Geoff Lemon's Blog, page 51
October 9, 2021
Australia beat India in second women’s T20 international – as it happened
5th over: India 24-2 (Rodrigues 7, Harmanpreet 10) Almost a third for Vlaeminck! Squeezed away to midwicket by Rodrigues, wide of the all-rounder who dives across and gets her left hand to it, but low to the ground and can’t hang on.
That brings Harmanpreet on strike, and she gets the first convincing shot away for India! A flick off the pads, leg-stump line and comfortably sent over square leg for four. Next ball, Vlaeminck moves her line a few inches towards off, but Harmanpreet shuffles the same way. In effect, same delivery, and same result.
October 7, 2021
Australia v India: first women’s T20 international abandoned due to rain – as it happened
Two in three balls! The delivery in between is smashed for six, tossed up by Gardner and slog-swept by Verma all the way out to the fence over midwicket. But the next ball is fast and flat, darting across Verma wide of the off stump, and the batter plays the same shot but drags it much flatter. The Australians know Verma’s game, and Wareham at deep mid is positioned just right.
Golden arm Gardner! Doesn’t do much with the ball, maybe a bit of dip, and Mandhana toe-ends her attempted drive down the ground. It goes high rather than long and lands on the edge of the circle at mid-off where Darlington is waiting for her first catch in international cricket.
October 3, 2021
Australia v India: women’s Test, day four – as it happened
66th over: Australia 160-4 (Perry 37, Gardner 20) Deepti Sharma on to bowl some off-spin, and Perry will cash in on anything loose. Outside leg stump and Perry gets down on one knee and sweeps behind square for four.
65th over: Australia 156-4 (Perry 33, Gardner 20) Great running from Gardner. Perry inside edges from Goswami, trickling towards midwicket, and isn’t thinking about a run at all but Gardner is off to the danger end and yells to call her through. Would have been a real hamstring-tester had it been Perry stretching for that run.
October 2, 2021
Australia’s confusing Covid rules shroud Ashes in uncertainty | Geoff Lemon
Restrictions are on track to ease before England arrive but pandemic has shown how quickly things can change
This Sunday, Australia starts daylight saving. Or some of Australia. New South Wales and Victoria will join Tasmania in setting east-coast clocks forward. Queensland on the same coast will stubbornly stay on standard time for reasons lost in the dim mists of history. Formerly half an hour behind that lot, South Australia will skip half an hour ahead of Queensland. The Northern Territory will not, dropping from 30 to 90 minutes behind Sydney. Western Australia will go from two hours behind the east to three. Then there’s the small town of Eucla halfway between Adelaide and Perth, which runs on Australian Central Western Standard Time – 8 hours and 45 minutes ahead of Greenwich.
If you think that is confusing, try Australian states and Covid regulations. Since last year the eight provincial governments across the country have constantly shifted restrictions and enforcement about travel and quarantine as outbreaks are suppressed in one place or flare up in another. Parochialism and public health are each factors. A federal vaccine program defined mostly by its absence has maintained that necessity. Where politicians elsewhere speak in blasé style about living with the virus, much of Australia still has the luxury of living without it.
Continue reading...October 1, 2021
From AFL to NRL: how closely have you been following the footy this year?
Before the rugby league grand final, we’re testing how much knowledge you retained in 2021
NRL grand final given reprieve amid fears of move to Townsville or postponementIt’s footy grand final season. The AFL one happened last weekend. The NRL title goes up for grabs on Sunday. So many leagues, so little time. So many matches across so many months. If you had been trying to follow it all, that would have been a mighty task.
But then again, if ever there were a season in which you were able to keep one eye on the screen at all times, it would have been during the rolling lockdowns and enforced solitude of 2021 in much of Australia. So let’s find out how much you retained given the general background radiation of anxiety, when perhaps a game took your mind off things for a while.
Continue reading...September 26, 2021
Anatomy of the loser AFL club: when is the sting of sporting failure worse? | Geoff Lemon
To fall just short? To never know how it feels to get close? To land between, avoiding either pole?
When I was a kid, our family friend Lyn was my first introduction to a football devotee. In my house our team was Geelong, but we didn’t live and breathe their success or failure day to day. Lyn loved the Melbourne Football Club with a completeness that was both puzzling and brave. Puzzling in that I was not used to adults demonstratively adoring their interests like we did. Brave in that even then, I knew some teams were marked with a shadow, doomed to suffer.
The anatomy of the loser club fascinates in its variety. Growing up through the 1990s, Fitzroy and St Kilda wrestled in the mud at the foot of the ladder while Sydney watched on. There was Richmond always finishing ninth, missing the knockouts by one. Footscray’s long streak of preliminary finals without ever breaking through. Geelong made grand finals but lost them relentlessly – four in seven years. It makes a compelling philosophical debate: when is the sting of failure worse? To fall just short? To never know how it feels to get close? To land between, avoiding either pole?
Continue reading...India beat Australia by two wickets in third women’s one-day international – as it happened
4th over: Australia 13-0 (Haynes 8, Healy 5) Moving across her stumps again, Healy, and Meghna Singh is awake to it, firing in at her leg stump to try to bowl her. Healy gets down on it and squirts away a single. Again Haynes blocks out the next five balls. Happy to take her time and build towards a score, she made 93 not out in the first match of this series.
3rd over: Australia 12-0 (Haynes 8, Healy 4) Goswami keeps Haynes quiet, defending away after Healy slices a streaky single.
September 25, 2021
AFL 2021 grand final: Demons beat Bulldogs to break premiership drought – as it happened
Jonathan Horn’s columns this season have been a weekly treat. His latest is no exception.
For anyone who has spent nine months in lockdown, it has been a strange time to be a rusted-on fan. It’s like being an Australian based supporter of an English Premier League club. You try and convince yourself that you’re part of it. But you’re a two-dimensional supporter. You’re connected to your team, as one sportswriter wrote last year, “like a patient on an intravenous drip”.
Continue reading...AFL 2021 grand final: Demons charge to drought-breaking premiership win over Western Bulldogs – live!
Jonathan Horn’s columns this season have been a weekly treat. His latest is no exception.
For anyone who has spent nine months in lockdown, it has been a strange time to be a rusted-on fan. It’s like being an Australian based supporter of an English Premier League club. You try and convince yourself that you’re part of it. But you’re a two-dimensional supporter. You’re connected to your team, as one sportswriter wrote last year, “like a patient on an intravenous drip”.
Continue reading...September 24, 2021
Australia seal thrilling last-ball win over India in second women’s ODI – as it happened
7th over: India 40-0 (Mandhana 22, Verma 13) Perry to continue bowling to Mandhana. Beats her outside edge with a good one. Then pitches up and swings it again, but the line is starting on leg stump, and is clipped away for two. When Perry corrects the line, she beats the edge again as Mandhana drives. Australia’s field is really well set for Mandhana. The player out for the pull shot has saved a number of boundaries, and the field behind point is packed for her cut shot. She flays Perry over backward point, but it’s a risky shot, and only yields one run with a deep third in place.
6th over: India 37-0 (Mandhana 19, Verma 13) Shafali is swinging from the hip now against Brown. Moving around the crease. Hauls a shot over midwicket for four, then backs away so far that she misses a heave that was vaguely aimed towards deep third.
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