Episode 171 - Road Trip Musings

First Episode of 2024, Glen and Aaron are on the road to head to the SCG for Day 2 of the 3rd Test. Warner is at the crease for what could be the last time. In this episode we muse about what's happened in the last few weeks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode Transcript

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(01:07):
by the Central Bank of Ireland.Cloud Chase. Hello, ro I'm welcome

(01:33):
to a very special episode of TwoSlips the Galley. It is our first
episode of two thousand and four,and I'm joined by Glennable. People.
Hello Glenn. Hello, you've trackedme down, You've cornered me. Yeah,
escape, I wouldn't take no foran answer. I have him trapped
in a motor vehicle of all things. We are driving to the Sydney Test

(01:53):
so we can watch David Warners.Yes, we're heading the day too,
so he's six night out and I'vejust said to Oh, you know how,
I've invited you to come along,go watch the cricket together, you
know, a bit of a boystrip. Two SIPs of the Gully on
the road. Well surprised we're doinga podcast while we're driving. Well,

(02:15):
last year we did a couple ofvideos which we might do as well.
This way you don't have to seehow much. But yeah, I'm looking
forward to his head. Could nothave worked out better quit it really,
as far as our watching goes,I don't think it's gonna touch wood Rain

(02:38):
in Sydney famous last words. Butno, it worked out. It worked
out quite perfectly. There was youknow, day one has happened and David
Warner managed to get through unscathed.It looks like, you know, there
was a lot of talk yesterday aboutPakistan it was being Pakistan's day, which

(03:00):
I think was probably more the emotionof them digging them out of a hole
from five to ninety and then obviouslythe tail wagging in Australia's ridiculous short ball,
the tail theory backfiring again and absolutelyit was not Pakistan's day. That
is a Michael Vaughan hit the nailon the head, which is always a
bit scary when we're agreeing with MichaelFord. But that's a four hundred plus

(03:21):
wicked. There was not a lothappening on that wicked after the new ball.
It's not so that much the wicked, but the outfield was so fast.
When you look at at Rizwan andJael and Sergei Khan all played with
a bit of positivity and all comfortablyscored fifties. This is six, what

(03:43):
six, seven and nine, Soyeah, Australia probably overplayed their hand with
the short ball to these guys.But like, there's not a lot in
it once you get through that firsthalf hour forty minutes with the new ball
and swingle and there's no shah ShanaReid today. Yeah, it looks like
it's going to spin a bit,but you know they haven't exactly brought any

(04:04):
devastating frontline spinners with the miner.Yeah. Yeah. At the beginning of
the day, if you said toAustralia or Pakistan and one or toss they're
going to bat first, will youtake him being all out for three hundred,
three hundred and fifty. Yeah,Australia would have absolutely went yeah,
cool, Rodeo, We'll just comeback to myro and we'll start. Yeah.
Yeah, none for none. Well, I think it's a it's a

(04:24):
new ball pitch and I think yeah, I mean, it'd be interesting to
see a stat of what the partnershipsare from, you know, say the
sixth wicket down to the tenth underPat's captaincy. I mean he's killing it

(04:46):
right now, I mean as faras his own bowlin goes, as far
as his general captaincy goes. ButI think we said on the chat,
the couple of people said on thechat last night, he just doesn't know
how to finish off in those situations. And I thought, it's not necessarily
the tail, it's the tail withan established bat. Yeah, I mean,

(05:14):
but that's what But that number ninegot themselves. You know, there
was a little bit of a partnershipthere between you know him and Sergei khn't
so he was sort of set alittle bit and they got serge can't out.
The new batsman came in, andthen all of the attention turned off
Jamal and went to the new bat. It became a completely and it just
became a let's get as much asmuch bowling as we can at the new

(05:40):
guy. Let's this guy's hitting itreally well at the moment his eyes in,
Just give him a single, We'llget the new guy on strike.
And it just whenever we've knocked overthe tail at a at a consistent rate
and there's no one set. Pat'sreally good at blasting the tail away.
But it's when it becomes that pointwhere there is there's still a batsman in
and it becomes a game of let'sget this guy off strike. And I

(06:04):
want to know how many blokes thatwe've we've given not just there because Amar
that was his not just his bestTest score, but it was his best
first class score as well. He'snever crossed that many runs in first class
cricket, so the players is notthat good. We're giving guys their highest

(06:25):
scores by bowling into their their wheelhouse. And Dean Smith brought it up in
commentary quite a lot. Are weare they even trying to get this guy
out or is it just purely acase of let's get this guy away from
the ball so we can have acrack at the year. At the other
end, it takes all the pressureoff him and then all the other guy
has to do is dead bat.And he did a good job the number

(06:47):
eleven and taking nothing away from Amareither he played. He played especially the
short ball was incredible. Yeah yeah, yeah, some of those pull shots.
Ah, but there were quite afew, quite a few deliveries that
they had where he sort of glancewent off the hip where there would have

(07:08):
been a regulation leg slip, whichyou would think that you would have that
you're going to be peppering in witha short ball or a short leg which
fell short because everyone was on theboundary, and it's like, well,
you got trying is your plan toget this bloke out? Hoping? I
committedly that's what he did. Hehit it into the outfield. We took
the catch. But if you ifyou were actually still trying to get this

(07:29):
guy out instead of just spread thefield and well, my question is how
many of these runs came through theoff side. It wouldn't have been a
whole heave. Yeah, like infront of square on the off side,
moving before we go and talking toanything else that's happened. Just to the
rest of the day. One yougot distracted. The Aussies did battle well
up front. You know, Hayes, the wood is fantastic. Early on

(07:53):
Stark had that ball swinging in anabsolute mole. There was like immediately shaft.
Each week it was probably more poorbatsman. Ship did great bowling from
Stark, but you can tell thathe was intimidated by the amount of swing
Stark got with that first ball.He managed to have that hooping and he
just assumed that the second ball thenwas a little wider. The first one
was probably angling down leg. Andthen you see this one that's tossed out

(08:18):
a bit white, going, oh, that's probably coming back and playing at
the stumps. Real loose ball,ball held its line. Smith takes a
nice thing aus he catched second balltoday hal Hard's testing it. But they
did a really good job of maximizingwhat they could with the new ball knocking
over you know the debutante as well, are you two? And the whole

(08:41):
four on the board, Pakistan reelingand poor Pakistan opener. He just got
a good one. Nothing you couldhave done about that, picking up his
arm with an absolutely brilliant bit ofbowling from Pat Cummins as well. That
third five a road for the captain, like like you said before in his

(09:03):
personal form with the ball is yeah, brilliant. It just yeah, there
there are points where there are stillwhole closed game. Just close the game,
man. It's just just it comesback to that thing that I always
say about then they just one.Once they've got a plan, they just

(09:24):
stick to it to a fault,and they just don't seem to have a
backup plan or you know that everythingit feels like everything that they've formulated is
has been done in the dressing room. There's no like, oh this isn't
working. You know, we'll gowith this instead, And I don't mind

(09:45):
initially with it, like the numbereleven first gets to the crease, ignoring
just going all right, let's gethim off strike and you do that maybe
for an over or two, andonce he's sort of going alrong. This
hasn't really worked, you know,we haven't mad is to get you a
mirror strike enough you need to goback and then still concentrating on how we're
going to get Jamal out and thebounce of a surprise ball set up your

(10:11):
short leg and stuff, and soit's good for the top order, should
be good for the number nine.You know, just set it off side
field. He's going to get bored. Eventually he's going to chase a wide
one. Well, there's a reasonthat he's batting it down. He is
not going to be a gun bat'swhen he is going to make a mistake.
So I don't mind that initial thatinitial flurry of the guy who's on

(10:33):
thirty. Let's just get him awayfrom the ball and let's get a crack
at this number eleven. And soyeah, maybe doing that, maybe playing
a bit conservatively, just so youcan really get it, really get a
good look at his job. Butyou don't stick with that for fifty runs.
Yeah, Yeah, it wasn't workingin any way. It wasn't actually
getting you a shot at the numbereleven. It wasn't you know, it

(10:58):
wasn't scared and he was enjoying himhelp out there, So I would have
just gone back to bowling in thecorridor. Yeah, and making it bounce
for a surprise will set yourself someprotection out on the off side. If
you want to bowl at the numbereleven, just bowl two balls in the
dry line outside of stone. Somaybe he'll chase one and nick it to

(11:18):
the slips, or you know,he'll he'll let it go, or you
know, you might get lucky,but you know, even then, give
him a boundary off the last ballso that you get it full over at
the Yeah, just bowld normally.Yeah, but anyways, we'll move on
from there. We'll watch now.It's how set up to be quite a
fascinating test. As I said,like, I think the the emotion of

(11:41):
watching a number nine through the fantasticthings he did had the commentary team sort
of saying that it was Pakistan's day. It absolutely was not Pakistan's. They
thought really hard, and that's onething I'll say about Pakistani the entire series
is they have been outclassed, butstuck. They are definitely punching above their

(12:01):
weight here, like Australia is amuch much, much much better team than
than Pakistani is. Pakistan four ashard as they could in the first Test
with thoroughly outplayed, really gave themselvesa shot that no one believed that they
really had. And there was someexecution issues in Melbourne, but you know
at four for sixteen they had areal, real shouted knocking the Aussies off

(12:24):
like that. They haven't believed they'rea team that is thoroughly outclassed. They
have played above the sum of theirparts. Yeah, the polls on Muhammed
Risban to come out and play likethat when they're five for what eight or

(12:45):
five for ninety. Maybe it wasthey weren't in a good way and and
I think that's at some point that'swhat you need. I think he overplayed
his head once the momentum was startingto shift, like like they obviously sent
a trap, a short ball trapfor Rizwan and he fell into it immediately,
which is where he's got to bebetter than that. But like everything

(13:07):
up to that point was fine.He was lead letting, like I was
saying that he's just such a conundrumbecause he'll leave for four ball and dead
bat four balls and then there'll beone that's fairly innocuous that he's just liked
to look on, and then he'son the same line that he just did.
And then that one he had lastin to the boundary. And I
think that he was playing well enough, like he was respecting the good balls,

(13:28):
the balls in his wheelhouse he wasgoing after, and the momentum was
starting to shift. There was theendearing two hundred again, and you know,
five for two hundred doesn't seem thatbad in a vacuum when you're looking
at it, especially when you were, you know, two for four ying
well also, and then they've gone, all right, the balls now not

(13:50):
doing much. The SCG is slow, it's low, it's skull and bring
out the short ball, and brisOne dutifully fell into the trap and imediately
and it was just like, oh, you had a real chance at one
hundred there and actually maybe shifting themomentum in your favor. So so Pakistan
really good. They haven't given anyway. There's a good feel about their

(14:11):
side, isn't there. Apart fromPerth. They haven't just crumbled, They've
they've fought. You know, Ithink I agree that Shan Masud is a
is a good leader. I meanhe's going to have to score some runs.
He's going to have to get thataverage up to justify his placing the
side that looked good, But he'snot giving you the output you want from

(14:35):
a top like an elite level numberthree. Yeah, I mean, you've
got to be averaging in the fortiesto be the captain of your side,
I think. But I mean,yeah, he looks a good leader,
but I think he's averaging in Testcricket the low thirties. I think it's
still on the high twenties. Tobe honest, he's bad better than he's
average in this series, but he'sgot a bunch of starts and not gone

(14:56):
on with it, which has beenthe which has been the issue for Pakistan
for the whole series. Yeah.Yeah, as I was talking about,
like Boxing Day, the Boxing DayTest was a fantastic test. As a
fourth sixteen, they had really hadAustralia in a hole and it really took
some strong batting from from Marsh andfrom Smith to get themselves into a position

(15:20):
where they actually had a score theycould defend. And then again there were
several points in that chase where itlooked like Pakistan could get there. I
thought the opening partnership was good.I was saying that, I thought that
Pakistan need to just treat this likea one day out, you know,
and if you're looking at three hundredto Jason a one day as Pakistan,

(15:41):
you're not too worried about that,and like it's a good chase, but
it's not outrageous, and just playwith a bit of intent, play with
a bit of positivity. But thenthey just get losing wickets at the wrong
time and Pat Cummins was unbelievable.Yet again, that first hour today is
going to be absolutely I know it'sa bit of a cricket cliche, but

(16:04):
yeah, that first hour is goingto be so important for them. If
Warner gets away, it mortal makesthis three hundred score look very small and
want to looked on dirty like fromthe first ball when you think about your
six balls, five, but yourlast they have a test. You want
to get there tomorrow. You wantto make sure that you've got a full

(16:26):
data back. First ball it justlasts just that past point and it was
all extra cover for four. Heneeded footwork for that as well. His
feet were fast. You know,you know, he looks good. He
looks like sort of when he's playing, well, he looks like a boxer,
doesn't he He sort of everything.It has never been one that's had

(16:51):
elite for work. It's very muchin his prime it was the barest minimum
footwork required and then yeah, andthen lots of hands. But yeah,
he did play with with good footworkearly on. When you can see the
feet doing their thing and the bigloud calls and the just the assertive body

(17:15):
language, you can sort of tellthe warners it's going to get at least
get up for this. Are yougoing to get up? So yes,
it's going to be there all toplay for for water a day. Everyone's
there watching your wife, Candice,all the kids and the last time that
he's going to walk out on theSCG in the baggy green. You can

(17:41):
argue this is and I still maintain, it's a farewell that he hasn't deserved.
There have been way better players thanhim that have not managed to parlay
the the their careers into a homefarewell. But the civil fact of the
matter is the current regime have decidedthat he's the best man from the job
play until he gets there and he'shere, so well, you're as well

(18:04):
popular within the group, isn't it. Yeah, So maybe there's there's things
that we just don't see. Maybehe just doesn't give a crap about how
the public views him. And Idon't even necessarily think it's for the perception.
The thing is as well, thereis merit being picked in a in

(18:25):
a national side, and there couldbe no doubt that on merit Warner should
not be there. Water is awfulawful what three Basically since he's returned from
zampaper game, he hasn't played welllike one day is a side in the
test Arene or his averages, hisreturn has not been good. And there
are there are batsmen in in Shieldthat have been putting together a reasonably impressed

(18:52):
positions. So if they don't gofor Bancroft, let's face it, the
Sheffield Shield is just a joke.Yeah, And that's why things that it
just boggles my mind is that thereis conjecture at the moment like that you
know that Andrew McDonald has basically comeout and said that it's a four way
race, that it'll be out ofBancroft, Renshaw, Harris and Green and

(19:15):
I'm just like, I'm sorry,but how is that possible? It has
to be Bancroft, It's Bancroft Daylightand for me Renshaw. But no,
look, I don't know, Ican, I can. I think it's
a coin flip for the second place. I think I think Renshaw Harris is

(19:37):
not second. I think Renshaw isnot put together the amount of consistency that
you would like to see in backto back. Yes, he was very
good last year, and he wasokay, you're bordering on very good the
year before, but he hasn't beenparticularly good this year, and that's coming
off of you know, he gotrecalled beside and was a little disappointing.

(20:00):
Another forgotten man that you know,we saw a little bit of last night
in the BBL, Sam Whiteman,which we always talk about. Nobody else
seems to talk about him. He'sputting He's put together a couple of fairly
consistent Shield years that have been nearthe upper echelant of openers. I don't
think then, yeah, I don'tthink he's played himself into that, into

(20:22):
that quartet, but I would think, yeah, it's absolutely him before Marcus
Harris. I think he's got moreof a case than Harris. I think
he's got a much more test readytechnique like Marcus Harris is a technique that
it looks like it's easily exploited bythe best bowlers going around. All of

(20:42):
his runs are junction over as well. Yeah, we were playing test mate
for jo and will you pick MarcusHarris first, second, third, wouldn't
you? Yea yeah? But yeah, I just I don't understand where the
confusion is. Bancroft was three hundredruns better off for the next best person
last year in shell cricket. Heis the best batsman in shell cricket this

(21:04):
year. He has been scoring runsin white or cricket domestically as well.
So all this though, oh he'sjust a plotter that doesn't score runs,
and YadA, YadA, YadA.All he can show that he's got that
in his game. He can scoreruns quickly. He has been the best
player in Shield for the last coupleof years in a specialist position, scoring
more hundreds than anyone in Shield overthe last couple of years. I don't

(21:27):
understand where this confusion is. Hegives you a left right hand commination.
He's only thirty one, so you'regoing to get a few years out of
it. Just don't get where we'regetting lost. If you're not picking Bancroft.
It's a basically a middle finger tothe Sheffield Shield, especially if the
alternative is going Cameron Green first up. It's like, what more does an

(21:51):
opener need to do to put themselvesin a position to play for their country
with Like, and I said iton our chat, I'm like, is
this maybe if Bancroft's got some skeletonsin his closet around Sam paper Gate where
he could get the establishment into quitea bit of trouble And if he doesn't

(22:12):
get picked, he's not going toget picked, Like this is it?
If he doesn't get picked now onthe back of the form that he's got,
if they go some let field option, you can basically say that may
go to Nathan Horns and Bernie's kids. Yeah, he's done fire up Instagram.
But there's a lot there's a lotof care for getting cam Green in
a moving that around which I'm notnecessarily opposed to provided done in the right

(22:36):
way. Now, I would thinkthat the right way would be Marnas opening
because I think out of the guyscurrently in our team, Marnas is probably
the one that's most equipped to open, and from that point you would then
go a Cameron Green or I haveeven seen through some some middle order bats.
Maybe someone like a Bow Webster ora Matt Short or even a Nathan

(22:56):
McSweeney would be one that I wouldbe interested in going down that route into
the middle order with Marnus opening.But what we're all forgetting is that Kowaja
is not exactly a spring chicken either. So you can still have your cake
and eat it too. You canpick the obvious best opener in cam Bancroft,

(23:18):
and then if you give it twelvemonths, allow these guys to go
and just hone their craft a littlemore put together back to back years.
If it's a McSweeney, if it'sa Short, if it's a Webster,
if it's a Green and sell Green, we want to pick you as a
middle order bat. You've got therest of this Shield season, probably next
season until Wolves he gives it away. Go and park yourself at four for

(23:41):
wa Go and score a heap ofruns. Don't even worry about it.
You've got Aaron Hardy inside, don'teven worry about bowling. Just go out
and score a shitlader runs get himused to performing the role you want to
perform. You have already made openerthere to go pick the opener. He
deserves it, like that's more myarguabre than anything else. Is he deserves

(24:03):
his crack. He's played well enoughto get his gear. I hope it
happens, checksa ceifly Bob. Sowe are still trucking along in the car
where on our way to the SCG. He can't wait, but we've got

(24:23):
plenty more creet to talk about onour road trip, so we've all sort
of got caught up. And obviouslythe Australian home summer, Boxing Day,
New Years all that sort of stuff, which is great one of the things
I do love about this time ofthe year. I'm sure you're with me
as well. South Africa will alsohave a Boxing Day of New Year's test,
so quite often they line up witheach other. So we will have
the Boxing Day test starting ten tenthirty. It'll run through you know,

(24:47):
you might get bored and just fillin the little gap with maybe half a
big bash. But there in aboutseven thirty then the Boxing Day test is
our Africa will start. So intheory you could have cricket going from ten
am till the following morning at three. You're laid out of a kid,
get up and you keep watching Testcricket. It's great and the say things

(25:08):
happened here. India are taking onSouth Africa or in what is another left
handed opener's final series as well,Deanie Elgar is retiring at the end of
this series against India and South Africagave India or a proper bloody nose in
the first Test. Yeah, yep, uh bundled them out. Name really

(25:33):
we really bundled them out. Butlike k R. Hall paced the innings
with a really good but in response, South Africa put on a huge score
backed with an absolutely phenomenal one toseventy from from tjail. Ye. So

(25:56):
not a bad way to see offyour Ronald Test series. You can say
you went out nearly scored a doublehundred against India and you know in a
in a game when he not thenwinning that innings by an inning, that
game by an innings. And Indiawere absolutely the fanta team there. Like
they took over a very strong side. They've obviously got a strong pace bowling

(26:18):
attack and yeah they were without Charmingsfor some reason. He must be injured,
I imagine, But they've got Sageand like all the guns are there,
Rowans there, shooting gills there,Kohli's there. They played Ashwin in
the first Test ahead of jade Asia, which I thought was an interesting choice,
but they went with the two allrounders in Ashwin and Dukaw. They

(26:41):
could ended up having a bit ofit, you'd say, a long ish
tale with Ashen at seven and ateight. But the new ball attack of
of Berger and Roberta with his kakisand Robarda like it was great. Yeah,

(27:02):
I mean so it was. Itwas so disappointing that when we saw
him exactly this time last year,I think that he just had an off
day. He wasn't. I thinkmaybe he was tired after a long stratch,
or he might have been carrying injury. But he was not the same
Robarta that we saw. You know, we we have seen throughout his decimated

(27:26):
Australia in Australia before and honestly,if if Robarta was blessed enough to live
a bit born in Australia or bornin England, where they're going to play
a lot of Test cricket. Thisguy is a real chance of going down
as the best fast baller ever.But as it is, it'll be interesting

(27:48):
to see what his legacy is goingto be like after retires, because the
real ones, people like me andyou, proper cricket feeds, are going
to look at that and go Rovardais one of the very best. His
strike rate is absolutely absurd, Absolutelyhis average is fantastic. Hey's going to
be one of the real ones,going to be one of the greatest.
But South Africa just purely not goingto play enough games for his total wicket

(28:14):
tally too, Like I would bestaggered if he got to four hundred wickets,
not because I don't think he's goodenough, purely because I just don't
think South Africa to play enough games. And with the rising of which we'll
talk about shortly, like the gamesthey are going to play are going to
be hampered by the fact that they'reunavailable to play during a large chunk of

(28:34):
the Southern Hemisphere summer because they haveto play in the well. That Test
that they just won against India wasthe first Test that they've done in the
World Test Championship. Because that puthim on top of the table and what
a weird scoring system that has.And last year Busman Kouwaja faced as many

(28:56):
balls as the entire South Africana whichis too pronged. The South African batting
lineup was incredibly poor last year justto seemple fact of the matter, they
just didn't play a lot of games. I think that's it'd be interesting to
see in fifteen years time, twentyyears time how the world remembers Kagizo Robarta,

(29:18):
because the guy, honestly, ifhe played for England to play for
Australia and he's going to end upplaying somewhere near one hundred Test matches,
it could quite easily be coming downon rivaling people like MgrA, like Malcolm
Marshall as one of the best everquicks that had ever played. But I
just don't know how much cricket he'sgoing to get into him. So what

(29:40):
is his wicket tally's going to endup looking like at the end of the
year. And are you prepared tosay that a guy that in the bottom
era, with the amount of cricketthey're playing, that may only have three
hundred and fifty wickets, is hesomeone that's going to be thought of as
one of them because his stats otherworldly, especially when it comes to strike
rate, is ridiculous. How goodhe is. The ball he got row

(30:03):
At Charma within the second East thelike I would go as I would go
as far as saying, is theperfect delivery from a right arm fast ball
to a right headed batsman that islike that is It was almost as good
as the Ryan Harris balls Alastair Cook, except Ryan Harris probably had the addition

(30:25):
of maybe just hitting a crack whichmay have assisted that. But there was
no crack there that Robarta. Hejust bowled genuinely unplayable. I think Ryan
Harris ball missed the crack as well. I'm choosing to believe that as well,
that I'm putting that Cavigat in thereto proof that I'm not complaining by
Mitchell James Vince. Definitely the crack. I mean, I'd be worried about

(30:52):
the state of the physical world ifthat just swung. But yeah, it
was just a really good and Ithink it was really good for South African
cricket that they they got in thereand did that. So obviously this will
be another tour that India this istheir final frontier. India have never won

(31:12):
a series in South Africa and obviouslybecause it's a ridiculous two test series that
that still will not be the case. Despite how despite how this series,
this game is going to play out, which is looking like it's probably going
to be India's game after what wasa very interesting Day one, but they're
still not being able to win theseries. So do you want to talk

(31:33):
about that test? I mean it'sstill going it's yeah, well the same
at the moment. So day onehas just occurred for the test that New
Lan's just that because I do beforeI want to go on and bag on
the ground because I am going tobag on the ground because it's ridiculous what
happened in Day one. New Orleansis got to be my favorite ground to

(31:55):
watch. It is so pist picturesque. It is so pictureque. If you
just got that mountain over the back. Yeah, I love even just when
I'm watching TV and yeah, ohit's a New Leans because you know,
the breath the backdrop is more interestingthan that. Like I'm struggling to think.

(32:16):
I know a lot of people gotAdelaide over, but there is not
a ground in Australia that is asbeautiful as New Lance. I don't think
there's a ground in the world thatis picturesque as Newlans maybe like the Rampartan
gall are certainly very it's a veryinteresting, evocative picture, but I don't

(32:37):
think it's as breathtakingly pretty as NewLance. All right, artistic side of
two clips the gully out of theway. What a ridiculous day Day one
of the Second Test between indiar itso out. I mean the curator a
t three wickets spell on day one. The curator is the player of the
match at this point. What twentythree wickets? Someone I saw someone on

(33:00):
crick infos hundred up pretty well itsaid, he said, you know,
South Africa would have been happy withwinning the toys and being three down at
stumps. Yeah, they Paly wouldhave been They especially would have been happy
trailing by thirty three down at stumps. Yeah. But yeah, the fact

(33:23):
that they'd already been bottled out forwas a fifty five yeah yeah, So
they got rolled for fifty five.I think Mohammed Sharaje about six. He
had five for in the first hour. Wow, he was five five for
eleven five for eleven I think inthe first hour of the king. Yeah,

(33:45):
at what point it was, that'scrazy. Absolutely he ended up with
six for fifteen. Oh that's yeah, that's up there, like some of
the some of the best. Thenthere was a bit of a group em
South Africa and they managed to knockover India for one hundred and fifty three
and then now South Africa are threefor sixty in reply with Maiden Markram anchoring

(34:06):
the innings and he's thirty or notout, but it will be. I
mean, you score a fifty inthis game, it's it's worth one hundred.
At least if you scored thirty,I think in this game it's probably
worth one hundred. But yeah,yeah, South Africa have got themselves in
a position that if Marker can anchoran innings and they can get themselves somewhere.
So much of the game was ita green top? Was it a

(34:30):
look the b to be a genuinegreen top? Of the pall was doing
plenty, so probably yeah, it'snot a good wick. It's not what
we want to see by the obviouslythe Internet is a wash with Indians beingles
smug and and sort of like it'sall good for doing here, which is

(34:51):
actually the amount of times, theamount of times you see that from Indian
cricket fans on the internet have nowswung it. It's no longer the point
that you ever on wines and moansabout Indian wickets when it spins too early
and doesn't say any because they're sayingit enough that they're now saying more about
senior wickets or green like green dotsmore than what people are winging about spinning

(35:15):
wickets. But yeah, so they'reout and forth talking about what a joke
it is, and no one saysanything like the fact that the world is
saying it's a joke that there's twentythree wickets have fallen off take it is.
Yeah, I mean, this pitchhas to be given a ranking of
at all. It's a poor becausethat you know, we've talked about the
standards that it has to meet,and it has to have You can't have

(35:38):
excessive for every discipline and you can'thave excessive amounts of anything for any discipline.
And the fact that twenty three wicketshave fallen have proven that it's not
an even contest between back and or. It'd be interesting to see if it
was just super lively on day oneand now for a full day it's going

(35:59):
to sort of maybe even out becauseI think the data bat if the game
makes it, because that would bethe thing. South Africa just need to
figure out Adam Marker and Cony tofigure out how do we get to three
hundred. They're trailed by thirty.Now if they get to three hundred,
so they're three for sixty, howdo we get as close as we came

(36:19):
the three hundred, that's just soputting them setting them how many were going
to be if they trailed like threehundred, trail like thirty now, so
they get to three hundred is anothertwo hundred and forty runs, So that'll
be two hundred and ten runs thatthey're in front. If they can get
the three hundred, put give themselvestwo hundred to defend the way that wicket's

(36:42):
playing. There are genuine chance ofwinning a Test despite being bottled out for
fifty five before like on early dayone. Yeah, they found they found
a middle order player who's got avery good first class record. I noticed
betting for his name. Yeah,yeah, he I don't know, I

(37:02):
haven't seen him bat personally, buthis first class that's are very loaded there.
They're looking good, you know,so that might help them they were
looking for someone like that. Gnow guards done. Yeah, unfortunately his
career has finished, has been bottledout twice. That's it. Yeah,

(37:27):
that's really the highest and loads oftest gagod right there, Farewell series match
winning one hundred and eight and seventyodd next Test dismissed twice in a day.
Yeah, as an opener, Yeah, well yeah, I mean the
most that I've actually seen of thisgame is just reading the krick Info things,

(37:50):
and it was kind of fitting becausethey described that he'd been battered and
bruised through the through his last inningsand toughed it out and that the kind
of player doesn't give it away.Really the last vestige of that hyper successful

(38:14):
team of the Well. Initially,I think he was brought in to bowl
a little bit as well of spin, but yeah, he was. He
had a role as a sort offringe player in that side, and then
such was the drop off of SouthAfrican cricket that he ended up captaining.

(38:37):
But I think he's credentials as acaptain have been pretty good. Yeah,
Like it's never easy to be youknow when there's been such a seismic shift
in the players available, and obviouslythe standard side is going to take a
significant hit. It's never easy tobe the next captain, for it's ever
easy to be the captain that yeahto drop off and has to pick up

(39:00):
the pieces of the legends that havedeparted. So and especially considering all of
the things that are going on,like South African cricket obviously isn't all particularly
wealthy at the moment, so there'sall sorts of other concerns on top of
the concerns around obviously, like theracial quota systems, like that was something
that was always a thorn in Grahamsmith side. So he's got all of

(39:24):
the internal dramas that go along withjust being a South African captive. And
on top of that that there's beena significant financial shortfall in South African cricket
over the years. Add on thefact that there has also been a significant
talent shortfall, especially through their batting. Yeah, I mean they seem to.

(39:45):
I mean that new left armor Burgeris his name on Berger's a right
army. Yanson's the left armor.Are you sure? Pretty sure? Info?
I'm pretty sure he's left on them, but I could be wrong,
could be wrong. Yeah, hecame out. He was absolutely just like

(40:07):
a real fire ran quick. Butthey've always got the seemingly just this never
ending parade of talent and fast bowls, which has always been the case with
South Africa. But it's just beena while since they've managed to find a
lynch pin batsman to go into therein the Lord basically since that the glory
days of is you know callous,those sort of guys that just haven't really

(40:32):
had a mid order bat they canhang their hat on. It's really they
had a lot of guys who werethey put around them, you know,
like your Ashwell princes who weren't worldbut they were. They were definitely decent,
you know, they could play arole around And I think I think

(40:57):
they've got those sort of players,but they just haven't got that that talismanic
bats when they don't have a Williamsand Psmith, a coolie in his arm,
like a real classy, elite,world class midle order bats that they
can go. They've got it,Like I said, they've got a bunch
of guys that if they get in, will contribute, but you just haven't
got that that glue that holds theline up together, and like it looked

(41:20):
like Markraham could be that guy.But Markraham hasn't no, just refuses to
fire. He played that wonderful line, us you'll run out for ninety nine.
I think, yeah, he lookedhe looked one hundred. He also

(41:42):
had one hundred to his name veryearly or maybe either it was not his
debut, it was the next game. Like he had a strong start to
his career. There was a lotto like about it, and then it
just had it just never clicked,never clicked the gear. So what do
you think Now he's got some authorityunder he needs to stand up and do
a job for For South Africa.Yeah, you know, and on the

(42:02):
Indian side of things, obviously they'vethey've bounced back from it would have been
a disappointing defeat there they're bowling well, they've knocked South Africa over. They've
a very difficult pitch. They've managedto scrap to a score that's three times
as much as what South Africa puton against a very good bowling attack.
So they've got themselves in a positionwhere they're they're still bossing the game.

(42:28):
It's just going to come down tohow each team manages to take on the
early part of day two. Yeah, I think some some days you just
nick everything as well. I don'tknow whether that was the case againes today,
but you know, we remember thatthat India got bundled out for and

(42:51):
again that was one of those dayswhere it's just how many times do you
watch a team play and miss andnever touched the ball and the India just
managed to nick absolutely everything. Hazerothrow down, Yeah, Yeah, So
anyway, it will be an interestingone. Yeah, And there have been
calls that it was probably color FoxSports are one of the teams the outlets

(43:14):
that call it cricket karma was beforeIndia managed to have their turn a batting
when they will not go fifty fivewith the Hey look, I want to
throw out big harsh words like disgraceful, but I understand the fiscal reality of
what's going on in in South Africaat the moment. And they did attempt

(43:36):
to move the series because obviously theseries that have been booked in before,
because you know, the Future theFuture Tours program usually is about four years
or so, which is preceded thethe SA twenty. The SA twenty obviously
has in their contracts that that isthe if you're contracted to an SA twenty
side, that is that's the priority. You are unavailable to play any other

(44:00):
form of cricket. So all ofSouth Africa's best, best, best and
brightest are playing in the T twentycon which has left a really depleted Test
squads tour New Zealand. Their captainis making his day boom in this game,
not as captain, but his Testdayboo is in this game and he's

(44:22):
already named as it is, justthat it is a very frightening indictment on
the lands cricket landscape at the moment. So South Africa has done so if
you're if you've had your head inthe sand cricket wise, we're talking about
the series between South Africa and NewZealand. Yeah, the upcoming tour.

(44:43):
All of South Africa's typical Test playersthat there's a couple that if you've been
there before, but not many.I think there's seven debutantes on the tour,
including the captain, captain nel endOr Bloom. Yeah I'm driving,
so I don't. I don't haveaccess to one. We're having to go

(45:07):
off the cart I've got a feelingthat it's Neil Bland, which he sounds
like a dynamic captain. Sorry,no, yeah, I don't know.
I've got nothing to go by becauseI don't know any of these players and
that kind of sums it up really. Yeah, and it's there's been lots

(45:29):
of calls that is incredibly disrespectful toNew Zealand and it is. Yeah,
some people have said that New Zealandshould should pull out of them. It's
a World Test Championship series, whichwould mean that will cost the World Test
champions No. I think what youdo is your thumb whoever shows up and
just just saying don't don't bring youknow, a second class size and look.

(45:52):
And the thing is, if we'renot righting the bt for me,
like as we said, South Africahave avery strong domestic system, They've got
a factory classy players and this couldbe the making of South African cricket if
you want to put a silver liningon it all. Like here, imagine
some guy that's sort of not beengiven a crack because they're this sort of
preconceived notion of what the size isgoing to look like, and then those

(46:14):
players aren't peaked and then you've gotsome guy that goes and rattles off,
you know what, there's a threeTest series, maybe rattles off a couple
of hundreds against New Zealand, andall of a sudden this team of you
know who the hell is that yacan really establish himselves as well. It
is a good opportunity for those whowere touring because we remember, you know,

(46:37):
the way that West Indies unearthed KeemarRoach was they had that contract dispute,
remember way back and they sent asecond team to Bangladesh. Yeah,
Keemar Roach was a young fire brandat that time and that's where he really
made his mean's mark on the Testside. And I don't think he's spend

(47:00):
a long time out of it sincethen. I don't think for form anyway,
maybe injuries, but on form he'sbeen a fairly consistent. Part of
that is the first West Indian bowlerto reach two hundred and fifty past weeks
since the guys like Ambrose Walsh.So yeah, but I mean like you

(47:21):
can make the best of it.Of course, you always try and make
the best of what you get.Then they could go out and really,
you know, all themselves to areally high standard and do well. I
mean, but yeah, at theend of the day, that this is
a it's a startling they've kind ofgot nothing to lose. Everyone's already written
them off. But just the principleof what has happened, regardless of the

(47:45):
regardless of it ends up being agood thing for South Africa or not,
more of if it's a competitive seriesor not, regardless that it is a
startling development, that is for thefuture of Test cricket, that this is
a THI I mean, that's Imean, that's that's an extreme point of
view, isn't it that people havebeen saying. That's really an extreme point

(48:07):
of view. I mean, let'swhat happens if England decided that, you
know, or India restarts sort ofthe belts getting a bit tighter than all
of a sudden, all of theIndian backed T twenty which is now quite
a lot of them, that ifyou want a contract to play you know,

(48:28):
an IPL based franchise cricket, whichwould be you know, the UAE
twenty twenty competition, in South Africantwenty twenty competition. There is Indian money
in the West Indies competition. There'sobviously Indian money in the ip L.
There's Indian money in the Major Leaguecricket. If they then putting a thing

(48:49):
there that if you want to getpaid, you are unavailable to play the
same way that South African cricket hasdone you. That's now it you,
Ye, the basis of you gettinghis contract is that you can no longer
play conflicting international fixtures. Yeah,well, we don't even know. If
this is quite a lot of calendarright there. That then like obviously the

(49:13):
world's got out of the way forthe IPL which is consistently and like it's
trying to get bigger and longer,which is also its own level of concerned.
But if that, if you justget one or two boards that go
down that route, you know whatif Sri Lanka then all of a sudden,
say because obviously they're strapped for cash, and then all of a sudden

(49:35):
half the world's not letting their playersgo and play international fixtures at the same
time their domestic tournaments going. Yeah, I mean Steve war sort of summed
it up well with the article Iread from him through the week where he
was saying he doesn't understand by thebig teams don't subsidize or it is.

(49:58):
There should be a standar woefully shortsighted, not only of the ICC but
of Australia and India that there isn'tmore being done to assist these smaller nations,
because as it is, the Testcricket is very very close to just
simply being the border GAVESCA Trophy,the Ashes and an India England series.

(50:22):
I'm sure it's got a name.I can't remember what it is off the
top of my head. I thinkthey've got a name for when England tour
India and it's got a different namefor when India tour England. But yeah,
but that's that's where it's going.It's it's going to be turning Test
Triger to end up being a threeway competition, which is not what the
ic C should be doing. ThatLike all sports, all sports, what

(50:45):
they're trying to do is introduce methodsof parody. They want see, like,
you know, teams except maybe thePremier League football, but just about
every other code is trying to putin methods of keeping teams equal. You
know, there are salary caps,there are drafts for new players which are

(51:06):
based on finishing position. So theteams that come last, get the first
crack at the best of the nextgeneration, Like teams try to find ways
to make sure that their competition doesn'tbecome two one sided. Yeah, Cup,
they've got those regions of the worldto make sure that all of the
teams getting in are just from Europeor South America, to grow the game,

(51:31):
to make it as even as theycan to and encourage growth. But
it's not just if you're not theGermany's or the Netherlands or the Englands of
the world that there is still waysfor you to get through and compete and
all that things. Or if you'rethe from Australia, the West Tigers of
the world, or the Newcastle Knightsof the world or the Dragons of the

(51:53):
world, there are avenues that youcan go down to try and you know,
the salary cap is there. Obviouslythe teams are exploit it. The
n b A and the NFL andthe National Hockey League have those draft systems
that you're finishing last, you're gettingfirst crack at the best talent of the
next generation. But cricket just seemsto have absolutely no interest in finding ways

(52:15):
to make the lower tier nations anyavenues to catch up to this, won't
play one off against I mean wealways go back to that. Yeah,
anyway, it's got to be done, not only by the ic C,
but there needs to be a bitof forethought from England, Australia and and

(52:37):
in India that if you don't spenda little bit more after the game you're
going to you're gonna be playing againstno one. Well what it will be
is you'll only be playing T twentycricket, which is which would be an
absolute desis we love. I don'tknow if I could continue to follow cricket
if it was exclusively T twenty,Yeah, I would just live like the

(53:00):
rest of my cricketing life on YouTubewatch you want watching former Test cricket and
it's just like the icix C needsto step in and do something. And
whether or not Usman Kwaja and SteveVore are both suggested, maybe there needs
to be like the match payments forTest cricket are handed out by the ic

(53:22):
C and they're waited more so thereis a obviously, if you're a poorer
nation cricket board, your central contractobviously can't be as competitive as playing for
India, playing for Australia playing forEngland. But if the ICC is paying
you the same, the ICC ispaying Pat Coummens the same as he's paying

(53:42):
Harry Techton or Blessing Muzrabani, andobviously then there's going to be more incentive
to keep playing because you're being financiallylooked after. There's less Obviously, you're
never gonna you're never gonna be ableto compete with the millions that are being
offered up to a franchise cricket.But the ICC seems to have no interest

(54:07):
at all in safeguarding the future.And let's not kid around. Cricket is
testing. Everything else is a gimmick. One day cricket is a gimmick.
T twenty cricket is a gimmick thatthe proper form of cricket is testing.
If that's what was rigidly conceived,and lots of people agree with that,

(54:28):
and yet they are entertaining and they'vegot merit in their own rights. But
traditionally cricket is the five day context, that's what it is played between nations,
and there just seems to be nointerest from the ICC in safeguarding And
I'm gonna put it down to thisand I've said it off air, it
on air. The reason is becauseIndia make a disproportionate percentage of the income

(54:52):
of global cricket. And that's nottheir fault. They just make it.
I'm not saying it's wrong that theymake it, but it's like, there
isn't really any that I can thinkof where all of the money comes from,
such like a one spot and Indiahave no interest in the sport of
cricket, and I say that thatsounds funny. The BCCI does not care

(55:14):
about cricket other than the fact isa means to an end to make money.
They have no interest in protecting thegame. They have no interest in
developing the game. The only thingthey've got an interest in is making money
and making money. It might bethat India are winning cricket games even became
more profitable for India to not wincreer games. I can guarantee you we

(55:36):
wouldn't see India doctor in pictures.The BCCI only cares about cricket as a
means of making money. They haveno interest in improving the health of the
game. They have no interest inlooking after the future of the game.
All they care about is making surethat they're making money and usually, as
we've said, that means India winninggames. But if that ever changes,

(56:00):
the BCCI would not hesitate to pivotin that direction. And that's the thing.
The BCCI doesn't actually care about cricket. And that's the issue that we've
got with the ICC because it isso heavily slanted in doing whatever the BCCI
wants. There isn't actually a realbig push for the ICC to make cricketing

(56:21):
decisions that improve the game. Theymake cricketing decisions to improve income. Yeah,
it's almost like there's there's not abody that exclusively takes care of cricket
itself. And then so what you'reasked, So you've got a whole heap
of factions that have their own selfinterest and the health of the game just

(56:43):
doesn't come into their their thinking atall. And to protect the interests of
Test cricket would require taking money outof the pockets of the Big three.
And it's not just the we beatup with the BCCI because they have the
most money to spare, but Australiaand England are going out of their way
to part with any of their moneyto help smaller nations become more competitive,

(57:05):
so none of the big things,even if it's just coaching, you know,
like I can imagine our coaching opportunitiesare a whole lot better than those
nations, and we hark backed ita lot. We've bagged them up.
But sim Zimbabwe came like any woulddig o. Smaller nations don't want to
play test cricket, there's no moneyin it. Zimbabwe came to our shores
for a T twenty and one dayInternational tour before the T twenty World Cup.

(57:31):
Well they did beat us in onegame, but specifically requested to play
a test while they're over here andwe told them no. And I was
like, so you can't tell methat there's not an interest for those smaller
nations to go on to play.They want to play test cricket. They
don't have the opportunity and it's tooexpensive for them to go out and create

(57:52):
too many opportunities because their players areobviously looking elsewhere for their income. So
it's just it's not just India thatare short changing the game. England and
Australia are doing it as well.I mean, England have no issues making
you like they're playing for the lastthree straight years England are playing the most

(58:15):
Tests out of any nation in theworld. I think they're playing like fifteen
tests this year. We're only playingnine, so we're about fifth pives I
think. But so they've got noissues in making sure that they're playing Test
cricket, but won't take any stepsto make sure that there are any teams
to play that aren't Australia or India. And it's the same. India are

(58:38):
not too worried about the survival ofTest cricket because they know that they're such
an attractive financial partner that someone willwant to play Test cricket with them because
they'll be able to then sell theTV rights, so there's no demand,
like there's no issue. They don'thave any issues with that because they've always

(59:01):
got a willing dance partner because it'ssuch an e lucrative thing to play India
in a game of cricket. Sothey're not too fast either. They're like,
oh, well, we've got Englandand got Australia and his son wants
to play as a Test cricket youknow we'll go because people will pay to
watch us. But all these otherone people teams on the West Indies like
Pakistan, like South Africa, likeBanglades, Sri Lanka, they don't have

(59:22):
that backing there and there's just nohelp from the people that are there to
ensure that there's help to be givenout. And then all of those nations
going backwards, you know, likethey had their the glory is Sri Lanka
had you know, quite a goodrun there in the in the late nineties

(59:42):
and in the two thousand as well. You know, they had Sung Kakara
and Joe Wardner and the same KaraJi Wardner, you know, Malinga Muralithur.
And until here at the dil Shanera of South Caroline, they're slowly
backing into being the minnow that theywere in the And that's the concerning thing
about cricket. There is just acollective and outside of the Big three,

(01:00:10):
and you'd say New Zealand, butin New Zealand are in a similar sort
of boat, like they've had theirgolden generation and there's there's no guarantee that
they're going to not revert back afterthat generation the way that's just what New
Zealanders do. But but you seethat there's development, it might not all

(01:00:32):
be across the board. There'll beteams that are better or worse, and
you know they'll go through periods,but collectively as a whole, outside of
the big three teams are regressing.There is no chewing and throwing like you
get it when there's an influx ofgood plays. You see other sports,
there's an influx of good players.Those players go that there's a there's a

(01:00:53):
dip, but someone else to beon the rise because they're finding good players.
But there just doesn't seem to bethat. There doesn't seem to be
the upstart team. It just seemsto be the haves have normals. Yeah,
when's the last time that you canthink of West Indies looking like they
have any hope and Test cricket,you know, like any team other than

(01:01:15):
New Zealand who have, like Isaid, have cashed in on their golden
generation of players with the World Cupberths and the World Test Championship win.
But you look outside that, afterthe South African greats have gone, there
hasn't really been any sort of uptickthere. There's been no uptick from Pakistan
and then gets steadily getting worse.Worth has been no uptick in Sri Lanka

(01:01:37):
like Bangladeshi never had an uptick really, Zimbabwe have just been and a lot
of it is it the ic thingsfult There are internal things that are happening
in there. But if it justseems to be this collective across the board
lull or regression, there doesn't seemto be anyone getting any better unless it's

(01:01:58):
one of the big three. Yeah, and outside of that, it's just
that there is no and it's justthere's no variety, is there? Like
that's that's the great thing about testcricket. It's like, okay, who've
we got coming out this year?It's okay, you know it's Sri Lanka.

(01:02:20):
Okay, cool, We've got tosee how we deal with Melinga or
you know, any of their homeconditions, especially when they're very foreign.
Yeah, you can get teams likeSchlanker or Bangladesh or or anyone like that
giving a h they call them Sinaso South Africa, England, New Zealand

(01:02:40):
Australia, giving them a bit ofa rough start in those really foreign conditions,
But there doesn't then when they goand play someone who's used to those
conditions. So if a Shri Lankaplays in India, they get absolutely hauled.
Yeah, so it's it's more ofa case that they're capitalizing on the
familiarity of their conditions, only theygo to somewhere with similar risk conditions.

(01:03:04):
They're still getting out of play headsagain. It's just it's and there was
a really and I really respect heras a sports journalist. It's probably the
only thing that I've ever seen apost that I was just like, Wow,
you are so off the mark.And there was a it was a
response to a Twitter thing talking abouthow like it was just after the IPL
loction and talking about how smaller nationsaren't going to be able to compete with

(01:03:30):
the IPL loction and this could bea very dangerous period of time for test
cricket. So response is, oryou could look at Pat Cummins and Mitchell
Stark, who have proven that youcan dedicate time to test cricket and still
be successful and earn your money andthe IPL you could do both. And
I was just like, what awoefully uneducated, short sighted opinion to have.

(01:03:52):
Yeah, sure it's fine for thePat Commins the Mitchell Stark to the
world, but how are you goingto ask like a blessing Muserabani from him
or Harry Tector from Ireland, orany of the West Indies players or any
of the Sri Lankan players that aren'tas well off to just know, just
dedicate some time playing for peanuts,for your hope for your nation, and

(01:04:13):
then later on you can go andask that big payout from franchise tournaments.
Narrowly meadows. I don't think youever said that, n It was a
Twitter response and honestly it was away of congratulating Pat Cummings and you know
and Mitchell, especially Mitchell Stark fortheir resoluteness and sticking there and being available

(01:04:38):
to play for Australia and getting yourcake and eating it too, of living
in a environment where you are beingvery well remunerated for playing for your country
and that isn't simply just not thecase outside of three countries in the world
where you can be, you know, comparatively renumerated where you could afford to

(01:05:00):
pass up on like Mitchell Stark hasplayed in the IPL for a better part
of a decade, Like and lookwhat he's earned for just his trip back.
Like how do you, as aplayer, how do you say no,
it's honestly millions of dollars to goand play for nothing for the country,
Like it's really hard to Like everyother day you seem to be hearing

(01:05:21):
about West Indies or Pakistan or theBangladesh or someone not paying their players for
an extended period of time, likethere's no security in playing for your your
nation at the moment. It's justit was just such a really shortsighted,
tactless argument to have about what wasessentially the beginning of the thing that she

(01:05:44):
was replying to was concerned and agenuine concern for the welfare of Test cricket
before. I suppose the counter argumentthough, is in the smaller nations are
not playing as much Test cricket,so you wouldn't have to take as much
time off. Well, South Africaright now is an embodiment of hy you

(01:06:05):
need to future proof of the gameand not just go well, they don't
play as much, so it's notas big a deal because at the moment
you are looking at my third rateside on paper, it's probably been generous,
like yeah, probably fourth or one. I was about to say that,
Yeah, I was about like,we don't know what rate they're actually
playing because I suppose there's probably goingto be guys who are decent players but

(01:06:29):
don't have the aggression that's needed fortwenty twenty franchise cricket. So they might
be second you know, they mightbe in a second team. But yeah,
you don't know how far you're goingdown, And it's just it's the
precedented sense, which is the concerningthing. But we digress. We've still

(01:06:55):
got the rest of this Indian SouthAfrican tennis match to look forward to,
and obviously it's going to be wedon't know what it's going to be until
it is. Yeah, it couldbe. You know, with sport is
for of those stories where the pluckyunderdogs everyone's written off, gets up and
shops the world. The ninety ninefive State of Origin series is one of

(01:07:15):
the Queen's letting like to hang onto the team of nobody's worst team ever
comes out and does that. Butbefore we I'm pretty sure if South Africa
win this series, Steven Spielberg willwrite a movie about it. Yeah,
New Zealand can be the bad guysagain. Another sporting movie where New Zealand

(01:07:39):
with the villains. We've made thatjoke before and we know that it was
simply because you have to have abad guy in the movie, but the
Victor movie, because they tied intohow like racism could be beaten. South
Africa win the World Cup. Italmost felt like New Zealand, We're on

(01:07:59):
the side on the pass pike,but obviously that is not the case.
New Zealand's probably one of the mostprogressive nations. But yeah, it was
just it was a funny feel tothe whole thing. And because it was,
it was a very you know,it was a big moment. It's
South the South African landscape, justafter the part Id and the first mixed
team and winning a World Cup againbecause because obviously as an audience knew that

(01:08:21):
a lot road on what happened,it just gave off that feeling that Joan
Olong who was knocking people out ofthe way because he was pro a pasts
just a really, really awkward thingto really talk about. But anyway,
we'll move on from there. Thatwas That's how funny in joke we've had
for a while. All Right,last little bit before we end up getting

(01:08:44):
towards the seg we have hit themotorway now, so we are weaving in
and out of trucks and other cars. As we make our way to the
ground, We've got a bit ofa chat about the Big Bash and of
course the ups and downs that issuper Coach because it's just it's been just
a real especially with the weather aroundthe Big Bash this year, it has
been an awful, awful thing.It's a cruel Mistress, super Coach.

(01:09:08):
So what do you thought of theBig Bachelor far? Glenn like, we'll
skip big the super Coach aspect fora little bit, but the actual product
itself. How have you enjoyed thegame? I like the new schedule.
I think it's it puts a bitmore significance on each game. Yeah,
the quality is probably better than lastyear. Would you say I think so.

(01:09:34):
I think as well. I wouldn'twell, I wouldn't say that that
the parody is the same. Therehave been some games that aren't particularly close.
But I think you've got the Starsthat were awful for the first few
games and now they're in the midstof a three game win streat powered by
Glenn Maxwell and in Bow Webster.So it is a competition that any team

(01:09:56):
on their day can go on abit of run. So you know,
the Renegade very strong early and havestruggled. The Thunder on Pave look like
they've got a pretty decent side anda struggle, but then you've got the
Heat. Who are you know outof the block playing really well. The
Sixers are again like they always likeclockwork, you can set you're you know,
you get your watch and the Sixersare going to be a good side.

(01:10:17):
The Scorch is going to be agood side. But yeah, there
just seems to be those teams thattypically haven't been good on there they can
get up and and have some goodperformances. I have been a bit disappointed
and have been disappointed in Will Sutherland. He's a guy I was really hoping
would kick on and have a reallybig year and you'd say, probably that
hasn't been the case. No,you could start to the shield. But

(01:10:43):
actually I did know this. Hisperformances were dropping off just before the BBL
starts that because his price kept goingdown in Supercar. I don't know,
well, he's been scoring pretty well, but yeah, I suppose that doesn't
always translate to good performances. LikeI've really liked the Thunders, Like the

(01:11:08):
signing of camp Bancroft, I thinkthat's something. The thunder and Blacked for
a while has been a steady forceat the top of the order after Kowaja
left. Alex Hales is one ofthose guys that you know they if they
make the finals, Hails go alright, but he always seems to start slightly
where I thought. Bancroft has playedwell. Unfortunately, no one in the

(01:11:30):
middle orders in general. I thinkthe English imports they do start slow,
don't they. They take a whileto find their footing. I mean Laurie
Evans got going yes to take He'sfrom England, isn't he? Is he
from I think he's from New Zealand. Jack. But it's been a good

(01:11:56):
tournament so far. I don't thinkit's been like There have been some games
obviously with the bats dominated, andthere's been some other games where they've been
a little bit more circumspect and lowscoring. I think in general it's been
a fairly enjoyable tournament to watch.The field has been a lot better than
like. They haven't seen a lotof those squad catchers, which should be
swallowed at that level unless your namessee Curtis Patterson put down really yeah,

(01:12:19):
he didn't even get a hand.That wasn't the game against the Heat last
night. They've all keet following himaround everywhere. I wouldn't have wanted to
have been Curtis last night. It'sjust always was just just out of reach
Paul Bloke. But no, it'sbeen. It's been a good tournament,
and yeah, it's gonna be interesting. See this is always the point where
around this time of year, whereright at the zenith of our interest in

(01:12:43):
it, and then it then justkeeps going and going and going, and
then up to the finals you're like, thank god, it's the final,
it's nearly finished. Yeah, butno, I think it's been. It's
been good so far. It's beena good spectacle. Super coach wise,
Yeah, I added off full ofhope and figor. And then with my
my new job that I've got,I've had less fort of time to dedicate

(01:13:06):
to future proofing my team, andso I got super excited. I had
a really good team for a roundtwo, plenty of stars, plenty of
strikers, scored really well, andthen I'd forgot to check the round round
three that the strikers and the stars, so I was full of two players
with blue dots. Next then Iam, and not enough trades get them,

(01:13:27):
and I was like, God,damn it, how did I make
such a Yeah, like I wastalking before before he started recording. But
I'm not a huge fan of thedouble round because it it forces you to
pick and it tells you who whoto pick. Basically, down the field,
you know that everyone's going to havea Glenn Maxwell or a Bow Webster,

(01:13:49):
or a Matt Short or a DarcyShort or a Jamie Overton depending on
his or a thunder double round,you know they're going to be and of
davies and you're to point a differenceyou need, you need to really take
a risk, like you know,last night, it would have been amazing

(01:14:10):
to have Lori Evans, but itwould be a bit called to double round
with exactly. He's a specialist batsmanwho bats at five, so he may
not have gotten a bat at all. If you'd be thinking that if for
the scorches, you'd be thinking offthe bat immediately, Aaron Hardy, Zach
Crawley, bowlers like Richardson or Behrendorftie tie, so you'd probably be going

(01:14:35):
you'd probably maybe your fifth or sixthpick would be a guy like Laurie Evans
English would be another one up thereas well. So so it does it
does then mean that you're you're takingon paper, it is a fairly significant
risk picking a guy that's batting atfive when you've got prey decorated top order

(01:14:57):
in front of you, and thenobviously plenty of bowlers that you could pick
from to them, you know,streach out and grab a guy like Laurie
Evans to go off in the inthe middle order, sacrificing a chance at
a Jay Richardson or a Sarndorf orso. Whereas if you had even rounds
where each team played once, whichI understand that there's logistical problem with that,

(01:15:23):
I'm just saying that ideally that moreof those rounds, I think,
because you can you've then got eightteams to pick from, and from those
teams you've got probably four blokes thatyou pick as batting wise, and then
you know, the same amount bowlingit would get would really open a variety

(01:15:45):
of the teams, because you're right, because as it stands a lot of
the teams. But I suppose it'sthe nature with super coach that at the
end of the day, a lotof the teams towards the top of the
competition are going to look very similarbecause you're picking the same players that are
doing well. But as you said, there's logistical issues. It's very difficult
to have around where everyone plays aGael at once when you might have three

(01:16:06):
games in six days and another teamonly has one. But yeah, but
it is, it is on thoseones. On the flip side of that
is, you do have to bebrave and take risk, can go if
a lot of Evans plays off likean absolute genius. I don't think anyone
had Evans in our league. Interestingto see what his ownership to check it

(01:16:30):
out after the podcast and check withhis ownership actually was. I can't imagine
it would be very high because it'snot a very attractive prospect to pick a
guy that bats at five. Youknow, he may if the top orderm
go off of the scorches, hemay not even get a back sort of
thing. He's probably been the mostdynamic player so far though, strike great

(01:16:50):
wise. I think he did firea warning shot in the scorches. Last
game or maybe the one previous tothat. Where you got last night was
just ridiculous. They scored one hundred, one hundred and six off the last
six overs or something like that.I think that's absurd hitting. Yeah,

(01:17:12):
and like the Strikers gave it afair crack, but ultimately but it does
take. It does show how dynamicof game it was when the Strikers with
like twenty six runs ahead at thefourteenth over or something like that. The
fourteenth over comparison, they were fourteenruns or twenty six runs ahead and they

(01:17:35):
were almost out of the game.Yeah, Like so they were still going
and they needed more than two runsa ball at that point, but they
were twenty six runs ahead. Thatjust goes to show just how ridiculous that
Florrie Evans inning. I think hetook twenty eight off the last over.

(01:17:56):
Yeah. So poor James Blaisley,Yes, he suffered. He's not having
a good year. Actually, he'snot going well down at the Strikers got
the same form that he had forthe heat. But who do you think
is probably the standout other than Evans. I mean, he's at the front

(01:18:17):
of our minds because of that gamelast night. Super players so far,
Matt Short obviously has been a strongplayer. He's wicket batting very well at
the top of the order, leadingrun score at the moment, has had
a very friendly schedule. He's hada company he's how to buy, but

(01:18:38):
he's had quite a few doubles aswell, so that's always been handy Maxwell.
Obviously he's picked up some big scoresand some wickets along the way.
Bo Webster, if you had himat the right time, I unfortunately didn't
have him at the right time whenhe scored that massive score and then also

(01:18:59):
when he picked up the four allfor the for the for the round,
four wickets in the round as well, huge use and that like there was
someone like this is the other thing, absolute balls of steel. So in
a Stars double game round captain Websterwhen Glenn Maxwell exists, who like,

(01:19:19):
who looks at that when you've gotGlenn Maxwell in your side and also overs.
But I think batting at for youknow, he's in pretty good four
and you're looking at that going Ithink I'm going to put the captain on
by Webster this round Like that isthat is make or break stuff, super
coach. He's a good hitter though, but you just don't know whether he's

(01:19:40):
going to get it well and theother two or he's batting at three I
think. But the bowling has alsobeen inconsistent as well, so he's he's
taking those four wickets and hardly bowlthe ball and anger afterwards. So it's
been great this year to absolutely roundhave been very healthy. Hm hmmm,
uh. Surprise of the tournament haven'tbeen huge surprises, the Hurricanes being as

(01:20:10):
bad as they are, Yeah,yeah, Tim, Yeah, Nathan Ellis
is captaining them now he hasn't hada standout yet down then yet. H
yeah. I can't. I can'tthink of anyone who's really surprised us,
can you. I think I thinkthat's probably the big surprise that there's no

(01:20:33):
surprises. But I think that thebig surprise is that, you know,
the Hurricanes you're talking on paper,that they've got like the Dermott Ellish,
you know, players of that Ilkomatticway that you would imagine that they were,
They should be better than what theyare, you know. I always

(01:20:56):
I kind of thought with the additionsof Zambra and Joe Clark and the obviously
that you know guys like Will Sutherlandin there as well, that they would
be a bit more if the Renegade'sbeen a bit more consistent like that.
They recruited pretty well Jibu Rahma aswell didn't end up getting Quentin de Kock
as well. He's probably been abit of a surprise that he hasn't fired,

(01:21:23):
so most disappointing. Yeah, Imean, I don't think I've said
too many surprises that I was like, oh wow, this guy has been
really really good. I've just beenmore surprised that the people that haven't been
really really good. Yeah, alot of fizzes, people that should be
playing well have been playing well.Yeah, it's it's I suppose that's a

(01:21:46):
good thing. It's it's a littlebit unpredictable. It would be nice if
you were surprised in a good waymore than surprised in a bad way.
Yes, it is what it islike, you're we haven't had we haven't
had like a Peter hadso Glue oryou know, like a guy coming out
of nowhere that left arm rest Spinnerfrom who replaced Aga in the first couple

(01:22:15):
of games. I forget his name. He also bats. He was a
bit of a surprise and I thinkhe'll be good. No, not Cooper
Connelly. I don't know. Sorrythat was not helpful at all, But
yeah, we you know, wehaven't had a Patrick Patty Dooley. Yeah,

(01:22:36):
no, like success story that Ican really think of emerging out of
out of nowhere. Yeah, anyway, having like a really good year,
and you'd say he's been good withoutbeing brilliant. Yeah, a lot of

(01:22:58):
starts. Hasn't really gone on withit. You probably would have liked to
have seen. I supposeally probably thebiggest if you say the biggest surprise of
the tournament would just be how consistentmaybe like a bow Webster has been,
Like he's been very destructive, hittingthe ball really well. It's sort of
been masked by the fact that theStars have struggled for a large part of

(01:23:18):
the season. Yeah, it's been, it's been good. It's been.
It's been good to to watch.Hopefully we'll get to see before some of
these players the part for hope Ican see the Harbor Bridge, to see
the Harbor Bridge where in the middleof Sydney. We're on Ansack Bridge at
the moment. But yeah, sowe're not far from the stadium now.

(01:23:40):
Yea. Hopefully it's just it continuesgetting on and hopefully it just doesn't get
stale. That's the one thing thatthey've realized that the tournament gets be in
stale, gets a bit old,gets bit long. That they just manages
to keep that sort of vibrants aboutit and and just be a good tournament
through right through to the finish.All right, We're going to let you

(01:24:04):
go now because we're now navigating thebusy streets of Sydney and where of course
country boys that are terrified of thebig city. Look at all these cars.
You so many people. You mean, there's three lanes and you can
use all of them. So yes, we're we're making our way to the

(01:24:24):
seg. We're hopefully going to seeDavid Warner have one of his champagne innings
to see off his career. We'llprobably if we're feeling inclined, we'll throw
a few videos up so you keepchecking the socials. See out pretty mugs
all dressed up in our cricket atire. I realized I didn't bring anything
pen That's right, I didn't bringanything either, because I'm going to buy

(01:24:45):
some stuff and like it. Theyalways like supporting the Jamie. But yeah,
thank you very much, guys.I hope you enjoyed the beginning of
your twenty twenty four. I hopethe end of your twenty twenty three was
safe and Santa was good for you. Years was good all of that stuff.
Plenty more cricket coming your way throughtwo sleeps in the Gully in the
year of twenty twenty four. Butuntil we see you next time, by

(01:25:08):
for now bye, guys over SportsSocial podcast Network