From the Sydney Morning Herald Cricket Blog known as the Tonk:
Foxtel (satellite television): $70
Broadband: $55
Posting premature comments on the Tonk: Free
Having it all backfire in your face, allowing hundreds of readers, worldwide, to have a big laugh at you and your comments: Priceless!
It was the greatest one-day cricket game ever, with Internet blogs capturing the see-saw match that had the South Africans counted out even before they picked up a bat.
But some Australian cricket fans may be wishing they had waited till after South Africa had batted on Sunday before they made their pronouncements about their side’s record score and South Africa’s dismal bowling.
With Australia coasting on 300 runs off 40 overs, a Tonk user by the name of Hussdawg proclaimed: “Choke on that Smith!” An hour later he posted: “Goodnight South Africa, thanks for playing.”
Just four hours later, Hussdawg was forced to eat humble pie as South Africa smashed the winning runs to topple Australia’s fresh, world-record score of more than 400 runs in a one-day game.
“Smith, I eat my words. Australia are the worst chokers in the history of cricket. Congratulations SA, that was the all-time greatest performance in a one-day international,” said Hussdawg.
According to the cricketing blogs, some of Australia’s newspapers will also be wishing they had not assumed that a world record score of 434 was unassailable.
According to a blogger on Guardian Online, an Australian newspaper’s website had run a story on Sunday evening with the headline “Australia teach Smith’s mob a cricket lesson”.
On Monday morning when other bloggers tried to access the story using the link on the site, they were informed that the page was not available “due to technical difficulties”.
Bloggers on the South African SuperSport cricket message board also pointed to another Sydney newspaper that had run a story claiming Australia’s victory.
“The problem with time differences between RSA and Aus meant they had to go to print before the start of our innings. Their gamble fell flat and when the morning papers got to the streets, the game had gone our way. Good one for a change, egg on the Aussie faces,” wrote Tom Roberts.
Graeme Smith was the subject of some of the more venomous tirades from the Australian fans on Tonk. “Could there possibly be a hole deep enough for Smith by the end of that innings? We’ll see now who chokes under the pressure of having to get 435 to win, I predict the record for the greatest winning margin will also go tonight,” posted SS.
While Peter queried whether Smith could spell the word “humiliation” and Philip B suggested that Smith’s batting slump was caused by poor footwork — “most of the time they appear to be in his mouth” — the Australian revelry had turned to South African retribution by the end of the game.
South Africans also waded in on Tonk to defend their team.
South African supporter Bomber suggested that if Peter could help Smith with the spelling of humiliation, he would oblige in helping Peter with the word humility. While SFX asked, “What do all those smart asses who commented after the Aussies [sic] innings now think?”
“I do love reading these comments about Smith having his feet in his mouth, especially after South Africa managed to match and better the Aussie brilliance. There is no sight more amusing than Aussie sports fans choking on their arrogance,” wrote Teekay.
The Australian response was varied. Some congratulated the South African team, eating their words in the process, while others played the blame game. One called for Ricky Ponting to be sacked and bowler Mick Lewis, who now holds the record for having the most runs scored off his bowling, to have his passport confiscated.
An Australian blogger named Rob called for the selectors to face the music describing them as “a skidmark on the underpants of Australian cricket”.
Perhaps the most honest Australian response was from blogger Kill me now, who described the game as Australia’s darkest day. “I will never watch a game of cricket again, I am truly inconsolable. No matter what happens in the future of world sport, we will always be remembered as the greatest, cardiac, epileptic, cerebral CHOKE since Goliath! Ok seriously kill me so you can ease the pain.”
My own lesson from this is to follow the progress of the forthcoming Tests on the blogs. If I need to know what actually happened, I can look out for a highlights package on television.
And as much as I loved watching South Africa win the greatest one-day cricket game of all time, I have enjoyed the game even more reading about it as it unfolded online.