Aug 17, 2005

An advertisement for Test Cricket

The recently concluded third Ashes test can be described so. Though it appeared that rain on the third day spoilt that match, wasnt it alive until the very last ball of the match.. The first two tests saw no centurions, whereas this one alone produced three.. To me the following were the highlights of the match:

a) McGrath deciding to play even though he was quite badly injured just a week ago.. Amazing spirit..

b) Probably the last test played by Gillespie atleast for this season.. He was totally off-color.. 3 wickets from 3 tests could probably be the last thing everyone wanted of him.

c) Warne showing tremendous guts with bat for three consecutive innings.. He avoided the follow-on during the short third day's play, top-scoring for his team in that process. And, in the last day, gave superb support to Ponting to save the test.

d) The Aus team was suddenly feeling the heat from the media, when reports said that Warne had a hot argument with the Aus captain about his decision to bowl first in the second match. It was claimed that there was a rift between Ponting and Warne.. To add insult to injury, during the fourth day, when the eventual centurion Strauss's edge, when he was in single digit, went right between Ponting and Warne, neither attempted to catch it and just stared at each other..

e) On the fifth day, when Aus had lost all recognized batsman except Ponting, Warne frustrated the England bowlers for almost 100 minutes, with reasonably brisk scoring too, to keep the momentum up..

f) He went, followed by Gillespie.. and when only 4 minutes were remaining, Ponting too got out.. He stood at the crease forever.. probably wishing that the ground breaks into two and takes him in.. England required just 1 wicket to go 2-1 up in the series.. But, somehow Lee and McGrath saw through those nervous moments.... What a finish.. An hour less of rain, it appeared, would have provided some result.

5 comments:

S.G.Ramkumar said...

Somehow I wanted England to win the match as they were very close to the end. Great effort by English.

Balaji said...

i've seen so many posts on how good this test was. making me wish i'd seen it :)
so how did u c it? dish?

Raju said...

Ram, me too.. as I am bored with the Australian monopoly.. but, they showed tremendous fighting character on the last day, just like the previous test.

Balaji, NO.. I didnt see the test.. I was merely following it on BBC live radio and cricinfo live scores. But, I saw the highlights downloaded from a forum.

tt_giant said...

Amazing match!. This is the reason why test cricket is the real deal.

Yea, I heard about the rift between Warne and Ponting. I think its just pressure. They drink beer like water.. they would get over the differences over a crate.

Gillespie.. sad end..

On one hand, I am happy that Australia is losing. But on the other, they are losing against ENGLAND!!..

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