TI-Distribution
Anyone following the cricket world cup? Big upset last night with the Irish over England! Ireland deserved the win and it is a good response to people calling for the minnows to be excluded from future world cups.
S.A doing ok vs Netherlands at 178/2 after 34.0. Need a big push from here on... De Villiers showing his class! Amla a bit shaky early on but seems to be growing in confidence.
Skywalker
Great upset yesterday :woohoo:
Just saw Abie run himself out. Bloody idiot. Good knock though.
We just need one of the other minnows to thump the Aussies now and I'll be happy ?
Come on The Proteas!!!
KarateBob
Was awesome!
I will always cherish Strauss' look of anguish as Ireland sodomised them without lube.
Safe to say O' Brian's IPL contract is in the mail...
Glad to see van Wyk is playing today. Just a pitty he replaced the wrong guy. Should have kept Botha and replace Peterson.
Hope van Wyk plays wicky today. We need AB in the field again.
Bob-Dubery
In long tournaments like this early form is not necessarily an indicator of form at the sharp end of the tournament. Spain lost early on in the 2010 soccer cup, Pakistan were minutes away from being eliminated in the round-robin phase of the '92 cricket cup and then won. Australia were looking shaky in 1999 but dug deep and won the matches that counted.
Anyhoo at present, and acknowledging it's early days I'd say....
1) ENgland. Batting well, but bowling is sub-par (I think their bowlers are nursing injuries and are generally worn out) and the fielding is really quite poor (that was were they lost against Ireland and where they leaked runs against Netherlands). A big test for Strauss - if he can get them to pull their collective finger out and rise above the fatigue (they've played a lot of cricket the last few months) then they may still make an impact. They won't go all the way - they're too tired.
2) South Africa. Looking well balanced and with options in the bowling. But AB can't go on like this forever. The corrollary of that is that Smith and Kallis have to come good at some time. More than most teams they seem to be making good use of the batting powerplay.
3) India. Really strong batting. Only two good bowlers. Somebody else has to step up in the attack if they're to mount a serious challenge. Dhoni doing a good job.
4) Sri Lanka. Looking good and well prepared, but I don't think there's depth in that squad and a couple of injuries could really hurt them.
5) Australia. Playing to their strengths and so far the pace-heavy attack has worked for them. Not a great batting side, but Ponting is keeping them motivated. Do you know that Ponting has never lost a cricket world cup match? A lot depends on Watson staying fit, he balances their side in the way that Kallis does ours. He's been very injury prone in the past.
6) Pakistan. When they fire in ODIs they're great to watch because they play aggressively. No innocuous medium pacers keeping one end quiet. They like to field pace and attacking spin bowlers. Some big hitters down the order and Afridi is doing well as a player and as a captain. However it's Pakistan and I always expect an implosion. They don't have depth in their fast bowling and their star fast bowler is famous for breaking down.
Sri Lanka, South Africa, Pakistan and Australia look good to me at this stage of the tournament, but there is plenty of time for the others to find their feet and their form.
chris77
I bet that many a fine toast was made in Dublin last night.... ?
And I agree, the best part wasn't that Ireland won, but that Strauss and his boys got shafted. ?
Eversince the SA/England match where he denied Smith a runner I have had no time for Strauss. Technically correct maybe, but not in the spirit of the great game imo.
And to have had Mr Sand in My pocket Atherton chastise AB for claiming a catch (and then telling the umpire he wasn't sure) and basically call him a cheat, but excusing Vaughan (an honest mistake my arse) when he claimed one (and was adamant throughout that he caught it mind you) which dropped short, have really not endeared me to the Poms.
Skywalker
Well said Bob ?
Interesting that Ponting has never lost a world cup match.
I'm also a bit confused as to why they left Boucher out of the squad. He's still the best keeper in the world at the moment in my eyes.
Bob-Dubery
Skywalker wrote
Well said Bob ?
Interesting that Ponting has never lost a world cup match.
I'm also a bit confused as to why they left Boucher out of the squad. He's still the best keeper in the world at the moment in my eyes.
I think he's past the sell-by date and not part of their long term plans. If AB keeps they have an extra place in the team for an allrounder.
What I have admired about the Australians the last couple of decades is that they don't pick on sentiment and not afraid to drop a guy who has done well but is past his best.
Gearhead
I would at this point just like to state that, due to the immense popularity of the game, all 20 people that play cricket in The Netherlands are part of the national team. Should anyone on this forum feel they wanted to be in the tournament next time, please feel free to emigrate there and reinforce the Dutch team.
I guess we are better at other sports :-[
Bob-Dubery
Gearhead wrote
I would at this point just like to state that, due to the immense popularity of the game, all 20 people that play cricket in The Netherlands are part of the national team.
Your star batsman was born in SA. Your captain is Australian. Oh.... and you know that opening batsman with the russian name? Yep... born in Walvis Bay.
Ray
Tjoepstil!!
DaFiz
Ray wrote
Tjoepstil!!
Ssshh!!! Don't say it... ☹
Tokai-SA
Choke
:-[
giggsy
Shocking sporting day... first that cricket, then United totally outplayed by Liverpool. Awful :'(
Tokai-SA
Giggsy wrote
Shocking sporting day... first that cricket, then United totally outplayed by Liverpool. Awful :'(
Agreed.
Kuyt scored the worst hatrick I've even seen. ?
Carragher should have been sent off, perhaps that would have changed the game....although United played like sh*t anyway.
However, they'll still win the league. ?
chris77
Jip, what a kick in the nuts. I hate losing to the poms even more than to the aussies. Whoever lost the toss on that wicket was going to struggle to win, but when ab and faf were chipping away I thought we might just pull of an upset. :$
giggsy
Tokai SA wrote
Giggsy wrote
Shocking sporting day... first that cricket, then United totally outplayed by Liverpool. Awful :'(
Agreed.
Kuyt scored the worst hatrick I've even seen. ?
Carragher should have been sent off, perhaps that would have changed the game....although United played like sh*t anyway.
However, they'll still win the league. ?
Agreed on Kuyt - three tap-ins, and one provided by a United player >☹
Was a shocker of a tackle by Carragher, but Rafael could;ve been sent off too, but yeah, United were useless and Rooney and Berba were hardly in the game. The result today shows how big a part of the team Vidic is/ Hopefully still win it after this shocker of a week - cant see Arsenal winning all the rest of their games.
aubs1
Cricket........I am speechless ........... ☹
Soccer......... every buddy of mine who is an Arse-nal and Liverpool supporter called me to gloat.....the Arse-holes ..... really crappy day!!! >☹
Tokai-SA
Well, Rory Sabbatini is 5 ahead in the final round of the Honda Classic, so we might still have a SAfrican victory this weekend. ?
Bob-Dubery
I don't know if it's a case of "South Africa choke UH-GAIN" but there were two moments of poor judgement that, I think, cost us this match.
One was Du Plessis going for a risky single when the RRR was about 3 an over. You don't need to take that kind of chance in that situation.
The other was Duminy playing a poorly judged shot to Anderson. Not only was the risk again not necessary but, if he'd kept an eye on the scoreboard, he'd have known that at the end of the over the ball was going to be changed and the reverse swing that England had been getting was going to be less of a threat threafter.
Poor thinking. We can maybe excuse Faf because he's not that experienced.
I just point all this out because there's going to be the usual vilification of Smith. Well he can't go out and bat for everybody else, and there are many decisions that he, like any other captain, can't make.
Sean
I don't believe losing that game was all bad. I think we needed to lose a match early on. Although having said that, I still feel we're lacking the potential to win this WC. I do support the boys, I just don't really have my heart in it.
