No Shortage of Sports

No Shortage of Sports

Highlanders Continue to Impress …

After a good night out last week, I was woken up outrageously early the next morning thinking there was an albatross or one of Daenerys’ dragons attempting to nest on our roof. Upon investigation I found that it was just the Sky TV man installing a new satellite dish, which means I can finally gorge myself on all the True Hollywood Stories and Sky Sports I can handle without having to rely on a pixelated and pirated live stream and an overheating laptop. Success.

The timing couldn’t have been better as I declared myself too hungover to walk five minutes down the road to the stadium to see the Highlanders taking on the Waratahs, choosing instead to settle on the couch. It was shaky start from the Landers, who finally got going to come back from 0–12 down to lead 14–12 at halftime after the big winger Wase Naholo sprinted in from 70m out after some brilliant defensive work from Malakai Fekitoa.

After half-time, Ben Smith and Patrick Osborne piled on two more tries early in the second half. This was before digging in with a trademark Highlanders defensive effort to hold off a late fight-back from the Waratahs. An impressive bonus-point win over the defending champions.

Warriors Return to Winning Ways

We also had the Warriors late kick-off against the Raiders last Sunday night. If this game is an indicator of the season to come, then the Warriors are going to continue their unpredictable and frantic playing style, which is both incredibly exciting and equally nerve-wracking. Australian commentator, Andrew Voss, summed the Warriors up well when he said, “They are nervous leaders who play like they’re ten points behind when they are twelve points ahead.” We wouldn’t have it any other way though.

Losing to the Knights in the first round was not the best start for the Warriors, putting them on the back-foot from the start of the season, which has become a bad habit over the last six years. This meant that their hard-fought 18–6 win over the Raiders in Canberra was crucial, as the NRL ladder is notoriously difficult to climb once you fall behind.

A nice-looking run of four home games over the next six rounds should see the Warriors firmly camped in the top eight if everything goes to plan. After a disappointing last couple of seasons under several different coaches, only a return to the finals will be a satisfying conclusion for the Warriors in their 20th year in the competition. Keep the faith.

Formula Yawn

T he Formula One season kicked off last week with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, one of the only races of the year that is on at a reasonable time for New Zealand viewers.

The form shown in pre-season testing suggested nothing other than a Mercedes-Benz-dominated race, and this is exactly what happened — with reigning champion Lewis Hamilton leading his teammate Nico Rosberg home miles ahead of everyone else. In fact, it was such a boring race that I will say no more about it.

After “accidentally” switching to the E! channel after the chequered flag, I ended up missing the most entertaining part of the whole race weekend when, for some unknown reason, Arnold Schwarzenegger conducted the post-race podium interviews. I saw the clip later on YouTube and Arnie worked the crowd beautifully, busting out some of his famous one-liners and even getting Hamilton to claim “I’ll be back” for the next race in Malaysia.

Hopefully this first race will be like the first lecture of the semester. Poorly attended, a mess of administrative problems and technical difficulties, and ultimately irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Cricket Corner

After a long and drawn-out month of group games, the Cricket World Cup finally kicks things up a gear for the knockout rounds. By the time we go to print, the Black Caps should have gone to Wellington and beaten the West Indies in their quarterfinal and be preparing to take on South Africa in Auckland. In case I have just jinxed it for us, now is a good time to look back at the best performers of the tournament so far.

Best Game: New Zealand vs. Australia
Things were looking a bit too easy for the Black Caps at Eden Park as they dismissed the Aussies for just 151 runs after 33 overs. In typical style, McCullum smashed a quick 50 before Mitchell Starc started bowling people out left, right and centre. Luckily Kane Williamson held his nerve through this middle-order meltdown and thumped a six to win it in the 24th over.

Runner Up: Bangladesh vs. England
It was all action in Adelaide in what was a must-win game for both sides. Bangladesh set a reasonable but attainable score of 275, and then it was a tense game right up until they bowled England out for 260 with just one over to spare. The crowd goes wild, the Tigers secure their spot in the quarterfinals and knock England out of the tournament. Great stuff from one of the “underdog” teams.

Top Bowlers
1st: Mitchell Starc (AUS) was the top wicket taker with 16 wickets, had the best averages and was second only to Southee with his 6 for 28 against the Black Caps.

2nd: Trent Boult (NZ) was the second-highest wicket taker with 15. Also bowled the most maiden overs with 11.

3rd: Tim Southee (NZ) had the best individual figures with his world-record-equalling, seven-wicket bag against England (for only 33 runs) and taking 13 wickets overall.

Top Batsmen
1st: Sangakkara (SRI) hit four centuries on the way to the highest total of 496 runs over the group games. He also smashed the most fours with 54.

2nd: Brendon McCullum (NZ) had a fearsome strike rate and topped all the batting stats for the Black Caps.

3rd: Chris Gayle (WI) hit the highest total in a game with his knock of 215 against Zimbabwe.

Good on ya mate award: Ireland
Good craic from the Irish who won three games and only missed out on the quarterfinals due to a slightly lower run rate than the West Indies whom they were equal with on points. It is a shame that the ICC is reverting back to a ten-team format for the next World Cup in 2019, which means that the best-performing “minnows” (Ireland and Zimbabwe) probably won’t be there. Not a smart move if they want the game to grow in the smaller nations — hence the outrage on Twitter.

Named and Shamed award: Anyone involved with England
I don’t mean to pick on them but it couldn’t be anyone else, could it? Political infighting meant that some of their best players were left at home, and you could see squad captain Eion Morgan visibly regretting his decision to defect from Ireland. England should consider themselves lucky to have qualified as hosts for the next tournament in 2019. An unbalanced squad was woefully underprepared and then full of excuses when it was too late — hence the outrage on Twitter.
This article first appeared in Issue 5, 2015.
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Daniel Lormans.