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Ricky Pnting would have been a relieved man after having won the first Test against West Indies in the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy. With Mathew Hayden and Michael Clarke not playing, and Stuart MacGill having more off-days than usual these days, Ponting would have been a little worried at the end of the third day.

After taking over 100 runs in lead, the Aussies would never have expected the hostility of the West Indian fast bowlers that awaited them. By the end of the third day, Australia had lost four wickets for seventeen, and when they lost their fifth at 18, the nerves would have been jangling for the skipper.


And then, as has been the case so often, Andrew Symonds walked in and banished some of the bowlers to the fence to get another fifty - his second of the match - as the Australians took a healthy lead, and set a target of over 280.

West Indies did begin well, but once they lost a couple of wickets after their good start, they collapsed against some great bowling by Stuart Clark and Brett Lee. Clark relishes such 'up and down pitches', and took full toll of the opposition, getting a five wicket haul and ending with a Man-of-the-Match award. Lee did not have too many wickets to show for his effort, but rest assured he was quite a handful!

Now with both his premier batsmen coming back for the next Test, it should further swing it in Aussies' favour.
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Even as I type this, the Australians are in a position that they would not have liked to be in. After getting such a wonderful start to the Test match by Ricky Ponting - who scored a masterly 150 as mentioned in our previous article, the Aussies collapsed in the first innings. The Chanderpaul played an innings so reminiscent of him, to take the West Indians within about a 100 runs of their total.

A lead of 100 odd hould have been enough for the Aussies easily seal the match. Not that they cannot right now, but they would have expected it to happen more easily if they do. Batting the second time around, the Aussies collapsed to 17/4 at the end of day three, before recovering a little to capitulate to a 165 all out. It was only an inspirational, aggressive innings of 79 by Symonds that saw them to such a total



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Ricky Ponting was said to be in a patchy form. However, looking at him bat the way he did on the first day at Kingston, Jamaica against the West Indies, one wonders whether the bad form story was actually a myth!

Ponting slammed a 158, Hussey scored another 50, where as Hodge is still batting with a fifty on board. Australia were 301/4 at stumps on the first day


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Sour Grapes for Ricky Ponting? (LINK)

May 14th 2008 04:26
Ricky Ponting, the Australian skipper, would be leading his side to the Caribbean, and is worried that because of the Indian Premier League, not a lot of Aussies would be tuning on to watch the Test Series! And so he has urged the audiences in Australia to not watch retired Aussie cricketers play, but his own team!

Technically, there are only a handful of retired cricketers playing in the tournament. And secondly, and most importantly, it does not remain Ricky Ponting's prerogative to deide who watches what! Interestingly, the IPL and the Test matches would begin at approximately the same time, 1430-1500 hours GMT, which would make it next to impossible for audiences to follow both


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Harbhajan Singh unmasked!

May 11th 2008 07:17
Ricky Ponting minces no words, whether on field or off the field. And when asked for his opinion on the latest Harbhajan Singh, Ponting's reply was as simple and blunt as it could get,
The incident was him dealing with a guy that he has probably played 20 Tests with. Harbhajan has been unmasked


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Australia waits...

March 6th 2008 08:32
Andrew Symonds
Symonds is concerned about touring Pakistan


Australian officials are close to cancelling the test team's tour of Pakistan later this month after prolonged doubts have been raised due to the country's unstable political situation


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India has inflicted a defeat to Australia in the final game of the Commonwealth Bank one day tournament and in the process won it. It is the second time in a row the Australians have lost the finals 2-0.

Much has been made of the controversies that have plagued the summer of cricket - racism, sledging, the IPL player auction and now the tackling of a nude spectator - sometimes the actual cricket has gone unnoticed which is a shame


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Need to punish 'bad boy' undoes the Green and Gold

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Just when you thought the whole idea of the IPL player auction couldn't get more crazy...

it has. The actual auction has taken place and is full of such bizarre contradictions and extravagent spending that you would think that there is no poverty in India and that the streets are paved with gold


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IPL player auction

February 21st 2008 14:21
So it's come to this

In what has to be a move for the detriment of the game cricketers are today being auctioned off to the new Indian Premier League - made up franchises, with made up uniforms playing a made up game to make cricket look and feel like football. The net result is going to be an end to international cricket


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It's rumoured the cashed up IPL and ICL are offering contracts worth up to $1,000,000 to some of the world's finest. It's no wonder some of the biggest names in the game have signed on the dotted line. If the money wasn't incentive enough, knowing that a Twenty20 tournament lasts only a few weeks, makes the proposition even more alluring.

Both organizations have recruited heavily. The IPL especially. They claim to have a player pool of 78 with international experience. And they're paying handsomely for that experience, offering attractive sign-on fees


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Sydney Test - The BuckSonGate episode (LINK)

February 5th 2008 06:12
The Finale

Forget 4 days and 70 overs of seat-edge and occasionally eye-wateringly brilliant Test cricket. Lets start with the finish. 2 overs to go for India to draw this Test at Sydney and move on to the next 2 with a real chance of wresting the Border-Gavaskar trophy from the Australians. India still had 3 wickets in hand and their supporters were wearing tired but proud smiles and could even be forgiven for thinking that it was all over as far as the Australian push for victory in this match


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Ricky Ponting
Captain Fantastic Ricky Ponting with the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. © Getty Images


Australia clinched the Chappell-Hadlee Series in convincing fashion after winning the third one-day match by 114 wins to win the series 2-0


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Adam Gilchrist
Gilly in blistering form. © Getty Images


Australia has won Game One of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy at Adelaide Oval with a crushing win over the visiting Black Caps


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