Oo0, ahhhh, Glen McGrath has become AUS' latest all-rounder, now that he's scored 50 runs (not out) in the 1st test against our Kiwi black-cap cousins.
All over in 3.5 days. New Zealand were never in the hunt after McGrath ripped apart their top order with some tight pace bowling, following his Test-best 61 in a record 114-run last wicket stand with Jason Gillespie. Warne finished with 4 for 15 from 10.2 overs, McGrath 3 for 19 from eight overs, Gillespie 2 for 19 from 10 overs and Kasprowicz 1 for 21 from eight overs. Just another day in the office for this Aussie team.
Fantastic performance by the Aussies in this game, especially after they were under pressure at 4 for 128 in their first innings. Martyn with his 70, then Gilchrist and Clarke with centuries took the game away from New Zealand before Gillespie and McGrath put the icing on the cake, both bringing up their first test match 50's. New Zealand's batting in the 2nd innings was terrible to say the least.
Extremely disappointing second innings performance by the Black Caps. With the second string bowling attack they took to Australia they were always going to struggle to get anything better than a draw but the second innings batting performance was crap. I think the best bit was the McMillan/Gilchrist incident
I hate to agree with you on this Crowdie, but I do. Mcmillan let the umpire make the decision & that's exactly what they are there for. Gilly's own religious "walking" crusade should not be compulsory on all other cricket players.
I was listening to the radio this morning and heard Ian Healy raise a very good point about Gilchrist, which was that if he knows a batsman isn't out when Australia are bowling, he should not appeal. I thought that made a lot of sense, and would expect this of any Australian players. (we're not cheats like some players.... cough-Rashid Latif-cough ) I don't have any issues with batsman walking or not walking, provided they accept the umpires decision even if it's not the correct one. If you don't walk, then you're bound to given not out when you're out, and you're also bound to be given out when you're not out, which evens up in the long run. If you walk, I can't see how it can even up for a batsman, but that's his choice and I respect that. As for the McMillan incident, I think it was more gamesmanship then anything else from Gilchrist. After all, New Zealand were about 5 for 40 odd when it happened, so it's not like the result was in any doubt.