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Suppose we should write about at least one of the Boxing Day Tests. Australia v India is the more interesting one from an impartial perspective and so far India have the upper hand thanks to Zaheer Khan and some old bastard fifties.
One of those was from Sachin Tendulkar, who apparently ‘fell short of his hundredth hundred’. Few people aren’t willing him to get to three figures before too long, if only because the whole ‘falling short’ thing is getting so tedious. It detracts from a decent innings and a decent delivery from Peter Siddle that did for him.
The way it’s going Tendulkar will be ‘falling short’ of a hundred when he’s bowled for three or even when he’s sitting at home on his settee, not playing a match. Theres a risk that he might start to claim he’s falling short when attempting all sorts of other things as well. He’ll tell the missus he’s fallen short of unloading the dishwasher and she’ll pat him on the back for making a great effort, even though all he was doing was lying in bed reading his Viz annual.
Tortoise Dravid will doubtless overtake Hare Sachin tomorrow morning to become India’s top scorer. Ed Cowan top-scored for Australia and Jarrod Kimber’s put some words together in an interesting order at Cricinfo on that subject. It’s an article that says a bit of something about being a cricket fan, hints at how hard it is to make a Test debut and boasts a beautiful closing line. We heartily recommend it.
Why am I so keen to see Sachin acieve this milestone against the Aussies in Oz?
Perhaps because he tried and failed to achieve it against England in England, that’s why.
Sydney would be an especially good choice. Or Adelaide in the last chance saloon. That has a good storyline to it as well.
Go for it, Sachin. Don’t fall short now.
I like Cowan, not in the way everyone else seems to, but because he represents the first proper turn-round in Aussie cricket. It is only when you understand how bad things are that you can start to make things better. For five years now CA has been picking the players that they want, not the players that they need. They don’t need Hughes, or Warner. They need Cowan, or someone like him. It would be much better if they weren’t in the position of needing Ed Cowan, but they are, and picking another Phil Hughes wouldn’t change that.
According to Cricinfo, it took the MCG crowd all day to appreciate him – too slow, too many leaves, not the Australian way, etc. But when they looked at the scorecard they couldn’t help but appreciate him.
I was there. Sachin was gorge. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth around me at Dravid’s non-dismissal. A non-cricket highlight was the boy behind me in the members’ stand asking his dad why the members didn’t do the Mexican wave. Dad replied that he wasn’t sure and that it was ever thus (or words to those effect). Boy, not satisfied with this explanation, asked “Is it because they’re pussies?”.
What a beautiful Boxmas tale.
I hope his father rewarded that bright young man with a beer.
Great point, KC.
Wish I could make scores like his 73 and be described as ‘falling short’.
Meanwhile–the sa-sl game. Apparently SA seamers went swimming after dismissing SL–and were hurriedly called back with wickets falling. Before they could towel themselves dry, they’re now 119 for 8. Saffers just too damn funny for words.
I wonder if Jarrod reads his comments with such relish as you do. I bet he uses the “C” word a lot if he does
God they’re depressing comments. Wish you hadn’t inadvertently encouraged us to read them.
He doesn’t read them, not least because they tend to say “this reminds me of that time something quite different happened to Tendulkar”.
That is a pretty good synopsis of most.
And the rest of the comments tend to say “DRS is rubbish, except for those decisions we didn’t like where we wish it had been used”.
This is turning out to be an excellent test match. Pity Ravi Shastri is calling it though.
Excellent use of the word ‘settee’.