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Originally Posted by acker  I was disgusted these two amatuers stumbled and bumbled their way to about 140 runs together [...] They are only shadows of the England opening batter's...whatsisname and whoishe  |
Well, they did better than the much vaunted pairing lower down the order:
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Originally Posted by cricinfo Put a short midwicket in for Andrew Symonds, who was swishing wildly, and you had a wicket. Slip in a googly to Adam Gilchrist and you had a wild hoick - a shot that was as ugly as the word itself |
That said... Jaques was exposed pretty badly in the opening overs: prodding nervously... then playing and missing: by the 3rd over cricinfo were saying "Zaheer has really got into Jaques's mind right now - the batsman prodded a nothing shot away from his body with little foot movement". He got off the mark with a leading edge and his composure in the 8th over was exemplary:
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7.5 Singh to Jaques, no run, wide outside off, kept a touch low but that didn't stop the batsman flashing away from it
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Despite the conditions, Jaques was playing a cut shot in the 7th over and a pull (that didn't connect) in the 9th: madness. His discipline didn't improve in a hurry, either:
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16.2 Ganguly to Jaques, no run, wild seam movement away, the batsman tries to cut, but slices over it
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Hayden was just plain lucky: first boundary off a thick edge... then a thick edge through the recently vacated third slip... then got away with a mistimed, lofted flick of a pull over midwicket that (sadly) reaches the rope even though it wasn't timed. Wasn't much better when Harbhajan started:
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17.1 Harbhajan Singh to Hayden, no run, a horrible, horrible... but comical shot... Hayden chasing a wide one and not letting it go, playing away from his body, and chopping down a bottom edge
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At the end of the 16th over cricinfo noted "If you're just logging on now, the scoreline flatters Australia a touch; there have been plenty of play-and-misses, but latterly the pair are bringing things together"
Now there's no saying Vaughan and Cook would have been exemplary in their place... but I would at least expect greater discipline and more effort to play straight.