cricket with balls

Australia drew tamely (not drew aggressively or sexily) with Sussex and it has convinced some that the apocalypse is coming.

There was a time when practice matches on tours meant a lot. Bradman, and his neurotic need to be better than everyone, pushed the Invincibles to win everything they could. Allan Border threatened to send Craig McDermott home once for being too ginger.

Taking tour games seriously has gone the way of chat rooms; Australia only has two proper practice games on this tour, and asked for 12 payers to be played in both.

So the fact that they didn’t push very hard for victory, and looked a bit flat makes sense. They are taking this as just a warm up game, in a similar way to their game against South Africa A before the tests there. You can’t trust teams in warm up games anymore. Look at Pakistan’s form before the world t20.

Robin Martin-Jenkins played in the match, and he this to say:

“Sledging, mental disintegration, call it what you will, but there was none of it. I batted for an hour-and-a-half in the first innings and had my usual share of wild flails outside off stump. After each one my ears were primed for the volley of abuse that would surely come my way but not a thing was said. In fact, aside from a bit of geeing-up from the covers the whole team was quiet in the field. It smacked of a fairly new team still coming to terms with each other, which is of course what it is. “

He might have a point, but it could just be that they couldn’t be bothered sledging in a practice match.  That is a real shame. Sledging is as much a skill as the leg glance or the doosra. Players should spend hours honing it in warm up games.

Some things have become clearer in Hove, Peter Siddle is Australia’s number two bowler, Nathan Hauritz can struggle on a spinning deck, Marcus North needs some runs at Worcester, Mike Hussey is still in a slump, everytime Phil Hughes goes out someone will come up with a strategy to end his career, and Australia still seem confused as to who their top four quicks are.

Australia now play England A, and there is a chance that Brett Lee might actually bowl his heart out. A mid-pitch Amatuer operation.