The day goes on

So What's with Australia kicking so much of the proverbial rump? Wasn't New Zealand supposed to be the team that always rises to the occassion? After their showing at the Natwest Trophy tri-series earlier (in England itself)- albeit not against the top one day sides in the world- you would have thought that they'd give the Aussies a run for their cents, at the very least. I may be jumping the gun here with only half of the first innings done, but look at the score. Yes, Australia won the toss. Yes, that's a plus in England. But yes, its a bloody sunny day out at The Oval, and yes, the pitch didnt really do that much. McGrath was just starting to look like he should have been sitting out instead of Lee, when he decided to take three wickets. I thought Styris's shot was really loose, Cairns's front foot seemed stuck (though the lbw did look to be going high to me the one time I saw it), and the run out...surprising, coming from the Kiwis.

It begs the question- does everyone just assume that Australia are as unbeatable as they seem? I mean, do teams out there believe they can beat Australia when they go into a match with them? I would like to think that some do. But that doesn't seem to stop them from getting a little ...well, overawed by the opponents. Too many teams end up trying too hard sometimes, I think.

Reid slams Zaheer a bit, I doubt if he is far from the truth.
Amit Varma's manages to put in interesting stuff from others' posts or other blogs in his own, like the bit about Attitude Inflation in this one. So Amit, what do you think about Rakshanda Khan then?...:)