Thursday, December 29, 2005
Warne does the trick once again
When Rudolf scored a match-saving century in the fourth innings of the First Test at Perth, it reminds one of the 1997-98 series when South Africa visited Australia. On that occasion, the teams were more or less evenly matched with Australia holding a marginal advantage. Kallis with a 4th innings century saved the First Test for the Proteas.
The 2nd Test was at Sydney and I watched pretty much about 90% of the game on TV(I think it finished in 3 days - Sat, Sun, Mon). Australia had a useful first innings lead, when Warne(6/34) went on the attack in the 2nd knock and bamboozled the South Africans. The trademark big spinning legbreaks found the edge to slip if not castling the stumps. Wicked flippers had them popping back return catches or plumb in front. Kallis hit a defiant 72 before a bazooka of a leg break crashed into the top of off stump after pitching way outside leg. Wicket Number 300 for the ace leggie(See Pic).
As the 2nd innings ended in the recently concluded 2nd Test, I was crossing my fingers knowing that the fate of match and series depending on how the Proteas fared against Warnie. Sure enough, he split their defences and the inevitable happened. Now the series is as good as over, the Aussies will be bringing in Macgill as well for the SCG test to drive the final nail into the coffin.
Having witnessed current day stars like Dravid, Tendulkar, Akhtar, Laxman, Kumble, Lara, Harbhajan show glimpses of their prowess, Warnie is one legend I will miss :( I feel happy though for all our Chennaites who saw the great man pick up 6-125 and his 500th wicket at the MAC.
The 2nd Test was at Sydney and I watched pretty much about 90% of the game on TV(I think it finished in 3 days - Sat, Sun, Mon). Australia had a useful first innings lead, when Warne(6/34) went on the attack in the 2nd knock and bamboozled the South Africans. The trademark big spinning legbreaks found the edge to slip if not castling the stumps. Wicked flippers had them popping back return catches or plumb in front. Kallis hit a defiant 72 before a bazooka of a leg break crashed into the top of off stump after pitching way outside leg. Wicket Number 300 for the ace leggie(See Pic).As the 2nd innings ended in the recently concluded 2nd Test, I was crossing my fingers knowing that the fate of match and series depending on how the Proteas fared against Warnie. Sure enough, he split their defences and the inevitable happened. Now the series is as good as over, the Aussies will be bringing in Macgill as well for the SCG test to drive the final nail into the coffin.
Having witnessed current day stars like Dravid, Tendulkar, Akhtar, Laxman, Kumble, Lara, Harbhajan show glimpses of their prowess, Warnie is one legend I will miss :( I feel happy though for all our Chennaites who saw the great man pick up 6-125 and his 500th wicket at the MAC.
