Australia Vs Scotland, Group A

Sometimes, we dream that we are King Henry II and we make proclamations like:

"Who will rid me of this meddlesome batsman?"

And then we wake up and realize that we are not King Henry and Ricky Ponting is still batting.

Readers of this blog might be under the impression that we are not very fond of Ricky Ponting. They would not be wrong. We are not fond of Ricky Ponting the person and Ricky Martin the singer but we are in total awe of Ricky Ponting the batsman. We can readily see why Australians are very fond of him. He is brash, plays hard, says really stupid things (Aussies love that), and for the most part, walks the talk. Non-Australians don't like him for the very same reasons.

We have no doubt that if we were Australian, we would have built a couple of shrines for him by now and would be unable to express ourselves without grunting. Thankfully, we are not. For, who would take care of the shrines we already built for Tendulkar and Sehwag?

In this great Australian team consisting of many match winners, Ponting is the biggest, meanest and the greatest match winner. Like Bob Willis said (yes, the old bore really said this), no other batsman in the Australian side is worthy enough to tie Ponting's shoe laces. Hyperbole? Yes, but it has some truth in it. The secret of Ponting's success according to Nasser Hussain is that:

"He (Ponting) looks to hit every ball he faces. His first instinct is to hit the ball and then, if it's a good ball, he defends. That way, he doesn't lose out on any of the bad balls and even manages to hit a few good ones over the ropes."

Easier said than done but Ponting's talent is such that he can do just that. Ponting's attitude to batting is also his Achilles heel. Because he is always trying to play his shots, he can be vulnerable in the beginning of his innings. Once he gets his eye in, watch out.

Ponting on song is a treat to watch even when he is killing your favorite team (2003 world cup finals. We were traumatised by that match and swore a mighty oath to make fun of Ponting whenever we can). His shot selection and shot making ability is of the highest class and comparable to any of the greatest batsmen of all time.

Ponting and Australia came into this match to show the world that, despite losing some luster in the last few matches by playing uncharacteristically, they are the defending champions of the world cup. Ponting led the way with 113 and Australia powered it's way to a score of 334. Besides the typical heroics from Ponting, Brad Hogg played a brilliant cameo and scored 40 runs in 15 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes.

Then it was the bowlers turn. Glen McGrath showed that he still had life in his ancient bones and turned in a vintage McGrath display. Pigeon bowled 6 overs for 14 runs and 3 wickets. The Aussies bundled out the Scots for 131 and won by 203 runs.

Sunny Boy Vs. Monkey Boy

Matthew Hayden's pain medication is keeping him sane so Icky Ponting is taking up the slack. As most of you know by now, Sunny has spoken out against the tyranny of the Aussies calling for a massive uprising all around the world to put an end to their oppressive and cruel ways (sorry, we got a little carried away). Let's try this again: Sunil Gavaskar recently said that though Australia is a great team, they are not liked nor loved because they are such boors. He contrasted them with the Windies of the 70's and the 80's who, he said, were very well liked even as they were kicking everyone's arse.

Well, monkey boy got all hot and bothered about it. He said: "you suck"; "we good"; "we not perfect"; "you not perfect"; "me hungry"; "Australian for beer"; "need bananas, now!".

He also said: "We all know the way he (Gavaskar) played his cricket, don't we?" That's interesting because we actually do know how Sunny played his cricket: With a very straight bat and a lot of class.

Another thing that struck us was his comment about how badly India was doing in recent times. To beat you on the head with a very obvious observation: India doing badly and the Australian cricket team being boors has nothing to do with each other. So, where did that come from?

Sunny, right or wrong, has always been very consistent about his views on sledging. He is on record saying that : "Banter is alright, it makes the game interesting and fun but abuse is not". Not many people know this but we will let you in on a secret: banter is not Ponting's strong suit. He is not smart enough to banter.

We could dissect each of Icky's statements but will instead offer up the floor to others. Since Sanjay felt strongly enough to leave us a comment on an completely unrelated post about this issue, we will let him be the contributing editor of this post:

(ed. talking about Gavaskar's attempted walk-off incident at the MCG in 1980-81) Perhaps Monkey Boy is not, but I am old enough to remember that series. In those days of "not-impartial" umpiring, Australia played with 13 people on the field, including the umpires of course. Sunny Gavaskar got bum decisions practically every other match by an umpire called Whitehead. In the first match, both innings he was given out caught behind twice controversially. Monkey boy is not old enough to remember that Gavaskar was a guy who throughout his career walked when he was out. It was a rare occasion when he awaited an umpire's decision (for LBW typically). That series was also terrible for sledging.
Oh...and by the way, we kicked Oz's ass at MCG in 1980-81. Got them out under 90 runs, if I correctly recall.
Monkey boy should leave the likes of Gavaskar alone. They were people with class. He isn't.

We await with bated breath for the next Ponting's press conference.

Australia Can Win The World Cup, No They Can't

Ponting says that Australia is still the favorite to win the World Cup while Barry Richards says that they aren't. We are confused. Is Australia the team to beat or not? Let's ask Vic Marks. What? India is the favorite to win the World Cup?

This has to stop. These conflicting news reports are hurting our poor brain. Instead of these pissing contests, why don't we do something radical? Like what, you ask? Why, play a tournament in which all cricket playing (and some non-cricket playing too) countries can play against each other and then let's crown the best team the World Champion.

There is no need to thank us. We consider this our duty as a cricket fan. We have several other brilliant ideas if anyone is interested.