I’m excited.
This has been a big weekend for Victorians.
Dirty Dirk took 4 for today and helped an IPL side actually win a game.
Victoria beat Delhi up in their first champion’s league match.
And Australia picked another Victorian for a tour.
It might have been some useless one-day series that no one will really care about, but I don’t care, another Victorian has been noticed.
A spinny Victorian, sure he bowls that poncey left arm spin crap, but he can bowl.
It is too early to tell if he is the real deal or not, he hasn’t played in more than 10 games in any format for Victoria yet.
But in Victoria’s one game he showed something. This was his first game in front of an international audience only hours after he was announced as an Australian squad member. He had every reason to fail.
Instead he bowled quite well against Dilshan and Kartik; two guys that should and could have smashed him everywhere.
Before yesterday he was probably going to India as a work experience cricketer, but he could now find himself slipped in to the side on the tracks that spin. Thanks to Lalit he is getting some great practice.
He is going to go the distance in this tournament eventually; he isn’t the Umar Gul of spin or anything.
Victoria rate him highly, and in only a short time he seems to have replaced Bryce McGain as the main 2020 spin option for them.
But what I liked best was how relaxed he looked. It took Nathan Hauritz 5 years at the top level to look as relaxed as Holland did the first time in front of a live studio audience.
All in all he raises my pulse more after watching him only three times than Hauritz has in his whole career, although they have one thing in common, neither has taken a 5 wicket haul in first class cricket.
I like him, it is still early days, but he was one of the two spinners I mentioned in my Australian spinners and zombies post along with Steven Smith, who has also bowled well in the league.
Australian spin may not be dead.
yeah but can he handle it when the stadiums will packed in the ODI series? or when GOD decides to end his career?
Who knows, you can only pick him and see.
Oh but India is the best place for poncey crickets to start – they will all get out to him and make him a fake star look at Michael Pup for instance.
I like it.
The shithouse showing so far in the CLt20 by the IPL teams is really to make everyone else look good.
Oh Lalit you are the best thing for cricket ever! Thank you!
@jrod – well let’s hope they give a chance and not shaft him like krejza.
I was apoplectic that Aaron Heal wasn’t chosen. A left arm tweaker, who, besides actually playing more than half a dozen games in life, was also the top ranked one day spinner in Australia last year.
But then I saw Holland bowl.
He looks better than Heal.
Sorry Aaron. Life’s like that.
Hewy, I was a bit the same, I think he deserved a go even before Hauritz did in the one day side in 07/08 i thought he was the best one day finger spinner on form. But he isn’t now.
D Charlton, At least no one is fertilising his skin, bad batting and shocking fielding.
I’m actually looking forward to the Aussie 7-match magical mystery tour – after this 20-20 crapola. Since its a foregone conclusion that 50-50 needs reviving, here, imho, are some amendations to the laws that will rescue the game from a Lehmann-esque end.
1. In the stagflationary overs (20-40), it is mandatory to bowl one Monty-like left-armer, with only two allowed on the leg side, so that the run rate may never fall below 6, even if a Monty-like batsman is on strike.
2. The other bowler must me a Shreesanth-like pouty, tantrumy, abusive quick (yup, any Aussie will do), who shall mandatorily:
a. look askance at the umpire once every 4 legal deliveries.
b. hurl abuses at the batsman every time he scores or doesnt get beaten (yup, any Aussie will do)
c. bowl a beamer on a free-hit and then dramatically apologise (apology clause is optional if opposing team member is Michael Holding)
3. Each Aussie player is allowed three whiney referrals to the match referee whenever an opposing team member retaliates to their incessant juvenile verbal and physical baiting. The match referee, in turn, shall mandatorily fine or ban at least one opposing team member after every odd-numbered such referral.
4. The new-improved faggoty Ponting must revert to his sullen, self-righteous true self with immediate effect. The fate of this series, and of 50-50 cricket in general, is in his saliva-stained hands.
5. If any team (i.e Australia) goes 2 up in the series, the oposition team (i.e. BCCI) shall be allowed to pick the playing XI for both teams for all subsequent matches. If this doesnt redress the balance, then the extreme measure of recalling Greg Blewett to captain the Aussies on a turning track may have to be resorted to.
6. The Indian commentator on espn/star sports is allowed to throw-up on his Aussie counterpart if reference to “the baggy green” is made more than 18 times in a single session. The same law applies to any person sitting next to an Aussie anywhere the match is being televised.
Being whacked by the Lord does not end one’s career. It gives him the belief that in the worst case scenario he will not get hit any worse.
There’s nothing like having a few Victorians on the selection panel.
What are the odds that his first wicket will be Tendulkar
Jrod – you sound like the English media when they first caught sight of Monty. I was there, i saw Holland spin it and, like a nation desperate for serious spin option, all the Australians thought he was the the second coming – and came.
It will all end in tears, it always does.
And see your former hero (Nice Bryce) slagging off the selectors at http://www.thewisdencricketer.com/blogs
on a separate but disappointing note: callum ferguson will miss out on that baggy green. mike hussey survives for another year i suppose.
http://www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/current/story/429245.html
I’m pleased for Holland, but dare you suggest that I am not a lusty woman??
How very rude.
:-)
Too early.
Makes the Aussie selectors look even more desperate than usual. Or does it?
I mean, what can?
Kraze picked up three today. Dump Ritzy and get Kraze back in the test side.