Cricket, lovely cricket

[martin wilson]

Hi all
I think the Aussie cricket team are a bit like the Germans in football,you never write them off,so like Phil I have got a feeling they are going to do well.
India 370/4,yeah but its only Bangladesh he said with utterly unfounded arrogance.
All I know about Sri Lanka is that Muli retired.
Its no good,I will have to get some pennies from somwhere.
Is it Ian Blair that Boris sacked? I think its him who went on a lecture tour where he revealed that the ripper is Aaron Kosminski and accuses ripperologists of covering it up in order to make a fortune selling books and what have you.
I didnt know you guys were minted,please send me some shekels,as I need to get Sky and I am right out of jam and spanners.
Richmond Tigers,oh yeah.all day long the greatest Aussie Rules team in history,way better than the er,Melbourne Monkeys or the Perth Porcupines.
All the best.

[Steven Russell]

I notice that the Aussies have picked two detective sidekicks in their team i.e. Watson and Hastings. There is Percy Holmes of course but can anyone come up with a viable fictional characters XI? (Robertson Glasgow / Robinson Crusoe does not count). Percy Jeeves does, though.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Adam Went]

Phil:

Well thank you for your confidence....I think India is the team we would dislike facing the most if it came down to the final.

Martin:

I am and always will be a champion of the underdog, so I was hoping Canada and Kenya would go well in their respective matches but, sadly, they didn't.

Sanath Jayasuriya is in his 40's now but I think Sri Lanka should have included him, it was he and his opening partner in Romesh Kaluwithurana that basically won them the WC in 1996 by revolutionising the powerplay overs. Very useful spinner as well.

Glad you are now on board with the Tigers. As long as you never, ever support the Collingwood Magpies, we'll get along just fine.

Cheers,
Adam.

[martin wilson]

I notice that the Aussies have picked two detective sidekicks in their team i.e. Watson and Hastings. There is Percy Holmes of course but can anyone come up with a viable fictional characters XI? (Robertson Glasgow / Robinson Crusoe does not count). Percy Jeeves does, though.

Best wishes,
Steve.

I've been musing on this on and off for two days now,and so far all I've come up with is Sheryl (Martin) Crow,and that misses off the e.
Time to cheat I think and look through Wiki's list of England cricketers.
Cant we have a irritating gits XI instead?, I have already got Chris Lewis,Dominic Cork and Graeme Smith.

[Steven Russell]

I've been musing on this on and off for two days now,and so far all I've come up with is Sheryl (Martin) Crow,and that misses off the e.
Time to cheat I think and look through Wiki's list of England cricketers.
Cant we have a irritating gits XI instead?, I have already got Chris Lewis,Dominic Cork and Graeme Smith.

I think Sheryl Crow(e) might be a real person. Although come to think of it..

Shane (James) Bond would qualify.

Irritating gits might be a better idea. Graeme Smith definitely! How about Hansie Cronje as skipper? Strauss and Collingwood have both taken on an irritating trait much beloved of Aussie cricketers: that of beginning the answer to a tricky question with "Look" or, even worse, "Aw, look". I feel we should forgive them this minor aberration, though, as they have both just returned from a ridiculously long sojourn down under.

Nasser Hussein has no such excuse. "The Strausses, the Pietersens, the Priors" etc. etc. Very annoying unless he knows about secret family members locked in attics.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Adam Went]

A rather unconvincing win against Zimbabwe last night. Good innings from Watson but the rest of the top order looked as if they thought we were playing a Test match....Zimbabwe actually have a pretty solid bowling attack.

Cheers,
Adam.

[martin wilson]

Hi all
Sorry,for some reason I totally forgot they had to be fictional.I could go with Tom Brown of Schooldays fame, and Freddy Brown,in the squad for the Bodyline tour,not sure he played though.
I read that the Aussies started slowly but as I didnt see it I dont know what the pitch and bowling was like,didnt they start with a spinner?
We need KP in the one day form that got him into the test side in the first place, something like 3 centuries in the preceding tournament?, I cant help thinking this could go badly wrong, Prior is batting at 6,and its probably just me but I dont think he is consistent enoughm,or I should say I am never 100%confident he is going to do it.
I got my 3 picks for irritarting gits XI from All Out Cricket, who feature anti heroes of cricket, I restricted my choices to those who genuinely got on my pip,and in Graeme Smiths' case even manage to irriate Richie Benaud as well.
All the best.

[Adam Went]

Martin:

Wow...well all credit to your batsmen but what was going on with the fielding effort? Allowing the Netherlands to post nearly 300? Mind you, good for the Netherlands, it's great to see a "minnow" nation putting in a strong contest and especially to see Ryan Ten Doeschate play a fantastic knock - he was one of Tasmania's two international players in our domestic season just gone (Rana Naved of Pakistan being the other) and is very talented.

Zimbabwe opened with a pace bowler but they had 3 frontline spinners against us as well, Ray Price is quite good....

Cheers,
Adam.

[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.

[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.

[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
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]

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.

[Steven Russell]

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

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.