Thursday, December 09, 2004
Bloggingitlive from Sydney
dc_red reporting from the SCG
Attended last night's game at the SCG. They wouldn't give me a press pass (despite my obvious devotion to sports reporting) so I had to shell out $47(AUS) for the benefit of a seat. Plenty of kiwis around, and ozi-kiwi relations were fine, which was pleasant compared to the barracking the occasional ozi at Eden Park receives. Just a bit of banter back and forward, all good.
Nice ground with good views from everywhere, as you'd expect, although the scoreboard was more concerned with advertising Queensland vacations than replaying any of the action. Which perhaps wasn't surprising given the dodgy LBW decisions that went against New Zealand (McCullum being the most obviously cheated - AGAIN - although Styris also looked hard done by in this humble blogger's opinion). On the other hand, given the reasonable weather in Sydney - compared to the ongoing Antarctic conditions in Dunedin - I don't know why Queensland is trying so hard to advertise itself to Sydney-siders.
Now to the game ... great start by Australia, with Oram in particular taking a hammering. He had a truly shocking game - one of those days, don't let it happen again! In the end, I guess Adams might have been more use, he was bloody good in the field after poor old Harry hobbled off. Oram doesn't seem to throw from the outfield very well either, I observed while he stood in front of us for half the innings. Full credit to Harry for coming out to bat with a buggered shoulder, especially when Lee was keen on firing a couple of short ones at him at around 150kph. Speaking of Lee, one of the (few) replays clearly showed Lee chucking. Dirty bastard, I can spot a bent elbow from 120 yards. And I don't care how many degrees it is.
New Zealand bowled well in the middle and later stages, with Vettori and Mills doing well, foreshadowing their later efforts with the bat. I thought Vettori was unlucky not to get a 2nd LBW, especially when Hogg and Symonds were awarded everything they appealed for. Bastards! Or Bastard umpires, I should say. Stryis was surprisingly good with the ball too.
On to the NZ innings ... Astle looked out of form again and it was just a matter of time until he edged one through to the slips. Doesn't like it short and rearing up outside off. Sinclair was OK until he tried to force the pace and got out. Fleming dicked around for a while and never looked like going on. Then it was on to the LBWs, before Cairns got amongst them from a while, but always looked like holing out to midon or midoff, which duly happened once he hit 50. Great efforts by Vettori and Mills (and Harry) but in the end we couldn't quite pull it off.
I guess that one terrible over by Oram really separated the teams. Onwards and upwards, even though dc_red and ms_red are now $96 poorer. And that's Ozi dollars mind you.
Attended last night's game at the SCG. They wouldn't give me a press pass (despite my obvious devotion to sports reporting) so I had to shell out $47(AUS) for the benefit of a seat. Plenty of kiwis around, and ozi-kiwi relations were fine, which was pleasant compared to the barracking the occasional ozi at Eden Park receives. Just a bit of banter back and forward, all good.
Nice ground with good views from everywhere, as you'd expect, although the scoreboard was more concerned with advertising Queensland vacations than replaying any of the action. Which perhaps wasn't surprising given the dodgy LBW decisions that went against New Zealand (McCullum being the most obviously cheated - AGAIN - although Styris also looked hard done by in this humble blogger's opinion). On the other hand, given the reasonable weather in Sydney - compared to the ongoing Antarctic conditions in Dunedin - I don't know why Queensland is trying so hard to advertise itself to Sydney-siders.
Now to the game ... great start by Australia, with Oram in particular taking a hammering. He had a truly shocking game - one of those days, don't let it happen again! In the end, I guess Adams might have been more use, he was bloody good in the field after poor old Harry hobbled off. Oram doesn't seem to throw from the outfield very well either, I observed while he stood in front of us for half the innings. Full credit to Harry for coming out to bat with a buggered shoulder, especially when Lee was keen on firing a couple of short ones at him at around 150kph. Speaking of Lee, one of the (few) replays clearly showed Lee chucking. Dirty bastard, I can spot a bent elbow from 120 yards. And I don't care how many degrees it is.
New Zealand bowled well in the middle and later stages, with Vettori and Mills doing well, foreshadowing their later efforts with the bat. I thought Vettori was unlucky not to get a 2nd LBW, especially when Hogg and Symonds were awarded everything they appealed for. Bastards! Or Bastard umpires, I should say. Stryis was surprisingly good with the ball too.
On to the NZ innings ... Astle looked out of form again and it was just a matter of time until he edged one through to the slips. Doesn't like it short and rearing up outside off. Sinclair was OK until he tried to force the pace and got out. Fleming dicked around for a while and never looked like going on. Then it was on to the LBWs, before Cairns got amongst them from a while, but always looked like holing out to midon or midoff, which duly happened once he hit 50. Great efforts by Vettori and Mills (and Harry) but in the end we couldn't quite pull it off.
I guess that one terrible over by Oram really separated the teams. Onwards and upwards, even though dc_red and ms_red are now $96 poorer. And that's Ozi dollars mind you.
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