Sport Today

Did I see Warne nursing a sore finger?  Or a sore shoulder?  No, he was
cranking the ball with the same old vigour.  Go you good thing!!

Taylor has not had the happiest series.  It would have been easy to send
the Poms in for a bat on the first day.  That way, he could have
consolidated his fragile form by avoiding the English seamers on a *** of
a pitch.  We can assume that he would have noticed that the wicket would
seam around a lot.  Instead, he took stock of his batsmen and worked on the
assumption that at least one and hopefully two would gather some runs.
Anything over 220 would do.  Bravely he went out and paid the personal
price.

At the same time, he put faith in his spin attack and counted on them to
take wickets in the England last innings.  These spinners returned his
faith by breaking through in England's first innings.  

Now, will those who railed in horror at Taylor's decision to bat first,
please admit that perhaps this great cricket captain and tactician may have
read the situation first hand a tad better than his armchair critics?

I frequently disagree with some of the nonsense the commentators rubbish on
with.  However, I fully agree with their assessment of Healy's stumping.
It was an excellent bit of anticipation and execution.  And I use the word
"execution" in all of its definitions.

Congratulations to Headley on his fine bowling.  From what I saw of his
lovely lithe action, he will have many more opportunities to bother not
only Australian batsmen but batsmen from all other teams.  I just hope
someone in the English camp have a quiet chat to him about chewing up the
pitch with his follow through.  He transgress the Danger Area too often.

--
"Happiness for a bee or a dolphin is simply to exist:
for a man it is to know and to wonder."
              Jaques-Yves Cousteau, 1910-1997
VALE          The world is now poorer

Rosebud

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| > Did I see Warne nursing a sore finger?  Or a sore shoulder?  No, he was
| > cranking the ball with the same old vigour.  Go you good thing!!
| >
| I wonder if the "hand position" Benaud commented on during the game is  a
| legacy of these injuries, or a definate ploy to change his style of attck
| to over-spinners.? Whatever it was, it worked! Woo Hoo!!
|
snip

At the time Richie made this comment, Warne was bowling to left handed
batsmen and his stock leg break would have been wasted.  Instead, he was
using top spin which makes the ball dip in the air before hitting the pitch
and then when it hits the pitch, it suddenly darts forward unnaturally.  
'Tiger' O'Reilly was the only spinner of consequence that I am aware of,
who could consistently bowl 'googlies' and not mess up his stock ball or
stuff up his shoulder.  Warne has never been a regular user of the googly
or wrong 'un so the top spinner seems to be his stock ball to lefties.

--
"Happiness for a bee or a dolphin is simply to exist:
for a man it is to know and to wonder."
              Jaques-Yves Cousteau, 1910-1997
VALE          The world is now poorer

Rosebud