Gut Morgan foiled by a Good Christian

Pantherlike reports from Down Under on yet another England defeat.  There's plenty of Middlesex links , some controversy and belated hearty dinner.

With the dust hardly settled on Faulkner’s last over heroics at Brisbane, the pyjama game reconvened at the SCG for its act III, or the summer’s act VIII or the year’s act XIII depending on which way you look at it.  (I had mates in England telling me that the score was 3-3 after the Perth test, so by that logic, the Aussies had leapt to a compelling 8-3 lead!  Anyway, Pup and Cook mobilised for the toss, with big Alastair snaring another won – he’d done well recently on the coin; could this mean a continued revival in form?

Yours truly was in attendance due to the hapless visitors not bothering to bother the Sydney-siders for a fourth day of a test match, thus the trusty old luncheon put on by Cricket NSW courtesy of the Doug Walters club was a cancel; thankfully postponed in the end for an ODI.  A day/nighter to be precise, ergo lunch became dinner and refreshments to be watched given there was work the next day!  I made sure I was wearing my new Middx 150^th polo, indeed its first outing and was there to support a great game of cricket!

Taking the crease Captain Cook was in a mind to be assertive, nay aggressive!  Despatching Pattinson and Faulkner early, the scoreboard tripped along merrily with 50 notched up in just 8 overs.  The minor milestone brought the first, and maybe most significant moment of the match when Captain Cook was well caught by Maxwell after the big fella Coulter-Nile had been brought on to replace Faulkner.  Coulter-Nile’s pretty impressive.  Does absolutely nothing with the ball, but has height, pace and bounce and was proving to be a bit of a handful.  Everything Tremlett was a few years ago…

England was doing it’s darndest to mix things up, unsettle those upstart Aussies and try something different!  Enter young Stokes at number three!  Everyone was shocked!  Well I was.  What could the kid do – he’d been pretty good on the tour to date.  As it turned out, he was essentially kept quiet by excellent bowling (Coulter-Nile and Doherty) and Clarke’s field placements.  Bell took up the mantle and started to look settled before he was brilliantly run out by Warner.  It all came about form a bit of Stokes inexperience the over before.  In that over stokes had played a similar push through point and had declined a Bell call for two when it was easily there.  It must’ve been in his mind when he thought it there again after Bell had pushed to point.  Warner though had move just a shade quicker this time and like any decent Aussie outfielder with the sniff of a runout, threw the pegs down with a stunning direct hit.  ‘Yeah, done it meeself’ I thought contentedly (many years ago now mind you!)…

Expecting Moggy Morgan to make his appearance after his brilliant hundred in Brisvegas (local lingo for upstart city up north), one was disappointed to see Gary Ballance making his way on to the field.  What was Cook thinking??  Stokes meanwhile, somewhat stumped by the Warner throw, was not quite on his game, adding to the summer’s litany of Cook gambits gone wrong: ultimately out to a soft dismissal caught by Clarke for 15 off 39.

This brought Morgan to the crease.  I told anyone around me who would listen that Moggy was the one – ably taught by one Mr O’Neill, now firsts coach for grade club Gordon CC here in Sydney.  By the way, caught a few overs at Chatswood over on Saturday and passed by regards to Sparky.  He seems to be going well.

Moggy marked guard with the scoreboard showing 3/91 in the 23^rd, and after a few watchful ones started to get England underway.  Ballance was good foil and the two added 30 in 6, before Balance fell trying to accelerate on 26.

Bopara joined Moggs and looked fresh from his recent T20 with one of the Melbourne sides and the pair kept the board ticking with another 56 in 10ish.  England were 5/177 in 39 – probably a wicket or two too many, but Buttler was in with the departure of Bopara and I could foresee a frantic 10 overs with these two at the crease.  Moggy was brilliant.  He counter-punched two big sixes and was as creative with the crease and footwork as Michael Bevan was in his pomp.  I was predicting 280+ if the two stayed at the crease (despite a rather subdued Buttler, who was struggling to get the ball off the square!).  But then it happened.  Morgan fell to a changed up ball by Christian, his bunt to short cover brilliantly caught by Christian in his round-the-wicket follow through. 

Morgan stayed, querying whether the ball had carried.  Pup saw red (not just the colour of the English strip either) and was in Morgan’s face.  Things looked as though they could kick-off only for a meagre attempt by the umpires and an inevitable referral which showed that Christian had snared it.  Morgan just couldn’t bring himself to depart.  Such passion!  Where was it in some of his team-mates?  Maybe more of the Middx fold should be in the team?

The tail was as it has been this summer, pretty inept.  England posting a rather light looking 243; the one consolation in successfully facing 50 overs.

The break was well spent with a hearty dinner and tales of yesteryear courtesy of Barry Knight (ex- England test player and I think the first chap to become a professional coach) and of course Dougie Walters.  Barry told me afterwards that he in fact taught Mark O’Neil coaching!  Small world huh!  He’s a great fella and we enjoyed the repartee!  I managed to win in the raffle too!

The English then took to try and stop the inevitable, and despite snaring Finch early (22), Warner and Marsh (71 apiece) scored at a clip to ensure that the target was always within reach.  Haddin eventually made it to the crease and he and pup secured the win with a brisk 72-run stand in just 12 overs; the Aussies securing the chase in just 40 overs.  MoM was ex-Middx star David Warner, probably just for that throw!

So there you go!  No need to dwell on a predictable chase?  But I must say, it was fun recording the event for the MTWD site after such a long time between drinks!

This meant that the Aussies secured the one day series and are dead set keen to go the 5-0 again.  Surely England will put up the necessary effort to stave off double-dipping embarrassment?  Well it won’t take long to find out with the next game tomorrow and the last in Adelaide (traditional Oz Day game) on Sunday.