It's been great to see the Domestic cricket circuit kick-off for the summer.
While NSW and The Bushrangers have been battling away in the Champions League in India for a spot in the semi-finals, The Redbacks, Western Warriors, The Bulls and Tassie have made their starts in both the Ford Ranger and Sheffield Shield.
NSW had a shocker the other night! Poor Moises Henriques got a pannel beating from Kieran Pollard in those remaining overs. NSW had all but managed to get the 20 overs done for victory before Pollard launched a crazy assault on Moises' medium pace bowling. Now it was far from the humiliation of Stuart Broad vs Yuvraj Singh, but Simon Katich didn't make it any easier. No doubt Moises must have been battered for confidence after that previous over, but no Katto did the worst thing possible and sure enough it only took 3 deliveries to grab the remaining 6 runs.
Well, NSW have a match on now against Somerset so hopefully Moises can get back some confidence.
Awesome to see Philip Hughes and David Warner play some tight cricket at the front. Great see Philip back in action with that unorthodox technique, with any attempt to give himself room to power it away into the on-side regions. I do hope he gets back into the Test squad. As for David Warner, awesome to see the Pitbull muscle away some big heaves for six.
All the Australian players, current or selected, are playing some good cricket in India and while it is 20 overs, the condition analysis will be beneficial none the less.
Andrew MacDonald has been playing some awesome T20 cricket with the bat and ball. I still think he has a place in both our 50 over or Test cricket squads, although competition is very healthy at the moment in the Squad opportunities. David Hussey needs to cash in again!
Back in Australia Marcus North kept his Baggy Green closely in tact in scoring 107 for the Warriors against Queensland who didn't do too badly themselves with the bat.
Marcus had a great Ashes series and his experience is valuable to the middle-order core to complement our top order.
Jason Krejza had a good bowl for Tassie against The Redbacks, along with a pair of ducks too. Nice to see him continue to give himself a chance to impress the selectors.
Shaun Marsh had a good time with the bat scoring 70 and 20* for the Warriors, which was needed after only scoring 5 in the first Ford Ranger match. Great he is back in the team but like Tim Paine, they both make good starts and it's a wait and see game for them to get going. They will do it, it's just not possible to predict any occassion.
Tim Paine also played for Tasmania in their Ford Ranger game scoring 40.
James Smith made an impressive start to his season. Only a little while ago he was a rookie, and the start to his Sheffield Shield was solid. He's got time, and maybe down the line he has a chance to be the first Redback opener since Greg Blewett!
Otherwise Tasmania and the Redbacks had their first Ford Ranger games.
Shaun Tait made a comeback but not to that hectic an extent, while Ben Hilfenhaus and Brett Geeves had a good bowlout. Ok, Geeves more so in the Sheffield games as he copped a fair bit in the Ford Ranger game, but I enjoy reading his blog which is very entertaining (visit cricket.com.au for it or go to the Tasmanian Tigers official website).
Hilfy was highly economical and I have said it before but I am confident he will do the Baggy Green very proud in years to come and "Auzrailian criget" (listen to the man's rough accent on Cricket.com.au TV).
India series still a bit away so no excitement on my part regarding that as of yet.
4 comments:
And as I type Stuart Clark is running riot in India. Just picked up 3 wickets in 2 overs against Somerset. Shame that he had to cut Justin Langer's final innings short.
Yeah I saw it man.
Great effort by the Blues, and awesome to see them advance. How great would it be to have NSW and the Vics in the semi's.
The Champions League has already lost the India tag with their teams from the IPL being booted out.
Henriques seems to bowl a bit too many slower balls but he shouldn't have been bowling at the death. Bollinger went better last night but Somerset were all but gone, maybe Clark is worth a shot as he is the most accurate. But apart from the knock from Pollard, NSW have looked real good in both departments and showed that again last night.
Agree about McDonald he could be pushing for a spot over Hopes. Herniques batting has come along nicely although hes dipped a bit of late. If he can do this in the FRC he would be ideal for the ODI side and that could give his 7 bowlers to use with Watson and Hopes in the side.
James Smith is a talent, I've put him on my radar now with Hughes and Warner going to higher honours already. Cooper hasn't been used right for mind, both times batting at 5 and not doing too much.
James Smith has time, so when Katto and even Phil Jaques are out of the picture we have the youth to take us to the next level. Therefore I hope Philip is kept actively involved with Test cricket and the selectors don't leave him out to dry. JS can pull off a good summer now to push forward.
MacDonald vs Hopes...interesting concept there!
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