Double Centuries
Wow !! What a wonderful week of cricket.
I was really impressed by the inspired batting of the England team after being beaten up so horribly in the opening test match. The first innings score of 551 was really a great score considering the debacle they had in the first test match. Of particular importance was the beautifully paced double century of Collingwood. I was lucky to watch him play on the second day and was really impressed with the ease with which he played. He was patiently waiting for the bad deliveries and punishing the Aussie bowlers very severely for them. He really showed a lot of character and confidence in his batting. I really liked the way he came forward to Micheal Clark and lofted the ball straight over the bowler's head to score his 200th run with a boundary. He was really pumped up and truly deserved his double century. Well, one bowler who got most of the flak was Brett Lee, and it was so nice to see Brett Lee walk up to Collingwood and congratulate him on his double century. Its very rare to see such sporting spirit. It makes it even more better when such things happen in a bitterly fought battle.
Kevin Peterson had a big contribution to Coolingwood's double century. I saw the highlights of the day and could see how they both shared the responsibility of breaking the backs of the Aussie bowlers, with Glenn McGrath having his worst bowling score ever, 107/0. They took turns in scoring boundaries. When Kevin was on fire, Paul would give him strike and just watch his partner score the runs. And when Kevin was tired, and that was like after scoring 3 to 5 boundaries, Paul would take over the charge and start scoring the boundaries and now it was Kevin's turn to just stand at the non-striker's end and watch. A very good demonstration of how partnerships are built in cricket.
And as England were losing the Ashes yet again to a completely wonderful turn over of a sure shot drawn match to the incredible Aussies, thanks to a fighting century from Micheal Clarke and the magician called Shane Warne, the Pakistani great, Mohammad Yousuf, was breaking records. In their test match against the West Indies, Yousuf, scored another century in the second innings, his 9th century this year !!! He broke the 1970 record set by Vivian Richards of 1710 runs in a calendar year, by scoring 1788 runs this year at 99.33 average. This man is one great stylish batsmen who is in his peak of his form. Wonderful to watch when he starts hitting the ball well, and a very very tough nut to crack when he has his foot dug up well on the crease. Many call him a master strokesman. It certainly was a great week for cricket.
I was really impressed by the inspired batting of the England team after being beaten up so horribly in the opening test match. The first innings score of 551 was really a great score considering the debacle they had in the first test match. Of particular importance was the beautifully paced double century of Collingwood. I was lucky to watch him play on the second day and was really impressed with the ease with which he played. He was patiently waiting for the bad deliveries and punishing the Aussie bowlers very severely for them. He really showed a lot of character and confidence in his batting. I really liked the way he came forward to Micheal Clark and lofted the ball straight over the bowler's head to score his 200th run with a boundary. He was really pumped up and truly deserved his double century. Well, one bowler who got most of the flak was Brett Lee, and it was so nice to see Brett Lee walk up to Collingwood and congratulate him on his double century. Its very rare to see such sporting spirit. It makes it even more better when such things happen in a bitterly fought battle.
Kevin Peterson had a big contribution to Coolingwood's double century. I saw the highlights of the day and could see how they both shared the responsibility of breaking the backs of the Aussie bowlers, with Glenn McGrath having his worst bowling score ever, 107/0. They took turns in scoring boundaries. When Kevin was on fire, Paul would give him strike and just watch his partner score the runs. And when Kevin was tired, and that was like after scoring 3 to 5 boundaries, Paul would take over the charge and start scoring the boundaries and now it was Kevin's turn to just stand at the non-striker's end and watch. A very good demonstration of how partnerships are built in cricket.
And as England were losing the Ashes yet again to a completely wonderful turn over of a sure shot drawn match to the incredible Aussies, thanks to a fighting century from Micheal Clarke and the magician called Shane Warne, the Pakistani great, Mohammad Yousuf, was breaking records. In their test match against the West Indies, Yousuf, scored another century in the second innings, his 9th century this year !!! He broke the 1970 record set by Vivian Richards of 1710 runs in a calendar year, by scoring 1788 runs this year at 99.33 average. This man is one great stylish batsmen who is in his peak of his form. Wonderful to watch when he starts hitting the ball well, and a very very tough nut to crack when he has his foot dug up well on the crease. Many call him a master strokesman. It certainly was a great week for cricket.
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