1. World Cup Cricket. Mitch Marsh is back in town and crushes 177no, carving up the minnows. Two World Cup tons now. I guess someone has to do it, but it bodes well for the finals. The Glenn Maxwell innings v the Afghanistanis was pretty amazing too in the tight circumstances. Can't imagine a 201no in most forms of Australian cricket for some time to come. Our batting is just not that strong at any level.
Warner sits on 499 runs for the tournament after 9 games. He is such a special talent. Marsh has hit 426 runs and Maxwell leaps up to 397 runs (Quentin de Kock leads on 591 runs).
Zampa, the tennis ball thrower, has the most wickets at the World Cup - 22. At 18.91 mind you too. A great tournament.
2. Bangladesh Cricket - 'Timed Out' dismissal. Bangladesh are one of the most underperforming teams in world cricket. Sri Lanka had achieved a lot more than them at a similar stage in the top flight. They look a little more feisty than most and yet they lose for fun. They need to improve their bowling... and stop finding silly outs and conflict as their way forward. Angelo Matthews needs a rocket too. Silliness. Sri Lanka have sacked their entire cricket board too. Chaos.
The last bloke 'timed out' in world cricket was Greg Dalton in hotel cricket in the mid 90's, unpacking a case of beer.
The Bangladeshis were duly thumped by Australia and cricket fans shed no tears. Mercifully England bow out and so do Pakistan. Both highly inconsistent teams.
At the end of the group stage, we are best placed v South Africa and need three or four wickets earlier than most - de Kock, van der Dussen, Markram et al. Nothing new there. The deck at Eden Gardens seams around a fair bit, esp. under lights. Really hard to chase runs on that deck, so it will be a 'win the toss and bat' scenario... or perish!
3. Imperatriz. This horse is something special, even if it is from NZ. Too quick for Alligator Blood, Mr Brightside and In Secret over 1200m at Flemington. It has won eight Group 1s now...incredible. Six this year. It has joined the greats of Australian racing now. Yet the owners did not run it in the Everest? Crazy. "She prefers left handers" - running counter-clockwise...what? The quickest horse in the business!
4. Rugby League - Bulldogs. They can find controversy easy enough. Still missing a half back for mine, but a stronger team. More experience now. If they flop in 2024 there will be heads rolling...Gus' mainly. Bronson Xerri has extreme pace which will compensate for losing Jake Averillo, but Xerri's hands and passing/ ball skills were always suspect. It will be interesting to see what he has developed in his enforced lay off.
5. Ange Postocoglou. A thumping loss at home to Chelsea 1-4 was not good mid week. Ill disciplined play with send offs did not help. Another loss to Wolves 2-1 after being up 1-0 for most of the match too. Serious injuries are depleting the team now... an interesting time ahead for the three time consecutive EPL Manager of the Month (something very few managers have achieved). ... suddenly the Ange song has gone a bit quieter.
6. Meg Lanning. Retired and gone. One of the very best of her long career. Such an elegant, sensible bat and a composed leader through an era when Australian Womens' cricket has been the dominant world leader in a single sport.
7. Sydney Swans Womens AFL team. Into the semis from nowhere... great spirit and skill. AFLW is becoming a more watchable game now. They beat the Suns in their elimination semi final and now play the top ranked Adelaide. The games are usually so tight, anything might happen here.
8. ATP Finals Tennis. Novak Djokovic is looking to take a record breaking seventh ATP Finals singles win in Turin, Italy this week. The old 'Masters Cup'. He will move past Federer if he does. In doubles, John McEnroe and Peter Fleming were doubles champions for seven years in a row (1978-1984). Seven is the record in doubles, six in singles.
9. NSW Sheffield Shield. And then suddenly they win. Intriguing they can nail WA and all their stars, but struggle against others. More runs, more wickets and less blokes preening themselves and telling everyone they are hitting it well in the nets. Has there ever been a batsman who has not hit them well in the nets? No pressure, high rotation and no fielders!
WA do themselves no favours. So many of their players simply cannot bat on pitches outside WA. Not good for national selection.
The Warner opening spot remains an open contest. I suspect some will want Mitchell Marsh there longer term to play that Warner role. Marcus Harris? Matt Renshaw? Cameron Bancroft... Where is Will Pucovski.. where's Wally?
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