Firstly, the Flood relief was a huge success! $6,000,000 raised and it's an absolutely outstanding effort from the supporters, the players and the games Officials. Cricket stands tall and this is a brilliant way the game can give back to those who have been so devastatingly affected by the floods in Queensland.
Well done to everyone who was involved, just epic!
The series has been wrapped up and while our cricket can still improve, it just feels good again to be on the winning side of things and having a series in the bag again.
The batting will still be a slight worry in the eyes of most supporters but fortunately we have had one or two guys capable of scrapping together some runs at the end, but I really believe in order to stand a chance at retaining the World Cup, our batting has to click like it did in 2007. It is a realistic possibility with this side but it really has to kick in soon as we near the closure of this series.
Michael Clarke will be slightly relieved that he put together a half-century to give him a slight boost. It may be enough for him personally to try and find a more consistent platform to work from. He's going to be so important in the sub-continent conditions.
Numerous blokes made starts but couldn't carry on. It happens, but fortunately our bowling unit was able to chip away at the English batsmen.
Chris Woakes picked up 6 wickets, so always important to give a young bloke credit when he can pull off a spell of bowling like that.
I was mighty impressed with Brett Lee's spell with the new ball! I have recently gone on about what I value so much about seeing Binga in form, and tonight he was splendid up top. Would have been great had a been able to wrap up the tail-enders quickly, but he started things off for us perfectly.
Mitchell Johnson bowled a maiden over, apparently our first of this series which is surprising, but MJ did a good job tonight. He was overdoing it and if we can get a few more spells of bowling like this, it'd compliment Binga's effort really well if you got a guy like Shaun Tait firing in from the other end.
Shane Watson is still picking up wickets at regular intervals by just making sure he lands it in a spot that forces the opposition to attack him.
Steven Smith also had a chance to get some more overs under his belt, so that's important as he is the side and we need to see him stand up now! As Shane Warne once said, the more he bowls, the more confidence he will get.
I was impressed with John Hastings as well. Was great to see Hasto cause some damage out there.
Not really going to get stuck into heavy analysis but the signs are good. Obvious areas we'd love to see the guys improve on is obviously seeing more batsmen put big scores to their names and our strategists electing a core duo to be able to go for the kill and wrap up the tail-enders.
Our fielding standards have been excellent and with a few tweaks things will come right for the World Cup, where it all matters.
Next game will be at the SCG and then finally the WACA.
Come the WACA ODI, a new blog look will be up for the Blogsites World Cup support campaign for the Green & Gold and of course just a week after the final ODI against England, it will be our first warm-up match against India in Bangalore.
The World Cup is nearly here, I can't get over that it's been 4 years already.
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4 comments:
Yep awesome effort by all those involved to raise 6 mill.
Bowling was good in most parts, Lee was consistent as ever and Hastings is starting to show why he was in the top 2 wicket takers in all formats last season. Smith is being used nicely and hasn't been smashed out of the attack.
That's the true Aussie spirit for you! How about Watto flying straight back to Ipswich to help his townsfolk clean up? Legendary!
I hope this series win is the Phoenix rising from the ashes. Good Luck for the WC Boys!
Batting still looks really fragile. You are dead right there.
It is a competition though between Eoin Morgan (very unexpected) and Brad Haddin (completely expected) for who can get out to the lamest shot.
I think Haddin's winning.
It is good to see Brett Lee out there, but I really wish he'd start using yorkers more. He seems to be in love with the slow bouncer, but considering his skill, bowling more yorkers would be a great lead for the other bowlers to follow.
Lou, I think that's gold!
Haddin vs Morgan...daft shot in the slogging ring.
I am in agreement with you. While on Twitter I went on a bit during those last few overs why he wasn't either hitting a good length or atleast sending in the yorkers.
He is the best in the game with those slower ball bouncers but it's becoming less of a surprise. Would love to see more yorkers from the man.
Two games left, two chances for the batsmen to pull it together.
Dussey is the one I want to see put in some more performances as I am still pretty upset that Fergal didn't make our World Cup team.
Still don't see how THE HELL he didn't make the team.
Anyways.
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