Posted by admin on Jul 9, 2009

Australia vs England 1st Test Highlights Day 2

Categories: Ze Archive | 13 comments

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Watch cricket highlights – Australia vs England 1st Ashes Test 2009 – Day 2 from Cardiff

Scoreline: England 435 all out Graeme Swann 47 no
Australia 249/1 Ponting 100 no, Katich 104 no, Phil Hughes 36

Fore-Play: One of the interesting things that cropped up on air during the England lower order’s It’s a beautiful day, we’ve got things to do was the point about batting buddies. Each lower order player gets a better batsman to help him. So Monty gets Collingwood. Well done. Swann possibly flirts with Pietersen. Anderson? Cook would be perfect. And Broad? Maybe Strauss. Truth is, only Broad knows about his lovingly handmade underwear with shiny Yuvraj tassels lining it.

Much-maligned Nathan Hauritz seemed to extract more turn than Swann or the pretender but ended up having to be humiliated by Anderson attempting a reverse-sweep off him. Krejza must be rolling around back in Poland or the Czech Republic.

I like Phil Hughes a lot. Have liked him since the 2nd innings of his 1st test vs SA. Maybe I like him a lot to offset having to watch Katich. So maybe I’m biased. But I couldn’t help enjoying some of the commentators who were drooling yesterday at the prospect of bouncing him out do a uturn, talking about how all openers have got bounced out at some stage in their career. He may have only got 36 today, but it was the most exciting phase of play today, with Flintoff bowling brilliantly (his best spell of the day) and Hughes returning sheepish grins (literally, cos he looks a likable lamb under the helmet). He’s got his own technique that’s useful against the short ball and that’s that.

The Ponting-Katich partnership was very similar to the KP-Collingwood one yesterday except that they’re still both not out. One of Ponting’s more boring hundreds, but he looks pretty much like tomorrow could be spank-it day. There was a slight onset of nerves as he got there in the final over of play – probably cos the last time he got close to a 100 he was out on 99 in the MCG Test vs SA. Only crib about this knock – he should have taken off his helmet today on getting there and unfurled his flowing locks for all to cheer.

I’ve decided to start ignoring Katich. Sometimes if you ignore things long enough they just might disappear. But have to admit, Katich is much better now than the horrible player he was in the 2003 test series vs India, where I think he first spat into my eye.

Forgot one more point – Ponting seems to have adopted Tendulkar’s slog-sweep to spinners (in Sachin’s case, more often to the ball turning away). Didn’t work today, but interesting all the same.

Pre-Play: At some point today, England will be bowled out and Phil Hughes – the most exciting Australian opener since Slater – will walk out (Hayden inspired grudging admiration as far as I’m concerned). The English commentators yesterday seemed to be salivating at the prospect of short-bowling him out. Go back a few months to the Aus tour of SA – After his horrid dismissal in the 1st Test vs SA (video missing – some weirdo sitting at a desk seems to have taken its place) to a short ball, the SA fast bowlers repeatedly bowled short to him in the 2nd Test (esp the 2nd innings). Hughes was still able to hop around and out of the way and smash two super hundreds in the Test. So, not sure if the short ball is really an antidote. The only type of bowling that came to mind at the time that could work against him was McGrath resurrected in some form.

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13 Responses to “Australia vs England 1st Test Highlights Day 2”

  1. Vman says:
    July 9, 2009 at 11:29 am

    Thanks for posting the Highlights.

    Seriously, Ricky Ponting CANNOT play spin bowling. Any spin bowler can make him look really ordinary. Hence should never be compared to Lara and Tendulkar.

  2. gary says:
    July 9, 2009 at 11:56 am

    Ricky Ponting is a prick. Noone wants to see him get past Tendulkar’s 100’s.

  3. Dtal says:
    July 9, 2009 at 12:58 pm

    The stream quality is not good.. It stops and plays.. Why is this? Usually I get very good quality highlights here.. Please do something abt it!!

  4. Daveo says:
    July 9, 2009 at 6:13 pm

    Vman – what are you talking about? Look at the scoreboard – enough said.

    Seriously, Rick Ponting has his critics as a Captain, but as a batsman there’s no doubt he’s one of the game’s greats. Can’t be compared to Lara or Tendulkar??? In my mind the average and the class of the shot says it all – and he’s got both.

    He sure leads by example too – which is a good trait for any Captain. Congrats to Katich too – a good knock.

    England tail did well to post another 100 odd runs today.

    Thanks Admin.

  5. Andy says:
    July 9, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    Thanks for the video. As an aussie support (living state side) great to see the Aussies make a solid start. tommrow is key. If they can get to 600 (hussey and clark have to fire), and have johnson hit another blazing 50, I think it could be lights for England who were made to look good after playing NZ/West Indies.

    Great comments about Phil H. But over time, he will become boring to keep his place. Happened to Pointing and Clark. Slater tried to keep his style, but lost his place.

  6. vipin says:
    July 9, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    The technique which Ponting possesses is only good enuf for english conditions.Had he been playing in subcontinent those flourish of bat would be replaced by gosh looking defensive shots.So employ a good spinner and watch Punter paying tribute to M.J.4get Tendulkar and Lara, both were equally effective against any bowler.

  7. Michael Hunt says:
    July 9, 2009 at 11:48 pm

    Freddy got fingered. (1 for 60) Baaahhh. Flintoff showed his usual dirty tactics and poor sportsmanship(Bodyline bowling), and what’s that black spot on his rude head, a bit of shit maybe?. English supporters are all thugs. Ponting is a living god. Go Aussies.

  8. Dutchie says:
    July 10, 2009 at 6:02 am

    Are Dtal en me the only ones with bad qualiti streming. It stops indeed. It used to be such good hihglights. Must I change something or can something be done about the excerpts published?

    The increase in buffering time is cos of shifting back to the old video site which has proved to be more reliable than Rediff which tended to sometimes display “No video available” for no apparent reason – Admin

  9. AussieRob says:
    July 10, 2009 at 8:21 am

    11000 runs in test cricket….yup, Ponting must be a choker against spin……

    Sheesh!! Give the man some credit!

  10. kumar says:
    July 10, 2009 at 11:32 am

    Ponting is a great cricketer and no one should doubt this. even as a captian his record is far better than quite a few other captains so everyone must give credit where it’s due! I am not an Australian but come on guys that does not mean we can’t acknowledge and praise his achievements. Well done Ricky….congrats on your test 100 and 11000 runs.

  11. The Cricket Man says:
    July 11, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    Only Indians will ever dispute Pontings class!He is as good if not better than Tendulkar! Whilst Tendulkar has milked his runs on the flat mud tracks of India..Ponting has scored runs in possibly one of the best batting line ups in history! He has scored runs all across the world against all attacks and the best thing is that when Ponting scores Australia wins..unlike Tendular whose greatest knocks have come when India has lost! No disrespect to Tendulkar but Ponting is in the same league if not higher!
    As for being a choker against spin: 11000 runs…Says it all! um..I’ll take that thank you very much!!!

  12. CanadiDan says:
    July 11, 2009 at 10:18 pm

    Thanks for the highlights, great to see some good cricket again, bit hard to get it here in Canada. Just reading some of the comments and am dismayed at the lack of intelligence on the part of some “so called” cricket fans. Congrats to you Ponting a great achievement. I can’t see how the only 4th batsman in the WORLD to reach over 11000 runs can’t play spin bowling?????? So Vman and Gary you are both dropped from the side pending a review of your intellectual capacity, fair play and most of all sportsmanship.

  13. vipin says:
    July 13, 2009 at 7:33 pm

    Never said about P0nting being choker or did i???But u can’t take P0nting’s name in the same breath as Tendulkar and Lara and every1 outside Australia will agree.For all those ardent supporters how much P0nting averages in the subcontinent??As if deeds in England and Australia only count??And yes Tendulkar and Lara couldn’t win matches on their own for you need bowlers to take 20 wickets in a test match.Morever they didn’t had the cover of waughs the haydens the martins the langers to hide under.