Post-match report: South Australia

Welcome to episode two in the slower-than-anticipated Post-Match Report round-up of federal electorate results, which today brings us to South Australia.

Of the three seats that were highly marginal for the Liberals going into the election, Kingston emerged with the smallest Labor margin following a relatively subdued 4.5 per cent swing. The swing was reasonably consistent throughout the electorate, though slightly heavier at Morphett Vale and the Liberal-voting suburbs to the north than along the coast. Makin produced the third biggest swing in the state, perhaps boosted by the retirement of sitting member Trish Draper, with the 0.9 per cent margin obliterated by an evenly distributed 8.6 per cent shift to Labor. In Wakefield the swing was 7.3 per cent, which was markedly lower than in the small towns in the north of the electorate than in the low-income outer Adelaide centres of Elizabeth and Salisbury.

Only at four of Boothby‘s 42 booths did Nicole Cornes achieve a swing greater than the 5.4 per cent needed to win the seat. All were in strong Liberal areas, including the coast around Brighton and the Adelaide Hills suburb of Flagstaff Hill. Labor’s worst results came in the area closest to the city, with swings to the Liberals recorded at Mitcham, Myrtle Bank, Kingswood and Hawthorn West. The Greens’ vote picked up 3.1 per cent, perhaps benefiting from embarrassment surrounding Cornes’s performance. In Sturt the Labor candidate Mia Handshin picked up a close-but-no-cigar swing of 5.9 per cent that was concentrated in the heavily mortgaged northern end of the electorate, with swings near or above 10 per cent at Dernancourt, Gilles Plains and Windsor Gardens. Pyne now sits on an uncomfortable margin of 0.9 per cent.

The 7.2 per cent swing in Adelaide was slightly higher than the state average of 6.8 per cent, and was driven in remarkable degree by the stronger Labor areas to the north and north-west of the city. The swings in many of these booths cracked double figures, whereas the strong Liberal booths to the north-east and south-east of the city mostly came in at well under half that. Labor’s Hindmarsh MP Steve Georganas also had a much more relaxing election night this time around after prevailing by 108 votes in 2004, picking up a 5.0 per cent swing that was fairly evenly distributed throughout the electorate.

Labor’s biggest swing in South Australia was wasted in the safe Liberal rural seat of Barker, where Liberal member Patrick Secker went to preferences for the first time since 1998 after his primary vote fell from 53.2 per cent to 46.8 per cent. Labor was up 8.6 per cent on the primary vote and 10.4 per cent on two-party preferred. Swings were larger in the bigger centres than the small rural booths: all five Mount Gambier booths produced above average swings, peaking at a remarkable 21.4 per cent at Mount Gambier North. Talk of a swing in Grey big enough to endanger the Liberals was partly borne out by double-digit swings in the seat’s traditional Labor centres of Whyalla, Port August and Port Lincoln. Swings were much more gentle in the many smaller rural and remote booths, dampening the overall shift down to an insufficient but still severe 9.4 per cent.

Alexander Downer’s seat of Mayo followed the statewide trend in swinging to Labor by 6.5 per cent. Particularly heavy swings were recorded at the southern coastal towns of Victor Harbor and Goolwa. Nine years after coming within an ace of winning the seat, the Australian Democrats can now manage only 1.5 per cent. The Greens did well to increase 3.4 per cent to 11.0 per cent, partly assisted by the donkey vote. Another good seat for the Greens was Port Adelaide, where they picked up 3.3 per cent and boosted Labor from a 3.7 per cent increase on the primary vote to 6.8 per cent on two-party preferred. Remarkably, all but one of the 10 booths in Paralowie, Salisbury and Parafield to the east of Port Wakefield Road produced a double digit swing, a trend which carried over into neighbouring Makin. Swings in booths further west varied around the 4 per cent mark.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

557 comments on “Post-match report: South Australia”

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  1. If I get out my fortune-teller’s ball, which is hidden in my books on revolutions, and have a close look, I see 18 dead demonstrator’s funerals in the next week. There is violence at the demonstrator’s funerals which results in more deaths. The pattern repeats itself until the military refuses to fire on its own people and Musharref is deposed. That is what my history books predict anyway.

  2. William – a belated nitpick re:
    “Makin produced the second biggest swing in the state, perhaps boosted by the retirement of sitting member Trish Draper, with the 0.9 per cent margin obliterated by an evenly distributed 8.6 per cent shift to Labor.”
    ALP swings:
    1st Barker [Karen Lock] 10.43%
    2nd Grey [Karin Bolton] 9.39%
    3rd Makin [Tony Zappia] 8.63%

  3. Sorry, just rechecked, I reckon you were referring to primary swings, in which case Zappia was second with 8.43% with Karin Bolton getting a primary swing of 8.35% in Grey.

  4. Mildly amusing trivia. Cricket. Excerpt (edited) RN, Lingua Franca, today. On sledging, myths and legends. The 500 Club, Warwick Hadfield, Kevin Sheedy

    Imagine, if you will, Shane Keith Warne, at the top of his mark; flicking the ball in one hand while running the fingers of his other hand through his artificially re-created locks.

    At the other end of the pitch, marking out centre with a few swift drags of his sprigs, is a South African batsman who in a previous series Warne has reduced to a tragi-comic figure.

    Says Warnie: ‘I’ve been waiting four years for another chance to bowl at you.’

    The batsman’s mind obviously operates faster than his feet because he replies swiftly, ‘Looks like you spent it eating.’

    Mervyn Hughes never felt the need to slim down, running in from somewhere adjacent to next week throughout his 200 wicket test cricket career, bluffing and blustering away in expletives all the time.

    The Pakistani irritation under a batting helmet Javed Miandad decided he’d had enough of Merv’s behaviour.

    ‘Merv Hughes, you are nothing but a fat bus conductor,’ said Javed.

    A few balls later, yes it had to happen, Hughes dismissed Javed. The bowler ran straight to the batsman, nostrils flaring, every bristle of his moustache fully erect and his chest puffed out nearly as far as his stomach, demanding: ‘Tickets please, tickets please.’

    A Zimbabwean batsman was asked by an Australian bowler why he was so fat.

    ‘Because every time I make love to your wife she gives me a biscuit,’ was the rapier-like reply..

    Sarwan was known to be particularly close to the West Indian captain, Brian Lara. As he came in to bat in the West Indies, Glenn McGrath inquired politely, as fast bowlers tend to do: ‘What does Brian Lara’s cock taste like?’

    ‘Don’t ask me, ask your wife,’ said Sarwan.

    McGrath exploded into one of the more unseemly confrontations ever seen on a cricket field..

    And the stump microphone may or may not have revealed that sledging is not always aimed at your opponents.

    It might have been Warnie, or Joe the cameraman, who said of a young Queenslander making his test debut: ‘Can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t field!’

    The atmosphere in the Australian dressing rooms in the 70s … yes when Ian Percy Sledge Chappell was captain, so combative that one young bloke got migraines. He got little sympathy. Chappell’s view was that if you weren’t tough enough to be in the dressing room, well you wouldn’t be tough enough for test cricket. The point is well made. In sport, as in life, the strength of the muscle between the ears is the one that ultimately splits potential from achievement.

    A batsman had played and missed a few times, causing the bowler to declare:

    ‘It’s red, got gold lettering and white stitching on it and weighs about five and a half ounces!’

    Batsman not only hit the next ball for six, but right out of the ground, adding for good measure: ‘Well you know what it looks like, so you go and find it!’

  5. And in Pakistan, medical history has been created, again exemplifying that wonderful country’s true nature. Bhutto evidently was not assassinated, she just slipped at the same time as a bomb went off and shots were fired into her. She just banged her head on the sun-roof and fractured her skull so it was her fault after all. Now Pakistani medicine is pretty crap but, given that she was operated on, it would follow that she had an extradural or subdural haematoma which can normally be cured with an electric drill if necessary. Of course, if the President is holding the drill and he’s not trying to save you, it might not be such a favourable outcome. And wouldn’t the fractured skull be more consistent with a whopping great bomb going off next to you???

    “Interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said earlier that the post-mortem on the populist opposition leader found her mortal wound came when she tried to duck after the bomber attacked.

    He said the bomber fired at her but missed, and that her critical injury came when she hit the lever of the sunroof of the car she was in, as she waved to supporters after a campaign rally yesterday.

    “The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull,” Cheema said.

    “There was no bullet or metal shrapnel found in the injury.””

  6. Diogenes-
    thank you for that run down : I am less and less bothered with the MSM, as I get much better information and commentary from the Pb’s. ( and I have to say that your contributions are invaluable)…
    It is horrendous that a woman of Bhutto’s profile can be murdered, and then the whole episode can be spun.
    i am starting to understand how significant the whole blogging community is.

  7. 512
    Diogenes

    I just heard close associates of Bhutto (on the BBC) who transfered her to another vehicle after the incident and they reported a massive wound in her neck which bled profusely. It’s hard to imagine such an injury resulting from her head impacting the car from the shock wave, but I’m not a forensic expert. Those near her seem pretty convinced she’d been hit with something.

  8. Just finished reading ‘Poll Dancing’ by Mungo MacCallum in a single sitting. It is a hilarious yarn, well written and easy to read. His tales of ‘Hyacinth Bucket’ and ‘John Hunt is a Coward’ would ring a bell with most poll bludgers.

  9. 514 KR- A blast injury would not cause the neck and head wounds described unless they were due to shrapnel. This would be very unlikely as the gun was fired first and she would have ducked. The bomb would then have been at the wrong trajectory to cause a neck wound. If the bomb blast forced her neck into the sunroof, it would cause blunt trauma not a wound. The blunt trauma could be fatal by damage to her trachea or causing carotid artery damage. The “skull fracture” story is an absolute unmitigated lie. No-one has ever died of a skull fracture. The reason skull fractures are dangerous is that they may be a sign of an extradural, subdural or cerebral haemmorhage, or even worse a diffuse brain injury.
    The propagandist interior minister said “There was no bullet or metal shrapnel found in the injury.” This indicates to me a despicable spin, trying to infer that it was not a bullet or shrapnel that killed her. Shrapnel would have stayed in the wound but a high-velocity bullet would easily pass through a neck or even head. If the wound /bleeding story is true (as it appears to be) Bhutto was killed with a high-powered gun with an entry and exit wound to her neck.

  10. Another Dunstan minister has gone. Glen Broomhill, SA’s first environment minister (1973-75), died on 26 December, aged 74. He was another of those dreaded union men – a former secretary of the MWU.

  11. Steve, I wondered as I was reading Mungo’s book whether he was a visitor here.
    I also thought the edited highlights of this blog would have made a good book as well.

  12. 517 Diogenes Says:
    “A blast injury would not cause the neck and head wounds described unless they were due to shrapnel. ”

    BBC-World coverage agreed with the bullet-wound to the neck, but more shallow and messy – it took a chunk of neck/shoulder with it hence the copious bleeding. Followed almost immediately by the suicide bomb taking out many of those in the vicinity.

    Like you, I was also disgusted by the “spin” in that report, like it was all self-inflicted, or at best, just an ‘unfortunate accident’ ????

    Reminds me of my dad’s story of why he had a glass eye. At 13, in 1921, he survived a point-blank rifle-shot in the face on the isolated wheat farm where he grew up, in a bitter Canadian prairie winter.

    He and his 8 brothers all had their own rifles, mules etc, and were cleaning them in the barn, when one of his brothers was playing around and pretending to take aim pointing the rifle at the others.

    All were thinking it was a game, a joke etc, as all the rifles had been emptied for cleaning/storage etc – just boys mucking about, so were laughing and playing along. Sooo, it was a bit of a shock when it actually fired. The bullet went clean through his eye and out the back of his neck missing all major vessels, bones, brain etc.

    My dad said all he remembered was one minute rubbing down his mule, laughing along with the game – the next was waking up a little as he was being transferred from the mule-cart onto a train platform in a freezing ice-storm blizzard with an old Catholic priest giving him the Last Rites in Latin.

    Took 4 hours by mule cart in the ice and snow, and then 2 hours by train, (they all thought he was dead anyway) to get to a little outback convent where the nuns just bathed his wounds 3 times a day, fed him chicken broth and bread for about 10 days, then sent him home again 🙂

  13. @ 519 Work To Rule Says:

    Steve, I wondered as I was reading Mungo’s book whether he was a visitor here.
    I also thought the edited highlights of this blog would have made a good book as well.

    Notwithstanding the fact that MacCallum’s articles have been published online by the Byron Bay Echo for ages he hardly makes any mention of the interwebs in Poll Dancing at least not so far as I noticed (the lack of an index makes this hard to check and is unforgivable) apart from a chronicling of the the parties’ efforts on YouTube. He certailnly seems to have overlooked the extraordinary attacks by The Australian on the analysis here and elsewhere.

  14. “Cheema said Bhutto’s party was free to exhume her body to conduct an autopsy, but rejected calls for an international investigation. An independent domestic judicial investigation should be completed within seven days of the appointment of its presiding judge, he said.”
    How reassuring! Given that Musharref sacked all the judges when he imposed martial law and replaced them with puppets, I expect a very probing investigation.

  15. Work To Rule @ 519:

    “I also thought the edited highlights of this blog would have made a good book as well.”

    I agree – has anyone with a long term involvement thought of compiling something? It would be very interesting to get a feel for the mood of bloggers at various stages of the campaign as well as the various views discussed.

  16. A review of 2007 would be very interesting and we may be surprised by all the things covered and while the narrative might have looked much the same thread to thread.

    I suspect the policy debate may have been more robust than the mainstream debate, the reading of the polls and the endless predictions and name calling as all come to have made an enjoyable year.

    I suspect we had a clearer idea of the poll trends than the MSM and we had some robust debate, I would hope that it has been conducted in good faith, Glen was the main defender of the Government while the pro Rudd forces appeared in ever greater numbers as the year went on.

    I suspect many of these were ex-Liberal voters which makes for an interesting debate has the years go on, I will add there as been much discussion as to what happened to the swing in Doctor Wives land.

    I suspect we made the mistake that we don’t make when we see Unionist marching down Bourke St angry at an ALP of thinking they will vote Liberal, so maybe we need to remember that just because Liberals are angry they are bit like those Union guys, for we tend to be more aggressive towards the side we normally vote for after all you don’t expect much from the other lot.

  17. South Aussies:

    In need of New Year’s Eve relief, especially in view of predicted weather.

    Fireworks on again at Brighton Jetty, apparently. Staging c. 2100 hours. Lovely, last year. Great venue for end of hot day, sharing and just being.

    Take your rugs and sandwiches etc, grog not allowed, so smuggling in the usual tradition necessary. Park east of King George, Cedar Avenue and so, if arriving later. Walk is easy from there.

    Opera lovers: Attended the first of eight showings of the Met’s 2007 HD recordings at Palace Nova. Romeo and Juliette. Fantastic, a bit long to sit, two hours to first and only intermission. Cool, however. La Fille du Regiment is the last, in May, a short excerpt was shown. Recommend.

    Remain bitter that the ABC/John Howard did not fund the filming of the SA production of the Ring Cycle. Ordinary elitists like me can miss out on culture pork, apparently.

  18. 524 Albert Ross, Mungo did give the Internet wars a mention from the bottom of page 162.

    His quip on page 163 about the Australian Editorial drama was,”My, what sensitive little plants they are, and don’t they protest too much.”

    Don’t know that I’d be too concerned about the lack of an index given the short time between the election and Xmas. I think it is great that books can be put out so quickly.

  19. Curious to discover when Wonderful William set up this site, I tracked back to the ur-pollbludger on Jan 12 2004 (4th birthday coming up, hip-hip-hooray!). Like a lot of others (I suspect) I got into this site a few weeks before the Federal Election out of frustration with MSM and looking for higher-quality information. I would love to know who has been visiting this site for the last four years, and your perspectives of how it has developed.

    http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/page/95
    I’m struck by William’s modest aims and by how it all builds from here:

    Welcome to the first ever posting from The Poll Bludger. I am a Melbourne-based amateur psephologist hoping to use the magic of the internet to impart the accumulated wisdom of a life spent obsessing over the Australian electoral process. As anyone who is truly in touch with the aspirations of mainstream Australia can tell you, millions of people out there are crying out for a one-stop point of access for the very latest information on preselection contests, preference deals, electoral redistributions and all the other things that make Australian democracy such a uniquely pulse-quickening affair. The Poll Bludger offers all this and more.

    In its present state of infancy the site’s showpiece is this guide to the forthcoming Queensland election, featuring a summary of each of the 89 seats in the Sunshine State’s single house of parliament. For a while talk had been for an election date to coincide with statewide council elections on March 27, but with the Crime and Misconduct Commission into foster home child abuse out of the way and a recent Newspoll showing little if any damage to the government from the whole unfortunate episode, most have their eye on Beattie’s return from holidays on January 19. It is widely expected that his first item of business will be a visit to the Governor to call an election for either February 21 or 28.

    A corresponding guide to the federal election is at an earlier stage of development and could probably do with a bit of proof-reading even in its current form, but it can already claim to be the only place on the internet attempting to keep track of the candidates for each electorate as they announce themselves. If you have bothered to read this far you will probably already be aware that said election will either be a double dissolution held in the first half of the year or a normal House of Reps plus half-Senate in the second – not being ready yet, The Poll Bludger both hopes for and expects the latter.

  20. Curious to discover when Wonderful William set up this site, I tracked back to the ur-pollbludger on Jan 12 2004 (4th birthday coming up, hip-hip-hooray!). Like a lot of others (I suspect) I got into this site a few weeks before Nov 24 out of frustration with MSM and looking for higher-quality information. I would love to know who (apart from WB) are the old-timers on the site, and your perspectives of how it has developed.

    http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/page/95
    I’m struck by William’s modest aims and by how it all builds from here:

    Welcome to the first ever posting from The Poll Bludger. I am a Melbourne-based amateur psephologist hoping to use the magic of the internet to impart the accumulated wisdom of a life spent obsessing over the Australian electoral process. As anyone who is truly in touch with the aspirations of mainstream Australia can tell you, millions of people out there are crying out for a one-stop point of access for the very latest information on preselection contests, preference deals, electoral redistributions and all the other things that make Australian democracy such a uniquely pulse-quickening affair. The Poll Bludger offers all this and more.

    In its present state of infancy the site’s showpiece is this guide to the forthcoming Queensland election, featuring a summary of each of the 89 seats in the Sunshine State’s single house of parliament. For a while talk had been for an election date to coincide with statewide council elections on March 27, but with the Crime and Misconduct Commission into foster home child abuse out of the way and a recent Newspoll showing little if any damage to the government from the whole unfortunate episode, most have their eye on Beattie’s return from holidays on January 19. It is widely expected that his first item of business will be a visit to the Governor to call an election for either February 21 or 28.

    A corresponding guide to the federal election is at an earlier stage of development and could probably do with a bit of proof-reading even in its current form, but it can already claim to be the only place on the internet attempting to keep track of the candidates for each electorate as they announce themselves. If you have bothered to read this far you will probably already be aware that said election will either be a double dissolution held in the first half of the year or a normal House of Reps plus half-Senate in the second – not being ready yet, The Poll Bludger both hopes for and expects the latter.

  21. In response to bloggers formulating ideas on how to best use the information on William’s site.

    First, without hectoring in any way, it is copyright. So we should, and I do, therefore, ask William.

    Assuming some kind of go ahead, how could it best be done?

    Would William like some elves? If so, I would do my bit.

    For example, harking back to the reason for this thread, and to a poster who suggests Nicole may yet return, is that I, for one would be happy to collate the postings on that individual. That would be attainable, for me, at least and a few of the other SA persons.

    Over to William, and to you.

  22. Three cheers for William-
    this site has been an amazing resource, both personally and politically, for a non-likely candidate like me who had very little knowledge of the psephology of politics, but a pretty good gut feel for the issues at hand, like so many others on this site. (except the Glens, Tabithas Sir Cedrics etc, who tried to defend the indefensible and got the result they deserved…)
    As a new year is about to break I would like to thank all of you who informed, argued and went completely off the track to provide so much colour, entertainment and frustration to an individual sitting in a shop in north east Victoria despairing at the road we appeared to be on.
    I am now hopelessly addicted, and start my day trying to read the MSM – for about 2 minutes- then I switch to here.
    The breaking news is by the moment – witness Bhutto’s assasination – and the
    analysis is fantastic (Diogenes: I think I have a lump..).
    I really hope that the poliies out there read this even if they won’t admit it. it is the best cross section of the Australian political psyche that I have come across to date, (and here I will even include Glen, Stephen Kaye etc), and I suspect we have had more influence collectively than any of us would as individuals.

    William, to you: the Supreme Gold Elephant Stamp Award of 2007.
    (Now, for F’s sake will you hurry up and ban Senate Watch?)
    Cheers Bludgers,
    x

  23. 537
    steve

    It’s Judith Miller all over again, but this time its got crazy Zionism as a central tenet. When will the NY Times grow up, and stop trying to out do the worst of the Beltway lobbyist/journalists?

    Pretending that Kristol is representative of any position other than an extreme rightwing fringe, who are NOT representative of any big group Americans, defies the polling on this subject. (And read one of my favourite authors on this, Glenn Greenwald: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/12/ajc_poll/index.html?source=rss&aim=/opinion/greenwald

    …which sums it up succintly).

  24. Just two weeks before Bhutto’s death, Tariq Ali did a wonderful piece on her in the London Review of Books, called Daughter of the West. (She’d done her own biography with the title Daughter of the East).

    Ali doesn’t hide the truth about this woman, her compromised political history, her corrupt dealings and violence to those who opposed her. Pakistani politics is truly monstrous, and she was both tainted by it as she was also part of it.

    It’s a long but rewarding read:

    http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n24/ali_01_.html

  25. 539
    steve

    What totally perplexes me, is why in hell would ANYONE take anything that Bill Kristol says as reasonable?

    He was wrong about everything. He was wrong about WMD, he was wrong about Saddam and al Qaeda, he was wrong about the US ‘cakewalk’ in Iraq…and on and on and on.

    But no, he’s a ‘serious’ commentator! Pigs behind he is! He’s a rightwing opinionated windbag who thinks the Likkud party shoud dictate US policy and Mossad should run its intelligence.

    Spare me!

  26. Pigs behind he is! He’s a rightwing opinionated windbag who thinks the Likkud party shoud dictate US policy and Mossad should run its intelligence.

    Spare me!

    lol Kirrabilli, cmon tell us what you really think :popeye:

  27. Steve, that’s a cracker reference to the Manhattan Institute, where we discover that not only has Miller joined the rabid think tank, but that one Bill Kristol is a member of the board of Trustees of this fine institution.

    I also note that David Frum (Mr “axis of evil”) was one of its alumni. Now there’s a nutter with high level autism if ever there was one! I have one of the few copies of his book (with Richard Perle) “An End to Evil” that were sold in Australia, and can vouch for its utter insanity.

    But why take my word, here a snippet of a review of it from Salon.com:

    “An End to Evil” is like Bush on crack. It’s a kind of neocon orgy, a Bohemian Grove weekend for militaristic moralists, a chance to get naked and do tribal, Lord of the Flies dances — “Invade Iran! Kill Yasser! Drink Kim’s blood!” But if its recommendations are a little too extreme even for the George W. Bush-Dick Cheney-Paul Wolfowitz triumvirate, its underlying worldview is identical to theirs. It’s a kind of CAT scan of the Bush administration’s collective brain, an entity so weird it should be cryogenically frozen so future scientists can study it. Frum, a former Bush speechwriter and author of a recent encomium to his ex-boss, presumably represents the right brain, glibly spinning and selling, while neocon guru Richard Perle provides the left-hemisphere gray matter. With its trademarked combination of chipper propaganda, bullying bluster, intellectual dishonesty and radical policy prescriptions, “An End to Evil” offers a guided tour of the mind of George W. Bush, as filtered through the higher-grade neurons of its authors.

    …and trust me, that’s what it’s truly like!

  28. Shame about Richo not getting a bigger drubbing in Kingston, to put it mildly the man is a bully. I can’t really come up with an explanation as to why the swing was small here, but then again all it took to get rid of Kym was 0.1% so I am happy.

  29. Should I bother?

    http://www.slate.com/id/2181002/

    Not sure if this works, but found Hitchens, C. on one of the links. Obituary.

    Not my most recently favoured person, but there we have it.

    Heard much the same on, I think, Philip, re Bhutto, within recent memory.

    Remain in admiration and awe of her courage.

  30. Day 4 at the cricket. Another wondrous Melbourne day. We do Hot pretty well.

    A calamity has occurred!

    Unfortunately, the missus decided that the brood were “stir crazy” and it was time for a family outing to dissipate their pent up energy. But I had “brownie points’ I protested and had planned this cricket thing for months. She looked at me in that tone of voice, and I knew the cricket was off limits today.

    Making the best of a bad deal, I managed to listen to the ABC coverage and was quite taken by a conversation between Harshe Bogle and Peter Roebuck. Bogle has taken the unusual tack of praising the Aussies for their humility and dedication to their craft. Roebuck talked about Symonds being a greatly improved cricketer and how he defied the rule of first impressions. They then spoke about profiling people prior to any knowledge of their character. Good stuff. They further discussed why Australia was so good at tests and Roebuck argued that every part of Cricket Australia was dedicated to being the number one team in the world. Bogle said such considerations were quite minor in India when compared to the lure of money.

    I eventually got to big screen and together with a comfortable banana lounge and drinks with umbrellas I managed to watch the afternoon sessions.

    The cricket played out much as expected. The Aussies bowling line and length and the fielding of outstanding quality. Eventually, the Indians had to wilt under the pressure and the seering heat.

    The highlights for me were Hussey’s stop and gather in the gully, accurate throw to Hogg running out Harabjhan for a “platinum duck”. Great skill executed perfectly.

    Mitchell Johnson discovered reverse swing. When he went round the wicket near the end showed all the attributes of Wasim Akram. Bowls at 140+ kph consistently. Is accurate and can swing the ball both ways. Kid will be the next superstar.

    I thought Gangully toughed it out and showed great character. Have not had much time for him in the past, but his skill and fortitude were certainly to the fore in this test. Certainly a fighter.

    Overall, the result demonstrated the awesome ability of the Aussies. The Indians are no mugs and tried very hard. The Australians just execute their processes regardless of the situation and have that in built confidence (arrogance) that they will do enough things right to win the game.

    As for the Indians. They learnt a harsh lesson that you cannot come in to a series against the best without some preparation. They were clearly underdone. However, this was not planned by Cricket Australia who apparently offerred them as pre games but were knocked back. Losing the toss did not help. Also, the slow and low nature of the wicket meant the ball did not come on as they may have liked. The Indian style of batting is very wristy and elegant compared to the bludgeoning Aussies. Their running between wickets is mediocre and fielding needs to improve.

    Sydney may prove a better opprtunity for the Indians to display their talent. However, beating the Australians is a big ask.

    Hopefully, someone else can take up the PB cricket report for Sydney.

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