Canadians beat the Test-qualified Irish. England got rained off against Scotland and were probably lucky to share the points. South Africa nearly lost to the Dutch for the third world tournament in a row. New Zealand got annihilated by Afghanistan, and still sit in their group behind Uganda, who beat a much more established team in Papua New Guinea. Former champions Sri Lanka are already knocked out, winless at the bottom of their group behind Netherlands and Nepal.
Continue reading...Australia are the team to beat as they lay siege to T20 World Cup title
Test nations are falling to the minnows in the US and Caribbean but Mitch Marsh’s team are looking ominously good
If we’re blunt, it’s easy to see why modern cricketing countries hate Australia. Or at least why they resent Australia. Beyond anything about historical disagreements or abrasiveness that observers could reasonably cite, one part has nothing to do with personality. However pleasant the individual players, it must eventually be impossible not to be fed up with a team that among such a small pool of contenders keeps winning such a disproportionate amount of the time.
In the current T20 World Cup, Pakistan lost to the United States of America and battled to a win against Canada. The tier-down Canadians beat the Test-qualified Irish. England got rained off against Scotland and were probably lucky to share the points. South Africa nearly lost to the Dutch for the third world tournament in a row. New Zealand got annihilated by Afghanistan, and still sit in their group behind Uganda, who beat a much more established team in Papua New Guinea. Former champions Sri Lanka are already knocked out, winless at the bottom of their group behind Netherlands and Nepal.
Continue reading...June 8, 2024
Fantastic foxing: Australia’s weapons of mass deception sound World Cup warning | Geoff Lemon
Perception is often an illusion, and after underestimating Australia’s team of old masters in their T20 clash, England now face the possibility of a group-stage exit
In a contest, perception can be a weapon. Perception leads to expectation. Expectation leads to assumption, to over-confidence, to predictability. For England asking Australia to bat first in their T20 World Cup match in Barbados, there might have been the perception of David Warner as an ageing player and slowing scorer.
There was the perception of his circumspect 56 from 51 balls against the modest might of Oman days earlier. There was the perception of struggles against England, and against high pace, for a side in which Mark Wood stood alongside Jofra Archer. For Travis Head there was the perception of struggles against spin. For both openers there was the perception of left-handers being more susceptible to off-breaks.
Had Head been foxing in the first over, he could not have played it better. Moeen Ali’s off-spin kept him to three runs, with one ball nearly bowling him. England had been tossing around an idea before the game, and with Head keeping strike from the last ball, Jos Buttler pulled that rein: he brought on Will Jacks to continue with off-spin instead of Archer with heat.
Where Moeen had pushed the ball through, Jacks gave more flight, and Head mowed his first offering over midwicket. As if sensing an opening, getting a whiff of whatever fuelled him through a wild IPL season, Head backed up that shot next ball. Then getting width, a slash for three. Warner, ever aware of a chance to punch the bruise, followed by kneeling outside off stump to play a pick-up shot for six more. The over cost 22.
June 6, 2024
Sticky wickets favour cautious Australia as philosophies collide at T20 World Cup | Geoff Lemon
Australia’s steady start was enough to beat Oman but the tension between caution and careening will be tested against England
Contemporary T20 cricket is a place of warring philosophies. On the one hand we have those maintaining a degree of conservatism, building scores that may be defendable, relying on probability to return wins more often than not. On the other, the popular attitude of going full tilt at the largest score possible, a tactic that leaves teams short when they get it wrong but invulnerable when they get it right.
When caution fails, it looks hopelessly outdated, like some of the efforts from the Lucknow team featuring Marcus Stoinis during the most recent season of the Indian Premier League. When caution succeeds it can look like prescient genius, like Stoinis saving Australia from an unexpected predicament against Oman to start their T20 World Cup campaign.
May 1, 2024
Why not give Jake Fraser-McGurk a chance to go berserk for Australia? | Geoff Lemon
The 22-year-old’s blistering IPL form should have forced a recalculation for the otherwise conventional T20 World Cup squad
Let’s be honest, we wanted it. You all did. Short of those actively hostile to 20-over cricket, anyone would have liked to see Fraser-McGurk go crazy berserk, after the boy Jake has spent the past three weeks tearing up bowlers in the Indian Premier League. Instead, he will head from India back home, left out of the T20 World Cup that follows the tournament he’s currently dominating.
It takes something special for the IPL to cut through in Australia. Fraser-McGurk produced it: 55 off 35 balls to vindicate coach Ricky Ponting on a nerveless debut, a vicious 65 from 18 balls in his other innings at first drop. Up to open the batting in David Warner’s place for Delhi Capitals, he started with 20 from 10 balls and 23 from 14, before another skyrocket with 84 off 27 and a last start of 12 off 7. Even his failures have a strike rate over 150.
Continue reading...April 6, 2024
New Zealand beat England by seven wickets in third women’s ODI – as it happened
4th over: England 22-1 (Knight 1, Bouchier 17) Rowe starts the over with a wide, just drifting down legside past Beaumont. But the next ball she recovers her line brilliantly to dismiss Beaumont LBW, bringing England captain Heather Knight to the crease. Knight only takes one ball to settle before she gets a quick single to get herself off the mark and bring the dominant batter in Bouchier back into the action. An excellent over from Rowe.
Rowe gets her line exactly right and the ball slams into Beaumont’s pad. She reviews, which is a terrible decision, as three reds light up and she has to go.
Continue reading...March 22, 2024
A model of the reliable and durable: Mitchell Starc and a rare piece of cricket history | Geoff Lemon
The Australian quick’s modesty after passing Dennis Lillee’s mark of 355 Test wickets belies the fact the milestone is serious business
In the second week of March this year, Mitchell Starc passed a big number: Dennis Keith Lillee’s 355 Test wickets, which was still second for any Australian fast bowler. This coming Saturday, in the fourth week of March, Starc will pass another: as the most expensive player yet to take the field in the Indian Premier League, with a season’s contract a lick under US$3m.
In the modern era, with the focus on cricket’s shift from a long-form demonstration of international pride to a short-form instrument of commerce, most people would probably see the second number as more significant. Lillee was the sensation of the 1970s, but you would have to be nearing 50 to remember seeing him bowl.
Continue reading...March 21, 2024
Australia win first women’s one-day international against Bangladesh – as it happened
Solid knocks from Annabel Sutherland and Alana King followed by some relentless bowling set up 118-run win for Australia
5th over: Australia 16-1 (Healy 13, Perry 2) Marufa backs up her fielding with another fine over, this time keeping Healy quiet, five dots before an inside edge squeezed away for a run.
4th over: Australia 15-1 (Healy 12, Perry 2) Another chance missed off Healy! Reaches for width from Sultana Khatun, edges it between slip and keeper. Fahima Khatun is a bit slow to react, the ball is travelling but it’s catchable, her weight goes the wrong way at first, expecting it to be edged thicker it looks like. But it goes fine. She throws out her left hand but it’s already gone. Marufa does brilliantly from long leg to spring across to deep third and save a run, flicking the ball back in. That’s serious athleticism.
Continue reading...March 11, 2024
History rhymes for Cummins and Australia as New Zealand cave in | Geoff Lemon
Australia’s captain was an unlikely batting hero once more but New Zealand’s defeat should never really have happened
To be clear, things like this do not happen often. Setting up in the fourth innings of the Christchurch Test, Australia needed 279 to win. Australian Test teams have been getting on the park for 147 years. Before Monday, they had chased bigger targets than this a grand total of 13 times. Now that total is up to 14, after an innings that could have gone wrong any number of times, did go wrong in three different bursts, and ultimately went calmly and deliberately right.
One of that previous baker’s dozen of wins came in Edgbaston last year. Late on the fifth day, in the gathering gloom, it was the captain, Pat Cummins, batting at No 8, finishing on 44 not out, hitting the winning runs with two wickets in hand to reach the target of 282. This time, late on the fourth day, it was Cummins batting at No 9, finishing on 32 not out, hitting the winning boundary to take the score to 281. History rhymed almost to the syllable.
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