Geoff Lemon's Blog, page 34
December 15, 2022
Bowling shootout looms as same but different Australia and South Africa renew Test rivalry | Geoff Lemon
Their personnel is much the same but both teams have changed in character since the last time they met in the Test arena four years ago
As far as rematches go, this is less spicy than it might have been. Originally, Steve Smith and David Warner were due to go back to South Africa for a Test series in early 2021, returning to the scene of the ill-tempered and ill-fated 2018 tour that saw them both banned for a year. Instead the trip ended up being a pandemic casualty, so the first Test meeting between the sides – 18 months later on Australian soil – does dull the immediacy of the associations with times past, even if the sandpaper story is bubbling away again thanks to Warner’s abandoned efforts to have his lifetime leadership ban overturned.
Much of the personnel is the same as 2018: Smith, Warner and Usman Khawaja with the bat, Patrick Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood with the ball. South Africa still have Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Keshav Maharaj in their bowling ranks, with Dean Elgar, Temba Bavuma and Theunis de Bruyn up the order. But both of these teams have changed in character. The Australians are more settled, mature and sanguine in how they go about things on the field. The South Africans are a developing side, with infusions of fresh bowling talent to supplement a less convincing batting line-up.
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December 14, 2022
Narrative spins in David Warner’s favour but that is to forget the reasons behind his ban | Geoff Lemon
The opener did what he did. He came back from it. And on the scale of hard done by, there’s barely a flicker
Over a long career, David Warner has presented many versions of himself. The short-form bludgeoner of his T20 debut in 2009 gave way to the studious opener of his first Test century on a Hobart greentop in 2011. The raucous presence known as The Bull who was suspended from the 2013 Ashes gave way to the contemplative Reverend by 2015, schooling teammates on the power of positive thinking, before returning to his most confrontational mode before the Ashes in 2017. The instigator of the sandpaper ball-tampering plot in 2018 served a year’s playing ban, ran the well-worn path of public redemption via on-field success, and has since presented himself as an elder statesman with an accordingly impeccable disciplinary record.
The way he is perceived has also shifted, in cricket media at least, but no shifts have been bigger than the last few weeks as his campaign to have his leadership ban overturned ran into a brick wall. Where his co-accused Steve Smith was banned from captaincy for two years, and Cameron Bancroft not at all, Warner was for life. And while he was in the gun in 2018, there is now broadly a consensus that his punishment was excessive, and the review process unfair.
Continue reading...December 10, 2022
Australia beat West Indies by 419 runs in second Test, retain Frank Worrell Trophy 2-0
The tourists offered little resistance with the bat on day four in Adelaide, managing only 77, their lowest score in Australia
Australia retained the Frank Worrell Trophy 2-0 in comprehensive style at Adelaide Oval, bowling out West Indies for 77 before evening had arrived on the fourth day. It was the lowest score West Indies had been dismissed for in Australia, the tourists conceding the second Test by 419 runs. After at least showing good resistance with the bat in Perth, there was no repeat in Adelaide even with two of Australia’s first-choice bowlers missing.
That bench strength was the most impressive part of the win, with something for everybody on the Australian side. Scott Boland had already had his signature Boland moment the evening before, knocking off three West Indies batters in the space of an over before Mitchell Starc added another. Resuming on day four at 38 for four, still 459 runs behind, there was nowhere for the visiting team to hide. It was just a question of how long they could fight.
Continue reading...December 9, 2022
Nathan Lyon’s landmark wicket helps Australia tighten grip on second Test
Travis Head registered a career-best 175 at Adelaide Oval on Friday, run out just as his home crowd began to anticipate a Test double century. Nonetheless, he was the major contributor to a score of 511 for seven, the declaration coming shortly before the end of the second session in order to give Australia’s bowlers the evening portion of play with a new ball. They made good use of it, having West Indies four wickets down with 102 on the board by stumps, adrift by 409 runs.
The bowling performance with the pink ball was the big point of interest for the home side, with Patrick Cummins and Josh Hazlewood missing with minor injuries. That brought in two different fan favourites. Michael Neser’s first and only Test appearance to date had come in Adelaide a year ago, after he had long been the subject of the online #NeserMustPlay campaign. After that breakthrough he was unlucky to slip from his perch as Australia’s first reserve when Scott Boland did even better, 18 Ashes wickets at 9.55 after being picked in Melbourne.
Continue reading...December 8, 2022
Australia dominate West Indies in second Test as sure as day turns to night
The second Test in Adelaide began with new stories bubbling around David Warner, and ended its first day with the same old story of Australia batting West Indies out of the game. Changing red ball for pink and changing daytime match for night did not help a visiting side that also had to change four of its players through injury. The stumps score of 330-3 was built around unbeaten centuries for Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head, following the Perth Test in which Labuschagne made two hundreds and Head made 99.
Attention was on Warner as he walked to the middle, and not just because Australia had won the toss and chosen to bat. The opener had just withdrawn his application to have his lifetime captaincy ban overturned, unhappy that the independent panel convened to hear the case wanted to do so publicly and to ask questions about the original offences stemming from the ball-tampering future of 2018, rather than focus on his behaviour since. On the morning of the match his manager claimed that senior Cricket Australia officials had told players to ball-tamper as early as 2016.
Continue reading...December 4, 2022
West Indies hopes for draw battered by bowling onslaught as Australia win first Test
On a day when Pat Cummins could captain but could not bowl, his longtime bowling colleagues came to his aid to work through a West Indies team that remained stubborn to the end.
Off-spinner Nathan Lyon was the major wicket-taker with six for 128 on a pitch that started to take turn, but that did not reflect the consistent quality of Josh Hazlewood’s work across the match, or the persistent threat that Mitchell Starc supplied, as Australia eventually bowled out West Indies for 333 to win the first Test in Perth by 164 runs.
Continue reading...December 3, 2022
West Indies retain hope of victory as first Test against Australia heads into final day
A wrestle of a fourth day moved the first Test between Australia and the West Indies gradually towards its conclusion, as Australia had to make do without the bowling of captain Pat Cummins in a contest where bat continued to have the better of ball.
Marnus Labuschagne completed twin centuries in taking Australia to a declaration at 182-2, setting West Indies five sessions to survive and a runs target of 498. A 116-run opening partnership got the visitors going, which West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite turned into a century of his own just before stumps. He had kept his team hanging on at 192-3.
Continue reading...December 2, 2022
Starc and Cummins maintain Australia control over West Indies in first Test
Australia’s fast bowlers eventually made headway against a stubborn West Indies batting effort on the third day of the first Test at Perth Stadium, prising out the visitors for 283 across 98.2 overs on a mild and sunny day. After choosing to bat again, Australia’s first-innings lead of 315 was extended to 344 in 11 overs before stumps for the loss of Usman Khawaja.
For the longest time, it was hard to know what to make of the Perth drop-in surface. The first such pitch for the India Test of 2018 enabled an electric contest with its pace. The following year against New Zealand it was comparatively anodyne. After the first two and a half days of this current Test had yielded five wickets from both teams combined, scorecard watchers would have assumed this pitch was a highway. In fact it was still offering good bounce, it had a persistently green thatch of grass, and
there were deliveries that had batters in trouble.
December 1, 2022
Smith and Labuschagne rack up double centuries on milestone day for Australia
It is a matter of some amusement that Marnus Labuschagne could make a Test double century and still end up as part of a Steve Smith day. So it goes playing alongside somebody whose career is already part legend. Australia’s number three reached the milestone first, taking 204 runs from the West Indies at Perth before finally nicking the part-time spin of Kraigg Braithwaite in the last over before lunch on the second day. But Smith took over the match as his canvas, moving from 114 to an even 200 not out, one ball before Brathwaite bowled Travis Head on 99 and Australia declared on 598 for four. West Indies were 74 for none at the close.
Labuschagne had been indefatigable in the limelight after his first day, happily doing a series of boundary-line interviews, a long press conference, and backing up with more interviews at throwdowns the following morning on an unusually cool and cloudy Perth day. Resuming on 154, with Australia 293 for two, he had the energy to help Smith with an all-run four in the first over. He had luck when miscuing Kyle Mayers and Jason Holder, he got through Alzarri Joseph, and he saw too much middling spin from Roston Chase while young quick Jayden Seales was barely seen. Whether it was the recent milestone or the impending break, Labuschagne lost concentration for just long enough to end his extended stay. The score was 402 for three, the partnership 251.
Continue reading...November 30, 2022
Old firm of Labuschagne and Smith put Australia in control against West Indies
After all of the short-form mayhem, the gentle rhythms of Test cricket returned. It also returned to Perth after a pandemic-enforced absence since 2019. Australia’s players took a knee in a gesture against racism for the first time in a Test match, in solidarity with the West Indies team. Then the work as opponents began after Australia won the toss and chose to bat, coming through some serious toil against good bowling to reach 293 for 2 at stumps, with Steve Smith on 59 and Marnus Labuschagne notching his eighth Test century before carrying on to 154.
The day also began with eyes on Justin Langer, after the former coach’s week of criticising his former players before trying to backtrack. “Perception and reality. Perception often sells newspapers,” said Langer, who days earlier had a full-length photo portrait published with his column on the back of the West Australian. On the field before play in his new job as a television commentator, it was all smiles and hugs with the players, who have as much reason as the coach to show grace. The bonhomie was helpfully edited into a short video package by Langer’s employer.
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