Crucket

It stunk that the 3rd test with Pakistan ended the way it did. But better that than the end to the 3rd Aus-WI test: Roach given out caught off Bollinger, Roach appeals, replays suggest no hot spot, no noise and no deviation and yet the decision is upheld.

Surely when the three possible evidences of an edge are negative, that is proof that there was no edge. The Roach situation is precisely the type of situation that the referral system was intended to fix.

Ah well. Australia probably would have won anyway. Great to see the Windies fighting hard though, both in this test and the 2nd. Very interesting also to see the Aussies get ugly under pressure.

Bit of a slap on the wrist for Shane Watson for his sending off of Gayle, 15% of his match fee.  But the fact that you can so easily link to a video of him being a dick is probably punishment enough. For as long as the video remains available at least. I see the the video of Benn, Haddin and Johnson pushing and swearing has been pulled from Youtube. It’s a pity, as it was interesting viewing. Watching the video it is hard to see why Benn got punished so severely. We see Benn serve up a lot of cursing, a shaping to throw and a lot of pointing. But the only deliberate forceful contact between players was Johnson pushing Benn away right at the end of the whole farrago.

From the Cricinfo commentary:

Brad Haddin walks out. Brydon observes: “There were more jeers than cheers for Haddin when he walked to the crease … the players say they’ve put Perth behind them but the fans still remember.”

Also, Haddin misses out on an IPL contract.

So Ponting wants to a replay before he’ll accept Haddin is a cheat. He must be pissed that the issue of integrity has come up again, second year in a row. Well the replays have been available for hours now. Haddin himself is taking the high-stakes option of turning the attack onto Vettori.

Haddin said of the incident “This game is gone and we move onto the next one.” There are some however that think that Ronchi could be playing the next one. Well, there are five days before the next match; plenty of time to consider that issue. It bears recalling however, that the last time something similar occurred – Greg Dyer’s catch that wasn’t, of course – led to Healy getting his big chance. The subtle difference however is that NZ won this game, in spite of.