Posted by No, he did. One of the three deliveries he faced in this Test match didn’t see the fall of his wicket. He really hung around.
When Shaun Marsh was brought back into the Test side, we wrote:
“Whether you think he’s good or not largely depends on whether you consider ‘his best’ to be the norm or an occasional aberrative state.”
Sometimes it’s nice when someone defies your expectations, but there are also occasions when all you want is for someone to carry on exactly as they have been doing. For example, it was impressive to see Hugh Laurie somehow become an American leading man in House, whereas if something’s got Matt Berry in it, you pretty much know what you want from him.
We’ve highlighted this before, but it’s worth linking to Shaun Marsh’s Test scores again in light of recent performances. Six ducks and two 140-plus scores in 15 innings. Majestic stuff.
ah, that’s more like it… a good old aussie batting collapse to even things up again. 141/1 at tea, 216 all out… nice 🙂
i’ve been using this test to re-evaluate my own prejudices (etc). i already knew (before the ashes debacle) that it wasn’t england losing which would cause me to lose all humour and perspective – it was just losing to oz. what i then discovered during the first test in SA is that it wasn’t even oz stuffing england that got me all depressed and perspective-less: it was oz beating ANYbody, at least at the moment. i feel much better now… but despite all appearances to the contrary, i am not a galloping racist who hates the colonials – it’s just that the aussies have been the most consistently graceless winners in world sport, worse even than the yanks (which takes some doing), and of course we all endured far too much of this victory-song-belting, chest-puffing smugness under border/taylor/waugh and (at least initially) ponting. they were then a bit rubbish for a while, and this made a lot of the rest of us (i’m pretty sure it wasn’t just me) feel quite immoderately happy – but the period of rubbishness was not nearly long enough, and i for one was not ready to see them start winning again. the fact that it happened at the expense of an england team which had probably grown complacent was, in a way, neither here nor there: i just like them a lot better when they’re losing.
hmmm
nah, them being rubbish wasn’t fun. what is fun is them getting smashed when they think they’re good.
what won’t be fun is SA collapsing in the third, dumbasses are capable of it.
I’ll be honest – I’d like to see Australia win this one. Can’t say I like Steyn much more than Mitch, and it would be good to know that it was Australia (well, Johnson) being on form that won the Ashes, rather than England being rubbish. (Okay, England were still rubbish, but that didn’t stop them winning the previous series.)
As long as they go back to losing humiliatingly afterwards, it’s all good. And then maybe we’ll have England at number 2 again, behind NZ. 😀
I was expecting the Matt Berry video to be One Track Lover but perhaps the one chosen was even better.
Also, cent, as a half-Yank, we only really get obnoxious when we win at games we made up, like basketball, or pro wrestling. Or when we can beat other countries at games they made up and care way more about, like ice hockey or soccer. The sadness when the US lost to Canada (my other country, and the one I root for when the two play each other) in the Olympic hockey semifinals was beautiful.
The Australian cricket team probably beats the American hockey team for pure loathsomeness, and that’s saying something.
In his first 9 tests the great Marvan Atapattu also mustered 6 ducks (5 of them in his 1st 6 innings – he managed 1 whole run in the other!) In total he managed 182 runs in those 9 tests, with a top score of 29.
Marvellous Marvan ended his test career after 90 tests with a passable average of 39.02, 16 centuries and a mere 22 ducks (level with Steve Waugh, that’s the most of all specialist batsmen). Best of all, 6 of his centuries were doubles, a stat only bettered by 5 players.
Marsh has got a really long way to go before he gets near Marvan’s mythical levels of non-standard deviation. Whether he gets allowed the opportunity will be the big question.
He will be given the opportunity for at least 1 more test. He is officially ahead of Doolan in the ‘waiting list’ which our selectors place great stock in. My guess is Twatto will come in for Doolan, Patto to get in if one of our quicks pulls up lame.
Doolo?
Marvan the Marvelous! That’s a brilliant moniker! He had a shocker start to his career, took almost 7 years to score his first century.
He is the benchmark for pulling oneself out of the gutter. The 92/93 Aus tour of SL saw Mark Waugh try to pull off a Marvan with 4 ducks in a row.
You’ve got me started on a new show now. Lucky it’s on Netflix.
I just looked at the scorecard, 216 isnt that bad a score but then I noticed that their batsmen from 3-11 scored 21 runs in total.
West Indies’ U19 wicketkeeper Nic Pooran topped Chris Rogers’ team-carrying efforts: http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-under-19-world-cup-2014/engine/match/700391.html
The team scored 188 runs off the bat. He scored 143 of them. He hit 20 of the team’s 23 boundaries. The second highest score was 20.
quite amazing to watch, but as an Aussie fan, it wasn’t a shock to me. Our batting has been beyond crap (especially in 1st innings).
The recent success has been due to our tail wagging & fast bowlers monstering the opponents.