Had a fair day yesterday despite the fact that we were only able to aqcuire tickets in the 2nd back row, despite being online pretty much as soon as they were available. Boo's from the crowd rose as soon as we all heard that Freddy won the toss & England were going to bat first.
At one stage, it looked as if it wasn't going to be such a bad thing when Loye was giving it to Lee & McGrath, but as soon as he went, the rest of the batting looked dire. Hodges catch to dismiss Strauss was the best i've seen live, and his catch to dismiss Flintoff was the 2nd best. Had a fantastic day in the field did Hodge, pity he couldn't emulate it with the bat.
To me, the fact that 5 of the top 8 english batsmen were out, caught behind the wicket said a lot about the mindset of those particular players imo, and afaic despite the quality bowling, their negativity was just as much to blame.
Collingwood & Bell reminded me as to why i dislike them so much. A) Poor batting & B) Pathetic running between the wickets. That run-out was quite possible the worst i've ever seen. Bell hardly even tried to get back into his ground when he saw the ball coming towards the stumps.
The difference between Hussey & Clarkes running between the wickets, and Englands was phenominal. Clarke & Hussey were turning what the English batsmen would've considered easy singles, into easy two's.
Come Australia's innings. Lewis benefitted from Anderson's fantastic bowling imo. Anderson was easily the best bowler, and the way i saw it, the Australian batsmen saw Lewis as the man to releive the pressure. Kudos to John though, he bowled a tidy line & length and it worked. That said, the shots played by Gilly, Haydos & Symonds were shockers.
I must ask, did Clarke glove the ball down legside?? I couldn't tell from the replays we saw on the big screen at the ground, and the ABC guy's didn't say much about it? All the same, 1st Clarke, then Hussey, were the obvious saviours with the bat. As they have been so often. It's a shame though, that Clarke doesn't get the credit he deserves in the ODI format. Whilst the others came out swining, he was prepared to leave, and crack away the deliveries that were theire to be hit, then get a bit of momentum happening later on in the innings. It was unfortunate that he got out when he did, otherwise he had another Half century at his mercy.
The cricket was the best bit of the day by far, however, there were many people who did their level best to try and ruin the day for many of us before we even were let into the ground, and then once we got out.
Getting bags checked was an absolute shammozle. Far more notice should've been made about the "no-backpacks" etc. as there were so many people who were turned away because of it. However, that was not the worst of it. My brother and i had taken our soft esky, as we do every other time, and we get to the gate, and then the power crazy security blokes decide to start turning not only us, but plenty of other people away because "the esky was to big". FFS it was the same size, if not Smaller than many of the coles bags that "some" people were being allowed to take in. When we, along with thousands of other fans were turned away by these dead****s, everyone then had to line-up at this pissarse little tent were we could store our esky, and in return take 2/3 plastic shopping bags in place.
Then, after the match was over, getting out was ever worse. They literally had fenced in the cement walkway, and about 10,000 people were trying to walk into each in a space with about 2-3m width. TBH i'm suprised no-one was killed, as when you get 2 lots of drunk people pushing into each other, and against a cement barricade, your not going to get good results. Everyone was just pushing pushing pushing, and literally squashing others to get out. Someone that was anything but safe for all involved, particulary the younger children in the crowd. Whilst i'm sure the Police were doing as they were told, they were helping the situation either, despite the fact that there was so many people squashed in the one area, they refused to let the barricade (which could've quite easily been moved, as many had moved 1 section just to escape, and get out of the squash) out into 1 lane of the street, which was already blocked off from cars as it was where the police were standing.
You're Australian and that's a cop out. What else could it have been? The line moved at exactly the time the ball moved passed (and hit) the bat and the bat was away from the pad. The look on Hussey's face was similar to that of a 5 year old boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar and crumbs on his face.
