Yes, a no.9 batsman scored a century against us. Yes, we had our chances to prevent this from happening but did not capatalize. And yes, it is embarassing, to say the least. But you really have to hand it to the guy. Batting for 6 hours, and facing 295 balls is no small feat. It takes real guts and determination to stick it out there for so long - and his performance should only be lauded.
It is no big secret that Gillespie prides himself on his defence - one commentator jokingly said during last years Ashes that Gillespie would rather get our leg before, than get bowled. Today he played good balls with a dead bat, waited for the opportunity, and smashed bad balls through mid-off/cover for boundaries. Every ball that drifted down leg side was promptly glanced down to fine/square leg for a couple. Gillespie really values his wicket, as do most Aussie tail-enders thesedays (even McGrath shakes his head in disgust every time he gets outs - such is the current state of Australian cricket).
And this is the difference between Australia and the rest of the world. If you bat sensibly in Test cricket, you will surely win alot more games than if you bat spectacularly (hint hint - Mohammad Ashraful & Co.) This is something our batsman (Rajin Saleh aside) can learn from (although I'm not too sure that they will in a hurry). Those of you chastising Gillespie's innings - sure, it wasn't overly entertaining watching Gillespie bat today (or yesterday for that matter), but he really did hand us a lesson in the art of Batting. You need to look no further than the scoreboard to realise this.
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Dare to dream.
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