sabina park : late in the day, day 3 – australia 4/12
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Monthly Archives: June 2008
covers – the movie II
sequel
covers – the movie
shot on location in Antigua
kensington oval barbados day 5
GAME ON GAME OVER GAME ON GAME OVER
i was getting quite excited by the prospect of being able to say in future years whenever channel 9 flashes up the record run chases – I was at that test match in bridgetown when the windies chased 475 to win
its easy to get convinced of fanciful outcomes early in test innings
bra v o and chanderpaul were going along brilliantly. bra v o choosing the ball to hit with great patience and discretion and he usually would hit it for six. chanderpaul was batting as brilliantly as he always bats. the partnership was in absolute supremacy. but then a strange moment. lee was bowling to a leg theory field against bra v o a shortish square leg a short leg and a leg gully. bra v o was keeping him out. the partnership was in supremacy – lee and australia weer starting to get desperate. then chanderpaul hit lee through the on side – it was an easy single. astonishingly he didnt take it. he was protecting bra v o from the strike. the statement was – actually we aren’t supreme here, we still feel fragile. only a couple of overs later bra v o seemed to be wanting to smash casson for 6, decided to defend instead and was caught at silly point. chanderpaul fell shortly after to clarke with the new ball. game over
taylor came in swinging and connecting and the required runs were dropping fast, chattergoon hobbled in to bat with a runner (an extra wkt!) – game on
kinda – realistically taylors batting was not sustainable and the ball after passing his highest test score he was gone for 31 slashing at a nice line delivery from johnson
really game over
there was a nice little partneship between fidel and powell at the end where powell refused to let fidel face lee. he wouldnt take singles. fidel seemed to be infuriated. at one point powell thought he could push for 2 but fidel ran up to the strikers end put his hand up and said NO. it was a lark. of course lee dismissed powell to end the test match and the series n my tour
kensington oval barbados day 4
KATCH I(T)
GAME ON GAME ON GAME ON GAME O GAME ON GAME ON GAME ON GAME ON GAME ON GAME ON GAME ON
(maybe? if the windies had one more wkt in hand?)
IT MORE EASIER TO BLOW THAN HOLLER (horn vendor)
the sabina park crowd were a horn crowd. the barabados crowd loves to holler. holler is not the right word for it
BRETT LEE BOO
the noise the crowd makes not only exists outside language but can not be described with language. its not hollering, its not screaming or roaring or hooting. it is completely wild. BRETT LEE BOO is as close a description as language can get.
lee v bra v o
big appeal for caught behind a searing bouncer brushes bra v os glove turned down (bra v o is a criminal, the umpire a tief)
the crowd goes BRETT LEE BOO.
lee bowls some no balls, the crowd goes BRETT LEE BOO
lee comes down to the third man boundary the crowd goes BRETT LEE BOO
lee walks away from the third man boundary,takes his hat off hands it to the umpire eady start the next over the crowd goes BRETT LEE BOO
searing awesome yorker hits bra v o on the back foot right in front of middle stump the umpire is a tief (bra v o a criminal) BRETT LEE BOO
the BRETT LEE BOOs somehow get bigger and bigger. Bra v o belts lee for 3 consecutive boundaries BRETT LEE BOO BRETT LEE BOO BRETT LEE BOO
Lee is taken out of the attack and moved to regulation backward point. the crowd chants WE WANT BRETT LEE. west indian crowds don’t really chant together they holler individually and BRETT LEE BOO in wild unison but each crowd members BRETT LEE BOO is an utterly unique vocalisation.
any suggestion that ponting declared early is ridiculous. it would have been a travesty if australia had kept batting after lunch.
every single person in the entire ground was willing xavier marshall to score his first first class century. the universality of this will indicated a desperate feeling that he probably wouldnt get there. close though
PONTING HE A JOKE CAPTAIN APPOINTED BY THE SCHOOL TEACHERS
KATCH I(T)
kensington oval barbados day 3
barely a shot, some basic paddle work the athletic grace of the fielder as it moves from fine leg around the boundary to collect the squarish sweep – silently crossing the grass (powell) nudges, singles barbados – the digicel girls are decidedly less enthusiastic with their dancing n flag work than those in jamaica n antigua leg byes barbados – riding the reggae van to the cricket. packed sardines, hell for leather, booming bass reggae at 5050bpm (1.50 B$ – 80c -to pretty much anywhere on the island) not a shot 0/60089 and not a shot played at some distinct point though the reasons behind it were not distinct in the slightest the crowd suddenly arced up. the band in the grenidge n haynes stand started pumping. the digicel girls were up n working it. fidel started riding the rhythms. jaques (109 off 17345 balls) wanted a ride too. thanks god someone finally got carried away by something. slashed at a wide one and the crowd had its wkt australia were on 299 for 18 weeks, in which time 24376 maidens were bowled. the batsmen were never troubled. i couldnt get my vegetable roti for lunch the lady sellin em is a seventh day adventist
kensington oval barbados day 2
beau casson seems like a nice little guy. makes me think i could still have a chance of playing cricket for australia one day. he’s got a good leave. (anyone who knows my batting knows that the leave is my best shot)
key moment:
scg mcgill retires from international cricket mid way through the antigua test.
this morning chris gayle hammers a shot in the air past mid on. scgmcg turns and trots to the boundary collects the ball and throws it back to the bowler. the shot is acclaimed as brutally creative bold and wondrous. breathtaking. BUT scgmcg doesnt field at mid on anymore. that is now young beau casson’s domain. gayle brutalises the ball in the air through the mid on area, casson takes flight, meets the ball at full stretch lands and keeps a hold of the thing. a breathtaking catch. gayle is chastised for being irresponsible, impatient and downright stupid.
once again no west indian will bat with chanderpaul.
post lunch
lee v marshall (immense) – lee cracks his head twice and marshall isnt quite leaping into his cover drives with the same fervour as he was on the dead antigua wkt, but he’s still cracking them away
lee v chanderpaul
lee v bra v o
lee v benn
…
and eventually lee v fidel. lee enjoys getting his own back nothing lands in the batsman’s half of the pitch.
its pretty much lee v the world except somewhere there must be other bowlers because lee takes only 3 wkts yet the west indies are dismissed still in deficit
kensington oval barbados day 1
sightscreens at west indian cricket grounds are redundant – a panel of white that slides across a white wall. actually they are not sightscreens at all – they are digicel or scotiabank hoardings. when the bowling is from the opposite end ads are displayed. this makes them no longer redundant.
jet planes flew in fancy formations over the ground, fireworks exploded, calypso bands marched and danced and dancers from all nations spread out across the field in intricate patters – the build up to the first ball was immense. when all the action ceased and the umpire called PLAY! men in white stood around, walked here and there. a couple of them wore black trousers and they walked up and down and waved their arms around a bit. a group of men gathered around the sightscreen behind the bowler and stared at the white boards. some of them tried in vain to push it. more and more men gathered there and even some of the white clad and perhaps also the ones in the dark trousers walked over to stare at it too. another white clad man ran out onto the gorund with some drinks for a couple of the others. 15 minutes after the end of the ceremony the first ball was finally bowled. beckett loved cricket.
once things got under way the action was zinging – balls flying over batsman’s heads, and over the leaping keepers glove. this pitch had bounce and fidel was determined to use it. if you squinted your eyes you could imagine you were watching the west indies of legend. batsmen were ducking and swaying and getting caught on the hook or the pull. jaques hussey katich all out to the short one that bounced a little more a little faster than they would have enjoyed.
with lee coming to the crease the intesity of the short pitched bowling went up even yet another notch. lee has wonderful silver stickers on his bat but it werent flashing too much out there this afternoon. fidel v lee is the battle to watch in international cricket at the moment. even if only to see lee duck n weave and take the pain. occassionally he’ll smash one away or slash one through the gully. ah god i love it. then it rained
SCG MACGILL
scg mcg
scgs problem was that the mcg always belonged to warney – warne was always in possession of macgills name. macgill, despite his wonderful initials never owned the scg. warne cast his shadow of possession even that far. scg was always in the dark – the dark horse of australian cricket. despite the letters in his names though he was never of cricket. scg could bowl for sure – only a tiny handfull of players have reached 200 test wkts in fewer test matches. but beyond bowling scg was no cricketer, he was no athlete. other bowlers have been terrible batsman but that have at least been batsman – or they have striven to be. and they may not have been great in the field but they have fielded. mcgrath for instance had a particular form of athleticism that made him the incredible bowler he was. this same athleticism prevented him from being a great batsman or fielder – but he worked with it as much as he could, he twisted himself inside out to build an innings or take a flying catch. scg it seems rarely strove. he had no athleticism and never attempted to. at Sabina Park, in his penultimate test match scg ran out one of the west indian batsmen. this was the best piece of cricket i have ever seen from him. he could have retired then and there. scg had no grasp whatever on even the fundamentals of batting. there has never been a test cricketer less of a cricketer. a dark horse less of a horse. cricket’s real athletes take on animal totems – often more than one animal – and ascend to the status of the immortal. one must be able to transform. dizzy was a stallion gull and a mythological god (gilgamesh); mcgrath was the great golden pony pigeon and a time lord; warne was any manner of flamboyant birds (flamingoes, parrots, sulphur crested cockatoos) and he made the legend of el warno – he was in himself cosmic without reference to any other cosmic body. scg was stuck as nothing but the dark horse which he could not let fly. he may as well have been toothpaste. in the field he would often be caught napping, thinking of horses (not being one), or wine, or books. essentially he was disconnected from his forms. they were there for him to take – the dark horse; the wolf blass eagle. hope must have risen with warne’s retirement but it was as though scg needed that shadow. it was all he had to hold him to the game. no other cricketer ever missed warne more. i was wondering how scg came to play cricket at such a high level. one can’t imagine his autobiography. those early chapters where the cricketers detail the intricate and unique little drills they conceive for themselves as children, and the hours spent endlessly enacting test matches in the driveway or backyard with their siblings. i can’t imagine what form they would have taken for scg. i doubt he was really interested. the cricketers autobiography usually isolates an element of the players relation to the game and makes this the crucial factor in the players success. mike hussey endlessly reproduces training schedules, daily itineraries of activities, diets, all manner of lists – an obsessive attention to detail in preparation. steve waugh’s tome is deeply psychological or, rather, anti-psychological – everything is to do with getting into the right frame of mind to face the next particular delivery. for justin langer its all about the passion for the baggygreen. for slats its exuberance. for roy its not thinking about anything (though his ‘thoughts’ on the game are more profound than anyones) – its to do with playing naturally. what would scgs driving force be? nothing other than shadow perhaps. no other cricketer ever missed warne more.
sir viv world day 5
the only way i feel that anything can actually happen in this test match – and the only thing that can happen such that the event constitued is worthy of being termed an event is a miraculuous west indies victory – is if i absent myself from the whole thing. if it takes a day trip to montserrat to increase the chances of a miraculous happening at the cricket, if it takes me being placed in the position where i have to say – i missed the greatest day of test cricket ever played, i went to montserrat – well, its all i can do really. do my bit for the team (windies).
match drawn