Geoff Lemon's Blog, page 17

Glenn Maxwell tears up cricket history books with innings of riotous expression | Geoff Lemon

The Australian’s remarkable World Cup century from just 40 balls against the Netherlands was in all senses an extraordinary knock

Sometimes, all you need are the numbers. Glenn Maxwell made the fastest World Cup century, taking 40 balls. He arrived in the middle for the first ball of the 40th over. In all List A cricket, it was the latest start in an innings for any player to score a hundred. And it took nine balls of that span for him to first get on strike.

He took 27 balls to go past 50, then 13 to pass a hundred. That last baker’s dozen included two dots and three singles. All up the match saw nine overs bowled between Maxwell facing his first ball and being caught for 106. Australia went from meandering towards 300 to posting 399, on to win by 309. It was in all senses extraordinary.

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David Warner’s latest Cricket World Cup knock secures place among ODI royalty | Geoff Lemon

The Australian batter’s feats in the 50-over arena are often overlooked but his body of work deserves to be recognised as great

Friday in Bengaluru was one of those David Warner days. Sure, he got glitter-bombed by the Luck Fairy when he was on 10, his second attacking swing of the bat looping to mid on where it was wildly, impossibly dropped by Usama Mir. But from there he savaged Pakistan’s bowling with a purity of hitting well matched in power and variety.

His cut shots rasped through one side, his pull shots the other. One hybrid scooping pick-up stroke sent the ball 98 metres long and seemingly as high, ending with Warner on one knee outside his off stump and the ball hitting the top rim of the Chinnaswamy roof before bouncing back into the crowd. Better than anything, in a way, were the shots over long off and long on: simple straight arcs clearing the sight screen time and again.

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Pat Cummins comes to life to give Australia’s World Cup campaign lift-off | Geoff Lemon

The captain has looked tired of late but for a key period he exerted his will on the contest with Sri Lanka

For a couple of hours on Monday afternoon in Lucknow, Australia’s World Cup looked cooked. It wasn’t just that Sri Lanka’s openers were scoring with ease – good teams have passages of play go against them. It was the sense that everything was running against Australia, that nothing was working. In the first over, Mitchell Starc convinced his captain Pat Cummins to go for an lbw review that was not out for about six different reasons. That meant that in the 10th over Cummins was reluctant to review a Glenn Maxwell lbw appeal that would have been given out.

It was the kind of self-inflicted injury that goes against struggling teams. This after Pathum Nissanka’s edge from Maxwell was missed behind the stumps, and Kusal Perera was reprieved when Starc wasn’t game to take off the bails after the non-striker left his ground early. The pair made hay in a wicketless stand of 125, against an Australian team whose tournament to date had involved being bowled out twice short of 200, dropping about a dozen catches, and after 12 good balls to begin their tournament against India in Chennai had since conceded 625 runs for eight wickets in 107 overs.

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Australia devoid of spark as Cricket World Cup campaign teeters on brink of crisis | Geoff Lemon

It’s not mission impossible but Pat Cummins’ team need to find a way of enjoying the challenge rather than being daunted by it

From a maths perspective, Australia’s World Cup campaign is not yet at crisis point. In a nine-match pool stage, losing twice still leaves you seven chances to win. Last time this format was used in 2019 no team won more than seven. England won six and went on to the final, facing New Zealand who won five. A long tournament allows time for mistakes and recovery.

From a human perspective, it feels further gone. Two tentative batting performances in a row, two middle-order collapses, a palpable sense of flatness. Against India to start the tournament, a tricky surface and good spinners still didn’t warrant a slump of five for 30 after a start of 110 for two. Against South Africa in Lucknow on Thursday, the crash began with the openers: six for 43 starting in the sixth over. By the 18th, the survivors were batting for net run rate.

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Australia’s strange World Cup start has to mean they are playing the long game | Geoff Lemon

It’s the most charitable explanation for an opening loss against India that revealed a lack of clarity in the team’s configuration

When you start a campaign, you know that there will be losses along the way. Every movie that brings together a group of sassy and capable characters is going to let a few of them fall for the sake of narrative drive and dramatic development. For those in charge of Australia’s cricket team, perhaps the opening World Cup engagement against India was a sacrifice they were willing to make, one necessary dip in a long story arc.

That’s the most charitable explanation, anyway, for a strange start to the tournament – strange not in terms of the result or how it played out, but in how that situation was set up in the first place. It is a proud and ancient cricket custom to greet a bad batting performance by focusing solely on the bowlers, but even leaving aside Australia’s being bowled out for 199, something about the team’s configuration spoke of a lack of clarity.

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Well-seasoned Australia guided by consistency and stability in Cricket World Cup tilt | Geoff Lemon

Steve Smith and David Warner are in form while fast bowlers will also be key for the experienced five-times champions

All you need to know about the 2023 Cricket World Cup

As these things usually are, it will be decided with hindsight. If the Australian men’s team does any less than reach the 50-over World Cup final this November, the players will be described as the old stagers who hung on for one tournament too many. If they challenge for the trophy, it will be described as the value of experience and big-match temperament. Nobody who writes these things will be concerned about how close they were to writing the other. Neat stories are the easiest to tell.

However it goes, Australia’s selectors have chosen consistency and stability as their guiding principles. Seven of the likely best XI at this year’s tournament were in the 2015 World Cup squad: David Warner, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood played in the winning final while Mitchell Marsh and Pat Cummins got medals from the bench. Throw in Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green and Alex Carey after Travis Head returns from injury and you could have a team with 10 Test players from this year’s Ashes. England, by contrast, have a maximum of six.

From the Killers to Kiss: grand final entertainment will forever be hit and miss | Geoff Lemon

It’s not the Super Bowl but it’s still chastening that the best we can get is often the most washed-up, least imaginative choices

How to watch the AFL, NRLW and NRL grand finals

As it turns out, Ben Henry got it bang on. A couple of years back the comedian posted a skit on TikTok: a phone call between the AFL boss, Gillon McLachlan, and Mark Seymour of Hunters and Collectors. The subject? Grand final entertainment.

“Gill McLachlan? You son of a bitch, I told you not to call here any more.”

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Australia beat India by 66 runs: third one-day international – as it happened

Mitch Marsh’s punishing 96 and a career-best 4-40 from Glenn Maxwell gave Australia a much-needed morale boost in Rajkot

6th over: Australia 46-0 (Warner 24, Marsh 22) Good over from Siraj, troubles Warner with the short ball a couple of times and the Australian opener can’t make contact. Two singles.

5th over: Australia 44-0 (Warner 23, Marsh 21) Another good shot from Warner, flicking Bumrah behind square leg and beating the fine leg for four. That after Jadeja stopped a Marsh cut on the boundary to save three runs with a good dive.

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India chasing 353 to beat Australia: third one-day international – live

Updates from the final World Cup warmup in RajkotAny thoughts? Email Rob with your World Cup thoughts

6th over: Australia 46-0 (Warner 24, Marsh 22) Good over from Siraj, troubles Warner with the short ball a couple of times and the Australian opener can’t make contact. Two singles.

5th over: Australia 44-0 (Warner 23, Marsh 21) Another good shot from Warner, flicking Bumrah behind square leg and beating the fine leg for four. That after Jadeja stopped a Marsh cut on the boundary to save three runs with a good dive.

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India beat Australia by 99 runs in second ODI international – as it happened

Dazzling centuries from Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer as India hand Australia their fifth ODI defeat in a row

2nd over: India 14-0 (Shubman Gill 1, Ruturaj Gaikwad 8) Back of a length immediately from Josh Hazlewood, sprinting in with an orange flannel hanging out of the back of his banana trousers. And on the money he remains.

Interestingly, or not, depending on the strength of your morning coffee, to add to the link with yesterday’s ODI between England and Ireland and today’s India v Australia warm-up ,Ruturaj Gaikwad has the highest List A average in the history of the sport but Sam Hain, who made 89 for England yesterday, is breathing down his neck.

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