Well, the penultimate Ashes test in Sydney between the current Ashes holders Australia (Who clinched it in the 3rd test with both tests to spare) & England has ended in a draw with Usman Khawaja (Born in Pakistan then bred in his adopted home in Australia) on his return to the side to replace Travis Head being the standout performer of the 4th test as he scored a ton when he top scored 137 in the 1st innings & posted an unbeaten 101 in the 2nd innings before Jonny Bairstow responded with a century in the 1st innings which is England's 1st ton in this Ashes series when he posted 113 but there's been an update in the 5th & final test as the Ashes cricket series is done & dusted as Australia win the most important cricket series, 4 - 0, as they won comprehensively at Blundstone Arena in Hobart against the depleted England side (Who are out of contention of making the final of the World Test Championship in 2023 as they had their points deducted/docked for slow over rates in their matches against both India & Australia & are without their front line players such as Jofra Archer (A player who was born in Barbados which is part of the West Indies) & Sam Curran (Brother of Tom) with Travis Head (Who was the man of the moment in the 1st Ashes test in Brisbane) being the stand out player in the 5th & final test on his return to the side as he top scored 101 but he was out next ball then he was awarded player of the series for being the top run scorer before Mark Wood being the pick of the bowlers for England in the 2nd innings as he achieved a 5 wicket haul when he picked up 6 wickets for 37 runs but was on the losing side (And the next Ashes series is in 2023 in England where the English hoping to put an end to the utter dominance of Australia in the Ashes as well as Australia's hopes of winning a 4th consecutive Ashes series after the Aussies completed a hat-trick of Ashes series wins since they regained the urn in 2018 in which they are still, the current holders), & I mean what went wrong for England to lose another Ashes test series? I mean, what a pathetic ruse (And former England cricketers are livid about it after their woes which affected their performance on the field (And they cannot even bat, bowl or field unlike the Australians came in into the 1989 Ashes series in England 2 years after the English fielded the worst side going into the 1986-87 Ashes series on Australian shores & they overcame it by winning the series, & after their resounding success, they began their 16 year dominance until the drought had been broken by England in 2005 before Australia regained the urn in 2006-07 when they had a series whitewash then in 2009, England had won it back before they successfully defended it in 2010-11 on Australian soil (The last time England did that) & 2013 on home soil then in all of a sudden, there had been a different story as Australia won the series 5 - 0 in 2013-14 before England changed the fortunes around when they dethroned the Australians as holders of the Ashes in 2015 & then in 2017-18 that the Ashes glory is back in Australia a year before the series ended in a draw but Australia had won the 4th test in to clinch it & now in 2021-22, the ongoing success story of Australia in the Ashes continues where they have not put a foot wrong since) but there's hypocrisy surrounding the England camp in which they promptly devoured after losing another Ashes series to Australia compared to most Australians were exhilarating how they were that they had another Ashes success (And great win by Australia though that they had by summing up the Ashes) that they wrapped up but it's been a privilege of me following the Ashes, see you in 2023 but unfortunately Sky Sport doesn't broadcast the Ashes in England because Spark Sport has now got the broadcasting rights to the England Cricket Board (ECB) both internationally & domestically in England.
And in other cricket news such as the Black Caps were stunned by Bangladesh (Who had their historic 1st ever test win against New Zealand on Kiwi soil) in the 1st test at Bay Oval in Tauranga despite a century from Devon Conway (Who made an incredible return from a broken hand sustained in the T20 World Cup semifinal win against England & is one of my favourite Black Caps players (It used to be both Brendon McCullum & Kane Williamson but I like both Kyle Jamieson & Daryl Mitchell as well) now) then the Black Caps bounced back from defeat in the 1st test to win the 2nd test against the same opponent in Ross Taylor's farewell test (The standout performer of that game was stand-in captain Tom Latham (Who filled in for the regular skipper Kane Williamson as he was ruled out of the test series against Bangladesh though injury) posting a double ton as he top scored 252 but Conway got a century again just like in the 1st test when he scored a ton with 109 runs then Ross Taylor picked up the last wicket in his test career when New Zealand won as they had a tremendous turnaround from that dreaded loss against Bangladesh in the 1st test) as the test series was drawn.
And continuing on to the cricket stuff I did not know in cricket that the rules state in all forms of the game such as Test, One Day & T20 that there is only both allocated fielders are allowed behind square therefore the 2 behind square rule was introduced as part of the fielding restrictions post bodyline (Known as leg theory in England) series during the Ashes that had happened between Australia & England in Australia in 1932-33 but that there's also that 3 times the England cricket team had lost the 2019 50 over men's Cricket World Cup before being crowned world champions in the final against the Black Caps, one against Pakistan (England's last win against Pakistan at a 50 over Cricket World Cup came in 2003) & the others are both Sri Lanka (The last time the English defeated the Sri Lankans at a 50 over Cricket World Cup was in 1999) & Australia (England beat them in the semis the next time they met (The 1st time Australia had suffered a defeat at a 50 over Cricket World Cup semifinal) to set up a final showdown with New Zealand by reaching their 1st final for England when they last played in the final in 1992 where they famously lost against Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne). And of course I mentioned in my previous blogs that Ish Sodhi is a New Zealand cricketer of Indian origin along with Ajaz Patel (Who is an Indian Muslim born in Mumbai (Known at the time as Bombay), Dipak Patel (Born in Kenya but of Indian descent), Jeetan Patel (An off spinner who has no relation to both Ajaz & Dipak (There is a different Patel because they're not related) & most recently Rachin Ravindra (A former under 19 rep who is from Wellington) but there is both New Zealand cricketers of Pacific island origin like Ross Taylor (Who is of Samoan origin) for example & Murphy Su'a (Who is also of Samoan descent just like Rossco). But there's also a bit of family affair I forgot to mention in my previous blog such as England's Ben Stokes who is the son of the late New Zealand rugby league player Gerard as well as Stuart Broad also from England being the son of famous cricketer Chris Broad & Tom Latham is the son of also famous cricketer Rod as well as Daryl Mitchell being the son of rugby union player John.
And I can recall that story that I was watching a Bledisloe Cup test between the AB's & the Wallabies (Who were riding high after their success against New Zealand at ANZ Stadium in the Rugby Championship decider Sydney to claim the Rugby Championship in 2015) at Eden Park in Auckland on TV in 2015 with Dad that Wallaby first-five Quade Cooper made a genuine attempt to tackle Aaron Smith went horribly wrong as he deliberately tackled Smith high therefore preventing a try from being scored in the act of foul play, resulting in a double whammy, which is both a penalty try & a yellow card to Cooper (It would have been a red under the current laws regarding to high tackles (Which is an illegal tactic in sport along with ball tampering in cricket & a deliberate handball in football) unlike All Black midfielder at the time, Malakai Fekitoa tackled Irish winger Simon Zebo high during the test in Dublin which resulted in a yellow card (It would have been red under the current laws which was introduced in 2017, 2 years before the decision making framework for both no arms & head high tackles were implemented in response to & of the worrying trend of rugby players getting concussed & felled by dangerous tackles such as high shots) & had to serve a 1 week ban as a result for causing a high tackle (Sam Cane would've been sent to the sin bin as well under the current laws for a high tackle violation on Irish player Robbie Henshaw) therefore missing the last test of 2016 against France. And I also know that the only yellow card at the Rugby World Cup final was in 2015 with Ben Smith for a lifting tackle on a Wallaby player (The AB's managed to hold on for the win (The last time we triumphed at a Rugby World Cup (The 1st & only time the All Blacks won the tournament outside of New Zealand (After winning in both 1987 & 2011 on our home patch) & the 1st & only time, that a rugby playing nation had successfully defended the Rugby World Cup (And it was the moment that Grant Nisbett said after NZ triumphed in the 2015 RWC to our New Zealand viewers: "And the All Blacks are celebrating already! Rugby World Cup history! 1st team to go back to back, & the 1st to win 3 titles." (Or more like Miles Harrison in the world feed commentary: "The All Blacks, still the kings, of world rugby.") & New Zealand's 2015 triumph was my standout moment of the Rugby World Cup since I was born in 1991 ahead of the 2011 triumph on home soil (The moment Nisbo said after the AB's triumphed in 2011: "And the All Blacks! Are the world champions! For the second time."), Japan knocking over South Africa in rugby union's biggest boil over during the RWC in 2015 (The Miracle of Brighton as they know it) as well as the late great All Black winger Jonah Lomu running over English player Mike Catt to score a famous try when the AB's faced England in the semi in 1995 & Sam Warburton's red card for a spear/tip tackle on French winger Vincent Clerc also in the semifinal in 2011 which was won by France who went through to take on the All Blacks in the final) by fending off a Australian fight back with Beauden Barrett sealing the deal with the last try of the 2015 tournament which proved to be the game changer/turning point (Including Dan Carter's last conversion of his international test rugby career was with his right foot).
And in the football department that 5 time defending EPL champions Manchester City currently lead the standings by 8 points ahead of the winners of the last UEFA Champions League, Chelsea then Leon's favourite club Liverpool & Arsenal rounding out the top 4. But there's something interesting on the Football World Cup that the last time France had lost a Football World Cup match, it was in 2014 against eventual champions Germany (Who famously humiliated & embarrassed the host nation at the time Brazil (Who were without both Thiago Silva (The defender who was captain at the time) due to suspension & their star talisman Neymar through injury) in that infamous semifinal thrashing or should I say hiding before winning their most recent Football World Cup title (Their 4th (Along with Italy as the most successful European nation at the Football World Cup) behind the Brazilians (The most successful football playing nation at the Football World Cup with 5 (They 1st did it in 1958 followed by 1962 (The last time that a football playing nation has successfully defended the Football World Cup), 1970, 1994 (Including Italian striker Roberto Baggio missed it giving the Brazilians a successful shot at the title therefore winning on penalties & paid tribute to the late Brazilian F1 racer & 3 time Formula 1 world champion Ayrton Senna (Who was tragically killed (Along with the late Austrian F1 driver Roland Ratzenberger during a qualifying session in one of F1's tragic weekends at the San Marino Grand Prix way back in 1994 & is one of Lewis Hamilton's idols growing up (Compared to Senna's idol was definitely the late Jim Clark & Sebastian Vettel's idol was in fact Michael Schumacher) in a crash during a Grand Prix race at Imola in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy in May 1994) & 2002 (Including 2 goals scored by Ronaldo (Who made a successful comeback from a serious injury he suffered whilst playing for Inter Milan in a Serie A game in April 2000) in the final against Germany in Yokohama, Japan) as I mentioned before) who have never won a Football World Cup since 2002) in the final at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil against Argentina with Leo Messi at the helm & with Mario Goetze being the stand out player of the game as he replaced Miroslav Klose (Who is the leading all-time goal scorer at a Football World Cup (He broke Ronaldo's record during the semi against the hosts at the time, Brazil) with 16 when he appeared in 4 tournaments (His 1st was in 2002 then 2006, 2010 & of course he emerged triumphant when he was part of the winning team in 2014 as a player) in the 2nd half then scored a goal during the 2nd period of extra time to give them a 1 - 0 lead & held on for dear life until the end & win their most recent Football World Cup title for the Germans to add to their previous titles in 1954, 1974 & 1990 (Including both Argentinians were the 1st 2 players sent off in a Football World Cup final (1st it was Pedro Monzon (Who was the 1st player to be sent off in a Football World Cup final) followed by Gustavo Dezotti (The next to go was Marcel Desailly in 1998 (Just moments before the hosts at the time went on to win the tournament (Including Zinedine Zidane scored both headers from corner kicks in the 1st half as well as he was the man of the moment of the final & of course, Emmanuel Petit finished the Brazilians off with a wonder goal to sign off in style but the match was overshadowed before the final with Ronaldo suffering a convulsive fit after lunch) for the 1st of 2 Football World Cup titles then Zinedine Zidane in 2006 (After an incident involving him & Marco Materazzi during the final in which he headbutted the Italian & got sent off by the referee for that after the 4th official saw something (The ref didn't see it at all) & John Heitinga most recently in 2010) in the quarterfinal at the Maracana in Rio in Brazil, 4 years before the French had become world champions in football at the most recent Football World Cup in 2018 (They placed Group C along with Australia, Denmark & Peru when they won 2 in a row against both the Australians & the Peruvians before their final group game against the Danish ended in a draw therefore topping Group C before winning 4 straight (Against Argentina in the round of 16 which was one of the greatest, classic Football World Cup matches of all time (Including that infamous goal scored by French defender Benjamin Pavard off a volley when Lucas Hernandez set it up in one of the greatest goals of the tournament), followed by Uruguay (Who were without Edinson Cavani as a result of an injury) in the quarterfinal, Belgium in the semifinal (Including Samuel Umtiti's header which put them through to the final) & of course Croatia in the infamous final that I mentioned before (The goal scorers for the French were Mario Mandzukic of Croatia off an own goal (Which is the 1st in history in the final of the Football World Cup) as well as Antoine Griezmann (Who is no longer France's main talisman now) off a penalty then Paul Pogba who scored a brilliant strike before young teenage sensation at the time, Kylian Mbappe (Who took over from Griezmann as France's main talisman), scored a delicate screamer to become the 2nd teenage goal scorer of the Football World Cup (The 1st was the great Brazilian football legend of Pele in 1958) but the goal scorers for Croatia were Perisic who scored an absolute stunner to equalize then Mandzukic who made a fatal mistake of scoring an own goal, chipped it in after French captain & goalkeeper Hugo Lloris made an error to score the last goal of the 2018 tournament) in my previous blogs) en route to the title). But I also mentioned in my previous blog that the champions of Euro 2016, Portugal are on the same side of the UEFA qualification playoff draw as the current European Football Championship holders Italy, although the Portuguese have not missed a Football World Cup since 1998 & are hoping to end the Italians hopes of making it to Qatar this year, but can Portugal's star talisman Cristiano Ronaldo (Although he is 37 or 38 but he has one last chance of Football World Cup glory along with his great, diminutive, formidable rival of Argentina's Lionel Messi even if the Portuguese can definitely make it by bringing it home) turn back the clock & send Portugal through to another Football World Cup? (And unlike Gianluigi Buffon as he failed to wind back the clock when Italy failed to qualify for the last Football World Cup (Along with the great football nations of the USA soccer team, the Netherlands & Chile) after being eclipsed by Sweden in the UEFA qualification playoff in 2017 but it's the Italians last chance to qualify for the Football World Cup this year before the tournament which is held in Canada, Mexico & the USA in 2026 is expanded to 48 teams (And what are our own New Zealand national football team, the All Whites chances of making it to the 2026 Football World Cup? I would say it would be happy & so proud especially given just the single Oceania qualification spot up for grabs. But it's our last chance to make it to Qatar 2022 before the expansion to 48 in 2026 (And we haven't been to the Football World Cup since 2010 (We lost to Mexico in 2013 in an intercontinental playoff then Peru 4 years later in 2017, also in an intercontinental playoff as well) in South Africa in which we ended our campaign undefeated against Slovakia, Italy (Who were defending champions at the time) & Paraguay with 3 draws (And it was way better than 1982 where it was the 1st time we actually appeared at the Football World Cup but we lost all 3 to Brazil, USSR & Scotland in the group games we played in).
And in the America's Cup department such as the next edition is going to be held in 2023 with Emirates Team New Zealand currently the holders of the Auld Mug while the challenger of record is INEOS Team UK then both Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Winners of the last Prada Cup) & American Magic are eager to stay on but the big news is the return of the Swiss syndicate of Alinghi (Dual America's Cup champions in 2003 including the one that broke Team New Zealand hearts in Auckland by hiring Team New Zealand stalwarts in 1995 & 2000 of both Russell Coutts & Brad Butterworth (And others) & in 2007 in which the last time Alinghi successfully defended the Auld Mug, once again ending Emirates Team New Zealand's hopes of bringing it home but ETNZ would have to wait until 2017 in which they triumphed in Bermuda against Oracle Team USA then we had another triumph against Luna Rossa when we completed our 2nd successful defence of the Auld Mug last year in Auckland) to the America's Cup fold for the 1st time since 2010 in which they haven't competed after losing to Oracle at Valencia, Spain in the deed of the gift challenge & spent years in the wilderness until they made the decision to make a comeback to challenge for the Auld Mug under new management in the form of Alinghi Red Bull Racing a year out in which they have yet to announce the venue (Like I said before that it won't be in Auckland but in either Portsmouth in the UK & Abu Dhabi or Dubai in the UAE).
And in the pop culture department (Especially the Star Wars related stuff) such as the guy who provided the voice of Yoda in the 2005 version of Star Wars Battlefront II, Tom Kane (Who exactly sounded like Frank Oz compared to James Arnold Taylor (Whose voice resembles Ewan McGregor a lot because he is a voice double to the famous British/Scottish actor) who voiced the iconic Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi in the same game along with Bob Bergen who exactly is the voice double of Mark Hamill by providing the voice of Luke Skywalker (And some other ones like Scott Lawrence who provided the voice of Darth Vader, exactly sounds like James Earl Jones) previously in both the Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast & Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy games as well as the Star Wars Battlefront II classic game), has announced last year that he's retiring from voice acting due to a stroke that he had in 2020 (And he was unable to cope with that ability to speak as a result of a stroke therefore calling time on his decorated voice acting career).
And in COVID-19 related news such as New Zealand are now under red due to the traffic light system (And we're back under shutdown that the New Zealand government had made its decision to declare a state of emergency last Sunday in an effort to slow the spread down (And protective face masks are currently mandated but they must give them room/space to others & supermarkets & pharmacies remain open because that is the only way that people can basically have their own food, drink & medications to survive) in order to flatten the curve) as a result of the growing number of confirmed cases of the omicron strain (Compared to Australia which is getting worse because of the high figures along with Canada, especially the Quebec province that Aunty Tania (Who works as a meat biochemist in Mont Saint-Hilaire) is currently living/residing) which can be contagious & is considered dangerous compared to the Delta variant (1st they had Delta in August last year & then in all of a sudden, Omicron now) which was the most dangerous & powerful of them all (And there had been over 300 confirmed cases now as of today).
And finally I'll be working on my blog next month (Not this one that I'm working on for which I'll post on Waitangi Day) which I'm due to post on St Patrick's Day about me being as a wrestling follower again (I haven't followed wrestling for a while since 2014 (The last time I played a wrestling game was in 2012 with WWE 12 until now most recently in which I got the new WWE 2K20 wrestling game digitally on the PS4) as well as the 1 year anniversary of the rise of Emirates Team New Zealand & its 2nd successful defence of the America's Cup & results of the newly formed Super Rugby Pacific competition which is due to start next month on the 18th of February with MP (Moana Pasifika) hosting the Blues at Mt Smart Stadium in South Auckland (The venue has changed to Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin (And at the Wakatipu Rugby Club in Queenstown where they will host day games) as one of the bio secure venues along with the Wakatipu Rugby Club in Queenstown due to the omicron strain in New Zealand which will host night matches as all 5 New Zealand & 1 Pacific Island team will be based in Queenstown for the 1st 3 weeks & have to be at their bio bubbles for both the players & team members like the coaching staff & medics & use the available training facilities there for the players but if there's fans attending a rugby game, they'll easily pick up the disease (This is like in South Africa where either a cricket or rugby union match was held without the crowds) in the opening match.
So that is my 454th blog of the year 2022 (MMXXII) & my 2nd of this year, stay safe & one love but it has been a privilege, look forward to seeing you next time, bye from us.
No comments:
Post a Comment