Geoff Lemon's Blog, page 68
November 5, 2019
Australia beat Pakistan by seven runs in second T20 – as it happened
Steve Smith hit 80 from 51 balls as Australia cruised to victory in Canberra to take a 1-0 series lead after the first game was washed out
11.54am GMT
And here’s a report:
Related: Steve Smith stars as Australia hammer Pakistan in second T20
11.28am GMT
This reworked T20 side has been imperious on home turf, and so it proved again tonight. Smith didn’t even need to bat in the first match of the season against Sri Lanka, and didn’t get a chance in the first against Pakistan. But he’s made up for that tonight with an outstanding 80 from 51 balls. I had some doubts that he was the most logical pick for this format, given the powerful scorers at Australia’s disposal who aren’t playing, but for situations like this with a mid-range total and a few early wickets against good bowlers, there’s no one better. And there was nothing wrong with his scoring rate tonight. He looked mint.
Pakistan had their moments, when Iftikhar was batting at the end of their innings, and when their bowlers threatened to squeeze the chase. But even though Finch and Warner didn’t make huge scores today, they made a fast start that already put the game well in Australia’s favour. Smith took it from there.
11.20am GMT
18.3 overs: Australia 151-3 (Smith 80, Turner 8) A wide, a couple of singles, and Amir sees the match to the end that always looked likely.
11.18am GMT
18th over: Australia 148-3 (Smith 79, Turner 7) You know how sometimes in training batsmen will turn the bat side-on, and try to play using only the edge? Smith just did that, deliberately, playing an uppercut at Wahab Riaz. Landed it flush on the fat edge of his bat, and lifted it over fine leg for four. Next he opens up his stance and slaps an off-drive over the field for another boundary. This is some display.
11.12am GMT
17th over: Australia 136-3 (Smith 68, Turner 6) Smith. Smith, Smith, Smith. He’s had enough of pottering. Amir comes back, Pakistan’s blue-chip bowler, and Smith just takes him apart. Three boundaries through the off side, each of them distinct in shape and style. Each drives, of a sort, but played standing still, hand-eye contact only, all wrists, opening up space at cover, carving, slapping, slashing, those rubbery limbs that define Smith’s off-side play. That was something to see.
11.04am GMT
16th over: Australia 121-3 (Smith 55, Turner 5) Just the four runs from Shadab’s final over, and he finishes with 0 for 25 from his spell tonight. Australia need 30 from 24 balls from here.
11.03am GMT
15th over: Australia 117-3 (Smith 54, Turner 2) Yet another international half-century for Smith – his fourth in this format, compared to 50 of them between Tests and ODIs. He gets there with a very Steve Smith shot, a wristy whip of a full ball from Irfan, away through wide long-on.
11.00am GMT
14th over: Australia 109-3 (Smith 47, Turner 1) Ashton Turner is next in, a powerful hitter of the ball, and he’ll start against Shadab’s spin. Just the three singles as Australia consolidate.
10.53am GMT
13th over: Australia 106-3 (Smith 45) Imad is conceding ones and twos, but that’s all the batsmen need by now. Smith is running the second runs hard. But from the last ball of the over McDermott tries to sweep, misses, and is hit on the waist in front of off stump while kneeling. He reviews it, but the ball-tracking isn’t working for some reason. That’s interesting. So Australia will lose the review even though there’s no way to tell if it’s umpire’s call, presumably?
10.49am GMT
12th over: Australia 101-2 (Smith 43, McDermott 18) It was odd that Wahab came on so late, but that means that he can’t be taken out of the attack if Babar wants four overs from him. So he has to continue after his messy over. McDermott manages to slice a boundary behind point. Nearly gets run out again later in the over, produces another big dive. Australia need 50 from 48.
10.46am GMT
11th over: Australia 91-2 (Smith 42, McDermott 9) Imad is back, and produces a tidy over of spin for his captain. Five singles from it.
10.45am GMT
10th over: Australia 86-2 (Smith 40, McDermott 6) Sheesh, what a jumble sale of an over. Wahab bowls a no-ball, then tries a bouncer to defend the free hit but gets called for a wide. Then Smith whacks the free hit straight for four, then there’s another no-ball, this time too high, and Smith carts that for four as well. He can’t take full toll of the second free hit, then McDermott nearly runs himself out. He did that four times in a row in the UAE last year, but this time he manages to dive home.
10.36am GMT
9th over: Australia 75-2 (Smith 34, McDermott 4) Unlike Pakistan’s first half an innings, the early wickets haven’t stopped Australia finding a boundary or two each over. Smith does it again, slicing Shadab’s leggie away through extra, in between harvesting singles. That sort of play just makes the target melt away.
10.34am GMT
8th over: Australia 66-2 (Smith 27, McDermott 2) You can watch how fast Smith’s brain-computer works. The first ball of Irfan’s over he’s done for bounce, trying to punch off the back foot but beaten over the bat, nearly nicking. But once he knows what to expect, he carves away two boundaries, one an uppercut, one over point. He’s just... so good.
10.28am GMT
7th over: Australia 57-2 (Smith 18, McDermott 2) Shadab Khan is on, the leg-spinning all-rounder, bowling straight and fast with the option for a googly. He bowls tight, singles from five of the balls, but Smith skips down to the fifth and lifts it gently over the bowler and away for four. Supreme control against spin from Smith, that’s the great boon that he can be for Australia in the white-ball formats.
10.25am GMT
6th over: Australia 48-2 (Smith 11, McDermott 0) One run and one wicket from the over. A fine comeback for Irfan. McDermott the next in for Australia, filling in for Glenn Maxwell who is on personal leave.
10.24am GMT
The other opener gone! Finch battered Mohammad Irfan for 26 from an over the other night. Tonight, the big bowler draws three false shots from Smith and then Finch with the short ball, twice swinging and missing against his extra bounce. The fifth of the over, Finch tries to clear it off the back foot over cover, but skews the shot and gives up a steepling catch to mid-off.
10.21am GMT
5th over: Australia 47-1 (Finch 17, Smith 10) A slip in for Smith, and Amir looking for swing, looking for the edge. One ball is too much on leg stump though, and Smith plays the same shot that had him caught so memorably by Sheldon Cottrell in the World Cup match at Trent Bridge: the lofted flick off the pads behind square. This time he gets more of it, and there is a man out there but it clears him for six! Unorthodox but got it! Amir follows up with a swinging yorker, but Smith gets something on it. Good battle.
10.18am GMT
4th over: Australia 38-1 (Finch 16, Smith 2) Imad Wasim almost bowls a brilliant over. Almost. Four singles in five balls. A decent ball for the sixth, tight on off stump. But Finch is in such good touch on a true surface that he punches on the back foot, and threads it between point and backward point along the ground for four. What placement.
10.13am GMT
3rd over: Australia 30-1 (Finch 10)He’s out! Warner has been unbeaten for three innings in a row in this format, but not this time. Mohammad Amir makes the point that he should have taken the first over. Starts to get a bit of swing, gets forced away by Finch for four, but when Warner takes the last ball of the over the batsman backs away, looking to smash an off-stump line over cover. Instead Amir bowls straighter, angling in at leg stump from wide on the crease. Beats Warner’s shot and lights up the stumps.
10.06am GMT
2nd over: Australia 25-0 (Warner 20, Finch 5) Imad’s left-arm spin is very economical in the Powerplay generally, but Warner is happy to go over cover for four. Imad comes left-arm around the wicket to the left-hander, trying to cramp him for room, but Warner is awake to it and twice backs away to make space. He hits squarer for the second boundary. So Imad comes over the wicket to bowl at the pads, and Warner should glance it for four but misses. No matter, the fourth ball is full and Warner lofts over wide long-on! One bounce into the fence. Australia off to a flyer! Compounded when the ball leaps at him from a length, takes a thick edge, and flies fine through third man for another. 16 for Warner from the over!
10.03am GMT
1st over: Australia 9-0 (Warner 4, Finch 5) Wahab Riaz is on the broadcasters’ interview mic saying that they’ll pitch the ball up and look for swing under lights. But first with the ball is Mohammad Irfan, the seven-foot giant, and he exclusively bowls back of a length. The batsmen take a few sighters, steer singles and a two, then Finch stands up tall to clobber four on the square cut. That was too easy. Where is Wahab? Where’s Amir? The spinner Imad will bowl the second over.
9.43am GMT
It was laborious at times, but this is the template that Pakistan have used so successfully in the UAE. Bat first, have Babar cruise through most of the innings, find a late flurry from somewhere to get up around 150. Then use their spinners, pace change, and perhaps some reverse swing to defend it. It works there, but these are much nicer batting tracks in Australia, so it’s much less likely to work here. But Pakistan have a score to defend thanks to Iftikhar’s late intervention, and a quality and varied bowling attack. Australia have two very in-form opening batsmen, Finch and Warner. This should be good to watch.
9.41am GMT
20th over: Pakistan 150-6 (Iftikhar 62, Wahab 0) Wahab Riaz comes out as the professional runner, and hares up and back as Iftikhar finds two runs from each of the last two balls. No boundary, but he’s done a fine job with his 62 from 35 balls, getting Pakistan to 150.
9.39am GMT
A tactical run-out for Imad, desperate to get Iftihkar back on strike for the last couple of balls of the innings. The pair only got singles from the first three balls, so Imad was running for two no matter what on the fourth ball.
9.36am GMT
19th over: Pakistan 142-5 (Iftikhar 56, Imad 9) Kane Richardson to bowls his final over, and Iftikhar lofts him for six! Lovely straight hit, from a stable base, snapping through the line of the fuller ball and landing it over the rope! Richardson is having a dirty day, as it turns out, after riding high from his first over. The perils of this form of cricket. Next up, Iftikhar swings, edges, four! Top edge over the wicketkeeper, just over. Carey was searching for it but it had a couple of inches elevation too much.
So Richardson tries his wide yorker, but misses it. Carved over backward point for four! Warner is thinking of the catch, ran in, the ball dips on him at the last minute and he loses it in the lights. It bounces in front of him and through him. That raises the batsman’s first 50 in this format.
9.30am GMT
18th over: Pakistan 120-5 (Iftikhar 35, Imad 8) Mitchell Starc to close out, two overs left for him. Full, fast, and once more there’s only one boundary from the over. A nice one, Imad driving the full ball along the ground through cover, but Pakistan need a massive over at some stage to have something to bowl at, and they can’t find it.
9.27am GMT
17th over: Pakistan 114-5 (Iftikhar 35, Imad 2) Imad Wasim, the lefty all-rounder, is next in. Iftikhar takes the reins, steering Cummins away behind point for four. That’s the only boundary from the over though. He tries for a second, timing it out into the deep at square leg, but Smith drops the catch!
9.20am GMT
16th over: Pakistan 106-5 (Iftikhar 29) Another boundary from Agar! Two from the over, unheard of. Just enough width, and Iftikhar lifts him over cover, in between the two sweepers for four. Singles otherwise, until the last ball, when Babar turns to come back for the second.
Warner is in the deep at midwicket, does it sensationally. Charges in off the fence. Picks up one-handed. Stutters his feet to steady. Unleashes the throw. Hits the base of the stumps direct. Babar gets his 50th run, then is dismissed trying for his 51st.
9.16am GMT
15th over: Pakistan 97-4 (Babar 47, Iftikhar 23) Iftikhar goes! Richardson comes back to end the spin-twin section, and the hitherto quiet Pakistani batsman lifts him cleanly over mid-off for four. Then goes again, heaving over midwicket for six. Clean connection on a ground the size of the MCG, and lands it well back in the crowd. He nails the next two balls just as cleanly, along the ground this time, but Warner puts in a great sprint and dive at deep point, then McDermott gets around to save from long-on. Both times the batsmen take two. The over costs 14 without Babar scoring. That’s what this team needs, some support for their main man.
9.11am GMT
14th over: Pakistan 83-4 (Babar 47, Iftikhar 9) Zampa’s last over, and the singles continue! They’ve gone four overs without a boundary, Pakistan. This is a good batting surface, don’t get the wrong idea. They just can’t get going against this bowling. Zampa flights up the last couple of balls of his night’s work, and ends up with a tidy enough 0 for 31 from his four overs.
9.08am GMT
13th over: Pakistan 78-4 (Babar 45, Iftikhar 6) Five runs from the Cummins over, in ones and twos. There’s really no point to the way Pakistan are going about this.
9.06am GMT
12th over: Pakistan 73-4 (Babar 44, Iftikhar 2) Another outstanding over for Agar, four singles from it. He’s been absolutely miserly in every match of these two series, and grabbed two wickets thus far today.
9.02am GMT
Another cheap one! Babar was furious after his batting partner didn’t run back for a second from the first ball of the over. Asif tries to send the next ball from Agar over the fence to cheer up his captain, but Manuka Oval is one of the biggest playing surfaces in the world, and he’s comfortably held at deep midwicket.
8.59am GMT
11th over: Pakistan 69-3 (Babar 42, Asif 4) Having seen Australian teams so often lose their way against spin through the middle overs of limited-overs games in the last few years, it must be cheering for Justin Langer and company to see their own spinners dishing out the same. Zampa takes advantage of the match situation to keep them to singles: once, twice, thrice, four-ice? Fice? Quintuply? I don’t know. Five singles, then a deuce from the last ball as Asif drives too straight for the long-on sweeper to restrict.
8.57am GMT
10th over: Pakistan 62-3 (Babar 39, Asif 0) A carbon copy of the first game so far. Babar building a decent score but at a moderate clip, Asif Ali joining him at the halfway point with the top order wilting.
8.55am GMT
A rare boundary from Agar, as Babar waits back and sweeps it down to deep backward, beating Ben McDermott’s dive. But Agar gets some consolation from the fifth ball, following Rizwan with a fast flat ball as the batsman comes down the wicket and outside the line of leg, trying to give space to carve over cover. Instead the ball darts between bat and pad, and into Carey’s gloves.
8.52am GMT
9th over: Pakistan 56-2 (Babar 34, Rizwan 13) Time to go, at last. Rizwan is the first to drop the hammer, down on one knee to Zampa and dragging a swat shot away through midwicket, just beating the man at long-on who runs around. A single rotates the strike, then Babar comes skipping down the wicket and drives gloriously straight down the ground for four! That’s more like it. A baker’s dozen off the over.
8.47am GMT
8th over: Pakistan 43-2 (Babar 27, Rizwan 7) Ashton Agar now with the ball, left-arm orthodox and he’s been bowling very accurately in this series. He fields brilliantly off his first ball, diving across as Rizwan shouldered the ball back at him, then Agar flicks down the length of the pitch to Carey behind the stumps, and Rizwan just dives back into his ground. As so often this season, there is no boundary from Agar’s over. Five singles and a leg bye. Pakistan going at about five an over.
8.43am GMT
7th over: Pakistan 38-2 (Babar 25, Rizwan 5) Zampa came on to bowl during the Powerplay in Sydney and got carted by Pakistan’s batsmen. Today Finch holds him back to the seventh over as per convention for spinners. Not a bad time to bowl, and today they only take ones and twos from his first over rather than sixes.
8.41am GMT
6th over: Pakistan 32-2 (Babar 23, Rizwan 1) The brakes are well and truly on. Mohammad Rizwan to the middle, but it takes him four balls from Cummins to get off the mark with a single.
8.35am GMT
5th over: Pakistan 29-2 (Babar 21) Except that losing momentum is exactly what happens for Pakistan. Another quiet over, with Richardson bowling tightly and changing pace, and Haris Sohail only able to club a couple of runs to the deep. So he decides the last ball has to go, charges it, slogs to leg, and hits it a mile up in the air and straight back down to where it came from.
8.30am GMT
4th over: Pakistan 25-1 (Babar 20, Sohail 3) Haris Sohail comes out at three, and nudges the same number of runs. Pakistan can’t afford to let the momentum of their innings dip like they did on Sunday.
8.26am GMT
He dodged the golden duck, but another failure for Fakhar. Cummins the change bowler, went full, Fakhar tries to clear mid-off but it’s too low, and Warner closing down the angle can dive across and take a fairly comfortable catch.
8.25am GMT
3rd over: Pakistan 22-0 (Babar 20, Fakhar 2) That’s even better from Babar. Starc bowls short, not a bouncer but torso height. Outside off. Babar is already coming forward to drive, so from the front foot he carves with a horizontal bat through cover again! Four! And another, as Starc moves his line across so Babar lifts him over square leg, just using the pace to dink another boundary away.
8.21am GMT
2nd over: Pakistan 14-0 (Babar 12, Fakhar 2) Oh, gorgeous duo from Babar. The first two balls of Richardson’s over, one driven conventionally through the covers, the next forced off the back foot the same way. Richardson shortened his length for the second ball but it went the same way as the first. His third cuts back into Babar and nearly spins back onto the stumps from the thigh pad. No swing tonight. So he bowls the slow bouncer and gets muscled for a couple.
8.17am GMT
1st over: Pakistan 3-0 (Babar 1, Fakhar 2) Away we go. Mitch Starc has the ball, Babar the strike. And the first is a big full toss, overpitched looking for swing, but so fast that Babar can only block it away. The next is wider, and just as on Sunday, Babar reaches for it and zips it to third man for a run. Fakhar was gone for a golden duck the other day, and nearly doubles up, the ball almost sneaking through onto his pad. He gets a touch on it though, back to the bowler, and Babar has to dive back into the non-striker’s end. Again he’s tied up on his pads, but eventually Starc offers width and Fakhar just steers it square of third man for two, well run for the second.
8.11am GMT
England are also playing T20s in the southern part of the world, over in New Zealand. They managed to lose a game last night when they were cruising: needed about 42 from 30 with eight wickets in hand, but New Zealand put on the clamps. Here’s Ali Martin’s report.
Related: England snatch defeat from jaws of victory in third New Zealand T20
7.49am GMT
Both teams unchanged from Sunday afternoon.
Pakistan
Babar Azam
Fakhar Zaman
Haris Sohail
Mohammad Rizwan
Asif Ali
Iftikhar Ahmed
Imad Wasim
Shadab Khan
Wahab Riaz
Mohammad Amir
Mohammad Irfan
7.43am GMT
Babar Azam calls correctly, after some confusion with Aaron Finch who thought he had won, but Babar wants to bat and Finch wants to bowl so it doesn’t make a difference in the end. Babar is taking the straightforward route, get a total and put no pressure with early wickets. Finch thinks there might be a bit of dew later so he’d rather take the ball first.
7.42am GMT
It’s chilly in Canberra. 16 degrees at the moment, a low of 6 expected overnight. The Australians are mostly warming up in hoodies and beanies at the moment.
7.39am GMT
Evening from Australia; kindly adjust that greeting for your timezone. It’s cricket time again, as it has been every couple of days through these back-to-back T20 series that Australia has scheduled. Tonight, the second match against Pakistan, who are still in the hunt despite being thoroughly outplayed on Sunday night because rain saved them from a loss with 11 balls to spare. The Australian openers were well on track to chase down Pakistan’s low total, but didn’t face the five overs required to have the game formally recognised as a result before rain washed out the day.
Now Pakistan have the chance to regroup, while the Australians will look to carry on their recent dominant run, 3-0 over Sri Lanka and starting well here. The toss will take place in a minute.
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November 3, 2019
Rain ruins Australia v Pakistan T20 International at the SCG
6.58am GMT
Pakistan escape with a no-result, just 11 deliveries from conceding a loss had the rain come later. Perhaps Finch should have hit fewer sixes and just knocked back some dot balls. A fortune-teller would have been handy. Mind you, Pakistan got the raw end of a few deals today: they were called off for rain just when they were getting going, and could have rattled up a decent score with Babar and Asif in the final five overs that they didn’t get to face. They were called for a short run and for a no-ball that were both incorrect calls, by the looks of replays.
Whatever the result, they know they’ve been outplayed, but they get to escape with a rusty first game and head towards the second match of this series.
6.36am GMT
The radar looks pretty bad for the next little while. Might clear in half an hour or so. Currently this game would be a no result if there’s no further play. Australia need another 1.5 overs to be bowled to win on the DLS method.
6.21am GMT
And it’s raining again, after one ball of the fourth over.
6.21am GMT
3rd over: Australia 39-0 (Warner 2, Finch 35) Mohammad Irfan to continue, short, and Finch destroys him for six! Huge hit, got under that one and pounded it back into the stands over midwicket! That was towering. So Irfan pitches up in response, and Finch drives gorgeously through long-on for four! Bash followed by caress.
Irfan is losing his rag now. Bowls short again, this time outside off, and Finch cuts him for four! Lofted cut, over point, waited for it and timed it perfectly. And it’s a no-ball! So it’s a free hit, and Finch uses every fibre of muscle in his nuggety body to heave that for six more. Even higher than the first one, in the same direction, and landing with a thud.
6.12am GMT
2nd over: Australia 13-0 (Warner 2, Finch 10) Mohammad Amir will take the other end. Left-arm swing, a lovely operator when conditions suit his movement through the air. He’s trying to get Warner on the pads, resulting in a single and a leg bye. In between times Finch drives him nicely through the covers for four. You’ve got to pitch up as a bowler of Amir’s type, so that’s the risk. He bowled some gorgeous opening spells with the white Kooka during the World Cup in England.
6.08am GMT
1st over: Australia 5-0 (Warner 1, Finch 4) Mohammad Irfan will kick off, the seven-footer from the Pakistan team who has spent a couple of years coming back from injury. He bowled in Australia in the 2015 World Cup and was injured then. He has an awkward gait, creaks up to the crease with his giant legs thudding. Nothing smooth or comfortable about it, but it’s equally awkward when he zooms the ball down at pace from that height. He bowls a couple of near-beamers in the over, one at Warner and another at Finch, who are both startled and leap and flinch, and look to the square leg umpire, but both times the ball just dipped to waist height as it reached them. Not nice. There’s one boundary from the over, when Finch gets a short ball that does bounce before reaching him, and carves a cut for four.
5.58am GMT
Pakistan’s rain-adjusted total is deemed to be 118, given they lost late overs where they would have expected to accelerate. That’s judged from their existing run rate and their wickets in hand, using historical match data run through the Duckworth Lewis Stern system.
5.47am GMT
So after an hour’s rain delay, we’re now having a 20-minute innings break. With a good chance of more rain ahead. Hard to believe we still run up against these obvious problems with the playing conditions. Have a 10-minute changeover like in Tests, get back out there and play, and get a couple more overs in.
5.44am GMT
It will be somewhere around 120, we’ll get the formal announcement shortly. Australia came back from the rain break with 14 balls to bowl. Only one boundary came from those. They’ll be delighted at the result.
5.43am GMT
15 overs: Pakistan 107-5 (Babar 59, Iftikhar 1) Five balls left, and the new batsman is Iftikhar Ahmed. Babar has a big heave at Starc first ball, across the line and misses entirely. The umpire says not out lbw, and Australia review. The ball is missing leg stump comfortably, having hit him on the back thigh as he cleared his front leg to swing. They get awarded a leg bye. Iftikhar can only hit a run to cover next ball.
Three balls to go. What will Starc do? Drops short! And pulled for six! Lovely bit of timing there from Babar Azam, against the full-pace bouncer. Flat over square leg, or just behind. That’s a proper six. Starc bowls length and Babar chips it onto the green between mid-on and mid-off, and hares back for two. Then Starc goes full for the last ball, and Babar can only dig it square for one!
5.38am GMT
Imad has to go from ball one, and he does. Normally caught Smith bowled Starc would imply a slips catch, but this is at long-on. Made decent contact with the straight drive but it falls inside the field of play.
5.37am GMT
14 overs: Pakistan 96-4 (Babar 50, Imad 0) One ball left in the over, the batsmen had crossed while Asif’s dismissal ball was in the air, so Babar faces it. Throws the bat outside off. Big edge. Four! That’s his fifty. It hasn’t been convincing: three boundaries from nicks, and his only six was nearly caught on the rope. But he’s got Pakistan some sort of score.
5.35am GMT
Suffocation works! The over starts with a nicely timed cut shot from Babar against Richardson, but there’s a sweeper to keep him to one run. Each bowler has a max of three overs now, so Cummins and Agar are already bowled out. Starc will bowl the last. Richardson bowls a short ball that Asif can’t catch up with! Over his right shoulder as he pulls, and lightly clips the helmet as it goes through. Superb defensive bowling so far from Australia. Richardson bangs the next into the wicket as well, and Asif can only flat-bat it on the bounce to long-off for a single. Babar flicks cleanly off his pads but again that deep square leg sweeper keeps it to one. And with the pressure high, Asif gets one in the slot, slogs across the line, toe-ends it a bit, and Agar streaming in off the rope at deep midwicket dives forward to take a great catch!
5.31am GMT
13 overs: Pakistan 89-3 (Babar 44, Asif 10) Two balls remaining in Zampa’s over as we get back underway. He darts it in at Babar’s legs, so that the batsman’s advance ends in nothing but a strike on the pad and a dot ball. Then Babar tries to heave to the leg side, but can’t get it cleanly and it bounces in front of deep square leg. One run to close out that delayed over.
5.26am GMT
The players are all huddled at the boundary edge, waiting to be allowed to continue.
5.21am GMT
Ok, we’re going to get on with things fairly soon in Sydney. The match has been reduced to 15 overs a side, and presumably Pakistan will have a rain adjustment of their eventual score with only 14 deliveries left to face.
4.55am GMT
The radar seems to be suggesting that the rain in Sydney will stop soon. Obviously then there will be a delay while they clean up the ground. We’re into the part of the afternoon where we’ll start losing overs now. And indeed, it looks like the rope buggies have started driving around as the rain stops at the SCG. Check back in a little while.
4.42am GMT
Still waiting. In the meantime, the Melbourne Stars have a mountain to climb in the WBBL. The Sixers have just done a real middle-finger job, batting through their innings without losing a wicket to set a target of 200. An unbeaten ton for Alyssa Healy alongside 87 not out for Ellyse Perry. Just rude.
4.26am GMT
Hopefully a short one, as it was earlier.
4.25am GMT
12.4 overs: Pakistan 88-3 (Babar 43, Asif 10) Zampa comes back, he’s bowling in fits and starts today. He might wish he was bowling in stops though. Drags the first ball short and Babar carves him gorgeously through backward point for four. Then Babar rotates strike, and Asif drops to one knee and pounds the ball high over wide long-on, deep into the Members Stand! Huge hit. It might have reached the clouds and caused a reaction, because the rain follows the ball back down.
4.22am GMT
12th over: Pakistan 76-3 (Babar 38, Asif 3) Finch brings himself into short leg for Cummins bowling against Asif. It works, too, as Cummins goes short three times and Asif barely dares to lay bat on him. Four singles from the over in the end. Pakistan have been slowed to a crawl.
4.17am GMT
11th over: Pakistan 72-3 (Babar 36, Asif 1) Babar swept a four from Agar before the wicket, but eight runs and a wicket still leaves it very much Australia’s over. Asif Ali comes in, who can strike a long ball. Pakistan need a big finish.
4.15am GMT
No good from Rizwan! It was time to attack, but Agar bowls well outside off, left-arm spin turning it away, but the right-hander still tries to flat-bat the ball over the leg side rather than driving over cover. There were runs on offer, but the shot was premeditated I fancy. Cummins at long-on holds the miscue.
4.13am GMT
10th over: Pakistan 64-2 (Babar 30, Rizwan 30) Gee Zampa’s bowled well in his comeback over. (Ay Zampa bowled pretty well too.) Hard to time shots against. Rizwan pulls a couple but not with timing. Several find the field. Four runs in total from the over.
4.11am GMT
9th over: Pakistan 59-2 (Babar 27, Rizwan 28) Babar decides it’s time to go! He’s been idling along but now he dances to Agar and hits him long down the ground for six. Smith dives for the catch down towards the rope and gets a hand on it, but he’s outside the field of play by the time his fingertips touch the ball, and has no chance to knock it back. Had he caught it, he would have landed outside the field. When Rizwan gets strike he crouches as though planning a reverse, then realises the ball is a bit short outside off and instead plays a kneeling uppercut for a run to short third man. Unorthodox.
4.08am GMT
8th over: Pakistan 50-2 (Babar 20, Rizwan 26) Slower short ball from Cummins this time, but Rizwan is well set up for it. He cleans up the pull shot, nicely struck with a crouch and a swivel to play behind square, but it’s saved on the rope to keep the scoring to two. Cummins goes full pace for the next one! Nasty lift, and it takes the shoulder of the bat and skews down towards third man! Saved, they run two, but umpire Gerard Abood calls them short on one of the runs. On the replay that was the wrong call, Rizwan did touch his bat in at the non-striker’s end. So Rizwan only gets one run for all of that, and is in the rare position of getting a single but keeping strike in the same over. A few more singles mean six from the over. Better hope it’s not a one-run margin today...
4.01am GMT
7th over: Pakistan 44-2 (Babar 19, Rizwan 21) Pakistan only going at around six an over, and that continues with Ashton Agar’s first. Bowling left-arm spin, most darts, he only goes for singles and a sliced Rizwan cut shot for two. Another good piece of running from the Pakistani keeper.
3.59am GMT
6th over: Pakistan 38-2 (Babar 17, Rizwan 17) Kane Richardson has Rizwan on a string against the slower-ball bouncer. Three dot balls in a row, and from the third Rizwan premeditates a scoop. Not a great option against a bowler who is so often off-pace. But Richardson doesn’t just take the pace off, he gets high bounce from a fullish length, outside off stump, and it trampolines way over Rizwan’s shot. Rizwan asks about a wide but considering he had moved a metre outside his stumps to chase that ball, it bounced right over him. Three singles from an excellent over to end the Powerplay.
3.55am GMT
5th over: Pakistan 35-2 (Babar 15, Rizwan 16) Pat Cummins’ turn now, and he starts gorgeously. Pace, accuracy. Babar gets another run to third man, but Rizwan is pinned down for a couple of balls, getting his feet out of the way nicely to try to whip a yorker but finding midwicket, then smothered for room on the shot and blunting it to cover. Eventually Cummins gets a bit straight and Rizwan can stab a run to midwicket, the Babar a similar shot for two runs before another glide to third man. Five from the over, Australia will take that every time.
3.50am GMT
4th over: Pakistan 30-2 (Babar 11, Rizwan 15) Big call here: Richardson created two wicket-taking chances in his first over, and the fielding restrictions are still in place, but Adam Zampa is going to replace Richardson with some leg-spin. What is Finch seeing here? A chance to make the Pakistanis force the pace with two wickets already gone and some pressure on? It works for the first two balls, as Rizwan strikes straight at cover, then sweeps to the main at backward square. The third goes straight back to the bowler, and by the fourth Rizwan has to take a risk, skipping down to Zampa to loft straight over the bowler for four. He gets the boundary but it wasn’t entirely cleanly hit. The next one is cleaner, charging again, inside out over cover for six! Not just over the rope but into the fence. Then a super bit of running to close the over, Rizwan groping across his front pad to knock the ball to midwicket but immediately calling “Two, two, two!” and making a lightning turn at the non-striker’s end to get back. A dozen from the over, though it started well. What does Finch think of that?
3.46am GMT
3rd over: Pakistan 18-2 (Babar 11, Rizwan 3) He doesn’t mind playing Australia, does Rizwan. Two centuries in the five-match ODI series earlier this year leading into the World Cup. That was in the Middle East though, so it’ll be a different operation here today. He gets off strike against Starc by calmly pushing a run. Even that is a pretty good early sign. It brings Babar on strike, and after he has an uncontrolled swat at Starc outside off, he drives the next ball with a straighter bat and gets a genuine edge for four! Through second slip that time, so you really can’t blame Aaron Finch for that one. The batting pair trade singles to finish their first decent over.
3.42am GMT
2nd over: Pakistan 11-2 (Babar 6, Rizwan 1) Two early wickets then, and the aggressive wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan comes to the crease. A right-hander now, and he uses Richardson’s natural length to fend away a single towards point to end the over.
3.40am GMT
Kane Richardson with the ball from the other end, having tied his long hair back today. His first ball is blocked by Babar, but the second is edged for four! Richardson immediately turns to stare at Finch, who didn’t have a slip in place for his opening bowler with the new ball! That was a simple catch for first slip. Now Finch moves himself back into that spot for the left-hander, after Babar knocks a run to square leg. Sohail tries to force a back-of-a-length ball straight but can’t get any timing. So he aims a filthy slog at the next ball, which was a bit short but he goes at it with almost a straight bat, and it skews high off the outside edge and lands with Smith at backward point again. Richardson gets his reward.
3.36am GMT
1st over: Pakistan 5-1 (Babar 1, Sohail 4) Mitchell Starc to begin with the ball for Australia. He starts outside off stump and Babar reaches for it, steering the ball with an angled blade down towards third man for one. The left-handed Fakhar comes on strike, and departs immediately. Haris Sohail in for the third ball, who made a great Test ton against Australia in Dubai last year, and played some brilliant knocks in the 50-over World Cup earlier this year. Starc shapes it away from him, another left-hander, and twice beats the outside edge. But he overpitches with the final ball, looking for the pad perhaps, and Sohail drives dead straight, in the air, past Starc’s left hand and almost through the umpire Paul Wilson for four. A dot ball ends the eventful over.
3.33am GMT
First ball duck, second ball of the match! Starc bowls outside off just back of a length with some swing. Fakhar reaches for the drive but the outswing takes the outside edge, thick, into the gully where Smith takes a direct catch to a very fast-travelling ball.
3.31am GMT
Babar Azam, one of the best white-ball batsmen in the world, is the key for Pakistan. He’s the one who usually bats through an innings, averaging nearly 50 in T20 Internationals, which is a frankly ridiculous number. Fakhar Zaman at the other end is a damaging striker, though he hasn’t been in great nick for a while.
3.29am GMT
We’ll get underway on time, with the groundstaff doing a lightning job.
3.13am GMT
Pakistan
Fakhar Zaman
Babar Azam *
Haris Sohail
Mohammad Rizwan +
Asif Ali
Iftikhar Ahmed
Imad Wasim
Wahab Riaz
Shadab Khan
Mohammad Amir
Mohammad Irfan
Australia
Aaron Finch *
David Warner
Steven Smith
Ben McDermott
Ashton Turner
Alex Carey +
Ashton Agar
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Starc
Kane Richardson
Adam Zampa
3.10am GMT
Aaron Finch calls correctly, and with rain around he opts to chase so that Australia will know exactly what the situation is if any overs are lost. Good call, because the rain starts coming down a few minutes after the toss. There will be a slight delay to the start. The rain doesn’t last long.
3.08am GMT
Hello, folks. It’s T20 time once again. Australia got rid of Sri Lanka in short order across three matches in the past week or so, but Pakistan might pose a sterner test. At least, they will if rain stays away at the SCG. No Glenn Maxwell for Australia, he’s taken a mental-health break from the game for a time. Ben McDermott is the replacement batsman for him in the top four. Pakistan are the number one T20 side in the world, and whitewashed Australia in the UAE across three games last year, but may have some issues adapting to Australian conditions, even if the Sydney pitch isn’t the fastest and bounciest going around.
Continue reading...October 27, 2019
Australia thrash Sri Lanka by 134 runs in first Twenty20 international
7.00am GMT
In lots of T20 games, teams don’t even make a score as big as the margin of Australia’s win today. They have thumped the Sri Lankans, who actually have an excellent record of winning T20 series in Australia. But often Australian teams of the past have been a bit haphazard, where now the format is being taken a bit more seriously.
Finch was destructive early, allowing Warner to ease into his day. Warner then charged on to a fast century, his first in the format and his 39th international century overall, and on his 33rd birthday for the finishing touch. When Finch fell for 64, Glenn Maxwell came in for one of his trademark whirlwinds, 62 from 28 balls at a strike rate of 221.
6.53am GMT
20th over: Sri Lanka 99-9 (Malinga 13, Pradeep 8) Cummins to finish things off for Australia, one way or another. Beats Malinga’s waft on the outside edge. Beats Malinga’s waft on the inside edge, bouncing over the stumps. Yorks Malinga who somehow gets a connecting with a slog after backing away and keeps the ball out. Then Cummins bowls length, and Malinga swats it over wide long-on for four!
Cummins isn’t happy. Gives the next short ball a lot more pepper, and a half-ducking Malinga is nowhere near it with his pull shot. But the last ball Cummins misses the yorker, and Malinga can drive it to wide long-on along the ground this time for two.
6.50am GMT
19th over: Sri Lanka 93-9 (Malinga 7, Pradeep 8) Nuwan Pradeep has now outscored six of his teammates, as he carves Richardson over backward point for four, and moves to 7. Nice shot. Then pulls a single. Malinga swings at everything and only connects for a single from the last ball.
6.46am GMT
18th over: Sri Lanka 87-9 (Malinga 6, Pradeep 3) The one Sri Lankan player who has had a good day is Nuwan Pradeep, who only conceded 28 from his overs. He makes more runs than a few of his teammates in quick time too, backing away from Mitchell Starc to flat-bat over the bowler’s head for a couple. Follows up with a competent squeeze for one against the yorker. Starc just keeps trying to hit that full length.
6.44am GMT
17th over: Sri Lanka 83-9 (Malinga 5) Two in his final over, and Zampa finishes the day with 3 for 14. You’ll take that.
6.42am GMT
After conceding 75 runs from his four overs, the most expensive bowling spell in this format’s history, Kasun Rajitha is given out for a golden duck. But he gets his first win for the day, challenging the decision and finding that he got a tiny inside edge on his sweep before Zampa pinned him in front.
His reprieve lasts one ball, until he heaves at the next ball as well, misses, and drags his back foot out of the crease. Stumped.
6.39am GMT
This is like sitting through a list of terrible speeches at a wedding. Interminable. Zampa turns the ball away a fraction, Sandakan wallops it over cover, but isn’t to the pitch and can’t get enough to clear Agar in the deep.
6.36am GMT
16th over: Sri Lanka 81-7 (Sandakan 6, Malinga 3) Decent shot from Sandakan as Cummins bowls full, and the Sri Lankan spinner drives him straight down the ground for four. That was quality. Not so effective against the short ball though, swinging and missing plenty.
6.33am GMT
6.32am GMT
15th over: Sri Lanka 74-7 (Sandakan 1, Malinga 1) Very much the bowlers at the crease now for Sri Lanka. Zampa 1 for 12 off three.
6.31am GMT
The procession continues, with Shanaka swiping for a big top edge caught at backward point.
6.29am GMT
14th over: Sri Lanka 71-6 (Shanaka 17) Agar finishes off his spell with a string of dots and singles, then the run-out at the end. Four overs, 1 for 13. Bingo.
6.29am GMT
What an effort from Glenn Maxwell! He’s on the mic to the TV broadcaster having a chat to the commentators as Agar trots in for the last ball of his spell. Hasaranga slaps it over cover towards the rope. It’s Maxwell’s ball. “Run out,” he says on mic as he sprints around the boundary, before he’s reached the ball and before the batsmen have turned for their second run. He’s right, too. Scoops it clean as a whistle, unleashes an 80-metre throw right by the stumps, and Alex Carey has the batsman short by a mile.
That. Is. Glorious.
6.24am GMT
13th over: Sri Lanka 66-5 (Shanaka 15, Hasaranga 2) Shanaka is at least trying to swing. Slices a couple to third man, then takes on a bouncer and clobbers it over midwicket for six! Good shot, waited for the slower ball and timed it. It was a no-ball as well, but Richardson nails his wide yorker to keep the free hit scoreless. A lot of dot balls for Richardson in the over still, despite that big hit.
6.21am GMT
12th over: Sri Lanka 57-5 (Shanaka 7, Hasaranga 2) Agar, meanwhile, has figures of 1-8 off his three overs. It must be nice to be a spinner in a broken run chase when no one is willing to play a shot at you.
6.19am GMT
11th over: Sri Lanka 55-5 (Shanaka 6, Hasaranga 1) Shanaka drives a boundary straight, but Starc still finishes his third over with ridiculous figures of 2-14.
6.15am GMT
Another one goes down, as Mitchell Starc comes back into the fray. He hits Shanaka on the helmet second ball of the over, while might well have influenced Perera to hang back to the next ball, after a leg bye. Starc bowls this one to the left-handed Perera from over the wicket, base of leg stump, swinging a bit and evading the defensive grope that Perera is in no position to play. Clunk.
6.11am GMT
10th over: Sri Lanka 49-4 (Kusal Perera 16, Shanaka 2) Halfway mark. Dasun Shanaka next to the crease, who can hit a long ball but will need to hit about 20 of them.
6.10am GMT
Strange old innings, 13 from 21 when you needed 12 an over from the get-go. And a soft dismissal, as Fernando tries to prod a straight-break off his pads, misses mostly, gets a little inside edge, and plays it off the pad onto his stumps.
6.08am GMT
9th over: Sri Lanka 45-3 (Kusal Perera 14, Fernando 13) Carey misses a stumping! Down gallops Perera, looking to loft Zampa down the ground, but the top-spinner skips past him with pace. It bounces too much for Carey though, and bounces off his body and away.
6.05am GMT
8th over: Sri Lanka 40-3 (Kusal Perera 10, Fernando 12) Ashton Agar now, turning the ball the same way as Zampa but via a left-arm orthodox action. Very tidy over, only two runs from it. Sri Lanka adrift.
6.04am GMT
7th over: Sri Lanka 38-3 (Kusal Perera 9, Fernando 11) Spin time with the field setting relaxed. Adam Zampa the leg-spinner on show. Sri Lanka working some ones and twos, but they need about 16 an over. An appeal as Fernando misses a sweep, but it’s sliding down and he nets three leg byes.
5.59am GMT
6th over: Sri Lanka 29-3 (Kusal Perera 5, Fernando 10) Cummins drawing more false shots, but Fernando edges one to third man for four, and splices another over cover for two. Perera gets one out of the middle through midwicket to end the over.
5.53am GMT
5th over: Sri Lanka 17-3 (Kusal Perera 0, Oshada Fernando 3) Kane Richardson bowls another quiet over, just two runs from the bat over cover. There’s a wide also, and Finch probably saves another wide by distracting the umpire with an appeal after Fernando slashes outside off.
5.51am GMT
4th over: Sri Lanka 14-3 (Kusal Perera 0, Oshada Fernando 1) A fair over for Patrick Cummins, 2-2 at the end of it. Oshada Fernando survives the hat-trick ball but Perera could have been run out at the striker’s end as they took a single from a straight push.
5.48am GMT
Straight through him! The batsmen swapped ends while the previous ball was in the air, so the other incumbent batsman was on strike. Left-hander again. Cummins over the wicket, on leg stump, maybe moved the ball back a bit off the seam and straight through the forward push to hit middle. Clunk.
5.46am GMT
Pretty tame dismissal in the end, again to a cross-bat shot. This time Gunathilaka walks at Cummins and tries to clobber him over the on-side, but miscues it high to mid-off and Warner.
5.43am GMT
3rd over: Sri Lanka 12-1 (Gunathilaka 11, Rajapaksa 0) A couple of nice shots from Gunathilaka, starting to find his groove as a left-hander against the left-armer. He forces Starc on the up through backward point for four, then gets a straighter ball and glances it fine for four more.
If you’re updating your bingo cards, Mark Waugh has just observed that “they have good wrists, these Sri Lankan players,” then followed up news on that anatomical marvel by reiterating that Isa Guha is “our expert” on pronouncing Sri Lankan names. Yep.
5.39am GMT
2nd over: Sri Lanka 4-1 (Gunathilaka 1, Rajapaksa 0) The struggles continue for Sri Lanka. Kane Richardson bowling, a decent line and length, but the batsmen are caught between wanting to go after him and not wanting to start a collapse. They take only a couple of singles, then the left-handed Gunathilaka tries to flay the last ball over point and should be caught by Agar on the rope, but the low catch is put down.
5.34am GMT
1st over: Sri Lanka 1-1 (Gunathilaka 1, Rajapaksa 0) The perfect start for Australia: wickets, barely a run, and the required rate shoots up.
5.32am GMT
Starc to start off, Maxwell at backward point into the game immediately as Starc’s pace and fuller length jumps at the bat and can only be skewed away on the bounce. Both batsmen just trying to defend Starc’s early deliveries, with only a single from the first four balls. The fifth, Kusal Mendis tries to hook the short ball, he’s late on it, and it bobbles up to square leg for a catch.
5.29am GMT
5.19am GMT
There have only been two higher run chases to win in international cricket. Australia have Cummins and Starc to rough them up. It will take something extraordinary.
It’s been a fun day for Australia so far. Finch shook off his concerns from last season. Warner will have quietened a few doubts. Maxwell provided the pyrotechnics. The only downside was that Steve Smith didn’t get a chance to show his stuff, but there are five more matches in this quick run before the Tests begin.
5.11am GMT
20th over: Australia 233-2 (Warner 92, Maxwell 62) Dasun Shanaka, the all-rounder, has to bowl the last over with Malinga bowled out early. He starts very wide of off stump, and Warner goes after it but is nowhere near it. It’s called a wide though, and Warner carves the re-bowl through backward point for four! Beats the field and goes finer of the sweeper! He’s on 96. Can he get there? Not this ball! He throws his head back in anguish as his next cut shot only gets him a single. Maxwell falls next ball. Ashton Turner comes to the middle, and has no interest but getting a single. Warner carves over cover! Won’t reach the boundary but comes back for two runs. Moves to 99. The field comes in. But he jams away a full ball behind point, belts through for the single, and raises his first T20I century. More runs in this innings than he made in five Ashes Tests, will be the punchline, but with each innings like this he can start to put that horror series behind him.
5.08am GMT
He’s caught behind, between his legs, trying to squeeze the ball behind square. But was that out. The ball went past Maxwell’s inside edge as he had his legs apart, perhaps trying to play the ball between his legs. Yet somehow after (presumably) taking a nick, the ball carried through to the keeper. Given out after a long period of consideration by the umpire. Maxwell reviewed, and for a long time it looks lie the third umpire thinks he’s not out. “Nothing evident there,” he keeps saying while looking at the replays. But right at the end he decides that the bundle of noise on the Snickometer means there was a nick. Unorthodox player, unorthodox dismissal. That was fun.
5.03am GMT
19th over: Australia 223-1 (Warner 92, Maxwell 62) Can Warner get a hundred? Only a single from this over for him, with another dot against Pradeep to start. Maxwell plays another outrageous shot, a reverse scoop again, but this time reaching for the ball well outside off stump rather than playing it off the line of his body. There’s actually a slip in place, or a short third man almost, but Maxwell plays it anyway. And goes over and fine of that man for four! Then Maxwell slices two from the last ball, thanks to an overthrow that gives Warner strike for the last over.
5.00am GMT
18th over: Australia 216-1 (Warner 91, Maxwell 56) To this point, Rajitha had bowled the most expensive three-over spell in T20 Internationals. He manages to pull things back at the start of this over, bowling not one but two dot balls in a row to Glenn Maxwell, hitting his yorkers. Maxwell finds a single, then Warner carves a boundary to move to 90, and moves past the 89 that he made in his first ever international match, all the way back in 2009 against South Africa at the MCG. Who would have thought that it would stay his highest score in this format for all this time? He’s on for a hundred today.
Things don’t end for Rajitha as well as they started this over though. Maxwell wants payback for those dot balls. He takes it with six runs, a full toss lifted high over the leg side and into the midwicket crowd. Raises his milestone from just a handful of deliveries. Then six more! Again that helicopter whip of the bat, this time to leg! And another shot into the crowd!
4.52am GMT
17th over: Australia 198-1 (Warner 86, Maxwell 43) Malinga nails the yorker again, but Maxwell manages to play it straight this time, meaning he can come back for two. Gives himself room for the next ball, winds up big, playing that almost helicopter style that he enjoys, whipping through the ball and into a big follow through with the bat over his shoulder. In between those points, he manages to lace the ball through cover, along the ground, for four! It’s so well timed that it scorches past the cover fieldsmen, and splits the boundary riders. Gracious. And finally, from his 18th ball, Maxwell faces a dot. He tries the ramp against Malinga and misses the full ball, through to the keeper. Then finds the cover sweeper for a single. But Warner takes up the challenge and drops two runs gently to the leg side, then carves four through cover.
4.47am GMT
16th over: Australia 185-1 (Warner 80, Maxwell 36) They can’t find a dot ball to Maxwell, who digs out the yorker again. A couple of dot balls to Warner, as Pradeep continues his good work for the day, the only bowler not to be collared. But when Maxwell gets the strike back he switches his hands into a reverse ramp shot, over third man for four! That’s extraordinary touch with the upturned face of the bat. Then keeps strike with a single through cover. He’s 36 from 15.
4.43am GMT
15th over: Australia 178-1 (Warner 79, Maxwell 30) Malinga comes on, desperate for control and a wicket. Not from Maxwell though, who finds another boundary. Maxwell is trying that pick-up shot for six off his pads that he favours, spinning his body towards square leg, but he gets an inside edge on the shot and lobs it over the keeper for four instead. That’ll do. Malinga totally loses the next ball, miles down the leg side and it bounces off the pitch. Warner asks why that wasn’t called a no-ball, and the umpire says that the wide call comes before the no-ball call. Malinga zeroes in on the perfect yorker spot next up, and Maxwell can only squeeze it off his toes for one. Width to Warner, who carves another boundary through backward point, then two more cut off the toe of the bat. Maxwell 30 off 12.
4.38am GMT
14th over: Australia 165-1 (Warner 72, Maxwell 25) Maxwell, flying already, down on one knee and sweeps, hard and flat, out through square leg for four! Gunathilake dives but is touching the rope as he saves. Hasaranga the leggie is bowling, and next ball Maxwell leans back and heaves over midwicket for six! It went high and long, dropping into the crowd where it’s caught and given out by the gentleman in the seats. Carves through point but can’t beat the field this time. Warner can though, by getting a fat full toss, served up on a dish with gravy around it, waist high, and he pulls it over square leg for six! Then lofts down the ground for four! Ouch, Sri Lanka. Maxwell 25 from 10, strike rate of 250 now. Hasn’t faced a dot ball.
4.30am GMT
13th over: Australia 143-1 (Warner 61, Maxwell 14) Warner off strike taking an extra run after the keeper fumbles a wide. Maxwell facing Sandakan is taking guard well outside leg stump, wanting to give himself lots of room to move. And move he does, switching to a left-handed stance and sweeping over backward point for four! He had a space on the off side and found a way to use it. Next ball, Maxwell holds his original pose and goes over cover for four more! Lofted, classy shot finding the gap. He tries the reverse again to follow, but can only get a single to short third. Warner gives him back the strike, but Maxwell’s sweep only takes a top edge for a couple of runs over fine leg, then keeps the strike with a single to cover. Maxwell going at a lazy strike rate of 200 so far.
4.26am GMT
12th over: Australia 128-1 (Warner 60, Maxwell 2) A consolidation over, and Sri Lanka will be happy with that, just slowing the charge for six balls. Only five singles from it, with Maxwell taking two from his two balls faced. Setting himself, but Warner taking a breather as well from Hasaranga.
4.24am GMT
11th over: Australia 123-1 (Warner 57, Maxwell 0) Warner gets a run from the final ball of the over, and away they’ll go with a new partnership.
4.23am GMT
Finch goes! Sweeps Sandakan twice for four along the ground, but tries to go aerial from the fifth ball of the over and it comes down shy of the rope, where Mendis takes a good catch diving forward. Finally the breakthrough, and Glenn Maxwell next in.
4.18am GMT
10th over: Australia 112-0 (Finch 55, Warner 55) Australian batsmen love facing the white Kookaburra ball in home conditions where there’s no lateral movement. It was harder to tee off in England during the World Cup back in June and July with the ball often seaming or swinging, but here you can just go through the line. Finch does, high and long over backward square off his legs, dropping it for six. Takes a single. Warner follows up with six of his own, over cover to just clear the rope! And again, off his legs this time over midwicket, six more!
That’s Warner’s fifty as well as Finch’s in the over, and Warner follows up by lacing Rajitha through cover for four. Poor old Rajitha has gone for 57 from 18 balls. Will he get another over?
4.16am GMT
4.13am GMT
9th over: Australia 87-0 (Finch 46, Warner 39) Welcome Australia’s new right-hander! David Warner plays a full switch-hit sweep to Sandakan for four! Great contact, out through backward square leg. Warner was batting right-handed and left-handed in the nets before this match, alternating with each delivery, so he’s in touch with either hand apparently.
4.12am GMT
8th over: Australia 80-0 (Finch 44, Warner 34) Wrist-spin that goes the other way from the other end, with Wanindu Hasaranga. He’s a fast leg-spinner in the modern style, putting some serious work on the ball but getting it to skip through. A couple of singles from his first three balls, but then Finch decides he’s got to go. Fakes a step-away, then just shuffles back to make a bit of room, and takes a decent ball from just outside off stump over extra cover for six! Big strike! Then gets a similar ball next up and goes the other way for six, over midwicket! Steps back, has just enough length to get under the ball, and heaves it away. Then tries to take a crazy single to the on-side, Hasarange runs and slides and fields, and while he has all the time in the world, he has a wild throw at the stumps while still lying on the ground. Misses, and would have run him out easily.
4.07am GMT
7th over: Australia 65-0 (Finch 30, Warner 33) As soon as the fielding restrictions end, on comes Lakshan Sandakan. A left-arm wrist spinner, he helped roll Australia over in the Kandy Test match of 2016 on debut. He’s had a haircut since then, reduced the floppy curls. Doesn’t start his first over well though: a drag-down that Warner pulls for two, then floating down leg and swept for two. Produces three dot balls by bowling tighter on the stumps, but slips leg side to close out the over, and Warner plays a double-hit sweep that hits the face of the bat once near the splice, then again out of the middle as the shot catches up with the ball, Warner laughingly relating this to Finch as they set off for a run. But the ball runs for four.
4.00am GMT
6th over: Australia 57-0 (Finch 30, Warner 25) The Sri Lankans need control to close out the Powerplay, and Nuwan Pradeep provides it. A series of slower balls, changing the pace regularly and not giving width, and the Australians can only take five singles. Still, they’ve ended the fielding restrictions period going at 9.5 runs per over.
3.58am GMT
5th over: Australia 52-0 (Finch 28, Warner 22) Rajitha back at Malinga’s end, and Warner is getting frustrated with 7 from 8 deliveries. So he dips his knees a bit, takes a swing across the line at a fuller ball, and smears it over midwicket for four. One bounce not far from the rope. That forces Rajitha to err twice with the next ball, striving for pace: he pushes it wide, and he oversteps. Warner slices the wide ball to the third man fence for four! And has a free hit to follow, which he pulls for six into the Chappell stand! Fair hit that, just picked it up from a medium length and sent it soaring.
He’s stopped from taking a second run after carving into the carvers, and then Finch gets in on the act with a lofted drive over cover for four. That’s 21 from the over.
3.50am GMT
4th over: Australia 31-0 (Finch 23, Warner 7) Nuwan Pradeep replacing Rajitha after one over, and immediately he’s through Finch, striking the pad and appealing loudly. Was that going down the leg side? Not out, says the umpire. Finch decides to heave away, twice connecting with about half of a fuller ball and dragging it away through the leg side, hitting gaps in the field for four.
3.49am GMT
3.46am GMT
3rd over: Australia 20-0 (Finch 13, Warner 6) A brilliant controlling over from Malinga, pitching up but giving no width to play it, cramping each of the batsmen and limiting them to a couple of singles. Now Mark Waugh is making jokes about Isa Guha’s bowling being so slow it’s measured in negative kilometres an hour. Wow, the LOLs.
3.44am GMT
2nd over: Australia 20-0 (Finch 13, Warner 6) A decent battle there. Rajitha gets some seam movement and beats Finch twice, but in between times Finch clobbers a couple through the off side for four.
3.40am GMT
1st over: Australia 9-0 (Finch 5, Warner 3) First ball of the over, four. Finch struggled hard in the last home summer in all formats, after a promotion to the Test team destabilised his one-day batting. But he gets a good chance to get going with his first ball of this season, short and wide and sitting up to be cracked through cover point for four.
Malinga comes back with a smart delivery, rolling the seam and getting it to cut away from the edge. Finch goes hard at the next and gets a thick edge for a single to third man. Now it’s Warner on strike for his first ball... and he gets a misfield at backward point! Through for a couple of runs. Then a single punched down the ground.
3.33am GMT
Lasith Malinga, the fast bowler, will captain Sri Lanka today on his return to the side. The keeper Kusal Perera and batsman Kusal Mendis are the other two who sat out the tour of Pakistan who are playing today. Malinga has the new ball.
3.23am GMT
There will be a lot of firsts for Steve Smith and David Warner this summer, but this one is simple enough: their first game for Australia at home in any format since their year-long bans after Cape Town 2018. They’re both back in the side. Warner has had a lot of low scores across all formats lately, and needs some confidence, while Smith needs to show that he’s actually in Australia’s best T20 side versus some more powerful strikers. He’s highly versatile, but Test cricket is his forté.
Australia
Aaron Finch *
David Warner
Steve Smith
Glenn Maxwell
Ashton Turner
Alex Carey +
Ashton Agar
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Starc
Kane Richardson
Adam Zampa
3.19am GMT
The visiting team prefer to chase, as so many do in T20s. That will give us a look at the Australian batting first-up. Sri Lanka have plenty to feel confident about, after touring Pakistan against the No1 T20 side in the world and winning 3-0. There will be some personnel changes though, after a lot of Sri Lankan players chose not to tour Pakistan.
3.13am GMT
Well, the Australian cricket season this year began before the English one had ended, with the men and women’s versions of the 50-over domestic competition getting underway in September. The women’s international players started their season not long after, and now a month later the men’s internationals get underway with half a dozen T20 games, three against Sri Lanka and then three against Pakistan. Not that you’d know it if you don’t have cable TV, because all of these games will only be broadcast visually in Murdoch land.
Luckily the OBO is here, and ABC radio, to help those follow these games who should wish to.
Continue reading...September 28, 2019
AFL grand final 2019: Richmond Tigers beat GWS Giants – as it happened
Richmond stamped themselves as one of the great sides of the modern era, with an 89-point demolition job of GWS
9.15am BST
Related: 'Ridiculous' Richmond Tigers demolish GWS Giants in AFL grand final
8.34am BST
A wonderful, affirming day for Richmond supporters and for the club. And don’t forget such an impressive season from the Giants, coming from 6th to make it here today. Hope you enjoyed it one way or another. Until next season.
What a team. What a club. What a day. What a time. A @Richmond_FC premiership dynasty. It’s been all worth it. #gotiges
8.32am BST
Cotchin speaks well. Damien Hardwick gets the Jock McHale medal. Very gracious speech from Hardwick towards the Giants, saying that they overcame adversity throughout the season much as the Tigers had, and saying how much his club respects theirs. Nice touch. Then the cup is handed over, the yellow and black confetti explodes, and the players all rush onto the stage. The song blares. Sixteen Tigers are now dual premiership players.
8.25am BST
"You're my favourite player!"
As wholesome as it gets. ❤️#AFLGF pic.twitter.com/JtGw39AIFT
8.22am BST
Medals being handed out. Jack Riewoldt has his baby in the crook of one arm, while putting a cap on the head of the girl handing him his medal, then dipping his head for the presentation, then shaking her hand as they introduce themselves. Multitasking, and all very sweet.
8.18am BST
No huge surprises there. Pickett had a brilliant day, Riewoldt kicked five, but Martin was probably the key in the first and second quarters when the game was there to be won. He keeps his speech short and loud. “Thanks to the AFL and their partners, thanks to GWS, thanks to the fans, YELLOW AND BLACK!”
8.06am BST
There is a big, big sound, but it’s the roar of the Tiger and the trumpets of that famous song, coming from just to the east of the MCG. The Tigers have done it. The Richmond Football Club wins its 12th flag, and the second in three years. A flag starts to become an era.
How big an achievement is that. Richmond lost Alex Rance, their star full-back, at the start of the season to a knee injury. Cotchin was gone for much of the season. So was Riewoldt. So was their main ruckman Nankervis. And yet they backed up, and filled the gaps, and kept winning through the back half of the season. Made the finals. Then began to really show their quality and exert their pressure.
8.04am BST
Q4: 0 mins remaining: Rich 17.12 (114) to GWS 3.7 (25) – Wait, is it goal time for favourite sons? Don’t forget Jack Riewoldt. Set shot, straight in front, 20 seconds remaining, and he drifts it just inside the left post!
8.03am BST
Q4: 1 mins remaining: Rich 16.12 (108) to GWS 3.7 (25) – If that wasn’t enough icing for Tiger fans, Williams can’t mark at half-forward for GWS under pressure from Grimes and Vlaustin. The ball comes the other way, spoiled, comes to ground, Dustin Martin picks up, and Richmond’s other star (one of many, really) snaps a goal from near the fifty!
8.01am BST
Q4: 2 mins remaining: Rich 15.12 (102) to GWS 3.7 (25) – Ticking down into the final minutes, a lot of back and forth, stop and tackle, and then finally one shaft of daylight shoots through. Rioli from the half-back flank splits the field open with a cross-field kick. Finds Cotchin at the back of the centre square. The Richmond skipper runs through the centre, to fifty, and laces a goal! Gets a shepherd on the line from Lynch and through it goes. Raises the ton. Celebration time!
7.55am BST
Q4: 5 mins remaining: Rich 14.12 (96) to GWS 3.7 (25) – A lot of tired bodies and scrappy play. Heavy legs. Greene trying to contest in the forward pocket as a Giant counterattack swings forward. Held out of the way but Toby Greene won’t get much love from any umpires. Down the other end, Prestia has a shot but misses.
7.53am BST
Q4: 7 mins remaining: Rich 14.11 (95) to GWS 3.7 (25) – Richmond players enjoying themselves on the bench now, all smiles. Those rare moments of knowing that the result of a grand final will go your way.
7.48am BST
Q4: 11 mins remaining: Rich 14.11 (95) to GWS 3.7 (25) – Pickett with another score involvement! This time a goal. It’s Pickett’s kick around the body from the 50 to the top of the square. Rioli flies to mark, Riewoldt grabs the crumb and kicks his fourth.
7.47am BST
Q4: 13 mins remaining: Rich 13.11 (89) to GWS 3.7 (25) – The Giants up that Members wing again via Greene and Cameron, but this time the long delivery only finds a Tiger mark. Richmond link up through Houli, Rioli, Martin up the Southern Stand side. Centre the ball. Mumford spoils at centre half, but Pickett is there for the crumbs. Inside 50, feed Castagna, who misses for the sixth time today. Five points and one out on the full. Another score involvement for Pickett. Could he win the Norm Smith? Is that a real sentence I’m typing?
GWS lose the ball again in the centre, and the kick comes back for Bolton to mark and goal! Share them around now.
7.41am BST
Q4: 16 mins remaining: Rich 12.9 (81) to GWS 3.7 (25) – Nearly another goal for GWS, but over-possession in the forward pocket sees the ball spoiled out. Williams guilty of that a few times today. A lengthy chain of handballs rather than a shot at goal. Richmond rebound.
7.39am BST
Q4: 18 mins remaining: Rich 12.9 (81) to GWS 3.7 (25) – The Tigers win it straight out of the centre, but Rioli is pinged for diving on the ball at full-forward. Never mind, because GWS can’t get past the halfway line again. A relieving mark as the ball comes back inside 50, then emerges once more through Haynes. Finally GWS get up the wing to Greene. He finds Cameron across the arc at centre half, who drives deep into the pocket. Himmelberg marks, plays on, and snaps around the body for the Giants’ third!
7.36am BST
Richmond have got this in the bag. One quarter to go. It’s Tiger Time.
7.30am BST
Q3: 0 mins remaining: Rich 12.9 (81) to GWS 2.7 (19) – A few clumsy tackles from the Giants up forward cost them a chance at possession. Jeremy Cameron jumps into Baker while trying to spoil and hits him high. Then Greene collects Houli on the ground. Richmond get down the far end, and now it’s the big moustachioed ruckman Ivan Soldo in space who marks in the pocket and kicks one more on the siren!
7.27am BST
Q3: 2 mins remaining: Rich 11.9 (75) to GWS 2.7 (19) – Dustin Martin does about three circles in the tackle at half forward and is pinged for holding the ball. “For fuck’s sake, Razor!” he screams at the umpire. 50 metre penalty for abuse. GWS end up at half-forward. It’s not clean, it’s not smooth, but it’s a Giant goal! The ball comes into a pack, bounces free, and Hopper is there after his big whack earlier to finally kick the Giant’s second.
7.24am BST
Q3: 3 mins remaining: Rich 11.9 (75) to GWS 1.7 (13) – High contact on Richmond, advantage paid at the top of the centre square. Castagna tries passing off this time, to Rioli, but he misses from just inside 50 as well.
7.23am BST
Q3: 6 mins remaining: Rich 11.8 (74) to GWS 1.7 (13) – Richmond just attacking as they please now, and still the Giants can’t get a clean possession. Davis saves another goal right on the line, marking a curling snap. Williams has pace on the wing but turns the ball over. For Richmond, Castagna has another flying shot and misses, he’s missed a lot of shots today. Then it’s the big ruckman Nankervis getting on the scoreboard, for a point, as he gathers a loose ball in the pocket and snaps back across his body.
7.16am BST
Q3: 9 mins remaining: Rich 11.6 (72) to GWS 1.7 (13) – Now the rout is on. GWS get a free in the middle, and have it overturned again when Himmelberg supposedly lays an illegal block in the goalsquare. Not sure about that free kick either, the Richmond player ran across Himmelberg’s line at the ball. Richmond flow forward instead, and Kane Lambert on the run nails another.
7.14am BST
Q3: 12 mins remaining: Rich 10.6 (66) to GWS 1.6 (12) – A tale of contrasting days. GWS finally get a good sequence of passes down one wing, but there’s nowhere to go once they reach the forward line. Richmond cut it off, and eventually win a free for Castagna being held. Then Richmond produce a Harlem Globetrotters run down the Members wing, with flick-passes, volleyball taps, players waiting for the bouncing ball correctly before zipping the pass on, and finally Pickett gets possession and slams it long inside 50 for Martin to mark on the lead. Martin goes back to take his shot, then fakes and squares across goal! Pickett has drifted forward! He marks, and on debut in a grand final, nails his set shot!
7.10am BST
Q3: 13 mins remaining: Rich 9.6 (60) to GWS 1.6 (12) – GWS needed to explode out of the blocks in the second half, and instead they’ve had none of the footy and generated zero run. Cameron ventures all the way up onto the wing to find a touch, having barely seen the ball since that first goal. But his square-up kick is no good, turning the ball over, and it goes forward for Richmond into the pocket. The Giants think it’s out of bounds, but Rioli produces an underground handball, on the bounce to Martin, who snaps from deep in the pocket as per his specialty! What a finish.
7.07am BST
Q3: 15 mins remaining: Rich 8.6 (54) to GWS 1.6 (12) – It could all have been over for the Giants when Castagna had a shot from the pocket early, but he sprays it out on the full. It could be over when Lynch has a set shot from in front, but he shanks it. It could be over when Martin tries a checkside on the run, but he bellies it. And it could be over when Riewoldt marks in the pocket, but he fades left. It’s only after five minutes of countdown time, when Lynch marks 30 out in front, that it’s over. Straight through the middle.
The Giants just cannot get through the middle of the ground.
6.52am BST
Now the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the Grand Final Sprint. It’s fast, and over quickly. Ben King of the Gold Coast beats Frost of Melbourne, and that’s an unexpected involvement in a grand-final day victory for the Suns.
6.40am BST
That’s the half, and you’d think Richmond have just about won the flag with that second quarter. Five goals in the quarter, unanswered. Lots of pressure, lots of turnovers, fast movement forward. “I just think you can see Richmond blokes flying in,” says Riewoldt on the telly. And follows up with this lovely line. “I just think footy’s a mysterious game.”
So it is. And the one thing the Giants can tell themselves is that they haven’t been blown away. They haven’t looked like some of the shellshocked sides who have played this corresponding fixture in years past. They just haven’t been able to get any run into their game. But they have been fighting hard, and they could be ten goals down rather than five.
6.33am BST
Q2: 1 mins remaining: Rich 7.5 (47) to GWS 1.6 (12) – A lot of action. Giants win a free for holding the ball after the bounce, but Greene turns it over with a downfield free. Tigers don’t make use, but Hopper is injured when he gets a hard shepherd in the ribs. Greene tries to make amends by pulling a Dustin Martin fend on Dustin Martin. Giants go forward via Taranto, but his kick is too heavy to find Jeremy Cameron. And finally, as the Tigers come back downfield, Riewoldt steams out to mark just inside 50, go back, and kick left to right for another! The Tigers’ main man is going to be the difference today.
6.28am BST
Q2: 4 mins remaining: Rich 6.5 (41) to GWS 1.6 (12) – The Giants avert what looks a certain goal as the Tigers get another counterattack sailing into an almost empty forward line. But Marlion Pickett has a rare fumble. The Giants clear, but eventually it’s turned over on the wing, comes back inside 50, and Riewoldt on the lead takes a strong mark 40 out! No concerns with the set shot for him.
6.26am BST
Q2: 6 mins remaining: Rich 5.5 (35) to GWS 1.6 (12) – Daniels blows another chance for GWS, with a set shot missing from 45 out. Won the free for a blow to the head in the marking contest.
6.24am BST
Q2: 7 mins remaining: Rich 5.5 (35) to GWS 1.5 (11) – A couple of forays forward for GWS, but Richmond’s defence holds firm. Once, twice. They mop up, spread the ball, have runners. The Giants have chances, but can’t get that last clean possession to find a mark or a player in the clear. De Boer finally has a shot on the run, but misses across the face.
6.21am BST
Q2: 9 mins remaining: Rich 5.5 (35) to GWS 1.4 (10) – GWS take a little bit of pace out of the game thanks to some hard tackling on the wing. A range of stoppages. Martin comes up on the wing, dragging Heath Shaw up there with him and trying to expose him for pace. After a few minutes though the Tigers do break free, race forward, but the shot at pace is out on the full. Giants clear through Shaw, then switch play, boost forward looking for Himmelberg, but he was outnumbered by about four to one. Soldo marks.
6.17am BST
Q2: 12 mins remaining: Rich 5.5 (35) to GWS 1.4 (10) – The Giants finally string a few handballs together down the wing. Himmelberg a free kick at half forward, Greene a snap from the pocket but he’s tackled as he kicks. Behind.
6.15am BST
Q2: 13 mins remaining: Rich 5.5 (35) to GWS 1.3 (9) – Five in a row for the Tigers! Pickett scrubs a handball out of the centre, Rioli kicks from the flank, and Lynch cuts across into the right pocket to take the mark. Tough kick from there but he slots his drop punt. The Giants are teetering.
6.13am BST
Q2: 15 mins remaining: Rich 4.5 (29) to GWS 1.3 (9) – The floodgates are creaking, and might just be about to burst. Martin again, as the ball came in over his head on the lead. He stops leading, nudges his opponent out, doubles back and gets the ball off the turf, runs laterally past two more defenders, then dribbles home the snap from 30!
6.12am BST
Q2: 16 mins remaining: Rich 3.5 (23) to GWS 1.3 (9) – Nearly another from the centre bounce, as Picket (!!!) grabs the ball, spins out of a tackle, and kicks lace out to the top of the square! What a move! Castagna gets up high, grabs half the ball, then collects the rebound at ground level. Great leaping mark. But hits the post with this shot.
6.10am BST
Q2: 17 mins remaining: Rich 3.4 (22) to GWS 1.3 (9) – Riewoldt kicks Richmond’s third, and they might break the game open a quarter late, but break it anyway. That was a dodgy call from the umpire I think: Davis contested the ball, nudged Jack in the side rather than the back, and Riewoldt rather threw himself out of the contest. Gets the free and snaps it, though.
6.08am BST
Q2: 18 mins remaining: Rich 2.4 (16) to GWS 1.3 (9) – Richmond coast to coast from the kick-in: Lambert to Castagna, who sprints down the wing, a couple of bounces, has a shot from the pocket and misses to the right.
6.07am BST
Q2: 19 mins remaining: Rich 2.3 (15) to GWS 1.3 (9) – An early foray for the Giants from the bounce, getting the ball to half-forward, then a scrappy kick after a pick-up from the turf, and Himmelburg is in the right spot in the right pocket. He starts his shot left but it stays that way.
6.02am BST
A genuine arm wrestle of a quarter, where early on it looked like the Tigers might blast five or six clear, but the Giants kept hanging on. Wouldn’t let them score, then finally kicked the first goal of the match themselves after 20 minutes of play. Finally the Tigers got some reward with a couple of GWS mistakes late, and some glimpses of fast clean play. Catch your breath.
6.00am BST
Q1: 0 mins remaining: Rich 2.3 (15) to GWS 1.2 (8) – Right on the siren, Daniel Rioli gets the Tigers another! GWS had forced a throw-in at half-back with 17 seconds left. 15 seconds by the time the ruckmen contested it. Soldo took possession, then was tackled by Mumford and lost it. Davis had a chance to mop up at centre half back but the bouncing kick eluded him. Riolo picks up the ricochet with five seconds left, snaps with four, and the clock ticks down three, two, as the ball sails through. Siren! Tigers take the lead, then kick a goal clear!
5.56am BST
Q1: 1 mins remaining: Rich 1.3 (9) to GWS 1.2 (8) – Goal to Dustin Martin! The Tigers needed a lift and their talisman provides! Finally, with just a minute to go, they get some fast movement through the middle. Lambert’s tackle creates a turnover, there’s space through the middle for the Tigers, and Martin has a paddock to run back and mark, then run around the mark and snap truly.
5.55am BST
Q1: 2 mins remaining: Rich 0.3 (3) to GWS 1.2 (8) – More great play from the Giants. Daniels is sold into trouble in the centre square, looks like he’s being smashed in a tackle, but stands up in it, bounces off the tackler, and escapes! Then drops a banana, on the run, to Mumford at centre half forward who spills the diving mark coming forward. Knocks the ball clear to try to keep it moving forward, but it gets locked in.
5.53am BST
Q1: 3 mins remaining: Rich 0.3 (3) to GWS 1.2 (8) – Goal to Jeremy Cameron! He’s a more popular candidate to open the account, and what a kick it was! What a mark as well. Contested mark, steaming out of 50, marked right on the paint while wrestling hard. In the breadbasket in the end. Then he goes back on the left forward flank, kicks left-footed, 55 metres, the ball starting right but swinging back, back, and inside the post! Giants with the first.
5.50am BST
Q1: 5 mins remaining: Rich 0.3 (3) to GWS 0.2 (2) – Sam Reid nearly donates a goal to Richmond, turning the ball over in the centre square trying to come inboard, but Davis on the last line of defence intercepts the snap from the pocket. Doesn’t even concede a point, holds the ball back over the goal line and then runs back out to clear the 50. The Giants fighting hard.
5.48am BST
Q1: 7 mins remaining: Rich 0.3 (3) to GWS 0.2 (2) – Himmelberg does well two on one on the forward flank, forces a throw-in. Soldo taps but the Tigers turn it over, a long kick inside 50 that goes out of bounds next to the behind post. Tough contests inside 50, and Pickett gets a free kick for high contact. Tigers lose it again in the centre square though, and back it comes... to Greene! The least popular player in the sport, would you say? Richmond fans boo immediately. How provocative if he kicked the first goal in a grand final! But his set shot misses to the right, from the left pocket.
5.45am BST
Q1: 10 mins remaining: Rich 0.3 (3) to GWS 0.1 (1) – Williams marks inside 50 and can have a shot for GWS, but he goes short and turns the ball over. Still no goals. GWS get on the board through Daniel Lloyd’s miss as the Tigers let it roll through so they can clear defence with a kick-in.
5.42am BST
Q1: 12 mins remaining: Rich 0.3 (3) to GWS 0.0 (0) – Lots of punching out there, of the ball rather than each other. Both teams playing volleyball as the Giants try to clear. Riewoldt punches a loose ball back over his head towards the goalsquare, but it comes back out. Whitfield so calm in taking the ball out of the air, waiting, then playing on to clear the fifty with a long kick on the non-preferred. Short thumps long (Short is a player) to send it back in. Spoiled. Rushed. Eventually there’s a flying shot and a third point dribbles through.
5.39am BST
Q1: 13 mins remaining: Rich 0.1 (1) to GWS 0.0 (0) – Yet another holding the ball paid against the Giants, on the wing this time. Richmond’s tackling pressure has been outstanding. Their trademark. The Giants have barely had a clean possession. Bachar Houli with the tackle that time. The Giants repel this thrust, then get nailed for holding the ball again at half-forward for them. Tigers surge forward but have to go very wide looking for Martin and it’s out of bounds.
5.37am BST
Q1: 15 mins remaining: Rich 0.1 (1) to GWS 0.0 (0) – Martin down on the ground and sore. He was trying to barge through the pack after a bounce at the top of the goal square, but got nailed. GWS try to get out of defence but the handball is errant, and Mumford has to grab the loose ball and wear a heavy tackle! This is fierce early stuff.
5.35am BST
Q1: 17 mins remaining: Rich 0.1 (1) to GWS 0.0 (0) – Back into Richmond’s forward line again, and Lynch is warned for an accidental elbow on David while going up for the mark. Back inside the pocket, Dustin Martin scrapping by the boundary line, but it’s over.
5.34am BST
Q1: 18 mins remaining: Rich 0.1 (1) to GWS 0.0 (0) – Great first bounce from the umpire, that was a skyscraper. GWS get the first surge forward but it’s chopped off inside 50. The Tigers rebound, back into their forward pocket, where Riewoldt marks but it’s not paid! Surely he had enough of that, lost it as he came down. Long kick back inside 50 looking for Lynch, but it’s punched through for a behind.
5.29am BST
There goes the traditional rendition of the anthem in vibrato-laden fauxmotive pop style, trying to inject some life into the tune. And we’re off. Dylan Alcott the tennis champ is at the centre circle to toss the coin. Davis and Trent Cotchin shake hands. Cotch wins the toss and will kick to the city end. Game time.
5.26am BST
Anthem time, and Stevie J brings the Premiership Cup out onto the field. Steve Johnson was a very popular late recruit to the Giants after a fine premiership career with Geelong. He hands the cup over to Maureen Hafey, the wife of late Richmond coach Tommy, and Kevin Sheedy, a great Richmond player who became the Giants’ establishment coach.
5.16am BST
Here we go. The teams out onto the field. The Big Big Sound gets played for real! Then the roar as the Tigers come out, and their own pretty decent club song gets its first spin for the day.
5.10am BST
Mike Brady has been thawed out of carbonite as per annual tradition to sing Up There Cazaly before he goes back in the chamber. By rationing him out this way we’ll have Mike Brady until the year 2337.
Actually I wrote a piece about this song a few years ago. I can’t remember if it was worth reading, but you can tell me.
Related: Up There Cazaly by Mike Brady – an AFL anthem that isn't awful
5.04am BST
Here’s how the Giants have established themselves – an in-depth piece from our footy writer Scott Heinrich.
Related: 'They know who we are now': Giants walk tall after winning over western Sydney | Scott Heinrich
5.00am BST
Phil Davis has passed his late late fitness test, by the way, for the Giants. And Marlion Pickett will debut for Richmond, incredibly, after starring in their VFL premiership win last week. Lots of eyes on those two players.
Related: Marlion Pickett to become first player in 67 years to make AFL debut in a grand final
4.56am BST
The AFL banishes the ghosts of terrible pre-match entertainment past by bringing out Paul Kelly, who is sporting a neat beard and his old worn leather guitar strap. He opens of course with Leaps and Bounds, with its iconic opening line.
“High on the hill, looking over the bridge to the MCG...”
4.52am BST
And of course the ultimate, for irony points...
OK, we'll bite.
Here's our contribution to the #bigbigsound #AFLGF pic.twitter.com/ILu9MlWags
4.51am BST
You thought you'd heard the last of the #BigBigSound?
Think again.#AFLGF pic.twitter.com/qcQ2hMXc72
4.50am BST
Alright, time to shut the laptop #bigbigsound #NeverSurrender pic.twitter.com/jV0C8hC4rq
4.50am BST
Kohli getting in on the act.#bigbigsound pic.twitter.com/MsMdyOsSt8
4.47am BST
Important safety announcement re #bigbigsound pic.twitter.com/CPPP4PYe4y
4.47am BST
If you’ve been under an internet rock in the last week, you won’t be aware of the Big Big Sound. In short, the GWS theme song written by the Cat Empire’s Harry Angus has suddenly caught the public imagination. No one heard it very often in the club’s first few years, given that club songs get played after wins. But they’ve heard it a lot in the last couple of years. And now, the people love it.
(Most of the people. I’m sure those opposed will be vocal. Shhhhh though. Let people enjoy things.)
Sorry, I think I’ve jumped the shark here.#bigbigsound#AFLGF pic.twitter.com/AOSuEnPSYV
Sorry not sorry! We had to make our own #bigbigsound ♂️#AFLGF #AFL #GwsGiants pic.twitter.com/yP8rKSY1dc
Please tell me this #BigBigSound hasn't been done yet: pic.twitter.com/XrgZqCJbcD
4.41am BST
A couple of nice moments with the retiring players being driven around for a farewell lap. Shaun Grigg and Brett Deledio share a car together: of course, both played together for years at the Tigers, before Lids moved to the Giants late in his career, just before that Richmond flag. Must be a bittersweet couple of years for him, with injury cruelling those last years and costing him the chance at an appearance today. But he’s welcomed back warmly by the Tiger faithful, who are overwhelmingly outnumbering the others at the MCG. Nice touch.
Also Pat Cummins and Meg Lanning are in a ute together: neither of them is retiring, thankfully, but they’re carrying the Ashes trophies that they each brought back from touring England this winter.
4.35am BST
Where is it coming from? The town. The west thereof, to be specific. What is the sound of? Apparently some giants, who are distinguishable from other giants by way of being mighty. And by way of using only Caps Lock in their own communications.
It is, in short, Grand Final time. The culmination of the AFL season and all that has come before: all the score reviews, all the frothing about umpires, all the trade rumours – no, wait, they’ll just keep going. But on the playing front, this is it. The Richmond Tigers, trying to make sure their year of success in 2017 isn’t standalone, but can be pointed to as an era. And the Greater Western Sydney Giants, the standout success of the AFL’s expansion era, who have won over some of the cynics with an exciting style of play, a good club attitude, and that song, which has been the only thing heard in Melbourne for the last week. Not sure how widely it’s playing in the west of Sydney, but it’s big in Fitzroy.
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