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Despite an early scare, Australia got off to a flying start in the Asian Cup last Friday.
Watching the coverage with a couple of football (soccer) loving mates, I was impressed with the resilience shown by the Socceroos.
There is an added expectation for a host nation and after going down 1-0 after seven minutes the Aussies must have felt it all.
It would have been hell for coach Ange Postecoglu, especially after some indifferent results since he took over the team.
But they bounced back from the early setback, brought on by some shoddy defending, and scored four unanswered goals.
It really could have been six or seven though with the Socceroos hitting the woodwork on a number of occasions.
I was especially happy with the fourth goal.
I felt it gave the scoreline a true indication of the game.
Go the Socceroos.
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Still on the Asian Cup, China played Saudi Arabia last Saturday with the Chinese claiming a 1-0 win.
It could have been a very different scoreline though, if not for Queensland schoolboy Stephen White.
Stephen was a ball boy for the match when he helped China's goalkeeper Wang Dalei keep his side in the match.
Dalei called on Stephen for some advice from the sidelines when the score was locked at 0-0, in the 60th minute and Saudi Arabia were awarded a penalty.
As Dalei was preparing to try and save the penalty kick, he turned and asked Stephen which way to dive.
Stephen told the custodian to go left.
Stephen's advice led Dalei to save the spot-kick with China going on to claim victory 1-0.
The advice has seen the Chinese team label Stephen their lucky charm.
Dalei went straight to Stephen after the game and gave him a hug.
China invited Stephen to attend the team's training session where he received a rousing reception from Chinese journalists.
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The four-Test series against India has come to a simpering close with the two feature matches in the series fizzling out in boring draws.
I can’t blame the cricketers here.
There were some fantastic individual performances throughout the series, especially the batting feats of Steve Smith and Virhat Kohli.
Smith topped the series scorers with a Bradman-esque 769 runs at an average of 128.17.
Kohli was nearly as impressive, scoring 692 runs at an average of 86.50.
Leading wicket-taker for the series was Nathan Lyon.
Lyon snared 23 wickets, eight more than the next best.
This is where I place the blame for the drawn tests.
Not at Nathan Lyon’s feet, at Cricket Australia’s.
In an attempt to stop Mitchell Johnson tearing through line ups and ending tests inside of four days, the pitches were slow and dead.
Anyone trying to get anything out of the pitch needed to do so in the first six or seven overs.
Batsmen clearly dominated the series and at times the bowling was not great.
When they had to toil on absolute roads, you can’t blame them for trying different things.
An off-spinner finishing leading wicket-taker says a lot about the state of a pitch.
No disrespect to Lyon, but his series average of 34.83 per wicket hardly set the world on fire.
I love Test cricket.
I happily watch it over the shorter forms mainly because I love the contest of bat against ball.
That contest was not on show in this series, especially in the final two matches.
We complain about our fast bowlers breaking down all the time but what can we expect when they have to bowl over 120 overs in three matches on dead pitches as most had to in this series.
If, as I suspect, the pitches were prepared to make the Tests last five days, then Cricket Australia or the curators have missed the point.
The ideal match isn’t one that just lasts five days, it is one where the contest lasts five days.