Good Areas, Work Hard, Keep It Simple

Hoggy announced his retirement. I'm kind of sad. He wasn't a great player in his own right, but when he played, Australia usually won. He won 86 of his 121 matches for Australia, a shade over 71%. For an averagely skilled left arm spinner, this is an amazing stat. It isn't even dulled down by the fact that he played in Australia's greatest period as an ODI team. He showed that spinners are still important in the one day game, and not as a defensive option, but as a wicket taker during the middle/boring part of the innings.

He was employed by Ricky Ponting in quite a simple manner. He came to the fore in the second innings, usually after the batters had racked up a big score and the seamers had prised out two or three wickets. The run rate was climbing, or already very high, and the batters had to hit out. And the even better thing was spinners are usually the targets, but Hogg was good enough to get pummelled yet still take wickets. Just as a partnership would look a little threatening, he'd have one of the batters caught on the mid-wicket boundary. In fact, he made the boundary rider on the leg side a catching position.

I have a number of memories of him but only one will ever stand out. And it's not the time I went to watch an ODI in Melbourne and saw him pick up his career best bowling return. The thing I will remember about Hogg happened in the 2003 World Cup in Safrica. Australia were playing the Zims at Bulawayo and Zimbabwe were well placed in the first innings, setting themselves up for a big total. The Flowers were batting together, something I'm sure the Zimmers have missed since 2003. They were about 2 for 100-odd before Grant got run out. Then, sensing blood, Hoggy goes in for the kill. Flower faced up to him, having already scored 62 runs from his previous 90 balls in the innings. Hoggy slips one in short. Flower moves back, preparing to cut. Only it turns out Hogg bowled a flipper and the ball went on to take out Andy Flower's off stump. It was an amazing delivery, it's amazingness only exceeded by it coming from no where.

So to you Hoggy, I thank you. You filled seemingly unfillable shoes. You completed the Australian team. And now Australia may well and truly actually struggle for a bit until someone else steps up.

More tribute posts to follow, however only for the retiring players, so I'll be set for a week or so.

Labels: hogg, tribute