Kicking a man when he’s down is a pretty low thing to do. Except that is, when it is the Australian cricket team, and even more so when that man is Shane Watson.
We don’t care much for Twenty 20 here at the Reverse Sweep, but all the same it was wonderful to see England being particularly cruel before beating Australia once again today in Adelaide.
Twice they tricked Australia into thinking they were going to win. Firstly, when it looked like theywere going to set an imposing total before the runs dried up in the last six overs. Then, even though England’s batsmen kept generously giving their wickets away, debutant Chris Woakes saw England over the line from the last ball with just one wicket to spare. So near, yet so far for Australia.
Now that is cruel. Especially as it was obvious how doubly determined Australia were. You only had to see the OTT reaction from Brett Lee when he caught Tim Bresnan to see that. This is a man with 310 Test wickets and 324 ODI wickets to his name but holding on to a catch to get rid of the fat Yorkshire lad in an inconsequential T20 match obviously meant so much more.
If lulling Australia into thinking they were going to win then dashing their hopes at the last was cruel then overshadowing Watson’s performance with bat and ball was positively malicious.
The man who continually hits fifties but not hundreds and bowls medium pace trundlers in Test cricket seemed to have found the perfect format for his 'talents', but once again Evil England quashed the vain one’s hopes of being a hero. Now that is positively funny.
Where next?
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Zeroes: Shane Watson
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It is an odd situation England being World Champions and persistently winning in a format that seems to be highly valued in all parts of the cricketing world except the home country. It doesn't seem right somehow, it's almost indelicate.
Posted by: Jon Lloyd | Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 15:21
This is what the evil Australian juggernaut used to be like. It was bad enough having Gilchrist and Hayden repeatedly wrax you in Tests, having them do it in limited-overs stuff the next week was just adding insult to injury.
I've discovered I quite like being evil.
Muhahahaha.
Posted by: Howe Zat | Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 19:11
The ultimate would be to win this 2nd T20 and then beat the Aussies 5-2 or 6-1 in the ODIs. A taste of their own former medicine
Posted by: The Reverse Sweep | Friday, January 14, 2011 at 11:11
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