Pooch pamperers,
Another very tidy test match performance from MJ Clarke.
You can’t argue with a match aggregate of 93 runs on a dreadfully woeful pitch.
His first innings 20 was too cautious for mine, if you spend 82 minutes scratching around the crease trying to get your eye in.
Was checking a few of his shots and eventually got out to an absolutely awful stroke that would have had him kicking himself all the way back to the pavilion.
The second innings 73 was as good as it gets, considering as the kiddie explained on interview after the days play that he had a lot trouble reading the reverse swing.
Certainly had the dancing shoes on to the slow men, and pulled out a few cracking trade mark off cuts and cover drives.
Thankfully, I was fast asleep on the lounge when he got out, but if you are using the twinkle toes, there’s always the risk of missing the ball, in which case you will almost certainly be out stumped.
Take the $6.50 currently on offer about Pup making the highest Australian first innings score on a decent deck [read four lane highway] in Sydney.
Has to be a certainty, surely?
On the coverage on the crystal bucket, also noticed from time to time that Punter was giving Pup a few tips in the slips on the fine art of field placings.
More grooming?
No sign of Our Lara in the stands – she was probably on Xmas duties in the Shire.
By no means surprised to see the Great Gilly overtake Heals record for the most number of wickets snared with the gloves.
I’ve always rated Gilly as one of the best, if not the best, all rounder in the modern game.
It’s always had me puzzled that for years that the Chairman and the Three Wise Men have been on this futile and ultimately fruitless search for a “genuine all rounder”, when they’ve got Gilly batting at number seven, for chrissake!
And while we are at it, what’s the point of having the finest cricket stadium in the world, when the pitch is no where near up to test standard?
First grade suburban cricketers would have been within their rights to complain about it.
Maybe they should reinstall the permanent wicket square, and make the footballers suffer like they did in the olden days?
Too much to ask; footballers are precious little things, and the fools who purport to run the MCG would be the first to tell you that they know only too well which side their bread is buttered on, and that the AFL does all the buttering.
