Jarrod Kimber's Blog, page 47
October 4, 2012
the kiwi women slide
New Zealand have been in the last two World T20 finals, losing both, one to Australia and one to England. They lost to Australia from the last ball, and fought hard after making an under-par score against the English. They were well drilled, well lead and played consistently good cricket. They were good with the ball, in the field or when batting. They were not a team of champions, but a team that played consistently good cricket.
In this tournament they have not.
Having already lost to the West Indies in the qualifying rounds, essentially limping towards the semi-final, they were not expected to dominate the best team in women’s cricket, but at least hold their own.
Instead they were easily outplayed in almost every way.
Their fielding was poor by their standards, a great sliding throw and overhead catch would take much of the focus away from their fumbling and the keeper, Katey Martin, letting balls straight through her legs.
With the ball they tried hard, but lacked any key weapons. Nicola Browne started well early on, and Erin Bermingham landed some good deliveries, but neither ever looked like breaking through.
It was with the bat the kiwis were really bad. Amy Satterthwaite was the only batsmen who stayed in for any length of time, but her 30 off 39 was scratchy and she struggled to get enough singles or boundaries to put England under any pressure. They struggled against the pace of Katherine Brunt and the spin of Danni Wyatt and Holly Colvin. They couldn’t manoeuvre the ball around, seemed to lack power to blast through and at no stage did they look like making a score that would challenge England at all.
They even managed to miss out on a wicket because of a back-foot no ball. It couldn’t have gone much further wrong for them.
Perhaps the only part of the game they looked on par with England was in captaincy. Suzie Bates is one of the best leaders in world cricket and tactically she is arguably as good as any playing captain around. She refused to give up, and instead of allowing easy singles, which is the modern captain’s way, she regularly kept up to six players inside the circle to choke England and make them play the big shots.
Bates’ tactics kept England batting for longer than they wanted and pushed the game into the 18th over with ring fields and attacking moves. At one stage she even used Browne to bowl short to England, hoping for a mistimed pull shot from Taylor, that they got, but it didn’t go to hand. It was desperate, and didn’t get the result New Zealand needed, which was a miracle after their disastrous batting display, started by Bates with a horrendous run out for a duck.
It was a pitch that even with 20 or 30 runs more, perhaps, Bates’ tricks might have been enough. Although it is hard to see where they could have found 20 or 30 more runs as they didn’t ever handle the conditions all that well.
New Zealand have been a very strong team for a long time. Failing to get to the final should be the motivation that they need to get the most out of this young squad. They are young, talented, play as a team and are magnificently led.
They owe it to themselves to do better than simply be the team England ease past on their way to the final.
It was with the bat the kiwis were really bad. Amy Satterthwaite was the only batsmen who stayed in for any length of time, but her 30 off 39 was scratchy and she struggled to get enough singles or boundaries to put England under any pressure. They struggled against the pace of Katherine Brunt and the spin of Dani Wyatt and Holly Colvin. They couldn’t manoeuvre the ball around, seemed to lack power to blast through and at no stage did they look like making a score that would challenge England at all.
They even managed to miss out on a wicket because of a back-foot no ball. It couldn’t have gone much further wrong for them.
Perhaps the only part of the game they looked on par with England was in captaincy. Suzie Bates is one of the best leaders in world cricket and tactically she is arguably as good as any playing captain around. She refused to give up, and instead of allowing easy singles, which is the modern captain’s way, she regularly kept up to six players inside the circle to choke England and make them play the big shots.
Bates’ tactics kept England batting for longer than they wanted and pushed the game into the 18th over with ring fields and attacking moves. At one stage she even used Browne to bowl short to England, hoping for a mistimed pull shot from Taylor, that they got, but it didn’t go to hand. It was desperate, and didn’t get the result New Zealand needed, which was a miracle after their disastrous batting display, started by Bates with a horrendous run out for a duck.
It was a pitch that even with 20 or 30 runs more, perhaps, Bates’ tricks might have been enough. Although it is hard to see where they could have found 20 or 30 more runs as they didn’t ever handle the conditions all that well.
New Zealand have been a very strong team for a long time. Failing to get to the final should be the motivation that they need to get the most out of this young squad. They are young, talented, play as a team and are magnificently led.
They owe it to themselves to do better than simply be the team England ease past on their way to the final.
Sri Lanka, Zindabad
There was a time during the India South Africa game where I really suspected that someone was making South African flags out the back of the Prema and selling them for a few rupees. At first they weren’t there, and then suddenly one whole stand was holding up the South African colours. The Pakistani fans were the ones holding the flags, as most of the South African fans had gone home.
During the India Pakistan game it appeared like 4 out of 5 Sri Lankans at the game had adopted Pakistan as their home team. Thousands of fans had Sri Lankan shirts on and were waving Pakistan flags or had their face painted with the Pakistani flag on it. They were as Pakistani as you could get, for just the three hours.
It’s been one of the highlights of this tournament.
People picking their second country to follow, or following a whole new country just for qualification purposes while supporting them as much as they could and the cheering of superhuman feats no matter whose team performs them.
That stopped tonight.
Outside the grounds I swear some of the very same people I saw screaming for Pakistan a few nights back were now chanting “Go home Pakistan”, “bye, bye, Pakistan” or “Sri Lanka Zindabad”. Pakistan fans coming out of the stadium were greeted by laughing or taunting Sri Lanka fans who had long forgotten that Pakistan were there second favourite side and were now happily giving them some stick.
This is more of a party than a tournament. And I’m not just talking about what goes on player’s hotel rooms.
Because of the setting, the amount of games in quick succession and the nature of double headers, it’s been far less patriotic than a bilateral series or even a world cup. If you are here to support your country, you are probably also going to see neutral games as well. It’s how this tournament is.
But tonight all that disappeared. The Sri Lankans had been cheering Chris Gayle supporting the Pakistanis and getting excited at Shane Watson, but not any more. Tonight Pakistan was the opposition, not their second favourite team.
Watson or Gayle can be sure that their sixes will be met largely by silence followed by an ICC firework.
The Sri Lankan fans can now see themselves winning this. They really want to win it. They even started partying like they were winning it. One fan drinking what appeared to be arrack as he hung out of the sunroof of a car while wearing a Sri Lankan shirt and wrapped in a Sri Lankan flag was certainly enjoying the victory. There seemed to be more fans outside the ground than could ever fit into the ground.
Most of them, when there wasn’t a Pakistani fan to laugh at, were already calling Sri Lanka the champions. Why wait to Sunday when you can start celebrating now.
The party bit of this tournament has definitely ended, the party in Sri Lanka may not end for quite some time.
Result: I missed Afridi’s last ever innings (well it could be) by deciding to wash my hands. Dilshan now won’t get beaten to death by a sack of rambutans.
suzie bates is a captain
Some of you think women’s cricket is shit.
You have no idea who Suzie Bates is, or who she plays for.
But if you watched women’s cricket you’d know that Suzie Bates is a motherfucken superstar captain.
Today her side limped along to 90 odd.
They struggled to get the ball off the square, and Bates ran herself out for a duck.
They had no right to keep England in the field for more than 10 overs.
And they certainly don’t have a barnstorming burn your house down attack.
But they have Suzie Bates.
And Suzie Bates can captain.
Suzie Bates can captain so much that on a slowish Sri Lankan pitch she brought up mid on and mid off whilst getting her opening bowler Nicola Browne to try and bounce out the world’s best T20 batsman Sarah Taylor.
It almost worked.
How often would a women’s captain defending 90odd in a T20 decide to bounce out the oppositions best batsman?
I’m guessing never, because I’m sure it’s never.
That is Susie Bates. That is why you should know who Suzie Bates is.
When you’re sitting in front of your TV or illegal stream screaming at your team’s captain for sitting back and letting team milk singles as they wander head first into an inevitable victory, I want you to know that Suzie Bates wouldn’t do that.
She would try shit, bring people up, do some weird shit and create something. She is by far my favourite captain in world cricket.
Susie Bates is only 25, you need to start following the kiwi women’s team before she becomes an old battle scarred captain who puts people out on the rope if someone hints at playing a shot.
Results: England go through with ease. Holly Colvin was the first international player I ever interviewed.
October 3, 2012
October 2, 2012
David Hussey is not the one, but just one more
Shane Watson has been a visible giant beast in this tournament; everyone has seen what he can do. Everyone one was waiting for him to fail. When he did he managed to bring Australia crashing down with him.
Other than Watson, the Aussie that everyone has been talking about is David Hussey. The most prolific run scorer in domestic T20 history, which is not really much of a history, but still. He’s also 23rd on the list of international T20 run scorers. He can bowl right arm fast offspin, and is a demon in the field.
If you were to build the perfect T20 player, you’d build Watson or Chris Gayle. If you were mass marketing T20 players, you’d sell millions of David Hussey.
Australian fans and Ian Chappell have been saying David Hussey’s name like he is the missing link between Australia winning or losing this tournament. Hussey’s spot is being taken by either the captain they’d never heard of, George Bailey, the re-cycled Cameron White, or the new man with the big ego, Glenn Maxwell.
Even when Hussey was a member of the middle order, it’s been seen as susceptible to spin and weak. But for four glorious games, they were not required. Watson had punched, smashed and crashed through anyone in Australia’s way. The middle order was only brought on when the opposition had been mentally broken.
Shane Watson couldn’t save them forever.
Australia had secret camps, brought in spinners from across their country, ventured into the desert and took on the beast of Ajmal, all so that they could be ready for this tournament and the wily mystery spinners they would have to handle. They handled the 18 overs of Pakistan spin (it would have been 20 if not for Shoaib Malik getting Mike Hussey treatment) much the same way you would a chest bursting alien popping out.
Every fear that the Aussies had that their middle order wasn’t up to scratch was ripped open. Bailey started well, but missed two short balls from Ajmal in a row. White hit a big six, before holing out. And Maxwell didn’t last long at all.
Australia’s batsmen were so poor that if Mike Hussey had not played the innings he did, Australia had put themselves in a position to go out of the tournament. Now sure, it may say more about a tournament where you can lose only one game and not qualify, or win only two and qualify, but that is just how much the Pakistani spinners dominated the Australian batsmen.
Play it awkwardly or try and hit it really hard seemed to be their main game plan, and it came unstuck with ease. Watson, Warner and Hussey have looked decisive, powerful and dismissive of spinners in this tournament. The rest of the batsmen have looked confused, limp and scared as they poked around uncertainly.
There will be calls for David Hussey to come straight back in. He can’t replace Bailey, but Maxwell and White could easily slip out of the side.
Maxwell is, in theory, safe because of his bowling. But in five matches he’s bowled only seven overs, and it seems that one or two a night is his limit. White helps out with tactics, but in the subcontinent often bats a bit like a lumbering dinosaur trying to catch prey that is far quicker than him. When he catches it, he kills it, but he often goes hungry.
And all those calling for David Hussey’s imminent return should see his record from the UAE, but not if they have a full stomach. He made 13, 3, 0, 43, 3 and 1 on that tour, which is why the selectors went for White and Maxwell in the first place.
While David Hussey might not be the answer, if the selectors do want to bring him in to bolster the middle order, in case of Watson emergencies, they can without losing Maxwell or White.
Brad Hogg has taken two wickets in five matches, his economy rate is 7.55, but his fielding and batting are not the Brad Hogg of his teens, twenties or even thirties. Against Pakistan the man with Test batting average of 26 and first-class average of 35 watched Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins bat before him. Hogg has not been the success story that Australia would have hoped for.
Regardless of whether Hussey, Maxwell, White or Hogg play, it now looks like Australia can only win this tournament they don’t play Pakistan in the final or Watson continues to be the beast.
Watson is only one man, but as Australia scrambled around against spin, he felt like more than that.
india get faffed
Before tonight I often thought Faf DuPlessis’ best performance was in ABD’s music video.
Tonight I saw a whole new side to the man.
Faf’s entire career before this had clearly been to lull India into a false sense of security and then pounce when they feared it the least. He was a Pakistani sleeper agent. Which shows how sneaky these Pakistanis are, they left him in a rival team, and then lost to India on purpose just to set all this up.
It’s also entirely possible, although not as likely, that Faf was always this good and on every other occasion I’ve seen him at the highest level he’s just fucked up.
What a time to come good, not good enough to win a match, but good enough to annoy a billion people at once.
I’d love to annoy a billion people at once.
That’s something.
You don’t get a trophy or a cheque, but man, you have pissed off some bastards.
And that aint nothing.
India were really good, really bad, occasionally fucken unreal, occasionally shit on a pointy stick. They gave us everything and nothing at the same time. But by winning they made Lalit Modi happier.
But on a night like this there is really nothing more you can do than sit back and enjoy the sweet sound of cricket.
Result: India not superpower. Yuvi defeats Ravi. And South Africa still lose.
australia’s nightmare is real
There is a condition that I have: I forget the name. It’s like night terrors or sleep paralysis. I am often convinced someone is in the room at the foot of my bed and I wake up screaming or attacking them.
Other people have it too. Some scientists believe that alien abduction and ghost stories can often been explained away with this condition.
Ofcourse it’s also possible that there really is someone in my room, and in my hazy freshly woken state I just don’t see them get away time and time again.
The nightmare for Australia was that their middle order was exactly as shit as they thought they were.
That they couldn’t score against the spinners, wouldn’t rotate the strike and under extreme pressure would fall apart.
Every night Australia has had this dream, and every night of the tournament they wake up screaming and check beside them to make sure Shane Watson is still there.
Tonight, Shane Watson wasn’t.
It was just as ugly as all the nightmares suggested.
In the end all they needed to score was 112, and they did that because Mike Hussey was awake the whole time, although it didn’t seem like he was always conscious.
You could also give all the credit to Pakistan for almost flat out refusing to try pace, and for being really good. But let’s focus on how utterly shit Australia looked without Watson making runs.
Now they have two games in which to fix this problem.
Knock out games.
And they’ll have precisely no warm up matches between now and them to practice.
But on the plus side, it’s not a nightmare, it’s a reality. Doesn’t that feel better?
Result: Shane Watson bleeds human blood, and Shoaib Malik ruined the 20 overs of spin thing.
October 1, 2012
The Mendises
Jeevan Mendis is not a good legspinner.
I say that as a bad legspinner. We can smell our own.
His action is forced, his front arm doesn’t help him, and he sort of slings the ball down in a way that means he has trouble aiming in line or length.
But he tries really hard and he’s not an idiot.
Every really good team has a Jeevan Mendis.
Mendis is Steve Kerr, Shane Kerrison or James Hopes of this Sri Lankan team. The man who can do a little bit of everything, who enjoys training, who makes everyone feel good because they’re more talented than him, smiles a lot and is a decent dude.
In this game he came in to bat as the owners of the crab restaurant disappeared. It was consolidation time.
Most batsmen, especially one who is not yet an automatic selection, would have worked their way into the innings, thinking of themselves and what the replay will look like when they go out.
People like Mendis don’t really think that way.
They just want to get the job done and help out where they can.
Mendis is not a pretty batsman. He tries to hit every ball so hard it hurts your eyes after a while, but England didn’t expect an all out attack and instead of keeping Sri Lanka down to a manageable total.
18 off 13 is not an innings you tell your kids about, but it’s the sort of innings that someone like Mendis does to help his team to victory.
When he bowled he started with a short ball, one ball massively outside leg stump, a couple of half volleys, and clean bowled Ravi Bopara with a ball that was full and went straight. In that one over he ended with 1/5. That was his only over.
Ajantha Mendis, his favoured evil twin (not really, but I’m working on a script), bowled four overs for 40. In an earlier match Ajantha took 12 wickets or something.
In the final, I know who I’d prefer to have.
Result: KP gets smugger as Ravi packs his computer games and heads home.
Samit Patel was not mentioned in this blog.
who runs the west indies?
I thought the West Indies had the ideal team to win this tournament.
They had a swing bowler in form, a quick bowler who could sling yorkers, more all rounders that you could fit in a small car, a mystery spinner, a skiddy spinner, the Pollard, the Gayle, and even the Johnson Charles.
If they were a gun, they’d be a bazooka, with a machine gun and flame thrower attached.
But the team I saw in my head, which was a combination of the new West Indies and the IPL West Indies, has gelled much the same way the bazooka flame machine gun would.
Chris Gayle coming back has thrown out the alignment completely.
Gayle is a natural leader, it’s because he feels he’s cooler and better than other other people, and his shoulders. They’re leadership shoulders.
As a leader he’s much like a male lion, as a captain he’s much like a banana sandwich.
For all the talk of how rubbish Darren Sammy is as a player, he’s done pretty well as a player and seems to be growing a young team with talent.
Sammy is not a big macho man, he’s a nice guy, I like him, I’d have a beer with him or let him buy me a meal, but he’s not an aggressive leader.
The chat before the last over of the regulation overs was bowled showed that. In the end Samuels bowled it because Sammy and Andre didn’t want to.
It looked like a man who did not want to lead from the front.
When Marlon Samuels bowled the super over instead of Sunil Narine, it looked like Chris Gayle had used this big shoulders to move Sammy aside during the meeting.
Maybe I’m wrong, and Sammy just got sucked up in the masculine Jamaican aroma when Gayle and Samuels were next to each other.
Either way, Sammy (or whoever) made the sort of decision you make at three AM when almost everyone has left the club except that person of questionable gender with the mole that looks like Richard Dreyfuss on their forehead.
Forget about the fact that anyone who understood the basic principles of cricket would have picked Sunil Narine.
Think about what had just happened. In an over of top pressure, batting with a bloke who hadn’t faced a ball, Ross Taylor had scored 13 runs off Samuels while getting a great sighter of exactly how he was going to bowl in the next over.
The field placings were terrible, Marlon Samuels will need to ice his arm like a pitcher after it, and the super super super subs was a nice touch.
They deserved to lose on every level.
That they didn’t was because in their batting super over these Jamaican big swinging dicks were immense, and Tim Southee swallowed his own teeth.
Sammy’s problem is that these two now have even more power, even more bravado, even more respect from their team mates.
In the next game expect Marlon Samuels to open the bowling in tandem with Chris Gayle, bat wherever they want, field wherever they want and Darren Sammy will be trudging from long on to long on.
Result: Ross Taylor finally came back to the World T20, Sunil Narine delivers magic aura balls.
