Australia v India Fourth T20 Report Card

Featuring the Big Bash, Nathan Ellis's lies and never giving up

The Big Bash
Grade: C

Oh. A fourth T20? Huh. With a fifth one to come? Fascinating. Sure. Why not.

To be fair, the Fox Cricket coverage seemed as surprised by this match existing as I was, having apparently instead scheduled a panel discussion between Howie, Ravi and Gilly about the future of the Big Bash. Sadly for them, this worthy deep dive into the merits of the Mumbai India Hurricanes or the Adelaide Knight Riders, was instead regularly interrupted by careless and regular boundary hitting from the India openers.

Luckily, though, these boundaries were soon upgraded to sixes, which allowed the team to seamlessly pivot to a discussion on the BBL’s latest innovation - allowing people who catch a six to keep the ball. This is an idea that’s worked successfully in baseball for hundreds of years, and there seems no reason why it shouldn’t be adopted in cricket. After all, why not reward those selfish, crazed lunatics who dive headfirst on top of nearby fans without a second thought to who they might injure in the process as part of a desperate bid to snare a replay-worthy grab that might go viral on TikTok via those wild-eyed theatre-energy kids whose sole gimmick seems to be to mime to a noteworthy commentary track?

It’s what the nation has been crying out for.

Nathan Ellis’s Lies
Grade: F

Just when India looked set to reach something close to 200, though, Adam Zampa and Nathan Ellis slammed the brakes on, restricting them instead to 8/167.

Fair enough with Zampa, who has long been Australia’s most effective white ball spinner. But if I’m being honest, I’m starting to get fed up with Nathan Ellis’s constant lies about the speed with which he’s going to deliver the ball. On many, many occasions he’ll pretend to bowl fast and then bowl slow instead. Very disappointing behaviour.

Be honest, Nathan. Enough skullduggery.