Breaking/Brief news
September 22, 2008
Hayden's hubris
Matthew Hayden told the Courier Mail that he felt he was going to be the obvious target of India's bowlers, especially Harbhajan Singh.
Having played over there and played well over there, I think I'm going to be the obvious targetI imagine he was referring to the verbals, because he averaged 30.5 from 8 innings and scored a single fifty during Australia's test series win in India in 2004.
I'm not implying that he's a crap batsman. But I do think his numbers (8200+ runs at an average of 53.5, with 30 centuries) are totally out of proportion with his ability & talent. I definitely hate the sight of him (obnoxious huge weed, perhaps?), maybe because of the way he looks so arrogant while batting. Viv Richards also showed his arrogance, but he had the ability for sure. In my opinion, Hayden's numbers are greatly inflated by poor bowling attacks. It's not his fault, for you can't expect him to throw away his wicket when he's facing pathetic bowlers.
That said, it's entirely likely that he will do very well in the forthcoming series in India. But it may well be a case of hubris.
Maybe Harbhajan should just say "We don't particularly care about Hayden. We're targetting Mitchell Johnson's batting since he averages 56 against us."
It was always on the cards though that Hayden's penchant for verbal diarrhea would reveal itself before the series started. He has always said stupid things.
- Sub-continental batsmen focus too much on personal landmarks.
- Wondering if Katich was dropped because he didn't convert his starts into big scores when he'd made 26, 30, 58, 39, 23, 9, 35 & 24 in the 2004 series in India.
- India's bowlers didn't know how to get him out, and were focussed on keeping him quiet, a charge that Harbhajan dismissed straightaway.
- Winning in India in 2004 drained Australia, so they screwed up the 2005 Ashes.
- Warns Monty Panesar that Australia's batsmen normally have left-arm spinners for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This, when Murali Kartik and (especially) Daniel Vettori had already taken enough wickets against Australia to roobish the claim.
- Challenging Ishant Sharma for a boxing bout.
- Calling Harbhajan an 'obnoxious little weed'.
Labels: aus v ind 2008, australia, hayden, sledging, verbal diarrhea
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He's definitely a great player of ordinary bowling, but at times, when he's needed to, he has also buckled down and played tough grinding innings.
That ability is why he is there (in the side) when that ordinary bowling I spoke of comes around.
Supporting the "good player of ordinary bowling" - did you know he scored the most runs ever in his Australian first class debut season - taking the record from one, Sir Donald Bradman?
By 
Stuart Helwig (26 Sept 2008, 5:29:00 am)
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