First test

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Last updated on July 12th, 2017 at 10:47 am

Australia may have declared too soon. India require 499 to win, but have two entire days to bat on a pitch that isn’t evil; just 82 runs needed per session from a batting lineup including Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman. Live scores here.

UPDATE. Both sides currently behind their respective victory targets. Meanwhile, undisputed serious eyes title-holder and new West Indian captain Chris Gayle – quietly spoken off the field, sensationally combative on it – attempted to win the First Test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth in the opening session. Two days to go; Windies still looking good.

UPDATE II. Dravid out; advantage Australia.

UPDATE III. India all out for 161. So much for my early-declaration doubts; Australia would have won if they’d declared at the end of day 2.

Posted by Tim B. on 12/28/2007 at 07:05 PM
    1. And a nice warm day to do it in. It’s predicted to get to 38 C (a bit over a hundred farenheit) today. A pleasant day to watch, but maybe not to do a lot of running.

      Posted by Burbank on 2007 12 28 at 07:42 PM • permalink

 

    1. Well, India’s putting up a better fight than England. I guess uit’s all up to the Ozzies bowlers to avoid a tie.

      Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 12 28 at 07:44 PM • permalink

 

    1. The experts discussing the game over at the After Grog Blog were all in agreement that the declaration was a nonsense. Good to see that you’ve not fallen for the general media consensus. This game isn’t over yet.

      Posted by Scott W on 2007 12 28 at 07:53 PM • permalink

 

    1. Huh? Pls to rsume postign in Enlish kthxbye!!1!

      Posted by Don’t Bogart that Midget, Comrade! on 2007 12 28 at 08:06 PM • permalink

 

    1. Night Watchman Jaffers gone! Just after being given a life from a catch off a no ball…

      1 for 26 and Gilly’s broken the all time record for catches by a keeper—On’ya Gilchrist!

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 28 at 08:09 PM • permalink

 

    1. Just 82 per session?  Crimey, let’s hope they don’t snap the wicker and score an over under while you guys are 3 for 32 with a cricket bat!

      Or something.

      Posted by blogagog on 2007 12 28 at 10:13 PM • permalink

 

    1. At 2 for 56 at lunch i’m ready to call it. Australia by 250.

      Posted by Francis H on 2007 12 28 at 10:20 PM • permalink

 

    1. Tendulkar gone courtesy of Lee and Gilcrist.3/77.

      Posted by Lew on 2007 12 28 at 10:43 PM • permalink

 

    1. Ponting’s declaration was *ahem* ill considered, for want of a better word.

      Never give a sucker an even break. Grind them into the dirt, and stamp on the remains, destroy and humiliate the opposition.

      Cricket is a gentlemen’s game, after all.

      Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2007 12 28 at 10:54 PM • permalink

 

    1. #1
      Burbank.
      That’s what 4s and 6s are for.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 28 at 11:11 PM • permalink

 

    1. *Sigh*  Might as well be Navajo code talk.

      Posted by paco on 2007 12 28 at 11:42 PM • permalink

 

    1. Their best hope, Laxman out—bowled Clarke, caught Clark. 5/118

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 28 at 11:47 PM • permalink

 

    1. Oops, 4/118

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 28 at 11:48 PM • permalink

 

    1. #10 True enough, Kae.

      OT Nice to see that the traditional vices are still being indulged in.

      Posted by Burbank on 2007 12 28 at 11:50 PM • permalink

 

    1. Youvraj gone, lbw Hogg, 5/125

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 28 at 11:55 PM • permalink

 

    1. “nahast’ei beeso doo ba’aan taa’ dootl’izh doo ba’aan hastaa lichii” = $9.36

      Just for you, paco.

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 28 at 11:59 PM • permalink

 

    1. Thanks, Mental Floss. Keep the change.

      Posted by paco on 2007 12 29 at 12:13 AM • permalink

 

    1. #11 Sounds to me like they’re planning a hostile takeover of Paco Industries, Paco.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2007 12 29 at 12:21 AM • permalink

 

    1. 6/144

      Posted by Captain Sensible on 2007 12 29 at 12:45 AM • permalink

 

    1. Into the tail end…I reckon could be over before stumps are pulled.

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 29 at 12:48 AM • permalink

 

    1. Update: 7/157

      Posted by Captain Sensible on 2007 12 29 at 01:11 AM • permalink

 

    1. Update: 8/157 after consideration by the third upmire

      Posted by Captain Sensible on 2007 12 29 at 01:14 AM • permalink

 

    1. upmire = umpire

      Posted by Captain Sensible on 2007 12 29 at 01:14 AM • permalink

 

    1. Yup…

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 29 at 01:15 AM • permalink

 

    1. Update: 9/157 Gangully out LBW to Hogg

      Posted by Captain Sensible on 2007 12 29 at 01:16 AM • permalink

 

    1. Uno mas ves…

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 29 at 01:16 AM • permalink

 

    1. All over bar the shouting!!!

      Posted by Dave Wane on 2007 12 29 at 01:17 AM • permalink

 

    1. Our Mr. Blair makes Michele Malkin’s “Notable Quotables” fot 2007!

      Congratulations!

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 29 at 01:21 AM • permalink

 

    1. #11 I’m not completely convinced that they aren’t stringing random words and numbers together.

      However, I did find something that could spark an American interest in cricket. here. Amazing what a change in uniform and a change in player recruitment could do for cricket.

      Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 12 29 at 01:27 AM • permalink

 

    1. Uhhummunnahummuna….

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 29 at 01:31 AM • permalink

 

    1. All over, India goes the way of all who dare face the mighty Green and Gold

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 29 at 01:32 AM • permalink

 

    1. Are you talking about the green and gold that Col. Milquetoast just linked to or the Australian cricket team?

      Don’t bother answering, I’ve just clicked on the link 🙂

      Posted by Captain Sensible on 2007 12 29 at 01:33 AM • permalink

 

    1. “Australia may have declared too soon.”
      Well maybe. How did India go?

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 29 at 01:41 AM • permalink

 

    1. lost by 399 runs

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 29 at 01:42 AM • permalink

 

    1. Hope kae and our other friends are ready for “Melanie”….

      120 kph winds…

      Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 29 at 01:51 AM • permalink

 

    1. Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) by Melanie
      Lay down lay down lay it all down
      Let your white birds smile
      At the ones who stand and frown
      Lay down lay down lay it all down
      Let your white birds smile
      At the ones who stand and frown

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 29 at 02:48 AM • permalink

 

    1. Thanks Mental Floss, Melanie is off the west coast. It will probably just make it rain. We’re more concerned with the other end of the low pressure system which is causing high seas, king tides and blowing a gale off the coast just north of Brisbane.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 02:50 AM • permalink

 

    1. Melanie is visible in the top left. Maybe she’ll bring rain across central Australia and fill up some dams and aquifers. see here too.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 03:14 AM • permalink

 

    1. Yes the weather map looks depressing.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 29 at 03:31 AM • permalink

 

    1. Thanks for the weather update, kae 🙂
      For anyone who works up north, esp. on the nw shelf projects, it’s getting to be “that time of year” again…

      Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 29 at 03:38 AM • permalink

 

    1. Anothernear fatal blow to Test -ie real-cricket.

      I agree the declaration was too soon….000004737 microseconds too early, by my calculation.
      I can remember Bradman(just)Miller, Hassett, Morris and onwards from there……….too much curry these fellas,and Bollywood totty, not hungry for victory -I’m well into the 60s and I can move quicker than this shower……. Great first day, but that is it, girls and boys. Weather permitting 4-nil, only one Test, or rather
      vehicle for TV commercials, going into the fifth day.
      Another dreadful summer in prospect.  Luckily I might get to watch some 20/20, at least a chance to mingle with the indulexyuul clarses

      Posted by Rod C on 2007 12 29 at 03:56 AM • permalink

 

    1. No cyclones here yet. But plenty of rain and storms.

      Rain in and around Darwin

      Where you see Lee Point on the map is about 2 kilometres north of where I live.

      Posted by Dave Wane on 2007 12 29 at 04:12 AM • permalink

 

    1. Declared too soon? Australia set India 500. The Indians would have had to break every cricketing record ever set to win. And the pitch was not the sort for any team to come out and make 250 a day.

      Posted by Racing on 2007 12 29 at 05:38 AM • permalink

 

    1. Can someone please explain to me, if it’s a test, why don’t they have pass or fail instead of win or loss?

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 05:46 AM • permalink

 

    1. #36
      for Stackja1945I also remember this one by Melanie Safka.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 05:53 AM • permalink

 

    1. #42
      Hope you’ve got your waterwings handy, Dave W!

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 05:55 AM • permalink

 

    1. At echoesinthewind there is a link to zshare and there you find ten Melanie mp3.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 29 at 06:03 AM • permalink

 

    1. We’re really not trying to confuse USAians with cricket talk.

      Otherwise we’d be talking about “silly mid ons” and “square legs”, bowling googlies and cover points.

      Posted by Zoe Brain on 2007 12 29 at 06:30 AM • permalink

 

    1. Zoe, don’t be silly. There weren’t any of those things going on, or we would have used the confusing proper terminology….

      And they’d be bowling maiden overs.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 06:34 AM • permalink

 

    1. USAians may only know about “Bowling for Columbine”

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 29 at 06:37 AM • permalink

 

    1. I’m with you, kae. Bowling maidens and ducks is a surefire way to confuse the poor furriners.

      Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 12 29 at 06:38 AM • permalink

 

    1. #51 Shit Nilk, it also confuses us citizens sometimes!

      Posted by Ash_ on 2007 12 29 at 06:44 AM • permalink

 

    1. Well, I’m missing the Crack Cam” (a camera physically placed within a crack in the pitch) and the “Scrotometer” (a microphone, temperature and sweat gauge attached to the scrotum of the batsman).

      Posted by Mike_W on 2007 12 29 at 07:07 AM • permalink

 

    1. I want to see spit cam, one that chases spit out of Ponting’s mouth, on to his hands, and then focuses on the ball as it is grabbed by him.  Now there’s a winner!

      What a flogging.  You could see Tendulkar’s frustration with his side’s poor performance, in swinging at that crap Lee delivery.

      I wouldn’t call the series over just yet.  India have come back before from 1 down to level the series, and they certainly have the quality batsmen now.  Their bowling is the problem, but as with Australia, with a better pitch, I don’t see us getting 20 wickets again so easily next time.

      I’m hoping for 2 more wins on the trot, to beat Waugh’s record, as everyone said “never be broken”, and here we are, just 1 win away from matching it!

      Posted by peter m on 2007 12 29 at 07:29 AM • permalink

 

    1. #44 Kae

      if it’s a test, why don’t they have pass or fail instead of win or loss?

      Don’t know if I am making this any clearer, but you do have three options for a test, and these are win, lose or draw.  I’m sure for those bloggers here who hail from the land of baseball, it must be confusing to have a game that can last for 5 days and end up in a draw. 🙂

      Posted by Captain Sensible on 2007 12 29 at 07:41 AM • permalink

 

    1. A draw? I thought it was a test. Noone told me it could be an art test, too.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 07:49 AM • permalink

 

    1. I hate Saturday nights*.
      *It is Saturday night, isn’t it? I’m on holidays.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 07:51 AM • permalink

 

    1. *It is Saturday night, isn’t it? I’m on holidays

      try working fi/fo* shifts; there is no such animal as a “weekend”.

      *fly-in/fly-out

      Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 29 at 09:08 AM • permalink

 

    1. Spot

      You in the mines or on an oil rig?

      At least the moolah is good with those kinds of jobs… and you don’t have to do the flying yourself!!

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 09:17 AM • permalink

 

    1. and you do get “weekends” at the end of your shift block. They just don’t always conincide with Saturdays and Sundays.

      Would play merry hell with the social life.

      If I you had one.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 09:18 AM • permalink

 

    1. Kae

      I’ve always had pretty good rosters, usually 14 on, 14 off, with a few 14/7’s.  Change over on Wednesdays, so I did have some weekends at home; just didn’t seem like much because you can have a sleep-in just as easy on a Tuesday morning as a Sunday morning.

      But after ~14 years of it am going to be based in Perth next year when I start up again, 5 8-hour days and all that.  Going all conventional in my old age.  Don’t know about that “social life” thingy, but at least I can finally get me a full-time dog!

      Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 29 at 06:25 PM • permalink

 

    1. Woof! I got dogs. They’re good company. And love you no matter what!

      I used to do shiftwork years ago, it was good, but I don’t think I could do it now, out of practise and also just know it would knock me around too much.

      I have been doing the same 9-5 type job since mid 2001, and frankly, I’m over it. I’m stale and need a change. But I think I’ve de-skilled myself in it. There might be a finance job coming up in about 6 or 8 months and I will go for that. Then I’ll have some entirely different reason to be tearing out my hair!

      I don’t have a social life, either. I live too far from social, and from life! hehe.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 06:30 PM • permalink

 

    1. Spot, this is me with my first dog. His name was 48.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 09:07 PM • permalink

 

    1. (sorry, waaaay OT)

      “I’m stale and need a change”

      Newman and Argyle are always looking for girls to drive the haul-paks; everyone’s finally realised that the ladies are better at it than the blokes 😉

      That is one fine hound.  Significance of name?  I look after foster-dogs in my down-time.  I’m not much good with the “commitment” thing but I figure pretty soon I’ll start with a dog and work from there…

      Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 29 at 10:25 PM • permalink

 

    1. 48 was my first dog. I was in my late 20s when I got him, after I’d moved out of home. Never had a pet before, too much camping and going away with the family.
      I went to the Yagoona RSPCA shelter and that’s the pup I chose. He was Ticket Number 48, to be picked up after his vet check and filling out paperwork. Part of the paperwork filling-out was giving a name for the dog. For heaven’s sake, we’d just met! So it was 48. Mate rhymed so he got that a lot. Or forty. He had selective hearing anyway. How could I resist him? Years later we* were given Bundy and Katie (48 is in the middle). 48 and Katie are gone now, and I have Meggie and old Bundy.
      *The we that was is now I.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 11:01 PM • permalink

 

    1. Meg looks to be part red heeler and part ewok?  (those ears!)

      This is Charlie Mason; I don’t know what the hell he is.  He’s getting over a few broken bones but loves sailing and going to the dog beach; likes Bach but howls at Schönberg.  Good hound.

      Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 29 at 11:22 PM • permalink

 

    1. #66 Spot the dog

      I know this will surprise you, but Meg has acute hearing! (I think the dark patches under her ears and around her eyes make her look much more eary*.) After 6 year she’s still a jumper. I dunno what Meg is, red cattle dog and kelpie, too. Two bitches at the farm had 19 pups between them. All the blue crosses went, but there were pups of every mix there, I’d say the old tarts had a real party!!
      Charlie is cool! I like the scarf.

      *nope, she’s got bloody big ears!

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 29 at 11:29 PM • permalink

 

    1. n.b. not a “scarf,” an official super-cool CanTeen bandana…  All my foster-dogs get ‘em.

      And yes, everyone likes the blue cattle dogs.  I took in 3 stumpy-tail bluey pups once and they were gone within the week.  Whereas nobody seems to appreciate Charlie Mason’s many but somewhat subtle charms…

      Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 29 at 11:47 PM • permalink

 

    1. I have a purple CanTeen bandana which is very useful for stopping the sweat dripping on my glasses when I’m working in the yard.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 30 at 12:53 AM • permalink

 

    1. We’ll be playing foster home to a heeler pup (well, she’s 5 months old) shortly while her owner is looking for a new place to live that will accept a dog.

      We dog sat last year, too. He was a shep/something cross. I suspect ridgeback.

      He came for 3 weeks and stayed for 8 months.

      I’m wondering how long this new one will be with us for.

      Dogs are the best.

      Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 12 30 at 06:35 AM • permalink

 

    1. #65 Oops, wrong picture in the how could I resist him? Here’s the right link!

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 30 at 06:39 AM • permalink

 

    1. #70 Nilknarf, I just sold my rental house but I never minded renting to people with dogs.  They’re much better than kids, actually. I’ve never had to call a plumber in on a Sunday morning because the dog had shoved all his crayons down the shower plug-hole, for instance!

      kae; best dog song ever:  Cat Stevens, “I Love My Dog” (warning, it will irk your partner something fierce if you sing along in front of them)

      Okay, this was absitively posolutely my last ever off-topic post here for all eternity.  I’m scootin’ before Tim & Andrea charge me room and board.  Let’s go hijack El Cid’s blog instead.

      Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 30 at 07:29 AM • permalink

 

    1. I love my dog as much as I love you
      You may think my dog won’t always be true

      I can’t imagine why the partner wouldn’t love those lines…

      Unfortunately, I boycott Stevens now.

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 30 at 07:43 AM • permalink

 

    1. Oh crap, Spot.
      It’s no fun hijacking El Cid’s site – there’s no danger!

      Posted by kae on 2007 12 30 at 07:43 AM • permalink

 

  1. Hey, an ex of mine once bitched that the dog ate better than he did.

    I shoulda fed the ex Pal.

    Posted by kae on 2007 12 30 at 07:45 AM • permalink