Best of ....

[irfan]

Controversies aside, what an amazing summer of cricket we had. After the MCG test match every Ind-Aus match was a genuine contest of the highest order with bowlers predominantly on top. SL played their part too but relied more on individual brilliance than a sustained team effort.

So you decide what where the best moments. For me

Best Innings: K Sangakkara 192 vs. Australia @ Hobart 2nd Test
Scenario: SL were chasing a WR 500 odd to win and even though it was a flat pitch with MacGill not at his best - Sangakarra played some scintillating orthodox strokes and was merciless against the quicks peppering the square boundaries before he has given out shockingly. Had they had more of a contribution from the Jayawardenas, Maharoof etc. SL may have clinched the record.

Best Delivery:M Jayawardena 0(1) b Lee
Scenario: Lee reverse inswinging yorker that disturbed Jayawardena's stumps was an absolute gem. Was in the middle of a fiery spell and getting the captain out on a flat pitch proved to be a decisive moment.

Best Catch: Uthappa c Hussey b Hopes
Scenario: First final of the CB series - India looked very comfortable against the new ball bowlers, Uthappa pulls a short one and looks like an easy single to the man in the deep but Hussey jumped diagonally forward and pulled of a screamer just off the turf.

Best Runout: M Clarke vs. Sehwag
Scenario: First hit and giggle match of the summer. Sehwag plays some great shots put kept finding Clarke @ backward point. Sehwag flays another one and Clarke makes an even more impressive save and with the need to get a move on - Gambhir calls Sehwag through and he gets done just by a direct hit rocket from Clarke. India abysmally collapse soon after.

Best Spell: I Sharma vs. Ponting
Scenario: With Aus chasing 413 ? to win to claim a WR 17 straight wins, Aus was well placed at 2-100 odd with Hussey and Ponting seemingly entrenched against everyone bar Sharma. Sharma is the only one who consistently troubled Ponting with balls moving wickedly in and away and was repeatedly beaten. After 8 overs on the trot, everyone reckons Kumble will spell Sharma but an inspired convo with Sehwag persuades him to persist for one more over. Kumble yields and Ponting nicks behind with a magnificent delivery. With that went Australia's best chance.

CBF doing anymore so feel free to add to the list or make modifications.

 

[Precambrian]

Best ODI Innings: : Sachin Tendulkar 117* Vs Australia, 1st Final, Sydney Cricket Ground
Scenario : : All rosy for Australia, including the toss. Aussies leading the points table. Experienced side. A young Indian side who've never won any final in Australia. Prime bowler Ishanth injured. Toss once again for Australia, and automatically batting first taken. Good effort by bowlers restrict them to 239. Still a very good score at SCG where the average second innings score is less than 180. Enter Tendulkar, who' had a quiet series so far, and plagued by crticis saying he's never had a tourney-winning performance in years, an ODI 100 in Australia, below-average while chasing, etc etc etc.

The little master steps up the gear, not by blasting, but by skilful placements and drives, and scores an unbeaten 117 in 120 balls and steer them to an unlikely 5 wicket win. Shuts the mouth of all critics prior to that. And capped that with a sterling 91 2 days later to seal the series. It was a flawless inningss to which Ponting later admitted, " We tried everything to get him out". He made batting look ridiculousy simple in tough conditions, and was unruffled even when others got out at the other end. Shepherded the young Rohit Sharma to a very good 60 odd. It was the perfect innings in the perfect chase.

As Ravi Shastri proclaimed, " Cometh the hour, Cometh the Champion"

 

[Richard]

Best comeback: Irfan Pathan.
Scenario: young Indian seamer (who can bat) made his debut in Australia 4 years ago, and was touted as the next Kapil\Srinath (along with about 10 or 15 others the last 7 or 8 years). It took a while, but eventually many realised he was actually very crap. Now he's come back into the team a better bowler (though still dubious whether of international calibre or not) and has made important little contributions (in among unsatisfactory ones) to India's summer in Tests and ODIs.

 

[Precambrian]

Best comeback: Irfan Pathan.
Scenario: young Indian seamer (who can bat) made his debut in Australia 4 years ago, and was touted as the next Kapil\Srinath (along with about 10 or 15 others the last 7 or 8 years). It took a while, but eventually many realised he was actually very crap. Now he's come back into the team a better bowler (though still dubious whether of international calibre or not) and has made important little contributions (in among unsatisfactory ones) to India's summer in Tests and ODIs.

Oh yeah, was it that guy on his test comeback was named "Man of the match" at Perth? Oh may that wasnt International standard,. Maybe because it wasnt against an International opposition?

Cut the bull **** mate. When there are many positives to write about, why go searching for negative things? Maybe it's you, or maybe it's beacuse they're arent unfortunatly many positives for the Aussies this year.

 

[Richard]

What an extremely odd post.

 

[Precambrian]

Best Bunny : Ponting - Ishant/Harbhajan/Praveen Kumar with help of slip fielding.
Scenario
The world's so called best batsman came all croppers this summer. The fall was showing in the series against SL, where he twice fell to Muralitharan, inspite of the flat pitches. But the tumbling came in the Ind series. Succumbed to Harbhajan for the 8th time in as many tests, And 3 times in 3 tests this summer, and the Bunny tag was sealed.

Then came Ishant Sharma, a rookie 19 yr old. Then began the dancing. Ponting playe, missed, edged, padded up, again played and missed, until the "agony" was ended by Sharma himself at Perth. His 140 at Adelaide meant that he was simply undone by a Turbaned Sikh and a teenager, and not bad form. And Adelaide placid track ensured he could finally put some real runs for the summer. All thought Punter was back.

They were wrong. The CB series started and Ponting's luck faded with every match. For a while dismissals became almost replays, bowler bowls just utside off stump, an exagerated prod, the ball flying straight to hte slips/'gully.Only the uniforms changed. Until again a placid track came to the help, where he notched up a 100 to show he was not out of form.

Again we thought, he was back and raring for the finals. In the first final, it was not Ishant, but a raw rookie Praveen Kumar who got better of him. Comes the second final, No Ishant, Ponting must have let out a gasp of happiness. But it was shortived. Praveen Kumar got him again. And the Punter capped off a miserable CB series where he averaged 19 in 10 innings.

 

[Manee]

Best comeback: Irfan Pathan.
Scenario: young Indian seamer (who can bat) made his debut in Australia 4 years ago, and was touted as the next Kapil\Srinath (along with about 10 or 15 others the last 7 or 8 years). It took a while, but eventually many realised he was actually very crap. Now he's come back into the team a better bowler (though still dubious whether of international calibre or not) and has made important little contributions (in among unsatisfactory ones) to India's summer in Tests and ODIs.

He has done well and done it against the best in the world, but the action is falling away again. They need to catch this one quickly, he is no longer using his front arm like Lillee taught him.

 

[Burgey]

Best Bunny : Ponting - Ishant/Harbhajan/Praveen Kumar with help of slip fielding.
Scenario
The world's so called best batsman came all croppers this summer. The fall was showing in the series against SL, where he twice fell to Muralitharan, inspite of the flat pitches. But the tumbling came in the Ind series. Succumbed to Harbhajan for the 8th time in as many tests, And 3 times in 3 tests this summer, and the Bunny tag was sealed.

Then came Ishant Sharma, a rookie 19 yr old. Then began the dancing. Ponting playe, missed, edged, padded up, again played and missed, until the "agony" was ended by Sharma himself at Perth. His 140 at Adelaide meant that he was simply undone by a Turbaned Sikh and a teenager, and not bad form. And Adelaide placid track ensured he could finally put some real runs for the summer. All thought Punter was back.

They were wrong. The CB series started and Ponting's luck faded with every match. For a while dismissals became almost replays, bowler bowls just utside off stump, an exagerated prod, the ball flying straight to hte slips/'gully.Only the uniforms changed. Until again a placid track came to the help, where he notched up a 100 to show he was not out of form.

Again we thought, he was back and raring for the finals. In the first final, it was not Ishant, but a raw rookie Praveen Kumar who got better of him. Comes the second final, No Ishant, Ponting must have let out a gasp of happiness. But it was shortived. Praveen Kumar got him again. And the Punter capped off a miserable CB series where he averaged 19 in 10 innings.

How can you be three people's bunny in one summer? I know he was out of form, but jeez, to say they all owned him at once is a bit much imo. He had his worst summer in yonks - just didn't look the part at all.

To say he's the world's "so called" best batsman after one summer, when he's played so well for so long, smacks of vindictiveness really. Certainly the biggest disappointment of the summer from an Aussie batting point of view, be happy to categorise him as that.

Biggest disappointment (batting): Ponting (Aus) - see above; Yuvraj & Dravid (India) - the former seemed not to care, the latter was a shadow of his former self. Despite getting cut short on day 5 in Sydney, he also had a lot of chnces in the series but just didn't look himself.
Find of the summer: Sharma, I (India), Johnson (Australia - in tests at least)
Best bowler: Lee (Aus), RP Singh (India - I know how well Sharma bowled, but when Zaheer went down, I though RP really led the attack admirably).
Most criticised unfairly: B Hogg (Aus) - everyone lampooned his figures in the tests, saying he was no Warne, but the least those people could have done was compare his numbers to Warne's numbers v India, and not his overall stats. Was by no means good, but didn't deserve all the crap he copped either.
Best batsman: Hayden (Aus) - scored a ton in every test he played v India. No coincidence his absence in Perth coincided with a loss imo; Tendulkar (India) - great series from a great player. Really held India's batting together.
Best innings: Laxman in Sydney (India) - would watch him play every day of the week; Hussey in Sydney was also very good.
Best tussle of the summer: every spell of Lee v Tendulkar was really compelling stuff imo.

 

[iamdavid]

Best Catch: Uthappa c Hussey b Hopes
Scenario: First final of the CB series - India looked very comfortable against the new ball bowlers, Uthappa pulls a short one and looks like an easy single to the man in the deep but Hussey jumped diagonally forward and pulled of a screamer just off the turf.

I disagree.

Gilchrist c Patel b somebody

In that 20/20 game at Perth, I think Gillespie was the bowler, had next to no reaction time at all (sweetly timed square slash from Gilchrist and he was about a pitch-length from the bat). One of the best 5 or so catches I've ever seen and the best one for a couple of summers imo.

 

[Cevno]

He has done well and done it against the best in the world, but the action is falling away again. They need to catch this one quickly, he is no longer using his front arm like Lillee taught him.

Though he is new action gets him a bit more pace and zip,His old action used to get him that banana swing into the right handers which troubled the best.
On flat surfaces he used to get hit a lot with that but in early overs with the new ball he used to move the ball everywhere.He still moves the ball but not as much as he used too.He has added a bit more pace,control and variety but lost that banana swing.It probably had to happen as on dead pitches with his old action he was useless at times both in test and in ODI's.

 

[Cevno]

The best delivery was zaheer khans to ponting at the MCG.It set the tone for ponting's series.

Though lee's yorker was brillian the batsmen should hav stopped it while there is not a lot that could have been done abot zaheer's delivery.Coming in of a angle and then moving away at the last moment and clipping top of off.
Pity he got injure for the rest of the series as he was our leading bowler before it.

 

[irfan]

I disagree.

Gilchrist c Patel b somebody

In that 20/20 game at Perth, I think Gillespie was the bowler, had next to no reaction time at all (sweetly timed square slash from Gilchrist and he was about a pitch-length from the bat). One of the best 5 or so catches I've ever seen and the best one for a couple of summers imo.

Yea forgot about Chappell-Hadlee - maybe becoz New Zealand was so abject aside from a moment of brilliance from Jeets.

 

[irfan]

The best delivery was zaheer khans to ponting at the MCG.It set the tone for ponting's series.

Though lee's yorker was brillian the batsmen should hav stopped it while there is not a lot that could have been done abot zaheer's delivery.Coming in of a angle and then moving away at the last moment and clipping top of off.
Pity he got injure for the rest of the series as he was our leading bowler before it.

Arguably a better delivery but wasn't as important in the context of the match. Agreed that it started Ponting's rot.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Best comeback: Irfan Pathan.
Scenario: young Indian seamer (who can bat) made his debut in Australia 4 years ago, and was touted as the next Kapil\Srinath (along with about 10 or 15 others the last 7 or 8 years). It took a while, but eventually many realised he was actually very crap. Now he's come back into the team a better bowler (though still dubious whether of international calibre or not) and has made important little contributions (in among unsatisfactory ones) to India's summer in Tests and ODIs.

Yeah, he was very good this summer when given the chance (including a step up the order with the bat). It had a few of us over here wondering where he'd been. India did well to pull a few selections out of the hat and produce good performance from other relative unknowns.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Oh yeah, was it that guy on his test comeback was named "Man of the match" at Perth? Oh may that wasnt International standard,. Maybe because it wasnt against an International opposition?

Cut the bull **** mate. When there are many positives to write about, why go searching for negative things? Maybe it's you, or maybe it's beacuse they're arent unfortunatly many positives for the Aussies this year.

Richard's English, so he wouldn't give a **** whether there're positives for us Aussies or not.