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NEW NO. 3 SEEKS PERMANENT ROLE

Jason Gillespie, currently on 16, might be looking at his best chance to score a Test century.

UPDATE. Gillespie reaches his hightest Test score; currently on 60, having been dropped.

UPDATE II. Gillespie now up to 75.

UPDATE III. Attention, stats freaks! This innings represents more than 6% of deliveries faced by Gillespie during his entire Test career. And people say cricket is dull!

UPDATE IV. Helped by four overthrows, Gillespie moves into the 80s.

UPDATE V. Gillespie 90 not out.

UPDATE VI. Century to Gillespie. 17 fours, 300 balls. Fantastic. And he’s still not out.

Posted by Tim B. on 04/17/2006 at 12:50 AM
  1. What a comeback by Dizzy. Down and out in the Ashes, a century here plus more wickets and he’s a contender for man of the series. Gillespie and Lee show up the middle order.

    Posted by grahamelynch on 2006 04 17 at 01:54 AM • permalink

  2. He he.  I think Ponting would rather declare early than have to listen to ANY bowler carry on about scoring a century.
    And if Ponting DIDN’T declare, Warney would probably do something about Dizzy getting one.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 04 17 at 02:15 AM • permalink

  3. With the rain pouring in, the pitch will bear no advantage for the spinners sp. Rafique. Luck is on Dizzy’s side. 29 and counting.

    Posted by Rezwan on 2006 04 17 at 04:25 AM • permalink

  4. No slogger despite his 6 fours in 28, Dizzy will need to face over 350 balls at his present pace, and I doubt he has invented any new shots.
    So no cigar I reckon, even though I’m a South Aussie..

    Posted by Barrie on 2006 04 17 at 06:56 AM • permalink

  5. What’s the score now? ... that’s the journalists vs police ...

    Posted by Stevo on 2006 04 17 at 10:13 AM • permalink

  6. Now THIS would be TV excellence.
    Tony Grieg pontificating about the “lookit the key in the grors, these little Bengas will find it tough here today, my word”.

    A scream of pain from Tony as a well directed tear gas round whacks him in the scone, and a gang of “little Benga” coppers commence beating his smouldering nut with very long batons. Bookies start posting odds about whether he makes it to the boundary alive, and Warnie and the Punter are waving wads of Banga cash that he is stuffed, no chance.

    Maaarvelous, that.

    Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 04 17 at 10:50 AM • permalink

  7. Nightwatchman in Nebraska asks: Last night, baseball’s San Francisco Giants pulled off a 4-6-5 double play, which I have never seen in 40-plus years of watching. Is there anything in cricket that you’ve only seen once and don’t ever expect to see again? (I guess “England winning the Ashes” is no longer applicable.)

    Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 04 17 at 12:34 PM • permalink

  8. Nice one, ca. Smart baseball by the shortstop…I suspect most wouldn’t have bothered making a throw anywhere once it was clear they weren’t gonna get the runner at first. (And hurray for MLB.tv, which just allowed me to watch that.) I do think the 4-6-3-2 double play by the Brewers against the Mets on Friday was even more, umm, interesting…even bigger baserunning blunder to set up it, too.

    Oh, and [rant] What the hell is up with MLB.com’s Gameday summaries this season? Entire half-innings missing, baserunners materializing out of thin air because at-bats are AWOL, blatantly wrong play-by-play at times (those Giants and Brewers double plays are listed as 6-5-4-6 and 3-2-4-6, respectively)...incredibly annoying. [/rant]

    Posted by PW on 2006 04 17 at 01:03 PM • permalink

  9. 8. Thanks for the tip, I missed the Brewers’ visit while on the road. Any cricket equivalent to this:

    http://www.users.bigpond.com/tuffies/aj_mark.jpg

    Jes asking…

    Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 04 17 at 02:48 PM • permalink

  10. #7 Chinesearithmetic

    I was never here to witness it, but the feats of the Australian batsman Don Bradman are considered freakish. In a game where scoring 100 (also known as a century) will get you on the front page of the newspaper, Bradman scored an average of 99.94. By comparison, any batsman who averages 50 these days is a major international star.

    Bradman emerged during the depression, when Australia was still finding its feet as a nation, and still trying to shake off a national low sense of esteem that came from our past as a bunch of convict colonies.

    Our traditional rivals, England found that the only way to curtail Bradman was to deliberately pitch short deliveries aimed at his head.

    Bradman demonstrated not only that we could be better than our colonial masters, but that our colonial masters sucked. In this way, cricket helped Australians gain a sense of themselves that transcended sport.

    (Just think of a major baseball star of today, double their statistics, get them to play in the 1930s and in a time when your nation is gaining a sense of identity, and you begin to get the picture.)

    Since this time, playing cricket has been a major source of pride and cultural exchange for nations such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and now Bangladesh, which goes some way to explaining why someone like George W may find themselves with a cricket bat in their hand when they visit one of these nations.

    Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 04 17 at 07:00 PM • permalink

  11. Rezwan - thanks for the link to crickets for dummies last week - it helped, but there is still a lot of gibberish to figure out.

    However, I enjoy the complexities of good game.  I never realized how complex baseball was until I started coaching little league.  Just getting kids to run the bases right (go past first on a grounder, round it on a line drive, be ready to go to second, be ready to get back….) and where to throw the ball (if it is a soft grounder, a hard grounder, a line drive, whether there is a man on first, on second, on third or some different combination…..)

    Posted by bill w on 2006 04 17 at 10:19 PM • permalink

  12. What’s a 4-6-5 double play?

    Posted by Ubique on 2006 04 18 at 12:46 AM • permalink

  13. 4-6-5 = Second baseman to shortstop to third baseman.

    As I see it, the bases MUST have been loaded.

    Second baseman must have fielded off the bag, thrown to shortstop covering second for a force out, who then threw to third base for the tag out.

    Am I right?

    Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 04 18 at 02:08 AM • permalink

  14. Oh, yeah. I saw Steve Waugh out “handling the ball” a few years back—that’s pretty rare.

    You coulda heard a pin drop!

    Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 04 18 at 02:11 AM • permalink

  15. #7 I’ve only seen England win the Ashes once, and I dont expect to see them win them again.  So that does count.

    As for once in a life time events. 16 Test Match victories in row a few years back was a monumental achievement.  The previous best was 11 (from memory).  It won Aust. the International Sporting team of the year.

    Posted by Fleety on 2006 04 18 at 03:04 AM • permalink

  16. Dizzy has reached 60 not out. Wonder if Glenn McGrath is reaching for a voodoo doll?

    Posted by kywong73 on 2006 04 18 at 03:09 AM • permalink

  17. Bill w: You’re welcome

    Stevo: The journalists 1 : Police 0. The authorities suspended the police sergeant, who started it and closed the deputy commissioner (port), who led the attack. (The Daily Star)

    But the game is not over, they are demanding the dismissal and arrest of the police officers in question.

    It shows that the journalists still have the power in letting people know about an injustice anywhere under any conditions. That prompts justice to take its own action. Actually the legendary pictures of the police action last Saturday said it all. I wonder if a general citizen was beaten by a policeman, nothing would have happened to the perpetrator this fast although by law he/she could have been sued.

    Posted by Rezwan on 2006 04 18 at 04:25 AM • permalink

  18. Dizzie did it. He’s only the second nightwatchman in the history of Tests to make a ton (after Nasim-ul-Ghani of Pakistan v. MCC at Lords 1961). Good on him.

    Posted by Andrew R on 2006 04 18 at 05:11 AM • permalink

  19. Congrats Gillespie.

    Posted by Rezwan on 2006 04 18 at 05:14 AM • permalink

  20. #4 Cheers Dizzy!  I was wrong.  He did it with 50 balls less than I thought [296], but with a high 17 fours, which at least proves he can’t manipulate the ball much, like I said!
    What do I know about cricket after following it for 54 years!
    For any Americans, that’s what proves it’s the Greatest Game of All.

    Congrats to Tim, you got the prophecy spot on.
    Dizzy is another Comeback Kid - after Warne and McGrath -nice company.

    Posted by Barrie on 2006 04 18 at 05:18 AM • permalink

  21. Gillespie is third to do the night-watchman century.  Anthony (Tony) Mann achieved this same feat for Australia in Perth 1977-8, as well as Nasim-ul-Ghani.  Still, rare as the proverbial, and absolutely brilliant.  I’m sure he’ll let Glenn and Shane know about it.

    Posted by Kwality on 2006 04 18 at 05:19 AM • permalink

  22. Oh, Tony Mann. Interesting that his only other first-class century was as a nightwatchman too.

    Posted by Andrew R on 2006 04 18 at 05:26 AM • permalink

  23. For you Americans, ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie is named after the jazz musician. 
    His achievement can be sort of compared to a veteran pitcher who isn’t much of a batter, scoring three home runs in succession, after being brought back from the reserve league..

    That says a lot about Tim’s prophetic powers too!

    Posted by Barrie on 2006 04 18 at 05:28 AM • permalink

  24. Dizzy being recalled back to test team and scoring a ton = points to him keeping his place in the team (although the selectors don’t pick sides on the prospect of miracles)

    Dizzy running out run machine and Australian Captain Ponting on the way = major problem for Dizzy.

    Ponting DID NOT look happy.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 04 18 at 06:57 AM • permalink

  25. 13. There were runners on first and second. Vizquel the shortstop took Durham the second baseman’s toss, spoun as if he had eyes in the back of his head, and threw to the third baseman, who caught the Dodger runner over-running the bag. Like the sun rising in the west.

    10. I’ve read about Bodyline and Jardine, and C.L.R. James’ strange criticism of Bradman in Beyond a Boundary, which seemed to be like knocking The Beatles for selling too many records. If I had the nerve, I’d write a young adults’ book with chapters along the lines of “Who’s the Babe Ruth of Ireland? (Christy Ring the hurler?) or “Who’s the Joe DiMaggio of Australia? (Bradman?)

    Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 04 18 at 09:29 AM • permalink

  26. 23. Thanks for the great analogy.

    Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 04 18 at 09:32 AM • permalink

  27. Dizzy should bat for New Zealand, at 7/98 they could do with him.

    Posted by brucey bonus on 2006 04 18 at 04:08 PM • permalink

  28. #25 Thanks for that. As soon as I’d posted, I realized the force was on at second and there had to be a tag at third, but that the bases need not have been loaded.

    Anyone remember Dizzy’s performance at Chennai in ‘04?

    Sent in as a nightwatchman on the third day of the test match between India and Australia, he was involved in a partnership of 139 runs with Damien Martyn.

    I thought (and still think) he should have got Man of the Match for that stand. I’ll never forget it, and he’s been a hero of mine ever since.

    Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 04 18 at 08:13 PM • permalink

  29. Although normally disgusted and appalled by the so-called “contribution” of Tim-may “fair and reasonable” Bla-eurgh to this website, it must be noted that he was discussing the possibility that Dizzy might score a ton when he was on 16…

    Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 04 18 at 09:42 PM • permalink

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