Langer's run drought fails to break

Here's a tip - Justin Langer is struggling.

Langer's miserable start to the season continued today when he made only four runs in the Pura Cup match against NSW at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where rookie leg spinner Liam Zammit bowled in his baggy blue cap, West Australian Murray Goodwin cracked 184 not out and a conveniently rescheduled drinks break lasted 12 minutes so the players could watch the Melbourne Cup on the big screen.

Mark Waugh, a gambler of some repute, successfully backed Makybe Diva, as did NSW coach Steve Rixon.

Waugh - who admits to throwing away his wicket in a club game years ago in order to watch the Cox Plate - also pulled the names out of the hat for the NSW team's Cup sweep, but he wasn't lucky enough to get the winner twice.

Langer, the Test opener, is having plenty of luck - none of it good.

His scratchy 23-ball knock came after lowly returns of 26, two and eight in the Tests against Zimbabwe, and 11 and 15 in the ING Cup. His average is 11 in a season where so many of Australia's premier batsmen are gorging themselves on runs, both here and abroad.

WA was 8-350 at stumps, with Goodwin, the former Zimbabwe Test batsman, letting his bat do the talking after being reprimanded last month for saying Zimbabwean selections favoured black players.

"I couldn't believe how far that (his comments about black players) had gone," said Goodwin.

"It was just a personal comment on my experiences and got me into hot water. I couldn't believe it when I had to employ lawyers and stuff like that to defend me, it was ridiculous.

"It's nice to get some runs when you've been in the press for not the right reasons, and it's nice show WA I'm willing to work hard and play well for them." Goodwin, who did his dough on Distinctly Secret, was gobsmacked when umpire Darrell Hair told him drinks would be taken at the unheard of time of 3.08pm.

"I found it hard to start up again after the race because you get into a rhythm, and then you've got to stop," he said.

"It's such a big race, and I think a few of the guys had a bit of money on it. They wanted to stop, so I went with the flow. The umpire came up and said we're going to have a drinks break for the Melbourne Cup and I said, 'oh, okay." Goodwin - using SCG Test century-maker Stuart Carlisle's locker - saved WA after the failures of Langer and Mike Hussey.

Langer slashed at a drive from NSW fast bowler Matthew Nicholson, succeeding only in giving a catch to Greg Mail at gully.

Nicholson, in his first match for the Blues since switching from WA, had already made his presence felt by trapping Hussey LBW for a duck with his fifth ball of the day. Bowling in his cap like the legendary Clarrie Grimmett, Zammit took wickets with two of his worst balls, a full toss which had Marcus North (26) LBW and a long hop which Shaun Marsh (29) played onto his stumps, but there was plenty of good stuff in between.

He finished with 2-71 from 17 overs.

The 22-year-old has been bowling in a cap since he started playing for Penrith in the Sydney grade competition eight years ago. He's worn the caps of NSW and Australian junior representative sides while bowling and saw no reason to change when he stepped up in class today.

With the Melbourne Cup starting at 3.10pm, drinks were taken at 3.08pm and continued until 3.20pm. Waugh watched his nag get up then walked back to slips with his arms folded, not saying much.