Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Three ODI matches and one T20I.

Starting Sunday with the first 50 overs match.

Which is causing disquiet as it isn't on free to air for the first time.

Just spotted this is happening now. Steyn has knocked the top off the Aussie batting.

Back in form?

Glorious bowler.

Aussies struggling to get the scoreboard moving.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Back in form?

Glorious bowler.

Still remember his ball of the century to Michael Vaughan in 2004.

Lynn goes now.

New stadium in Perth. Not the WACA.

Slapsy hits a four first ball. Off Phehlukwayo, the sort of name it's easier to cut and paste.

Slapsy goes, Stoinis goes. Carey digs in. Still, the Aussies have an awesome pace attack out for this so maybe they can win the game in the field.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Which is causing disquiet as it isn't on free to air for the first time.

It is. Luckily for me, I can watch it for free on my phone - because Cricket Australia like me.
Watching sport on my phone is not ideal for long periods though.


It was a gamble by CA when they last negotiated the broadcast rights .This summer starts with CA really needing to get the cricket watching public back on side. This was not the ideal start for them - the series behind a paywall, and then Aus getting off to a disastrous start.

CA are lucky that there is a dearth of pro-sports on in Aus atm. Not really counting the A League, domestic football is not likely to poach many viewers from most other sports, they have their select fan base, but are very much a niche sport in Aus.

Australia 152 all out.

Coulter nile 34
Carey 33

Phehlukwayo 3-33
Steyn 2-18
Ngidi 2-26
Tahir 2-39

Seems a while since QDK scored some runs.

Nearly all over. The PMXI did much better than this,

Not the start to the home summer CA would have wished for...

Was out and missed the Australian innings. The trouble with ODIs is that if one side gets knocked over for 150 it really doesn't matter how strong their bowling is they are pretty much dead already. SA unsurprisingly batting without much pressure and doing the job with considerable ease.

Rough start for Finch as leader. But doubt he will panic : it's a one day game...anything can happen on a day. Truth is Australia haven't been too good at the fifty over caper (even before a couple of players embarked on an enforced holiday) since that last home WC success. At least they know there are players to come back before the 2019 version - perhaps their struggles this summer will enable them to identify the players who should be in the first choice XI...

Hendricks and de Kock got 40s. Markham got some useful runs too. South Africa win by six wickets.

Wonder if the post-sledging Aussie team was on display.

Well, that went well.

Australia's longest losing streak in ODIs in history (7 on the bounce).

There doesn't seem to be any interest in this series here. It's probably partly the fact that it's earlier in the season than usual (international cricket doesn't usually start for another two or three weeks), partly the fact that one-off ODI series without a full tour are generally seen as pretty meaningless (not that it stops Australia playing two or three a year at the moment), and partly the absence of it on free-to-air TV. Huge own goal there for Cricket Australia. Add in the damning findings from last week, and I don't think there's much public enthusiasm for Australian cricket at the moment.

The PM's XI warm-up game in Canberra last week had a record low crowd (under 2000). That said, it was played on a Wednesday, in October, with little-to-no publicity, so it's hardly surprising. Besides, PM's XI games are getting less and less interest these days as the actual team selected tends to be pathetically weak, and Canberra now gets more interesting cricket (big bash and internationals) in the summer. Long gone are the days when the PM's XI was basically Australia A, composed of XI players who are on the fringes of selection for the national side. These days it seems to be 11 second-team players who can't get picked for their state's T20 first XI.

That said, the Perth crowd yesterday was a fairly healthy 22,000, which is more than the capacity of the WACA ever was.