well, it was a thumping for the first 20 or so overs of their innings (80/6 after 21) -- we had them totally on the ropes, a bit of a mid-innings revival that was giving me flashbacks to the 1992 world cup when we lost that semi-final to Pakistan. Sarwan's innings had the definite possibility of turning into a Inzamam-ul-Haq heartbreaker. But it didn't, and when he went, they limped through to the end.

yeah -- the astle/cairnsy double-whammy was a bit hard to stomach at the time, particularly the amount of air that was between astle's bat and the ball when he was given out. i was starting to sense a conspiracy. but it's nice to know we bat all the way down now, and when you see the likes of adams, oram, and (sometimes) mccullum coming in down the order, you know there's always a few more runs left in the day. vettori looked good opening too. quite steady, kept it ticking over, out to a good ball. leave him there, I say.

If Bond rips it up, and the time is coming, New Zealand should take Sth Africa and take that freekin monkey off their back. Your right about the batting, get a decent opening stanza and its all on for the middle order... Bond bowls better when the other teams have a world class seamer.

I just hope that our bowlers learnt from Dion Nash's mistake the last time South Africa were out here. If its the last over, they need a couple of runs to win and Klusener is on strike. Dont bowl a wide full toss that he can hit for six.

yeah, and to make it even worse, he took off the bowler who was bowling really well at the time (forget who now) and replaced him with himself, and then lost the game for us.

i found it weird on my late night channel surfing escapades to keep stumbling over the cricket. it was on 3, 10 and 12 on sky. what i found most interesting was the ads 3 played, in comparison to those on sky. sky had heaps of agricultural products, they thashed that porno lazy summer CD ad, and a bunch of different investment 'opportunities', whereas 3 was all fastfood, cellphones, mitre 10 and rebel sports. I suppose that indicates something, what, I don't know...

as my wife pointed out, there's no real connection between the images in the ad and the CD itself -- it's as if some ad guy got a girl to come in, pull a few poses in a bikini, and then they figured out what product to attach it to later.

// However, that makes him the world's fastest, behind two chuckers :)

nice call jimi.

Mills is a bit of a chucker. He's got that thing, much like Ahktar and Lee do I suspect, of having a bendy elbow: so when he delivers the ball, it actually bends backwards a bit as he whips it through the air, which does, admittedly, create a little bit of extra pace. Muttiah Muralitharan, on the other hand, has no excuses.

And there's some good news for the Black Caps: Jonty Rhodes out of the cup with a broken hand.

Noizy mate, didn't ya know, he has a birth defect. I mean, of course he should be allowed to break the rules if it's not his fault. Just like Shane Warne.....

That reminds me: "Shane Warne is feeling really low at the moment. Even his Mum is taking the piss outta him!" Classic.

Damn, I couldn't wait to make the joke that Bond was the fastest _bowler_ in the world and I didn't even get the chance. Mills action is only illegal when he's doing an effort ball, and that still only just gets to about 130-135. I've got no time for him myself, can't believe they dropped Paul Hitchcock for him.

The big debate I guess is who's speedball radars are right and who's are wrong? Because pretty much everywhere else in the world Bond bowls in the late 140s, except here. Apparantely the radars we use are Police speeding ones and are callibrated every six months. But im suspicious about the Aussie ones, because there's no way in hell Craig White bowls as fast as our Bond.

Ian's argument is a reasonable one, but im not sure how fair it is to not allow people to play just because they have a defect, and hence could perhaps be described as suffering some kind of disability.

Also, Ian Smith is a whole crapload better than that wrinkled old toad Benaud. Smith (unlike Benaud, Bill Lawrie and Tony Grieg) has an ability to see beyond his countries team and calls a game down the middle, and feels no need to stroke the ego and kiss the ass of his nations (and in Grieg's case, his favourite nation perhaps, god knows why he is the way he is) players.

// why was Vettori opening the batting?

'Cos he's good enough to. He's really developed as a batter over the last couple of years, and is now a pretty useful top of the order option. His defence is top-notch, so he's able to hold up one and get the singles (and occasional boundary), while his (presumably more illustrious) partner at the opposite end takes it to the bowlers in a more aggressive manner.

He's been opening the batting for Northern this season, with some good success. 89 in his last knock against Wellington. just before heading off with the Black Caps to the World Cup. So, with McMillan out of sorts, and the experiment of Lou Vincent as a pitch-hit opener opener going by the by (he's so much better coming in further down the order when the field has opened up and he can use his speed to steal a few quick singles), Vettori is the next best bet. And it's working well.

sorry I lost it there. I'll try again. I would have thought that if the Black caps wanted quick runs, Adams would have been a better candidate

// so better to have them coming in on a reasonable platform,

yeah that's true, however I personally don't see vettori as a man that can do that. You made a comment about vettori being an excellent defensive player, I would have to disagree. At international level he is totally unproven.

Yeah, Fleming said on the news they used Vettori to open to protect Astle's wicket, because apparently he has a lot of trouble with the new ball...

// I would have had Vettori take Flemmings place with Flem dropping to 3,
// which I think gives us a much more stable top order.

yep, that sounds sensible.

although, if Astle really is struggling with the new ball, and throwing Vettori in -- even if he only lasts a couple of hours (enough to take the brand new hardness of the ball) -- means Astle is coming in feeling a bit more comfortable, well, that's nearly a sacrifice I'd be willing to make.

sounds more like stupidity to me

yeah mate -- a bit of milk of magnesia and she'll be right as rain.

didn't seem to slow him down against the south africans...

My predicition is that we will be bowled out for 120-130. Seriously though that was sad to watch.

legends.

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