Tag: Australia

Champions Trophy Semi-final Line Up Complete

A look at the semi-final line up at the Champions Trophy and a large photo gallery.

Yesterday saw the last group match of Champions Trophy 2025, between India and New Zealand. The qualifiers were already known, but who would be playing who was not. This post looks briefly at yesterday’s match and at the four teams who will be contesting the final stages of this tournament.

YESTERDAYS MATCH

The two teams facing off yesterday were representing the most and least populous nations at this tournament, with India’s population approximately 300 times that of New Zealand. New Zealand bowled well and fielded brilliantly. Their fielding has been one of the standouts of this tournament – they have taken some absolute screamers, and have let only one chance go down in the course of three matches. A total of 249 for India looked chasable, but the Indian spinners proved too much for New Zealand’s batting and India were comfortable winners in the end.

THE SEMI-FINALISTS

Australia will face India in the first semi-final. I will be hoping for an Australian win, because that result would end the involvement of Dubai in this tournament. I have two reasons for wanting that outcome – this tournament ius supposed to be hosted by Pakistan, and the Dubai pitch is slow and lifeless, whereas Pakistan have made some effort to make their pitches livelier, importing clay from Western Australia in the hope that using this material will produce livelier surfaces. Therefore on this occasion, even as one who habitually roots for Australia’s opponents I will be hoping for them to win.

The second semi-final is between New Zealand and South Africa. South Africa seem to have all the necessary ingredients to win this tournament, but there record in knockout stages of global tournaments makes grim reading. New Zealand are the great overachievers of world cricket, and the New Zealand women recently won their first global tournament. Whoever wins this match will have my support for the final. If South Africa face Australia in the final not only would the final then be played in Lahore, which has provided some splendid games this tournament, but a South African win would mean that the title goes to a side who played every match in the official host country.

The full listing of possible finals is as follows:

Australia v New Zealand – support NZ
Australia v South Africa – support SA
India v New Zealand – support NZ
India v South Africa – support SA

The first two of the above matches would be at Lahore, while if India get through the final will be in Dubai.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (we are enjoying a spell of bright, sunny weather here in King’s Lynn, which is ideal for walking – and when I go walking my camera goes with me)…

Looking Ahead to the Super Eights

A brief look ahead to the Super Eights stage of the world T20 Cup and a large photo gallery.

This post looks at the next stage of the T20 World Cup. Although some group games remain to be played the eight qualifiers for the next stage are already known and they have been put into two groups of four.

GROUP ONE

This group contains Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh and India – all three remaining Asian sides (Pakistan and Sri Lanka having failed to qualify) plus the only side from Oceania to have reached this stage of the competition. The expectation would be that the two titans, Australia and India, would progress to the semi-finals, at which stage the tournament becomes pure knock out. However Afghanistan have a 100% record to date, and will play their final group game against West Indies in the small hours of tomorrow, and I reckon they are certainly capable of springing a surprise. Afghanistan have batted as well as anyone on pitches that have generally been tricky, and they have a varied array of a fine bowlers. Bangladesh I suspect will be bringing up the rear in this group – they were less than convincing in their last group game against Nepal.

GROUP TWO

This group comprises England, South Africa, The USA and West Indies. The USA have been the surprise package of this tournament. I would not be surprised were they to add to their scalp bag, and maybe even making the semis – as will be seen there is reason to doubt two of the four sides in this group. The West Indies have been impressive this tournament, and as hosts they know the conditions better than anyone else. South Africa dominated their group, but they have never yet reached a semi-final of a men’s world cup in either ODIs or T20Is. I will believe in their ability to lay this particular ghost when I see it and not before. That leaves England who were definitely somewhat fortunate to make it through – they destroyed Oman and were impressive against Namibia, but Australia beat them with ease, and in the rain ruined match against Scotland the latter were 90-0 after 10 overs when it was abandoned, and this has been a low scoring tournament. Further, Scotland were a lot more impressive against Australia than their southern neighbours – Australia’s winning hit against them came from the penultimate ball of the match.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A Tactical Possibility for Australia

A look at an interesting tactical situation facing Australia in the T20 World Cup, and also a note on the state of play in today’s match between the USA and India, and a huge photo gallery.

In the small hours of this morning UK time Australia hammered Namibia at the T20 World Cup, a victory that ensures their progress to the next stage of the competition. England have Oman and Namibia to play and need to win both games, while Australia’s match against Scotland could decide which of England and Scotland qualify if England manage that. This post looks at the possibilities in more detail.

THE NET RUN RATE SITUATION

If England and Scotland both end on five points the fact that the match between the two was a washout means that it if Australia as would be expected beat Scotland (I would NEVER advocate that a side actually seek to lose a match – Brian Rose as Somerset skipper in the late 1970s was quite rightly hammered for doing exactly that to exploit a badly thought through qualifying system) it will be a matter of the margin by which they do so. While deliberately losing would clearly be wrong, if Australia find themselves chasing and know that completing the chase within a certain number of overs means England get through rather than Scotland then they would be perfectly justified in ensuring they take long enough over the chase to let Scotland qualify – I would expect England to do the same if they had Australia’s fate in their own hands. Also I would say that no one could object to Australia choosing to rest some of their big names for this match. Deliberately setting out to lose the match would be unacceptable, but deciding that one does not need to strain every nerve and sinew when one has already qualified is another matter entirely.

USA v INDIA SO FAR

Today’s match is between the United States of America and India. The USA need a win from either this match or their final match against Ireland to be sure of qualifying. USA were restricted to 110-8 from their 20 overs, with Arshdeep Singh recording figures of 4-0-9-4 for India. However, Saurabh Netravalkar, himself born in India before moving to the USA, has shaken things up early in the Indian innings – he got Virat Kohli for a golden duck, and has just added the wicket of Indian skipper Rohit Sharma. As I type this India are 13-2 in the fourth over, and have work to do.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

inter-species ci0operation – the magpie is performing cleaning services for the muntjac (on the grassland outside my front window)
A cranefly meeting point.

Team of the 1912 Triangular Tournament

The Team of the 1912 Triangular Tournament, plus a generous photograph gallery.

I am currently rereading Patrick Ferriday’s excellent book about the 1912 Triangular Tournament, “Before the Lights Went Out”. In this post I pick a team of that tournament.

ABOUT THE
TRIANGULAR TOURNAMENT

The Triangular Tournament was an attempt to have the then three test playing nations in action in the same season. A combination of a wet summer, the fact that South Africa proved much weaker than expected and that Australia were missing six first team regulars due to a dispute between the players and the fairly newly formed board robbed the event of a lot of potential interest and it would 61 years before international cricket matches (in the form of the women’s ODI World Cup) took place at neutral venues again, and over 80 years before any further tests were held at neutral events. For all that the tournament was a flop there were some great players on show.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Warren Bardsley (Australia, left handed opening batter). Even in conditions that would have been particularly alien to an Australian he had a very good tour, with the major highlight a knock of 164 against South Africa at Lord’s.
  2. Jack Hobbs (England, right handed opening batter). He came into the 1912 season already established as the best batter in the world and probably also the best cover point fielder in the game, and nothing happened to change that assessment of his position in the cricket world.
  3. Wilfred Rhodes (England, right handed batter). A decade earlier Rhodes, then a specialist left arm spinner who batted at number 11, scored 67 runs at 67.00 in the 1902 Ashes series. In the intervening years he had worked his way up the order, and towards the end of the period had pretty much let his bowling lapse, and on the 1911-12 Ashes tour he had been England’s number two batter in both averages and position in the order. After WWI, in response to Yorkshire’s needs he would once again become an all rounder, before eyesight problems forced him back down to the bottom of the order, though his bowling still kept him in the Yorkshire side until the emergence of Hedley Verity.
  4. Frank Woolley (England, left handed batter, left arm orthodox spin bowler). Woolley played some fine innings in the course of the tournament, and in the final match at The Oval, decreed by the powers that be to be a ‘winner takes all’ match that would be played until a result was achieved, he took five cheap wickets in each Australian innings, supported by Barnes in the first and Harry Dean, a left arm seamer, in the second.
  5. Charlie Macartney (Australia, right handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner). Featured prominently in both batting and bowling averages for the season, and if not quite the thing of beauty it became noted as being post WWI his batting was also apparently exceedingly watchable even then.
  6. Aubrey Faulkner (South Africa, right handed batter, leg spinner). South Africa overall had a tournament to forget, but Faulkner had moments with both bat and ball.
  7. *Frank Foster (England, right handed batter, left arm fast medium bowler). In 1911 he captained Warwickshire to their first ever County Championship, then in the 1911-2 Ashes he was one half of the most penetrative new ball pairing England had yet established alongside SF Barnes, and this duo carried on taking test wickets back home in England in 1912. He was good enough with the bat to have scored Warwickshire’s first ever first class triple century.
  8. Jimmy Matthews (Australia, leg spinner, right handed batter). He gets selected for an amazing bowling feat in the first test match of this tournament, when in the space of 90 minutes he took not one, but two test match hat tricks. Those were his only six wickets of the match, and none needed the assistance of a fielder. South Africa’s wicket keeper, Tommy Ward, was the hat trick victim both times, the second time somewhat bizarrely after being promoted ahead of Rolland Beaumont, who was allegedly a specialist batter, but spent most of this tour (when picked) batting low in the order.
  9. Syd Barnes (England, right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). He was firmly established as the best bowler of any type in the world by the time of this tournament, and even more firmly established as such by the time it ended.
  10. Bill Whitty (Australia, left arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). He had an excellent season.
  11. +EJ ‘Tiger’ Smith (England, wicket keeper, right handed batter). Neither Australia nor South Africa had great keepers this series – South Africa had taken along two specialist keepers, but resorted to Louis Stricker, selected in the party for his batting, before the tour was done, because neither specialist keeper fared at all well, and Ward of course had the traumatic experience on test debut referred to above. Smith was an excellent keeper, though inclined to be cussed (he was apparently wont to say that he would bat at number one or number 11 but nowhere in between, so I have given him his second choice), and as a Warwickshire team mate of Frank Foster he was well used to keeping to the left armer, which some could find challenging.

This side has a powerful top six, a genuine all rounder at seven, three contrasting specialist bowlers and a quality keeper. Even with Rhodes not bowling at that stage of his career this side is well stocked with bowling options as well – Barnes, Foster, Whitty, Matthews, Faulkner, Woolley and Macartney are seven authentic options, and in one match of this tournament Hobbs’ occasional medium pace was pressed into service, and while unthreatening he managed to bowl 11 economical overs.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Gerry Hazlitt of Australia fared well with the ball, ‘young Jack’ Hearne was a candidate for the slot I awarded to Faulkner, while Sydney Pegler was the only South African bowler to really come to terms with English conditions. Arthur William ‘Dave’ Nourse, back in the land of his birth (as was South Africa captain Frank Mitchell) fared respectably enough to earn a mention.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Pakistan Well Placed in Sydney

A brief look at the opening day between Australia and Pakistan and a briefer mention of the extraordinary events at Newlands between South Africa and India.

The second test match of the series between Australia and Pakistan got underway at Sydney overnight UK time. This post looks at the opening day’s play.

PAKISTAN START POORLY

Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first. By lunch time it was looking poor for them at 75-4. At 95-5 it looked even worse, but then came a fightback. Mohammad Rizwan (88) and Agha Salman (53) began the rescue act, but at 227-9 it still looked like Australia’s day. Pat Cummins had achieved his third straight five-for by then. However Mir Hamza, the Pakistan number 11, offered solid resistance, while Aamer Jamal played a magnificent innings. Jamal was eventually caught by Starc off Lyon for 82, having raised the Pakistan score to 313. There was time for one over of Australia’s first innings, which they ended on 6-0. This match looks like being a good one.

WICKETS CRASH AT NEWLANDS

I was only able to follow this one by way of cricinfo and various people’s twitter comments, but I must make mention of an extraordinary opening day between South Africa and India in Cape Town. South Africa won the toss and batted first, crashing to 55 all out, Mohammad Siraj 6-15. India were 153-4 in response at one point but lost their last six wickets without addition! South Africa lost three second innings wickets before the close, including a unique double of Elgar being out twice on the first day of his last test match and Stubbs being out twice on day one of his test debut. Stubbs is not the first to have been out twice on day one of his debut – aeons ago Harry Butt of England suffered the same fate.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Australia Win The 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup

A look at the final of the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup between India and Australia, which took place earlier today. Also a large photo gallery.

The final of the 2023 ODI Cricket world cup took place today in Ahmedabad, India. The contending sides were India who had won 10 straight matches to get there and Australia who had finished third in the round robin and beaten South Africa in a tense semi-final. India had won two previous men’s world cups, in 1983 (one of the greatest upsets ever seen, when an unfancied side managed to down the West Indies, going for a third straight title after being rolled for 183 in their innings) and 2011 when they beat Sri Lanka in the final. Australia had won the trophy five previous times, in 1987 when they beat England in a hard fought final, 1999 when they squeaked past South Africa in the semi-final and Pakistan then went MIA in the final, 2003 and 2007 when they dominated both tournaments and 2015 when they beat New Zealand in the final.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Australia won the toss and chose to field first, a decision that looked quite likely to backfire at the time. Both teams were unchanged from their previous games.

THE INDIAN INNINGS

Shubman Gill was out early, but Rohit Sharma played the sort of innings he has been playing throughout the tournament, and the Power Play looked to have gone India’s way when they finished those 10 overs on 80-2, Sharma contributing 47 from 31 balls. Shreyas Iyer was then out cheaply to leave India three down, and it was the next passage of play that started the rot for India – Virat Kohli and KL Rahul dug in, as they had to with the team three down fairly early and having a very vulnerable tail to it, but they were too cautious, especially Rahul. KL Rahul did not hit a boundary until the 60th ball of his innings. Kohli was fourth out, not long after completing a 50, and India promoted Jadeja one place up the order, feeling it was too early for Suryakumar Yadav to come in. Jadeja did his job up to a point, but he was too defensive in approach to serve India’s best interests. When he and Rahul fell in quick succession that left Suryakumar Yadav to shepherd the most vulnerable tail of any of the top sides through an uncomfortably long period, and though he did just about see the innings through so that India batted their whole 50 overs a final total of 240 did not look great, and Suryakumar’s own innings of 18 off 28 balls was a poor one. Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammad Siraj batted together at the very end. Cummins with 2-34 from his 10 overs was Australia’s best bowler on the day, and had a new record wicket tally for a captain at a single world cup, overhauling Kapil Dev’s 1983 mark, while Adam Zampa had 1-44 from his 10, and that wicket drew him level with Muthiah Muralitharan for the most wickets taken by a spinner at a single world cup with 23 scalps. I think this effort in a final and across the tournament as a whole goes some way to answering Sidestream Bob as to why I included the leggie in my team of the tournament. India had a moderate total to defend, but while their batting, especially Sharma, Kohli and Rahul, had been good all tournament it had been their bowling that had set them apart from everybody else, and those worthies needed to prove themselves one last time to secure the trophy…

THE AUSTRALIAN INNINGS

Early wickets were needed for India to have a chance, and Bumrah and Shami obliged, having Warner, Mitchell Marsh and Smith back in the pavilion before the end of the Power Play. With the score 47-3 Australia looked in some trouble, and even at the end of the 10th over at 60-3 they were hardly comfortable. However, Travis Head, already Player of the Match in the semi-final, overcame a streaky start to play a quite magnificent innings, and while he always looked to attack Marnus Labuschagne dug in at the other end. In essence the partnership between these two did successfully what Kohli and Rahul had tried and failed to do for India. As the innings progressed Australia became firmer and firmer favourites, with few signs of the partnership being broken being apparent at any stage. Head completed his century off 95 balls, to almost no response from the packed Ahmedabad crowd. By the time Labuschagne reached 50 that crowd was decidedly less packed as many spectators having read the writing on the wall (which by then was metaphorically 1,000 point bold capitals) had made early exits. With just two needed for victory, and cricinfo’s win predictor giving Australia a win percentage of 99.99 Travis Head holed out for a magnificent 137. That brought Glenn Maxwell to the crease to apply the finishing touch, and he duly took two off his first and only ball of the match to give Australia victory by six wickets with seven whole overs to spare. Head was unsurprisingly named Player of the Match, while Virat Kohli, scorer of over 750 runs in 11 matches, was named Player of the Tournament. In the end, Australia, as they so often do, had found something extra in a really big match and it was a sixth ODI world cup for the Aussie men, to go with the seven that their women’s team gave already won.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Match 5 of The 2023 ODI World Cup

At 9:30AM UK time the biggest match of the 2023 World Cup so far, hosts India against perennial high achievers Australia, got underway. This post tells the story of the match so far.

A POOR PERFORMANCE BY AUSTRALIA WITH THE BAT

Mitchell Marsh was out cheaply. A partnership between Smith and Warner seemed to be putting Australia on the road to recovery, but then Warner was out. Smith and Labuschagne took the score to 110, but Australia were scoring slowly. Smith’s dismissal at that score put a different complexion on matters. Not much later Labuschagne was caught behind, and in spite of the fact that his innings had been anything but a good one, he selfishly sent it upstairs, where it was duly confirmed as out, putting him deep in debit – a slow innings and then he compounded it by burning a review. A collapse set in, and Australia found themselves 140-7. The tail wagged somewhat, but Australia were all out for 199 after 49.3 overs. This confirmed a prediction that I had made tentatively at the end of the 34th over (Australia 134-5) and firmly at the end of the 36th (Australia 140-6) that they would not get to 200. The three spinners, Ashwin, Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav had taken 6-104 between them from their full 30 overs. Not a single Australian had any cause to be proud of the way they had batted, and at least one of their major batters, Labuschagne, should have been hanging his head in shame.

EARLY WICKETS FOR AUSTRALIA

I went out for a walk during the break between innings and slightly overran, missing the start of the Indian reply. Australia needed early wickets to have any chance, and they got them with Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer (numbers 1,2 and 4 in this Indian order) all going for ducks, at which point the score was 2-3. By the time I got back runs and wickets were the right way round for India, with the score reading 4-3. Virat Kohli and KL Rahul are carrying out a rescue operation, and as I type this the score is 20-3 after seven overs. I still think that this match is India’s to lose – 200 is not a large total to have to get, and in addition to the pair currently batting Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin can all bat. I am glad to see a pitch on which bowlers are genuinely in the game.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (from walks yesterday afternoon and evening and this morning)…

While I have been preparing this for publication India have moved on to 27-3.

Beaumont Batting Beautifully

A look at developments in the Women’s Ashes test match and a large photo gallery.

Battle continues to rage in the Women’s Ashes test at Trent Bridge. This time yesterday I wrote about had happened up to that time (here), and now I continue the story.

THE REST OF YESTERDAY

England reached the close of yesterday on 218-2, Beaumont completing her century just before the close of play. It was a wonderful innings, and it was also historic: she became only the fourth English batter ever to score centuries in all three international formats, joining Heather Knight, Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan in this club.

TODAY SO FAR

Natalie Sciver-Brunt was England’s only casualty of the morning session, falling for 78. By lunch England were 308-3 with Beaumont 144 not out. Dunkley fell not long after the resumption, which brought Danni Wyatt to the crease for her test debut, 13 years after her white ball debut. On 152 Beaumont was given LBW, but a review showed the ball pitching outside leg stump. She is now on 164, with England 344-4. The next landmark is 168, her highest score in any form of international cricket, then Betty Snowball’s 189, the all time England record individual score, then the 201 she scored in the warm up match, then Perry’s 213* and finally if she can get there Amelia Kerr’s 232* for New Zealand v Ireland, the highest score in any form of women’s international cricket (and I think even Ms Kerr might concede that the Aussie bowling attack is a trifle more formidable than that of the emerald isle).

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a splendid gallery for you…

A comma, the first example of this type of butterfly I have seen this year.
A pink and purple flower with two contrasting visitors

While I have been preparing this post for publication England have moved past 350, and Beaumont on to 169.

Ashes 2023 Underway

A look at developments in The Ashes so far and a photo gallery.

While I have been blogging about my holiday in the Lake District (I have a page with links to all the posts in this series) plenty has been happening in the world of cricket. England and Australia both had good build ups to the first match of the Men’s Ashes, although England lost leading spinner Jack Leach to an injury. This post looks at the developments since the series got underway on Friday.

THE PRELIMINARIES

England’s final XI, announced two whole days before the match started, contained several bones of contention. Foakes was dropped, as England decided that the best way to accommodate the returning Bairstow was to give him the wicket keeping gloves. When it came to finding a replacement for Leach as spinner they made the shockingly retrograde decision to recall Moeen Ali, now on a WHITE BALL ONLY contract with Warwickshire. Finally, perennial top order failure Zak Crawley retained his slot. The final XI thus read Z Crawley, B Duckett, O Pope, J Root, H Brook, *B Stokes, +J Bairstow, M Ali, S Broad, O Robinson, J Anderson. Australia’s only question mark was which two of Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc would play. In the event they opted, rightly IMO, for Hazlewood and Boland, benching Starc. England won the toss, and as they were virtually obliged to opted to bat first.

DAY ONE

Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope were both out fairly cheaply, but Crawley for once played well, scoring 61. However the feature of the innings was a glorious century by Joe Root, underlining his status as an all time great. Bairstow made 80, and Stokes surprised many by declaring at the end of the 78th over with the score reading 393-8. This set a new record – the earliest point in terms of balls bowled at which the opening innings of a test match has been declared. England didn’t manage an early breakthrough that evening, and many were slating Stokes for declaring. I was not among them, because unlike these critics I remember Rawalpindi, when Stokes was proved right about an aggressive declaration.

DAY TWO

This was a frustrating day. Bairstow more than undid his good work with the bat with some poor keeping – he reprieved Travis Head and Alex Carey, both pretty costly, and Australia reached the close at 311-5, 82 behind.

DAY THREE

The very first ball of the day should have seen England break through but Bairstow muffed another easy chance. There was another edge that failed to go to hand not much later, but I am not cruel enough to describe that one as a chance – it hit Bairstow’s boot before touching the ground, but it would have been miraculous to make a catch of it. However, in spite of these frustrations England did eventually take a first innings lead, bowling Australia out for 386. They made a good start, but then Cummins and Boland had a purple patch, and when the rain made its final intervention of the day England were 28-2, 35 runs ahead.

DAY FOUR SO FAR

Pope was third out with the score at 77, though Root was again batting splendidly. He was now joined by Harry Brook. They put on a rapid 50 stand before Root fell for 46 to make it 129-4. Brook exactly matched Root’s score before he too was out. Stokes and Bairstow are still together. Scott Boland had a naughty moment when he claimed a catch that would have meant the end of Stokes, but it went upstairs and replays showed that Stokes had hit the ball straight into the ground, a fact of which Boland must have been aware. As things stand England are 196-5, 203 runs ahead, and the match is intriguingly poised.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

As I was preparing this post for publication Bairstow fell LBW to Lyon to make it 196-6, and new batter Ali has got off the mark with a single. Yes Bairstow has contributed 100 runs in the match (80 and 20), but his bad wicket keeping means he is no better than even for the match, and maybe even in debit – certainly any more errors behind the stumps that cost anything will put him in debit.

Australia 1963-83

A look at the best Australian cricketers of the period 1963-83 and a photo gallery.

I continue my look through Australia’s cricket history with a look at the best men’s cricketers of 1963-83, which brings us into the era covered in this post.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Bill Lawry (left handed opening batter). He averaged 47 with the bat over a long test career, which ended with him being dropped from the team when the Aussie selectors decided they wanted a new captain in Ian Chappell and that they did not think Lawry should play under his successor. This resulted in a first and only test appearance for Ken Eastwood, another dour left hander of similar age to Lawry but possessed of about half his skill.
  2. Bobby Simpson (right handed opening batter, ace slip fielder, occasional leg spinner). He took until his 30th test match to reach three figures at that level. In that first three figure innings he went on to 311, batting until the third morning of a match that Australia only needed to draw to retain the Ashes. Simpson scored nine further test centuries, one of them in the Ashes (a score of 225). He and Lawry also became the first pair of openers to score double centuries in the same test innings, their opening stand against the West Indies being worth 382 on that occasion.
  3. *Ian Chappell (right handed batter, captain, occasional leg spinner). A fine test match number three and a great skipper who took Australia to the top of the cricket world before the rise of Lloyd’s West Indies with their pace battery.
  4. Greg Chappell (right handed batter, ace slip fielder, occasional medium pacer, occasional leg spinner). The best Aussie batter to play his cricket exclusively in this era. Leg spin was his first style of bowling, but he learned to bowl medium pace while playing for Somerset as an overseas player.
  5. Allan Border (left handed batter, occasional left arm orthodox spinner). Although he had another ten years of test cricket ahead of him in 1983 he had done enough by then to warrant his place, and by the time of his retirement he would be remembered as an all time great, the first ever to score 11,000 test runs.
  6. Doug Walters (right handed batter, occasional medium pacer). Averaged in the mid-40s in test cricket, though he never quite cracked batting in England. His career best was 250 against New Zealand, and he also had a match in which he scored 242 and 103. He twice scored 100 runs in a single session of play in test cricket. As a bowler at test level he was mainly used to break awkward partnerships, though he was good enough as a youngster to take a seven-for on FC debut.
  7. +Rod Marsh (wicket keeper, left handed batter). At the time of his retirement he had made more test dismissals than any other wicket keeper and had also scored two test centuries. His departure left a hole in Aussie ranks that took a few years to properly fill, the search for decent test keeper only ending with the emergence of Ian Healy.
  8. Ashley Mallett (off spinner, expert gully fielder, right handed lower order batter). Very valuable in a supporting role when Australia had some serious fast bowling talent in the 1970s.
  9. Dennis Lillee (right arm fast bowler, right handed lower order batter). 71 test appearances yielded him 355 wickets, including 164 in Ashes matches, breaking a record that Hugh Trumble had held for three-quarters of a century. Lillee’s own tally was beaten in turn by Shane Warne.
  10. Jeff Thomson (right arm fast bowler, right handed lower order batter). The fastest bowler of the era, and possibly the fastest Australia has yet produced (Shaun Tait and the 2013-14 incarnation of Mitchell Johnson are possible rivals for this one). 200 test wickets in all, in spite of injury problems disrupting his career.
  11. Rodney Hogg (right arm fast bowler, right handed lower order batter). The 41 wickets he took in his debut series in 1978-9 were at the time an Australian record for an Ashes series. Injuries subsequently spoiled his career.

This side has a powerful top six, most of whom could also contribute something with the ball, a great keeper, a good off spinner and three genuinely fast bowlers.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

The only other opening batter from this period who might have justified breaking the Lawry/ Simpson combo at the top was Keith Stackpole, but although his attacking approach may have made him a better foil to Lawry than Simpson, Simpson had the better record.

In the middle order there were two very near misses, Kim Hughes and Graham Yallop, but good as they were neither could realistically challenge either the Chappells or Border.

The main spin bowling challengers were two leg spinners, Terry Jenner and Kerry “Skull” O’Keeffe, but bearing in mind the spin bowling capacities of my front line batters I wanted on off spinner, and the only close challenger to Mallett on that basis was Bruce Yardley.

The pace bowling department was much more difficult. My decision to go for all out pace, with Hogg accompanying Lillee and Thommo meant that three guys with solid claims all missed out: Graham McKenzie was Australia’s best seamer between the retirement of Alan Davidson and the rise of Dennis Lillee, claiming 246 test scalps. Max Walker, the regular third seamer when Lillee and Thommo shared the new ball was also a candidate. Finally, brought into the picture by the fact that he bowled left arm fast medium which would have added variation and that he would have strengthened the lower order batting there was Gary Gilmour. In the ‘what might have been’ category is Bob Massie, who claimed 16 scalps on test debut, but then had a disastrous tour of the West Indies in which an attempt to generate extra pace led to him permanently losing his ability to swing the ball.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…