Posted by There’s a lesson for everyone here. Hamish Rutherford has just middled we don’t know how many deliveries for four through the covers in one of those clean, brutal innings you can’t help but admire. And yet a year ago, he couldn’t even get a game for Otago. How did he turn it around?
“There were a few dark times, things go through your head. But I started working in a coffee shop and doing some bar work and started to find more enjoyment out of playing cricket as opposed to looking at it solely as a job.”
You see – coffee and beer is the route to success. Or maybe the lesson is that motivation can be forged through having a really shit job. Either way, something for us all to cling to there.
On a slow pitch with little movement, Hamish Rutherford has looked magic. There’s a great deal more to Test batting than that, but it doesn’t apply in this match.
Amazing knock that. Almost more runs in one innings than his dad Ken managed in a 50-odd Test career – as a batsman.
Great to watch – and it wasn’t only through the covers. Loving the on-driving.
Not sure I see your point. He’s 2,300 short, DC.
I got in late last night and caught the fag end of his innings. The commentary team were waxing lyrical, but one of the first shots I saw him play was the slap to midwicket off the first ball after the new cherry was taken. It seemed utterly inconruous with the situtation in the match – especially since it looked a fairly filthy piece of bowling from Anderson.
Anyway, well played the lad.
Got a long way to go, but I’m pretty sure it took Ken 14 innings to reach what Hamish had made in one.
The most apposite comment I heard on the situation of this match was on the radio this morning – the batsmen created this mess, but it is well within their ability to get us out of it. Because the first day was lost, it remains the case that England just needs a single good innings to draw this match – say 450 or so.
They do have form for this sort of thing, both batting badly in the first innings of a series, and recovering to do well overall. The last Ashes was just like this, poor in the first innings at Brisbane, magnificent throughout after that. This is where they earn their corn. Bat like test match batsmen, bat the match out, treat every leave as another victory.
This test match is so much more interesting than if the situation were reversed.
Well said, Bert.
This test also has similarities with Cardiff 2009. We did better in the first innings, posting 435, but the Aussies racked up 674 and we clung on for 105 overs – thanks to one B.Shafayat.
England will win this series. Never fear.
His first name is an anagram of Hashim. No wonder he hits centuries.