Heat confirmed last night that a final would be played at Heritage Bank Stadium on Gold Coast, if they finish in the top 3.
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This Test really does represent everything thatās great about Test Cricket. Iām a proud Aussie, but Iām quietly cheering home Pakistan here!
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I havenāt wanted to post to jinx it but Iām so glad that itās coming down to the wire now. 100 runs to win or 5 wickets. Very even!
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And thereās the jinx. What a review and call for Rizwan there.
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I felt for Rizwan there, technically it was out. But prior to all this technology the benefit of the doubt would have gone to the batsman.
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Well Australia have wasted no time in wrapping that one up tonight. Credit to Pakistan for giving us a hard fought test match. As is quite often the case in a close match, a dropped catch was decisive. The margin of 79 runs was about what Mitchell Marsh scored after that lollipop of a catch was grassed.
Today had an air of inevitability about it; even when Pakistan got close I knew they were just one wicket away from folding. Quite often the close calls go the way of the home side and today was no exception, though I agree it was out.
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The end came quickly after Rizwanās dismissal. Pakistan lost 4/18 including their last three wickets in five balls.
Pat Cummins took five wickets in both Pakistani innings and finished with 10 wickets for the match. He received the Johnny Mullagh Medal as the best player from the Boxing Day test.
Pakistan showed a massive improvement from their capitulation in the Perth test.
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I think it hit the arm of Rizwan not his wristband Pakistan have played very well against Pat Cummins oh sorry I mean Australia.
Short answer: they are already.
The idea of Duckworth-Lewis and its descendants (even the revised DLS) is that both wickets and overs left make up certain percentages of your āresourcesā. The idea beingā¦ if, say, you lost your last ten overs of a 50-over game, you would have likely scored a lot more in that last ten overs if you were, say, 2 wickets down, as opposed to 8 or 9 wickets down - but it would also have had more of an effect than if you lost your middle overs. So each example has a different effect on how the second teamās score is uprated.
There is a shortfall in that it was initially devised for 50-over games, when T20 didnāt exist and teams scored much slower; hence the updates including it being āDLSā now with a new caretaker. Theyād have a separate DLS calculator with a specific ācurveā for T20 now, and given thereās not as much a lull as there is in ODIs, the uprating of the Stars target couldnāt be all that much. It also means that compressing the DLS run ācurveā into 7 overs isnāt going to be all that great an idea anyway, but they have to do something.
In the end they were given a target of 67, when if it was set on average run rate they would have been given a target of about 55, which they notched up after 5 overs - instead they needed six and a half, so it sorta worked to give a closer game.
I suspect the Hurricanes didnāt help themselves in the end though (including not finishing off their innings); I didnāt watch it much, but the commentary Iām reading now seemed to paint it as just a little subpar. And unfortunately, it canāt account for the weather itself or humidity, and nothing really can; thatās ājust cricketā.
That said, Iām glad you enjoyed the game! Bellerive Oval seems an enjoyable place to watch cricket, as much as itās derided for being on the āwrong sideā of the river - thereās probably a charm that any inevitable move (at least for the Hurricanes) to Macquarie Point down the track wonāt grab, unfortunately.
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Enjoyed the Boxing Day Test and one of the best in a while played here. A competitive 4 days.
Early this morning India lost to South Africa by an innings.
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I want too but I think itās out of my budget unfortunately. I was gonna go to the Big Bash. But decided that it was more important to keep within my budget.
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That was a big surprise to me.
IPL has scuppered Indian cricket in the last few years. Good at home but not away.
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I thought they had turned a corner playing away - as they had won the last 2 Test series against AUS over here.
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Ex-BBL star and Nepal captain Sandeep Lamichhane expected to be jailed over rape charges:
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The Melbourne Cricket Club says it is up for discussions about moving the starting time for Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test.
The idea, championed by Gerard Whateley, would see the first ball on Boxing Day bowled at 12:00pm to accommodate a larger crowd to start the day.
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Can you imagine how delayed the news would be!?
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Iāve been enjoying watching the Super Smash - but some of the chat during the rain delays on the TVNZ coverage really rivals our commentary shit chat.
I did give a hearty chuckle at the story of one of the commentators having a complete BBQ chook being thrown at him while fielding in New Plymouth
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Iām surprised there hasnāt been greater chat around allowing flexibility in the playing conditions to have a later (or even an earlier) start (and it still to be ādayā cricket)
I canāt imagine Seven being too keen on this idea, not just because of the news being impacted but because they also air a BBL game that evening as well.
And what happens if there is a rain delayā¦ that will mean less flexibility to get the full 6 hours of play in on that dayā¦
Oh and a note to Victoriansā¦ well if you canāt be bothered to be at the cricket by 10.30am, well then maybe you shouldnāt drink so much on Christmas Day 