Cricket, lovely cricket

[martin wilson]

Fecking Ireland,and more proof if any were needed that KP's head is actually solid all the way through.
See my previous post where I doubted the wisdom of opening with him.
On the other hand it could give us a fun day out, a St Patricks day one dayer against Ireland, lots of green beer and oversized leprachaun hats.
ECB, you read it here first,cheque to the usual address.
DVV
Cricket has all the stories that make sport so exciting , there are not many other sports I know of where watching a team playing for a draw can be utterly compelling.
Rugby is a great sport as well, I watched England V France, and I'm following the six nations at the moment, I always wish football was more like rugby, the minutes silence before the match was observed with great respect as opposed to those cretins who cant keep their mouths shut for one minute if they attempt it at a football match.
I also like the way players just accept referees decisions, and of course the game itself is fantastic,is there anything better than a team defending 1 metre away from their try line? or a sudden break through the centre? brilliant stuff.
All the best.

[DVV]

I know nothing about cricket but I'd like to hear why people love it - just as I could dedicate thousands pages to the beauty of rugby.

[Adam Went]

Steven:

Oh wow. Yes, it's made my week. And not just because Ireland are my favourite team outside of, obviously, our own.

Kevin O'Brien, what a special innings.
The UN = faecal. The local Under-14's would be utterly ashamed of that fielding and bowling effort.

What's behind the idea of having Traitorsen opening the batting these days anyway?

South Africa next for you too....looks like an early return home!

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

England v. Ireland

Jesus ******* Christ on a bike. Ireland! ******* Ireland!

All right, Adam, go on. We deserve it.

Steve.

[Adam Went]

Steven:

I agree that wickets are the best way to slow the run rate, but on the small, flat sub-continental grounds, there's got to be the containment factor as well. It's all well and good to bowl an attacking line, you might have the opposition 50-4 after 15 powerplay overs....or, just as easily, given some of the aggressive opening batsmen from the various international teams (Sehwag, Gayle, Dilshan, McCullum, and so on), they could be 120-0 and it's a hard road back from there....

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

Yes, Strauss was superb, perhaps even topping that wonderful innings by Tendulkar. One point each was a fair result in the end after a match which proved 50 over cricket can still be thrilling.

But to return to my old hobby horse (yawn), penetration is still the name of the game. Let's see not containment, but wickets falling! The best teams so far have shown that wickets are the key to success. I was going to name them here but why bother? They know who they are. I hope the World Cup goes to the men who are prepared to take a risk and finally get rid of those "dibbly dobbly" players who can do a bit of this and a bit of that. Our batting can match the best in the world but our bowling is weak. Whoever lifts the Cup will be a team whose bowling cannot be dominated.

But I doubt it will be England.

Steve.

[Adam Went]

Not a good day for the minnows yesterday, Canada and Netherlands both got flattened. Saw a bit of the West Indies match, have to say that I enjoy watching Darren Bravo bat.....was thinking to myself that he bats a lot like Brian Lara, then they said that the two are related!

Good innings from Strauss by the way Steven, I will force myself to admit.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

Yes. He could be one to watch.

Steve.

[Adam Went]

Yes, I saw a bit of the game near to the end and heard later on that England had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Oh, and that some bloke called Tendulkar, whoever that is, made 120 odd....

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

Just about got my breath back after watching India v. England. What a game!

Steve.

[Adam Went]

Martin:

It must have been an omen that we were discussing legends cricket matches just recently, as last night there was an Australian Legends VS New Zealand Legends Twenty20 match in NZ to raise funds for the Christchurch earthquake victims (an excellent cause and a really awful event, I might add.)

Unfortunately, we got flogged. We batted first, Ryan Campbell played brilliantly well for 88 and the innings was ended well with some good hitting from Jimmy Maher and Brad Hogg, but the NZ top order was too good for us, Mark Greatbatch made 70 odd from 40 odd balls and looked in great nick. A couple of wickets from Greg Matthews and a spectacular catch from Greg Ritchie didn't help us, nor did a spectacular dropped catch by Jimmy Maher, followed immediately with Jimmy falling flat on his arse to rub salt into the wound. Craig McDermott's bowling was rubbish.

Meanwhile, agree with you about the Netherlands, definitely one team that deserves to be in the WC, and the same with Zimbabwe - fair enough if you're going backwards like Kenya have done so far, but those two teams have made great strides and are pretty good....

Cheers,
Adam.

[martin wilson]

Hi all
Pakistan v Kenya, I was lifted, not.
Odhiambo's comedy run out was funny though.
Steve Tikolo is 39 is he? yeah,so am I.
The Kenyan wicketkeeper caught my eye though, which is about all he caught,Pakistan must have got 20 odd runs through their batsmans novel approach of leaving the ball well alone, whereupon it trundled to the boundary largely untroubled by the aforementioned gentleman.
I think Flower is checking into his parentage, in that sort of form he's a certainty for England.
Roll on India, just to see some quality.
This world cup had better improve Adam, I'm up in the wee small hours because you sold it so well.
I have no idea why the Netherlands are not in the 2015 world cup,sounds like a pants decision probably motivated by money.
All the best.

[Adam Went]

Steven:

While seeing England fail epically at any form of sport gives me a great deal of pleasure, I really do hope you beat India!

I haven't forgotten GSTQ by the way, believe it or not....unfortunately my computer packed it in so i'm doing the rounds of borrowing others at the moment, and of course I don't want to submit myself to the double humiliation of recording the song with others present.

Martin:

Netherlands aren't a bad team at all. Shame that the ICC is giving them a great big kick in the guts by only having the Test playing nations in the 2015 World Cup.

As for Ricky, I think it's been blown out of proportion quite a bit....he may just need to realise that he's not quite as quick between the wickets as he was ten years ago.

Cheers,
Adam.

[martin wilson]

Hi all
It might be a case of wait and see,the Netherlands may well surprise some teams.
Having said that, the general opinion is we were no better than average,but I dont know about India, they dont like it up 'em you know. I wish we had someone superquiick and nasty, on pudding pitches its often the return of the pie throwers.
I see Pouting has thrown the toys out of the pram, first game! smashing up a tv set, he really doesnt like being run out does he?
All the best.

[Steven Russell]

Martin:

Wow...well all credit to your batsmen but what was going on with the fielding effort? Allowing the Netherlands to post nearly 300?
Cheers,
Adam.

What indeed? They seemed to lose the plot altogether. Our next opponents, India, must have been rubbing their hands in anticipation!

Steve.