Day 2 at Brisbane: Funny Old Game, and All That

Part of the appeal of cricket lies in the role played by luck and fate, as the blog Ducking Beamers has often pointed out. There's been a fair amount of all that at the Gabba so far, which has made it a pretty interesting test.

Take the case of Michael Clarke. He has an extremely green attack at his disposal, and I thought he handled it brilliantly yesterday. Some intelligent field placings accounted for McCullum and Williamson, and it seemed he could do no wrong. Just when Australia looked like they were going to roll over NZ, he dropped a sitter offered by Dean Brownlie with the score at 102 for 5; Brownlie batted through and NZ ended up with 295, much more than what had looked likely. It must have been frustrating for him. Then, later today, he suddenly found himself the beneficiary of a mistake from the opposition, when Doug Bracewell overstepped in the process of claiming his wicket. He and Ponting will now start the third day afresh, with an opportunity to put the game out of NZ's reach.

The man who should have had Clarke's wicket, Bracewell, had a very poor day - after making a few bold statements before the game. He scored a duck at no.8 (the guy does have some batting ability), and his bowling was a let down. He found no movement, and routinely offered a boundary-ball now and then, undoing the good work of Martin and Southee. To top it all, his no-ball problem let Clarke off when a wicket would have evened things out. Ross Taylor had also talked up Bracewell before the game, and if his struggle was a bit predictable, it reaffirmed that cricket has this way of cutting you down to size. Hopefully the 21-year old is wiser for the experience.

(Cricinfo has also published a piece claiming Ricky Ponting enjoyed a fair amount of luck today, which I disagree with. He looked more secure and fluent then I've seen in a long while, maybe the difference in quality of bowling from the South Africans was the reason.)

As for the match situation, it looks 70-30 in Australia's favour. NZ may be looking at Australia's long tail as an opportunity to restrict them, but the pitch is at its best for batting now, and I can't see Ponting and Clarke wasting this platform.

In addition:
1. For the second day in a row, the umpires called off play early for bad light. Today's call looked ridiculous - I wish more discretion were applied when going by the light meter.
2. Tony Grieg spent a good part of the day talking up the benefits of technology and the UDRS, and making snide remarks about "the Indians". Unbearable.