The Allan Border field is, according to a Tweet by Ed Cowan (Tasmania), 'the most ridiculous surface'. I can believe it!
AusA crumbled in the first innings with Sri-Lanka's off-break bowler Senanayake picking up 8 wickets in the first innings, followed by 1 more in the second innings, where the boys are currently 6/200.
Skipper George Bailey (57) and Steve O'Keefe (28*) will resume tomorrow.
On the back of Senanayake's 9 wickets, O'Keefe picked up 7 for himself. At one stage, according to the same Tweet by Ed Cowan they had about 6 guys around the bat. Usually you only see this sort of stuff in a tense situation towards the end of a Test match. These kind of wickets seem to be good as it balances out the art of batting and bowling, in a game where the balance is well out of place for bowlers with T20 cricket and flat wickets. At the same time it can also be incredibly frustrating for a batting team. Reminds me of the final Test of Australia's tour to India in 2004! It happens though and it seems the guys have managed to salvage something from it and have a good lead. Heading to day 3 tomorrow, and I don't see Sri-Lanka A taking it.
Steve O'Keefe also scored 61 in the first innings alongside Ben Hilfenhaus who played an unusual role in bailing the team out of trouble. They put together a strong 8th wicket partnership with Hilfy adding 42. Sri-Lanka A only managed 103 in their first innings, so you get an idea it's not easy going out there especially when the seamers are seeming a bit ineffective. It was really positive though to see even though Steve was the man in the destruction seat, the other bowlers were tidy in their figures. Of course I'm looking specifically at Hilfy and Andrew McDonald's stats. Andrew only sent down 2 overs, but in the 7 overs Hilfy bowled he only went for 17 runs. Seems the spinners will have the final say in this game!
Hopefully Townsville will be a better track.
George Bailey could do with a ton to boost his credibility after a fantastic State season.
Day 3 tomorrow! The first ODI against England will be on the 22nd, while Punter and the gang will take on Middlesex in a warm-up game at Lords today.
Adam Gilchrist will be leading Middlesex, while David Warner is also in their side. What a game! Despite having those two top Aussie blokes in their team, I hope the boys can send Middlesex down in flames!
Analysis to follow at a later stage.
2 comments:
Ben Hilfenhaus got his first first class 50! What a dude.
He's outbatted the batsmen in this match.
Yeah , just needs some wickets but his batting his been epic and the wicket is anything but a batsman's surface!
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