Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Sport
Russell Jackson

Australia v West Indies: day two of the Sydney Test – as it happened

Fans pay tribute to Richie Benaud as Nathan Lyon of Australia bowls the first ball of the day.
Fans pay tribute to Richie Benaud as Nathan Lyon of Australia bowls the first ball of the day. Photograph: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Stumps on a rain-soaked second day at the SCG - West Indies 248-7

That’s all she wrote

Sorry folks, but that’s it for the day at the SCG, where stumps have now been drawn for day two. Well, they weren’t in the ground to be drawn but I’m sure they’re somewhere under the soaked covers. West Indies finish the day 248-7, an addition of 41-1 with only Carlos Brathwaite (69) departing today after a very entertaining cameo.

Thanks for joining us with your watermelon-eating dog photos and hungover theories. We’ll be back tomorrow, bigger, better and hopefully with a a bit more cricket to describe.

I think you know what I’m about to say, don’t you?

Yes, it’s still raining at the SCG. So why not shake off all your disappointment to the strains of Viv Richards and his Jon Farriss-produced single ‘Smokin’ Joe’. Hey, where are you going?

Viv Richards - Smokin Joe

Still no call on the day’s play yet

But you’d think that it’ll be made sometime in the next hour if things don’t change soon. Reader Tom Peach is at least happy. “On a positive note all of the water tanks around my property in the Illawarra are now full so it now can stop raining,” he says.

In the meantime, take a closer look at that Australian squad for the first three of the upcoming one-day internationals against India on the link below.

Storm clouds gather during the second day of the third Test match between Australia and the West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Storm clouds gather during the second day of the third Test match between Australia and the West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Photograph: Steve Christo/Corbis

Updated

Play is looking increasingly unlikely this afternoon

And cricket fans are resorting to truly desperate measures. YouTube Hall of Famer Rob Moody is fully stocked with alternative entertainment though.

Geez, it’s actually just bucketing down now

Match referee Chris Broad looks like he’s being held captive as he peers from the window in the member’s pavilion but he’s certainly not heading outside, where heavy rain continues. Carlos Brathwaite’s cameo aside, it’s been a dreary old day in Sydney. Some fans remain under cover in the stands but even the ranks of ‘The Richies’ have been depleted at this point. Fair enough if they’ve headed for the bar.

Spectators take shelter under umbrellas as the rain comes down at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Spectators take shelter under umbrellas as the rain comes down at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

How bored can one become during a rain delay?

I ponder this question often but I think we now have the definitive visual representation of this phenomenon.

As the rain continues to tumble down in Sydney

It appears as though England’s Ben Stokes has established the new gold standard in letting teammates have their milestone moment. Below is what he had to say after he’d accompanied Jonny Bairstow to his maiden Test century, a clearly emotional and deeply meaningful moment for the latter. Resisting the temptation to jump all over his partner and join in, Stokes just left him to it and it truly was a beautiful sight to see Bairstow saluting his late father David.

Still nothing more to report at the SCG, where it’s pelting down

But apparently SCG Trust chairman Tony Shepherd has used the break in play to state the case for the ground receiving two of the six Tests per Australian summer. Of all the times to try and pull that one...

This, on the other hand, is actually pretty great:

Updated

All of the covers are now on the square at the SCG

Which means we won’t have play for a while. Rubbing salt into the wounds the local broadcaster has now cut to an episode of some terrible sitcom starring Betty White and I’m here to tell you that it’s not The Golden Girls.

Here is a picture of some rain, today’s most prominent player

I wish it wasn’t so.

SCG curator Tom Parker inspects the field in the rain during the second day of the third Test match between Australia and the West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
SCG curator Tom Parker inspects the field in the rain during the second day of the third Test match between Australia and the West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Photograph: Steve Christo/Corbis

Rain stopped play

87th over: West Indies 248-7 (Ramdin 30, Roach 0)

Gargh, right as cricket threatened to become the major attraction of the day, the Sydney rain comes pelting down again and the players are called off the ground for the third time today. Boooooo!

86th over: West Indies 246-7 (Ramdin 28, Roach 0)

With Brathwaite’s entertaining hand done and dusted Kemar Roach arrives at the crease and survives the final delivery of the over as a pumped-up Pattinson suddenly works himself to fever pitch.

WICKET! Brathwaite b Pattinson 69 (West Indies 246-7)

Pattinson gets his revenge! And what a delivery it was to his new-found nemesis; a searing yorker that moves away at the last moment to castle the big all-rounder. Moments earlier he’d squared him up beautifully but the edge fell short of Steve Smith at second slip. But the muscular Victorian continues to grunt loudly with the strain of every delivery and puts in that little bit extra effort to remove Brathwaite. Superb cricket.

West Indies batsman Carlos Brathwaite plays all around a James Pattinson out-swinger to lose his off stump.
West Indies batsman Carlos Brathwaite plays all around a James Pattinson out-swinger to lose his off stump. Photograph: Paul Miller/AAP

Updated

85th over: West Indies 246-6 (Ramdin 28, Brathwaite 69)

Luckily for Josh Hazlewood he gets to start his over sending it down to Ramdin and not the suddenly rampant Brathwaite, so he’s able to tie down his end with six gently curving out-swingers.

84th over: West Indies 246-6 (Ramdin 28, Brathwaite 69)

He’s doing it with the grace of a wood-chopper but Denesh Ramdin is at least effective in a square drive for three off Pattinson, which paves the way for Carlos Brathwaite heaving a huge inside-out drive into row 12 over extra cover. What a blow that was!

Pattinson gives him a bouncer next up to register his displeasure but he’s getting some disdainful treatment here and goes for another six when he strays towards the pads. Brathwaite plays an AB de Villiers style flick over the ropes at fine leg. What a shot! Remember last Test when I referred to him as the start of the tail? Good times... He’ll be past his hundred in 15 minutes at this rate.

Updated

83rd over: West Indies 231-6 (Ramdin 25, Brathwaite 57)

Hazlewood’s again shaping it away nicely, this time to the cavalier Brathwaite, who drives at thin when the bowler’s really hoping it. Could they find Brathwaite a tighter shirt or is this one actually sprayed onto his body? Makes England’s 2013-14 Ashes garments look like baggy-era 90s throwbacks. It’s another maiden to Hazlewood, who’s sniffing an edge to the cordon here.

Carlos Brathwaite passes 50!

82nd over: West Indies 231-6 (Ramdin 25, Brathwaite 57)

James Pattinson is a little over-excited here and whangs his first delivery in short and wide, allowing big Carlos Brathwaite to slap him through point and out to the boundary to bring up his half-century milestone. That came at a run a ball, what’s more, and he has a bit of luck next up when he chases a better ball and edges it high over the cordon for four more.

He went to school with the pop star Rihanna, did Carlos. I’m not sure how that information helps us assess his entertaining batting but there it is for you anyway. Brathwaite finishes the over by stepping onto his back foot and driving three to deep extra cover. He’s always making something happen.

Australia take the second new ball

81st over: West Indies 220-6 (Ramdin 25, Brathwaite 46)

As expected, Steve Smith takes the second new ball at the precise moment it becomes available to him and Josh Hazlewood gets the first go with it, shaping an out-swinger away from Ramdin first up. His third ball is an absolute peach and swerves away from the outside edge as Ramdin tries to drive through cover. Hazlewood still bops along back to the top of his mark like a teenage boy still growing into his giant, floppy boots, but his line and length are as impeccable as late-career Glenn McGrath. It’s a maiden.

80th over: West Indies 220-6 (Ramdin 25, Brathwaite 46)

Okay, Nathan Lyon is back from the Member’s end and the news on this session is that we’ll play from 1:10pm local time until 3:40pm. Both batsmen get moving again with a single but it’ll be a different pace in the next over if Australia take the second new ball. Carlos Brathwaite plays a highly unusual reverse...hmm...glance? From that Steve Smith takes cover at slip but if he’d stayed in position he might have caught it off the glove. A most unusual start.

Actually, we’ll have some play shortly

And the Australians are now entering the field of play. Yiew.

Hang on, is this one surprising?

Surely not to anyone other than Shane Watson and Shane Warne, right?

And no, there’s still no more play at the SCG. I’ve been making a sandwich, I’ll be honest.

Our cartoonist at large

The Chris Lynn fans are angry

And I can’t blame them. He’s in sensational form in the Big Bash and looks capable of taking apart any short-form bowler in the world at the moment. Shaun Marsh shouldn’t be considered fortunate though because he dominated the Matador Cup (so too did Nic Maddinson but he’s looked less convincing in the Bash).

Rain stopped play...again

79th over: West Indies 216-6 (Ramdin 24, Brathwaite 43)

O’Keefe races his way through another over of flat-trajectory, unremarkable spin, so quickly that you suspect he’s trying to get it over and done with before anyone notices that he doesn’t really spin it. It bonds me to him if I’m honest. He’s getting away with it. The weather? The umpires are having none of it and another shower prompts them to call the players off again. Back to that CLR James doco then...

This has been the extent of Mitchell Marsh’s exertions at the SCG today.
This has been the extent of Mitchell Marsh’s exertions at the SCG today. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Updated

78th over: West Indies 216-6 (Ramdin 24, Brathwaite 43)

The most intriguing feature of play so far has been the ginger manner in which fieldsmen are pursuing the ball when it makes its way into outfield positions, fearing that they’ll slip. More sure-footed it Carlos Brathwaite, who laconically squats onto one knee and sweeps Lyon to the fence at deep square leg. Smith responds by placing a man where the ball just went. Hmm. Lyon has a better moment with his last delivery, which has plenty of flight and loop and tempts Brathwaite into a defensive nibble well outside the line of off stump but the ball fizzes past his outside edge.

77th over: West Indies 210-6 (Ramdin 24, Brathwaite 37)

Steve O’Keefe partners with Lyon and has a slip, short leg and a man on the drive at short extra cover while Brathwaite is on strike and there’s three singles in a fairly innocuous over from the left-armer.

76th over: West Indies 207-6 (Ramdin 23, Brathwaite 35)

Nathan Lyon appears again at the Member’s end of the ground and finishes off his over to Denesh Ramdin in a tidy manner. Shane Warne is waxing lyrical about the Australian ODI squad, the summary of which is that he’s annoyed there’s no spinner, a little puzzled by the selection of Kane Richardson ahead of James Pattinson and “disappointed” that Shane Watson didn’t make the grade.

Updated

We’re about to get some play!

It’s about four minutes away in fact and lunch will be taken at 1:20pm local time. But first, an Irishman in Paris... I think he’s on the mend from a hangover but Robert Wilson writes in with a few coherent observations. “You know what an Australophile I am (is that a word? If not let’s make it one) and no Irishman has an interest in bringing in the English where they’re not wanted. But may I just say [yes, of course you may]...Ben Stokes? Jesus Christ!”

“PS. The way Geoff Lemon is looking at that watermelon is upsetting me very much.” I think it’s love.

A watermelon development

I’ve just received my favourite email of the summer as reader Peter Tattersall gets into the watermelon action by sending in this photo of his dog. “This rain has me dealing with a solid dose of the happy-sads,” says Peter. “Feeling good about coming back to work this week and not using my leave under a tarp at the beach, but sad that the OBO is not able to distract me (at this stage) significantly from the work year ahead. Anyhow, here is a photo response to Geoff’s breakfast Insta. (Christmas present for the old girl).” What’s her name, Peter? Glorious stuff.

Update from Peter: “Lucia. Fourth bull terrier in the Tattersall line after Ophelia, Aida & Othello. She’d already polished off a banana, some blueberries and a whole bone before she got into this. I just wonder if Geoff’s diet holds up to that. The dog eats better than I did for a good decade and a half of my life.”

Updated

More on that ODI squad

As the covers come off once more at the SCG there’s talk that we’ll get some play before the scheduled lunch break at 12:30 and Umpires Gould and Gaffney are now working their way towards the middle.

Reader Matt Harris, meanwhile, writes in with his objections to the work of the Aussie selectors. “NYE at Adelaide Oval notwithstanding, do you think Sean Abbott was a bit unlucky to miss the ODI squad?” he asks. “Abbott could have bowled better in those last couple of overs, but when Travis Head decided to tee off I don’t think it mattered who was bowling.”

I reckon you’re right in most respects and if you’d asked ma a month back, I would have expected that he’d be in. There’s a case to be made that he offers more than Boland in limited overs cricket but the latter clearly impressed Lehmann, Smith and co around the Boxing Day Test. He must have bowled well in those net sessions... Nathan Lyon was also a little unlucky and you’d assume that Glenn Maxwell will be expected to put in a shift given the lack of spin alternative.

It’s just stopped raining in Sydney

And Brendan Brown has a suggestion for a good friend of the OBO. “Geoff Lemon will need to update his prose on ‘Sweat, death and taxes’ to ‘Sweat, death, taxes....and watermelon’” he says.

Oh, and I’ve just realised that James Pattinson didn’t make the cut in that ODI squad, which is a little bit odd given the current list of healthy and experienced practitioners. Look at me the cricket expert over here. Apparently the covers are about to come off again.

Updated

The Australian ODI Squad has been named

...and the SCG is still not fit for play so we might as well digest this and start a debate. Who should have been in? Who shouldn’t have been? It actually looks reasonable enough to me, save for Shaun Marsh’s inclusion at the expense of Chris Lynn, who is seeing them like the object of Watermelon Boy’s affections right now.

Kane Richardson and Joel Paris are rewarded for excellent early-season form, George Bailey scrapes through on the strength of his stellar international record and Scott Boland’s rise continues.

Australia: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, George Bailey, Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Joel Paris, Matthew Wade

It’s still raining at the SCG, even heavier than before

But we’ve got our very own adult-sized Watermelon Boy on the scene in everybody’s favourite cricket blogger with a fruit-themed name, Geoff Lemon. I’ve seen this man eat. This would constitute a starter.

Cricket memorabilia corner

As dark clouds loom ominously over the SCG, Scott Lowe has arrived with our first email of the day and his thinking is that this live blog should be a cricket-themed Antiques Roadshow. I’m all for it, frankly.

“Over the Christmas holidays I came across my old signed copy of Steve Waugh’s 1996 World Cup tour diary,” he says. “I wonder what that would be worth nowadays? More than the $20 I paid for it back in 1997?” Hmm, I think that’s about correct weight, Scott. A couple of things: there’s about 5 million of those things and Waugh, bless him, was much like The Don when it came to his signature. He probably signs autographs in his sleep.

On this note, my favourite Australian cricketer in the sense of memorabilia anecdotes is Sid Barnes, who became so sick of signing bats and autograph books in pavilions around the world that he had a stamp made of his signature.

Rain stops play when it's barely started

76th over: West Indies 207-6 (Ramdin 23, Brathwaite 35)

With the second new ball not far away, Nathan Lyon grabs the Kookaburra first up and he’s got a short leg, a slip and a short mid-on in place as Ramdin defends his first delivery into the ground but two deliveries later the rain comes down again and the players are sent back to the pavilion. Not ideal.

We’re on!

Play will get under way three minutes from now with the West Indies resuming on 207-6. Woohoo!

Another rain-delay treat for you

I’m not sure who it was that sent me this documentary on C.L.R. James, Marxist philosopher, authoer of Beyond a Boundary and West Indian cricket oracle, but thank you from the bottom of my heart. It’s predictably wonderful and for so many reasons.

CLR James - Beyond a Boundary

The covers are back on at the SCG

Tom Parker does not like what he sees on the radar one bit, so we’re in for further delays.

Fear not though, I have an idea to entertain us in the break and you’ll be pleased to know that it’s also an egregious case of self-promotion. Here’s an interactive treat that I created with my very clever colleagues Nick Evershed and Brett Tweedie, where you can click on each Australian players’ card and read the story behind their baggy green cap and its sale.

Spectators pay tribute to the late Richie Benaud during day two of the third Test match at the SCG.
Spectators pay tribute to the late Richie Benaud during day two of the third Test match at the SCG. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Updated

While umpires inspect the square and make their decision

...let’s just bask in the madcap brilliance of Chris Lynn’s stupendous 75 to get the Brisbane Heat home last night in the Big Bash. Were the bowlers slipping all over the shop and sending down a waterlogged ball? Yep. Was it safe or responsible to even keep them out there in those conditions? Almost definitely not. But geez, I can’t think of a greater double-header of blitzkrieg batting than switching across from Ben Stokes’ power-hitting masterclass in Cape Town to this effort from #Lynnsanity

Skip to the last half, of course.

Chris Lynn’s T20 masterclass.

Movement at the station

Channel Nine still hasn’t cut away from Scott Wolf and co but this is very positive news for those more interested in Carlos Brathwaite than Lacey Chabert, and I’m here to report that I’ve reached the stage of my life where that description applies.

Preamble, the soggy edition

Hello folks and welcome to day two of the Sydney Test at the SCG, where I’m afraid to inform you the rain continues to fall. Chances of play? Minimal in the short-term. Russell Jackson here to take you through it all regardless, but I fear you’ll be in for a lot more “yep, still raining” type material and vintage photographs of Shane Warne, like yesterday. Perhaps more worryingly, the home broadcaster is now showing ‘Party of Five’. Not ideal.

This is a slightly more interesting development for the women’s game:

Russ will be here shortly but in the meantime, check out all the action from yesterday in the day one match report.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
MCU Stars Are Spoiler Experts At This Point, But I’m Still Amused By Chris Pratt Evading Avengers: Doomsday Questions
Star-Lord isn't spilling the beans.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Val Kilmer set to be be resurrected with AI for new film
As Deep As the Grave, the true story of 1920s archeologists, will bring late actor back with support from his estate
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
If you think your toddler’s often ill, you’re right – what going to nursery means for catching colds and building immunity
There’s no nice way to put it: small children are snotty. A research study that tested children for multiple respiratory viruses every week for a year found that under-fives are carrying one or more viruses 50% of the time. A child aged 15 months will have 12-15 colds per year…
The Conversation
The Conversation
Everyday essential or kitchen clutter: do you really need an air fryer?
They’re one of the most-hyped kitchen appliances of the last decade, but are these low-fat cookers worth the cost and counter space?
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
The ‘very demure, very mindful’ creator just revealed what going viral actually did to her life, and it’s a brutal wake-up call
Fame started it all.
We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered
William Orbit says he's written a Ray Of Light sequel - but Madonna isn't responding
William Orbit has revealed he has made a follow-up to Madonna's Grammy-winning LP Ray Of Light - but he doubts it will ever see the light of day.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play