Australia did what was required to stay in the series with a devastating display of spin bowling, but normal service could yet resume at IndoreFor a day, at least, the tables turned. To this point Australia’s tour of India had been marked for the visitors by two batting collapses under the scrutiny of spin: one when the first Test was almost gone, the next when the second Test was very much in their keeping. To begin the third match in Indore, though, with one last chance to stay in the series, the Australians found themselves able to out-India India.A couple of early wickets, a pitch as even-tempered as post-midnight Gary Busey, and suddenly there were shivers running through the home...
Is this finally Latrell Mitchell’s season, can Penrith do the three-peat, and will Cameron Ciraldo resurrect the Bulldogs?Five off-field issues the NRL and its bosses face this seasonThe NRL’s basket-case club hasn’t played finals since 2011 and has not even managed to win three straight games since 2018 (when Ivan Cleary was coach). This year the 2022 wooden spooners have reunited the forces who won their long-ago 2005 premiership – coach Tim Sheens with Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah as assistants. The word out of Leichhardt is that there’s a personal, cultural and team revolution under way. Continue reading...
The players aren’t striking but questions linger around the Pride issue, a loss of trust in the NRL and the Dolphins’ successWith a new team in the mix and a fresh deal between players and officials on the table, the NRL should be flying into 2023. But for all the blue sky some big storms are brewing.BITTER PAY WAR FINALLY ENDS Continue reading...
In a World Cup year, the coaches of Australia’s five provinces are as much on notice as the playersThe first wave of final auditions for the Wallabies 2023 World Cup squad is about to begin, as Super Rugby Pacific kicks off on Friday with the ACT Brumbies v NSW Waratahs. With Australia seventh in the world rugby rankings, there’s plenty to do and not much time to do it - there is little more than six months until the first pool game in France on 8 September.Already, new Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has likened the task to “a smash-and-grab job”. Luckily, Rugby Australia has hired the wiliest thief in the game: a man with an 82% win-rate at four World...
Australia’s battled-hardened army of impact players far outnumber those in any other team in South AfricaAshleigh Gardner picked up a career-best, player-of-the-atch 5-15 against New Zealand after making just three with the bat during the group-stage fixture of the ongoing T20 World Cup. Georgia Wareham hadn’t played any international cricket in nearly 16 months but dealt Bangladesh a body blow with her match-winning 3-20 upon slotting back into Australia’s XI.Alyssa Healy had been on the sidelines with a weeks-long calf injury but struck vital fifties in two of her first three innings after returning to the line-up. Grace Harris’s tone-setting 3-0-7-2 – her best T20I figures – against Sri Lanka was only the second instance she had bowled for Australia...