Which means he has it, but doesn’t really own it.
Wasim Akram is still warming the chair with him.
Ok I should be honest, I don’t really care about Murali’s record, just wanted an opening to mention this.
116 off 90 balls.
Everyone should bow down before Sehwag.
Heretics and non believers get on your knees, GOD has spopken today.
Sehwagoloy is more important than wicket tallies.
If you had taken the double of the West Indies into South Africa in the most recently completed Test matches, you would be sitting on a pretty handy collect, even on a minimum outlay. For the non punters out there it was, a flat out, rough result.
Credit must go to the resolve of the West Indies, particularly the tough mainstays, Ramneresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. In what appeared a very tense and evenly poised match up from the highlights, the West Indies held firm to secure a long awaited victory on home soil. Although the match didn’t reach any stunning heights skill wise, it was a reminder to use all how exciting Test cricket is. As Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither are Tests won in a similiar period of time, between two evenly matched sides, such as these.
Sarwan broke through for a well deserved hundred to lead the Windies to victory against a strong bowling line up which obviously includes Murali and the rejuvinated Chamnida Vaas, who kept them in the game almost single handly with both bat and ball. Vaas set up the chase with a 50 to recover the Lankans second innings from the very dicey realms of 6/99.
After a shaky start Sarwan and Chanderpaul, held their nerve to lead the West Indies to a confidence building win……………..
Sarwan may be on the cusp of delivering on the potential, he has displayed glimpses of for so long……with the Aussies on the horizon.
The dead rubber between Australia and Sri Lanka at the MCG has inspired me to return to the ‘Cricket With Balls’ blogging crease once again.
Adam Gilchrist’s never ending national retirement tour hogged the headlines with his final appearance at the hallowed MCG. Gilchrist didn’t fail to let down his legion of fans with a typical commanding display, which should have been match winning. He may have put aside team goals in pursuit of an Australian record for the fastest century? You be the judge?
The wicket of Hopes with the score at 107 triggered a spectacular, quite unbelievable collapse resulting in the lose of 5 wickets for 8 runs as the Sri Lankans rallied for two living legends of their own in Sanath Jayasuriya and Murali. The Aussies never recovered despite the determined effort of the lastest Allan Border medallist, Brett Lee. Murali bowled an inspired second spell following an earlier pasting from Gilchrist.
Clearly the highlight of the game came in the 49th over when Jayasuriya was thrown the ball for his first over of the innings, with Australia needing 14. Jayasuriya delivered one of his trademark darts, a little shorter than usual, that crashed into Lee’s stumps to deliver Sri Lanka with a shock come from behind win and crown his final visit to these shores. A mighty cricketing moment indeed.
Earlier, in great scenes of sportsmanship and respect, both sides formed guards of honor for each of the above mentioned players when they came out to bat. Jayasuriya and Murali have been pivotal in shaping the success of Sri Lankan cricket from minnow status to forces in both forms of the game with the obvious career highlight being the 1996 World Cup victory. Both players have changed the game forever with their individual styles of play and have raised the bar of performance to another level.
As for Gilly and the forgetten Brad Hogg, they will have another chance to leave the game on a high with the One Day series finals beginning on Sunday. Hopefully, they can both contribute to Australia going one better than they did tonight, against the Indians
The G had grass on the wicket, so there was a different kind of one day game played last night.
You may remember this kind, where bowlers enjoy themselves.
The Indian bowlers enjoyed themselves immensely and the Aussies ended up 150 odd.
The Aussie bowlers were frothing at the mouth to get to the wicket, but when they got there they were too anxious, you know what I’m talking about ladies.
Most people don’t like one dayers when the bowlers dictate.
But most people are idiots.
My perfect one day game would be one team making 184, and the other making 183 and Inzy getting run out.
Perhaps I remember them fondly from my youth, or perhaps, I’m a cricket sadist.
Batsmen get it all too easy these days, how else could you explain Sourav Ganguly and Graeme Smith.
Flat decks, ropes in the outfield, hard replacement balls, and 20 over field restrictions are making batsmen look good.
Who wants to see batsmen look good all the time.
I want to see them bleed, I want them to count their bruises at the end of a match, I want them to be stumped by 4 meters and then fall over in a final act of indecency.
I want them to be publicly pantsed.
I want them to be so angry they hit the dude who opens the gate for them.
I want a batsman to go insane with rage and start a battle to the death with the bowler who has just got him out.
I want wickets with more life in them than a Mormon.
I want wickets who practice adultery, go to swingers parties, engage in public fornication and enjoy all the pleasures of anal $ex.
I want Shaun Tait to come back and literally rip the throat out of some poor helpless English opening batsmen with a ball on a good length.
I want Murali to spin the ball so far he has to land them off the cut strip.
I want a ban on elbow guards, inner thigh pads, chest guards and any other nancy boy protection.
I want Tony Greig to be publicly executed for bringing “crash helmets” into cricket.
I want tail enders to think about how much they love their family before they get in behind a Dale Steyn delivery.
I want batsmen to get hit on the first morning of a match, and to get bamboozled by spin of the last afternoon.
I want blood, carnage and wickets.
I want to know a batsmen can bat, not just watch him flay away bowlers on wickets flatter than an 8 year olds chest.
I want pain, lots and lots of pain, for batsmen and the families, mental, physical and otherwise.
I want bowlers to rule again.
Everyone thinks an egg was thrown at murali.
Seems a little convenient to me.
After all, it wasn’t Murali who was hit, it was a selector.
A selector was hit by an egg in Hobart.
A Sri Lankan selector (read muppet) was hit by an egg in Hobart, the place where Marvin Attapattu played his last test match.
Stop trying to make this an anti Chucker incident, Marvin got p1ssed and attacked a muppet, and it’s about time.
If it wasn’t Marvin, I hope it was someone from the Muppet alliance that Sime and I formed after his wise words were beamed around the world.
Recently someone through an egg at me as I was walking down the street, I assumed it was a Shaun Pollock fan.
Although it was dark, and they probably just threw it at me because they wanted to throw an egg, not because they could see a world famous blogger while they were driving at night after a few lagers.
I wanted to chase them down the street. But being that they were in a car, and I was shocked by the fact an egg had been thrown at me, they just managed to get away by a kilometre or so.
With Murali the situation was different, cause he’s a little darker than I am.
It’s not overly hard to believe that a bunch of dark men in Tasmania had eggs thrown at them, it has never been overly known for its ethnic tolerance.
Ponting was very upset, he was heard to say, Tasmania should become a more racial tolerant state like his state of Nsw.
The Sri Lankans have asked for omelettes to be banned from all hotels for the rest of the tour.
England actually put up a good fight, not good enough, but good.
But there were many factors in this game that propelled Sri Lanka above their station.
Sanath’s last stand, the man will only retire once, well surely only once in this series.
Murali’s record, he can’t beat Warne again, not unless is in the category of most women hit on in a three test series.
And Vaas is only going to play his 100th test once, i’d assume.
So it can only get better for England, can’t it?
Well all except for the King and the working class Hoggard.
Kumar looks even more unstoppable now than he did in Hobart.
England’s best chance of getting him out now seems to lie with Rudi Koertzen being flown in to umpire the next test.
And Hoggard not playing in the next test is like going to Maccas and buying a fresh and healthy option, its still McDonalds, but it just don’t feel right.
The first test ended up being a pretty damn good affair, if England can cover Hoggard and somehow get Kumar out, we might have a really interesting test series on our hands.
Remember those?
…
A very intelligent cricket blogger once wrote
If he averages under 70, England will win, if not, good luck England.
Before that he wrote
So far the King has made a 90 and just finished up with a nice little 1fiddy2 to put on the mantelpiece. And at stumps it looks like he may have won or drawn a game for the boys.
Not even a swarm of killer bees could stop him.
You have to feel sorry for the English, I don’t, but you have to.
Australia gets a Kumar free test, and then him scratching around in the first innings in Hobart.
England gets a man who just manhandled the best team in the world on their home turf, and then he goes home to celebrate Murali’s asterisk and Sanath’s farewell.
The aforementioned players were instrumental, but these days Kumar is the King and everyone else is just a jester.
Talking about Jesters, how come Harmison didn’t play?
Or maybe the better question should be, Harmison, what the fu©k? If I had his talent I’d talk a bigger game than Graeme Smith before a tour of Australia and I’d strut around like a world class peacock all day.
Big day for England tomorrow, if Sri Lanka start to struggle to get wickets I think the should bring the King on to bowl.
He can do everything else.
His recent form is worth a Portman from me. 
I would talk about Murali and his new asterisk. But i filled my “talking about spinners” quota with the piece on Our Bryce.
The India v Pakistan innings almost got exciting, even after India made a billion runs on a deck flatter than a sh1t carters hat. Then they got Pakistan 5 for 150 odd and they must have been more excited than a 15 year old with his first play boy.
Then one of the less attractive men in world cricket, and a guy with a great name who likes to hop, put on a 200 run partnership and suddenly the flickers of the game were reignited, even if it was for just a moment.
Proof this pitch is a road, Akmal was batting so bad, some Pakistani supporters wanted him put down, and he still made a ton. And Ganguly made runs.
Need I say more?
Hell even Shoaib bowled 15 overs yesterday, quite an effort, he may be in hospital for the next 2 months though.
Over the border/water Sri Lanka were derailed by England on the first day, and with the poms 3/170 chasing 180 odd, the game was over.
Then Murali woke up, and now England has a game to play. 6/185 and with the prospect of facing the chuckaroo in the last innings. Good luck lads.
England really needs to win this series if they are to prove that they are the number two team in the world. ICC rankings look pretty on a wall, but they don’t do much for you out on the field.
Sri Lanka only have two players who can really damage you, I mean really damage you, but when its Kumar and Murali its still bloody dangerous.
With Warne and McGrath gone, Kumar and Murali are the best one two combination in world cricket. Even better than Andre Nel and Satan.
When sportsfreak said they had written a story about the most vile players in world cricket and Graeme Smith was captain I agreed to post it, even before I had read it.
Here we go then; Sportsfreak picks the 2007 version of the World XI of players we love to hate..
Graeme Smith (SA) captain Smith burst into this eleven during his debut series Australia when he went whining to the media about how nasty those Aussies were to him. Since then he has easily cemented his place, and soon became captain after shafting Shaun Pollock following the SA disaster in the 2003 World Cup. The pout when things go wrong, the histrionic appeals, and the smug look on his face means that he will hold his spot until retirement.
The only redeeming feature about New Zealand’s current troubles in the Republic is that Smith hasn’t got any runs.
Herschele Gibbs (SA) Following Justin Langer’s recent retirement, there is a vacancy at the top of the order. And, fancy that, it’s gone to Smith’s opening partner in the Proteas.
Not only is he the only one of Cronje’s cronies still be playing the game, but he’s still too spineless or guilty to travel to India.
Like a few others in this side, he’s an appalling show-off in the field, and he’s also the only person of colour on the planet to have the freckles of a ginga.
Mohammad Yousuf (Pak) Previously a perfectly normal person, and very stylish batsman, Cat Stevens has come from nowhere to make this side in recent years.
It’s one thing to convert your religion, but to deliberately try to look like Osama, and to lead 5 prayer meetings a day is losing the plot in a big way. Fruitcake.
Jacques Kallis (SA) Just look at him.
Surav Ganguly (Ind) The former captain for this XI just keeps hanging in there. Now demoted from captaining his national side, we can only assume he no longer gets to travel in his own limo while the rest of the side ride the team bus. Bet are convinced he will have his special seat.
Still suspect against the short ball, he’s just managing to squeeze out enough runs batting at #5 to keep the talented Yuvraj out of the test side.
” Note that Andre Nel is left out because you have to have sympathy for someone so clearly not all there. “
Andrew Symonds (Aus) Looking more ridiculous by the season, “Roy” revealed a moaning side to his character during the recent Indian tour that seems totally at odds for his much-cultivated I’m a tough Queenslander and not a Pom at all image.
Another summer of pantomime theatrics across Australia beckons.
Paul Nixon (Eng) OK, he’s never actually played a test, and he’s now signed for the Indian 20/20 circus, but we can’t leave this gobshite out. Stunningly awful in every respect; a useless keeper, a scratchy batsman with the full range of smart-arse non-cricketing shots, as ugly as hell, full of lip, and the worst whiny Pom accent imaginable.
Nathan Bracken (Aus) For so long unlucky to cement a place in the Australian test team, Bracken has clearly decided to focus on establishing himself in this side.
And he’s done this by cultivating an image even worse than Symonds. The Alice band is bad enough, but the anguished Goth frowns when not getting his own way is taking the Emo devotion to comical depths.
Ryan Sidebottom (Eng) Pushing Bracken hard to try and have the stupidest and most impractical haircut for a fast bowler in the world.
A fringe selection for this team given that he’s not as far up his arse as the rest here, he just makes it by virtue of his oxymoronic name.
Shoaib Akhtar (Pak)
Where do you start? Chucker, drug cheat, prima donna, bat spanker, totally unplayable by New Zealanders yet others seem to be able to work him out.. The charge sheet is a pretty long one.
Muttiah Muralitharan (SL)
Another tirade against chuckers?? Nothing to do with that; Murali is picked purely on the basis of his scary eyes, and that really gay voice that must irritate the hell out of his team-mates.
12th man: Kevin Pietersen (Eng) Narrowly misses out on the playing XI due to the redeeming feature that he is so despised in South Africa. Would otherwise have been a certainty for the obvious reasons.
Note that Andre Nel is left out because you have to have sympathy for someone so clearly not all there.
Coach. There can only be one: John Bracewell (NZ) Learn to speak English.
Visit Sportsfreak.
