Tag Archives: Australia cricket

For 32 years since Viv Richards’ West Indies beat Australia by nine wickets at the Gabba, no other country successfully breached that fortress.  Of the 31 matches played there between that defeat and this year, the home side had drawn seven and won 24. But without its appointed captain and …

In 1976, Tobago-born Owen Thompson was but a boy of 14 when Greg Chappell’s Australia put a 5-1 merciless whipping on Clive Lloyd’s West Indian cavaliers. That turned out to be the last time for a long, long time. In those days, Thompson, who now works in film and television …

Cricket, like everything else, goes through troughs and peaks. Teams have floundered and risen. West Indies had malingered in the state of ‘potential’ for a long time, relying on talk without action, but perhaps with the world in one of its states of upheaval and change, it might be that …

Australian captain Aaron Finch smashed his way to a tournament-best century against Sri Lanka at the Oval in London earlier today to power his side to the top of the ten-team table. And his opposite number, Dimuth Karunaratne, fell just three runs short of his own century but his side …

If Pakistan’s Asif Ali were the cousin of T&T’s Inshan Ali or Zaheer Ali, Australia would today be fifth in the 2019 World Cup standings instead of second. The two points Aaron Finch’s team earned for their 41-run victory over Safaraz Ahmed’s side in Taunton yesterday lifted them to a …

Sunday 9 June. India and Australia, their places almost reserved in the final four of the 2019 World Cup, are trying to settle the pecking order. The Indian innings is almost at an end. And already, with six balls still left, Australia are going to have to put together the …

The setting was perfect: a fine summer’s day, a sell-out crowd, a sea of blue and a home game for India at the Oval in London. Capitalising, Virat Kohli’s side, who are pressing the home team hard as favourites to take the 2019 World Cup, produced a near-perfect exhibition of …

When the Jason Holder-led West Indians took on Australia in Nottingham yesterday, the five-times World Cup winners emerged victorious by a margin of 15 runs. Recovering from 58 for 4 and then 79 for 5, Aaron Finch’s Aussies went on to post a challenging 288. In reply, the West Indies …

Karma, they say, is a bitch. History’s reputation, as far as I am aware, is not quite so negative. But we are admonished not to ignore it; those who fail to heed its lessons, we are warned, are condemned to repeat it. Beaten by the West Indies in the first …

Antigua, 375, April 1994 & 400, April 2004: Scaling Everest… because it is there “Awesome.” For Geoffrey Boycott, the former England opener, a single word suffices. “Amazing,” Ian Botham concurs. “One helluva innings.” “[I]ncredible physical stamina,” gushes David “Bumble” Lloyd, “a beautiful technical innings. Memorable. Magnificent.” It is April 2004, …

“One seta friggin tief!” Amen, brother! More than 15 years ago in July 2001, Valentino Singh, former QRC cricket captain and later Guardian sports editor, headlined his regular Thinking Things Out column, “Best ‘cheats’ will continue to rule.” The “cheats” referred to were the Australian Test cricketers who, according to …

The good news is that the West Indies cricket team have finally made a defiant stance at a cricket pitch in Australia. The bad news is it is not against anyone in a “baggy green.” Coach Phil Simmons and his troops won’t be taming any Lyons this month from the …