23rd over: India 112-3 (Sharma 58, Raina 23)
Boom! Rohit Sharma gets his fifty with a mighty heave over mid-wicket, he takes James Faulkner down-town with a mighty belt into the bleachers, whatever that means, something to do with the white bleach paint they put on seats in the sun in baseball games. Eight off.
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22nd over: India 104-3 (Sharma 49, Raina 23)
Bang – Raina whacks Watson through mid-wicket off the front foot, an agricultural sort of shot but worth no less runs than the purest dab of a late-cut by Mark Waugh.
I’ve never done this, and before today Rory McIlroy never had either:
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21st over: India 96-3 (Sharma 48, Raina 16)
Cummins, again, he’s pulled well by Sharma behind square. Bit all over the shop today, Patrick Cummins the Wild Colonial Boy. And Sharma goes to nearly-fifty.
20th over: India 89-3 (Sharma 43, Raina 14)
Boom – Watto is pasted high over his head, lovely on-drive by Raina who appears to have found the centre of his bat. Four runs, one bounce, into the fence.
Then he invites Glen Maxwell to run out his partner at the non-striker’s end, and Maxwell isn’t quick enough. No-one would be, in truth. But it was a funny little stammer by the non-striker, who made it home despite Maxwell hitting the pegs.
Slow bouncer! Watto! Slow bouncer! He only bowls at 125 clicks and he’s dishing up slow bouncers. Oh Watto, don’t go changin. Remember Steve Waugh bouncing Viv Richards and Ian Botham. This was nothing like that.
19th over: India 84-3 (Sharma 43, Raina 9)
Pat Cummins again, shades of the Irish, the Wild Irish, the Wild Colonial Boy about him. He’s pulled hard in front of square by Raina, confidence-building shot by Suresh who’s lacked it. Top shot, front of square, strong. He’s gone to 8. Cummins bounces him. Ball goes over leg-stump. It’s a wide, though. Then he’s cut hard to third man. Good batting, Raina … the human strainer.
Here’s Dr Hook singing about the Wild Colonial Boy, Jack Doolan was his name:
18th over: India 77-3 (Sharma 42, Raina 4)
Watto beats Raina. Expels breath out his mouth. Raina’s been poking about early, tentative like a gardener fossicking about in someone’s else’s garden, wondering what plants are these?
Six off, however, and India rolls on in a consolidation-ary fashion.
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17th over: India 71-3 (Sharma 39, Raina 2)
Six! Sharma launches a short one by Starc over backward square leg, mighty six.
Then Starc bowls a wide. And so do the sands fall through the hourglass. Sharma slays one through backward square for one (1).
16th over: India 64-3 (Sharma 32, Raina 2)
Watto. Stunning near-maiden. Simply stunning. My but that was a grand and gob-dangling gorgeous near-maiden over.
Yep – not a mighty big whack of a lot going on the last couple of overs.
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15th over: India 62-3 (Sharma 31, Raina 1)
Mitchell Starc is the relief and pounds the ball into the pitch like he hates it.
Maiden.
14th over: India 62-3 (Sharma 31, Raina 1)
Nothing much in that over. But I am joined by my mate Heber from next door who played cricket in the same club as Kevin O’Brien of Ireland who once did this:
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13th over: India 59-3 (Sharma 29, Raina 0)
Successful over by James Faulkner with three runs off. Big wicket, old Virat, a man at the peak of his considerable powers.
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Wicket! Virat Kohli 9 c Someone b Faulkner
Well, there you go. Not the shortest straight one Jimmy Faulkner will bowl but Virat thought it short enough to pull for four, but instead got a fat top edge that spooned over Faulkner’s head to George Bailey who took a catch simpler than George W. Bush doing a quick crossword with most of the words already filled in.
12th over: India 56-2 (Sharma 27, Kohli 8)
Here’s our Shane, the great Watto, the great golden bollocks of Australian cricket, the man who I’m informed by men who know has a body built for cricketing sin. Him, our Shane, with whom I kicked penalty goals with at the home ground of the Burleigh Bears for a $20 bet. He concedes a couple.
Meanwhile, Krishnan Patel from the UK asserts: “The fundamental thing I don’t like about India is their preferential treatment of certain ‘icons’. If Kohli goes on to score big here, Rahane’s contribution in wearing the shine off the new ball will totally be forgotten and Kohli will be lauded with superlatives. Rahane is being made the Dravid of this generation. Btw, is it just me or does Sandhu remind anyone of McGrath with his line and action?”
You could make a case, Krishnan. And have.
11th over: India 53-2 (Sharma 25, Kohli 7)
Run out? No. Kohli was in by about nine hundred miles and I would walk nine hundred more just to be the man who’d fall down dead upon your door. And yet Brad Haddin convinced umpire man to have a look on the big screen which said, Brad Haddin? Stop wasting everybody’d time. That’s what it said in giant bold letters, or should have if there was any fairness in this big old world run by the Big Three.
So – James Faulkner gets a go, and concedes eight runs.
10th over: India 45-2 (Sharma 24, Kohli 1)
Yeah. Nothing happened in that over worth even these meagre key-strokes.
So here’s David Hookes bashing the fastest first-class century of all time:
David Hookes whacking away.
9th over: India 41-2 (Sharma 21, Kohli 1)
Pat Cummins again, and … bang – beautiful shot from Sharma, a cover-drive right out the screws. Cummins dished up a wide and inviting half-volley and Sharma needed no further invitation. Boom – all the way, four runs. Top shot.
Tridiv Mazumder, coolest name on the internet, says of the Alan Donald not out caught behind Geoff Marsh movie below: “Nehera takes 6 wickets in that world cup match.”
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8th over: India 35-2 (Sharma 15, Kohli 1)
First ODI wicket for the new man, Gurinder Sandhu of Blacktown. First ball at Virat Kohli. And now first wide. Bowls at 135. It’s fast enough if you’re accurate, and the tall loper looks like he is. Twenty-one years old, he’s a prospect.
“How old are you and what do you look like?” asks Amy from the internet, probably a 46 year old man from Poland.
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Wicket! Ajinkya Rahane 12 c Haddin b Sandhu
Well. There you go. The new man has his first ODI wicket with probably his poorest ball of the lot, a short wide-ish one that Rahane cut but fat-edged to Haddin.
Robert Wilson from the internet asks: “Have you ever used a fire extinguisher on a mound of lava? Did it end the way you hoped it would?”
No. But it’d be pretty steamy, one would warrant.
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7th over: India 32-1 (Sharma 14, Rahane 12)
Pat Cummins is getting another go from a different end. He wouldn’t have been bashed back over his head very often, fast bowlers don’t tend to get that, nor like it. For mine he’s a bit like Alan Donald. Don’t know if that’s just me. If one of the TV people thought so they could run one of those montage things where they put two run-ups on the screen together. But he’s quick, young Patty, and he zaps it past the bat. Old White Lightning -and good day to you, sir, if you’re reading – my, but he could bowl couldn’t he. His first ball in Australia he had Geoff Marsh caught behind. I’ll dig up the footage. Ha. How was this not out?
6th over: India 30-1 (Sharma 13, Rahane 12)
Here he is, the debutant, Gurinder Sandhu, a tall 21-year-old loper from Blacktown in Sydney’s golden west. Angled run in, gets close to the wickets, tries to bowl stump-to-stump. Mostly does. And there’s just the one off his maiden One Day International over.
5th over: India 29-1 (Sharma 12, Rahane 12)
Rahane slashes at a Starc half-volley wide, takes two. Is all that happens, really.
Here’s that banana & cricket photo, except readable.
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4th over: India 26-1 (Sharma 12, Rahane 10)
Well. The Indians are launching into Pat Cummins. Sharma smashes him for six down the ground, beautiful lofted off-drive. Then they run four after a beautifully timed drive off his pads through mid-wicket by Sharma. Top batting. And India is away.
3rd over: India 16-1 (Sharma 2, Rahane 10)
Oh – lucky break there for the Rahane Man, who French Cuts Starc to the fine-leg fence. Just misses his poles. Aussies all up in the particular anguish known to the fielding side: OOOooh, my but that was close.
Then – shot. Starc drops it in short outside off stump and Rahane Man accepts with alacrity, cutting past the diving point man Steve Smith, who flies like a startled lizard, but can’t pouch the hot one.
My but I love cricket. I mean, I know we all do. But for me it goes much deeper than that.
2nd over: India 6-1 (Sharma 1, Rahane 2)
Pat Cummins, tidy first over. Beats Rahane, has him fending. But the India first-drop is in the super-hot form and sees the young firebrand off like a fire extinguisher on a mound of lava, something like it. Three off.
1st over: India 3-1 (Sharma 1, Rahane 0)
Well, there you go. Super-eventful first over from in-form left-armed pace ace Mitchell Starc who drew a huge LBW appeal, nicked out Dhawan, and bowled with pace and movement on a bone-white MCG wicket. Here’s a younger, right-armed version next up, Pat Cummins.
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Wicket! Dhawan 2 c Finch b Starc
Well, fifth ball of an eventful over proves more eventful as Mitchell Starc draws Dhawan into a drive to an outswinger and there’s a perfect fat edge to Finch at second slip, who pouched the regulation take right in front of his eyes.
The rest of the over, which isn’t over yet … went thus:
First ball, Rohit’s away with a guide off the hip. White hot surface here, it’s glowing like a runway from the future, or Battlestar Galactica, whatever comes first. White old strip though, and looks like there’s mucho runs in it. Dhawan squirts two through gully to prove the point, sort of. Shout for LB by Starc who got two Poms thus in the first match. No bat in it. Hits our man low down. But… well, probably spearing down leg. Looked like it on first look, and the Umpire Man adjudicates Doubt, as he must. Starc follows up with a Jaffa away. And then gets this man! Wicket, fifth ball of the game. Dhawan is David Goneski.
Batters are out, The People. And Mitchell Starc will bowl the first shiny white rock to Rohit Sharma.
Greetings, The People, and welcome to the mighty monolith that is the Melbourne Cricket Ground for Game Two of this … whatever they’re calling the tri-series between Australia, England and India, the Big Three of World Cricket who will rule the world of cricket as they see fit given they earn all the money. Be nice if they spread the love and grew the game around the world but, you know, self-interest is a tough one to crack given you know it’s always having a red hot go.
For now we’ll have a crack at what you, The People, reckon we could call this triangular pre-World Cup tune-up series. The Big Three Tri-Series? The Veletta-Srikkanth-Tufnell series? Let’s hear it, The People, fire in suggestions to matt.cleary@theguardian.com or Tweet @journomatcleary.
The news? India has won the toss and will … well, what do you think? They will bat, baby. They bat. And lo we will see the first ball at wonder-whackers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan at 14:20 local time, 03:20 in the UK and anywhere on Greenwhich Mean Time, and 08:50 in the mega-city of Mumbai. Went there once, Mumbai, in ‘94. Never heard humans make more noise than when Anil Kumble got Jason Gillespie to win the fourth Test on that interesting Wankhede wicket. Good times.
More to follow.
Matt Cleary is the man charged with being your ears and eyes today. He’ll be along shortly, but in the meantime, why not have a read of his recent Big Day Out at the SCG, where Australia met today’s opponents India in the final Test.
The crowd is appreciative of the opening pair’s stroke play. Yet it’s muted, almost genteel, here in the Members among people who have to wear collared shirts and a certain sort of pants. Regardless a message on the big screen advises people that they can report anti-social behaviour by text messaging a certain number. Walshy takes out his phone and texts: “You can fuck off”. He chooses not to send it. Authorities have no sense of humour in these frightened, alert-heightened times.
It didn’t use to be like this. Indeed some years ago on the old Hill region, Walshy was escorted out of the ground by two policeman, high-kicking in can-can style, and roared on by 10,000 “beery, cheery mates”, according to the caption underneath a photo of him on page 3 of The Daily Mirror. People will laugh about it at his wake.
Read the full story here.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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One-day international Tri-Series: Australia v India - live!
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