Nicholson Cartoons
The game last night for Australians was big, especially considering that the English had just won the Ashes, it was a chance to get back at Flintoff & Pieterson, two of the biggest thorns in our Ashes defeat. Katich & Gilchrist got Australia off to a good start, with the run-rate hovering around 5 an over, Gilly was out and then followed the now customary middle order collapse. Mike Hussey (from WA of course!) then came to the rescue with the never-say-die Brett Lee to boost the Australia total to 255. Lee scored 26 off just 17 balls including a fast-bolwer belts fast-bowler six off Shoaib Akhtar.
Gilchrist gets excited as Watson runs Pollock out. (photo from Getty images via Cricinfo)
The World XI (or should that now be called XII in one-day cricket?) opened the batting with Sangakkara and Sehwag. Sehwag was dropped early by Shane Watson at first slip off Brett Lee, but was snared before he could do much further damage by McGrath. Kallis, Lara & Dravid all came and went quickly, and when 24-year-old Watson got Ashes revenge on Kevin Pietersen, who was trapped out LBW the Australians and everyone round the country watching from their lounge rooms went absolutely nuts (Everyone at my house started jumping up and down and screaming!).
Flintoff came in and started hitting it, which made us all sit back quietly - but this was Australia, and home ground advantage means something. Brett Lee got Shane Watson back by dropping a sitter, while Watson ran Shaun Pollock out with a superb piece of fielding. Hussey was proving he could become a force as fielder as he nearly managed a goalie-like screamer. The super-subs, Cameron White & Shahid Afridi between them contributed 2 runs and didn't even get to bowl a ball. Lee dismissed Daniel Vettori, and the whole team promptly started jumping and hugging each other like crazy. Australia are back!
To finish this off, I take some lines from the song 'I am Australian'
We are one but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come,
we share a dream,
And sing with one voice,
I am, you are, we are Australian.
..And we WON!!
NOTE: I had written this post at 11.55am today, but there was a power failure at my house :( So I lost everything and had to remember what I had already written.
6 comments:
It was nice to see Aus win:-) But they are still vulnerable in their middle-order, it's not yet stable. Poor Martyn , is he having an awful time:-(
McGrath was again the difference in the two sides, surely Aus missed him badly in the Ashes!
Aus is obviously the more motivated side, and playing for one's country is certainly a higher motivation than playing for a world XI:-)
Loved the lines from " I am Australian". You blokes have a great sporting history, an amazing spirit, grit and determination to win. No wonder Aussie sportsmen are most admired around the world. Keep it up:-)
Minal - I agree, the middle order is prone to collapsing still - it seems we get an ok start then 3, 4 & 5 lose it and Hussey rescues us :)
McGrath is a genius, I think he was going for only 1.8 runs an over!
I am Australian is a very nice song :) and I think all our history is sport! There is a very nice video clip of another Australian song - http://users.on.net/~base10solutions/blog_misc/22022005-QANTAS.wmv
It's filmed in Australia & all over the world.
Congrats!!
Was half expecting a rowdy, cocky and beer slugging bunch doing the oggy chant going Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi oi oi ;) but must say was pleasantly surprised by that video, its beautifully shot.
Dinesh - :) Yes, as you can see I'm so glad we won!
Rohan - hahaha, lots of ads on tv in Australia are like that! The beer companies usually make the funniest ads.
That video clip was the 4th in the series, this one http://www.ausgirlschoir.com.au/media/qantas.wmv was filmed in 2001, with India in it also :)
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