Saturday 11 January 2003

Long term readers will know that I don't rate the Australian cricket team (and certain blonde people who bowl quickly with questionable actions in particular) very highly these days, but I must give some credit for the performance against England today. Damian Martyn batted superbly, Shane Watson finally showed some form with the ball when McGrath was injured, and Brad Hogg recovered from being hammered early to put in a respectable spell. Of course certain people struggled as usual, but Andy Bichel recovered from his poor performance the other night to put in another performance that justifies his position as Australia's premiere third fast bowler.

Of course England were on target to comfortably take out the game before Ian Blackwell, who is constantly referred to in the commentary as a 'big hitter', came to the crease at 1-165 and made the most casual and laboured 12 in One Day history. With six an over required he spent most of his innings blocking and refusing to run two when he could settle for a lazy single. Tony Greig, as usual, wasn't happy at the situation, and obviously neither was Nasser Hussein. I'll be interested to see whether this dud benefits from the English squad's black-death style injury plague to retain his spot for the next ODI.

Meanwhile, website of the day (not a regular feature anytime soon) is Shoot-it.org. Load any picture you like and take to it with a handgun. Try a JPG of yourself, it's very theraputic. Or load one of Ian Blackwell if you're an English cricket fan.

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