The Awfully Big Cricket Thread

[butnut]

HOGGARD"S GOT A HAT-TRICK.

[butnut]

England have won. Simply amazing. Only the 4th England team to win 3 tests in a row abroad (and that inlcudes the 1913-14 team, with the greatest bowler ever, Mr S F Barnes).

And probably more importantly, first victory in the Windies in 36 years - none of the current team had been born then.

Let's really enjoy this, and hope for 4-0.

[Doctor Stamen]

And I missed it all because the cunt behind the bar decided to put some fucking gay Rugby League on instead.  What is this, fucking Yorkshire?!!  Jesus wept!

[hands cold, liver warm]

wow, the windies are batting like england used to.

Its great to see all 4 of our bowlers putting consistent pressure on the batsmen, not giving them easy balls to settle into the wicket. Even our fielding has been good. Hoggard and Thorpe have shown why they are so important to the team and just how much we missed them when they were out injured and getting divorced.

The one down side has been how little our opening batsmen have contributed, especially Trescothick. Ther has to be a good argument for dropping him for the final test and giving someone else a shot

[butnut]

This is more like it. England being flogged on a dream batting pitch. Normal service is resumed ladies and gentlemen.

Or are we really like the Aussies now? - Always losing the dead matches in a series.

[hoverdonkey]

This is more like it. England being flogged on a dream batting pitch. Normal service is resumed ladies and gentlemen.

Or are we really like the Aussies now? - Always losing the dead matches in a series.

They clearly prepared a pitch that wouldn't produce a result so that at least the Windies wouldn't lose and suffer their first home whitewash. Any sort of result pitch and you would have fancied England again.

[butnut]

I hadn't thought of that. If it's true, it's an incredibily defensive thing to do.

And we've now resorted to Trescothick bowling!

[Bilko]

Lara needs another 68 to get back his world record test score from Matthew Hayden. Hayden currently has 380 while lara is on 313 overnight.

Lara said this about going for the record

"It's a great feeling. I want the team to get to 700-750 and hopefully I can eclipse the record."

Lara is without doubt a great all time batsman, but he is a selfish git and a totally crap captain. He thinks only of himself and never for the team. I can think of no other crickter who would say 'hopefully I can eclipse the record'. Every other player would be modest and cautious and refuse to talk about the record.

[Bilko]

Lara on 374, 7 more to get

[Bilko]

Gone Level with a 6, 380

[Bilko]

384, the new world highest score in test cricket, and he's still there.

[butnut]

Yep. There it is. I'm very annoyed with my internet connection to talk sport that has kept cutting out.

Amazingly, there have been 3 triple hundreds in the last 6 months.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

And he's just got the 400!

I remember when he got that 501 for Warwickshire back in the early/mid 90s.  I could have gone to watch it, but decided not to bother, as "he probably won't last too much longer".

[weirdbeard]

He's getting absolutely slated by the West Indian commentator on Talk Sport.  Accused of being selfish and not putting the team first by not declaring sooner and not getting to 400 sooner.  Even LOL NO crowd's reaction to the 400 sounded pretty subdued especially in comparison to the cheers when he got his 381.  He was playing so slow around the score of 390, that the crowd started slow-handclapping.

[butnut]

Oh great. Vaughan's given out despite missing the ball by several inches - anyone remember 3 days ago when Lara was given not out on 0?

[butnut]

Right - what are the odds on England saving this one?

I'm going to stick my head out now and say they're going to do it - this of course will curse them and means they won't.

I really hope they save this match - the Windies have been outplayed so much in this series, and it would prove that Lara's a crap captain.

[Partridge's Love Child]

Vaughan has got his century.  Only his second test ton since he became captain, which is a bit crap.  His best score in the series prior to this was 32.

[weirdbeard]

If we don't get a draw now then it'll be very disappointing.  We should have enough to bat through 2 sessions with 9 wickets in hand.  

Just moving away from the match itself for a second, I'm really enjoying listening to cricket in the afternoon into the evening.  I prefer the hours of 3pm til 10/11pm than the usual 11am to 6pm.  There seems to be something more relaxing about it, I can't really explain why.   The only downer is the rubbish adverts on Talk Sport which are as annoying as ever.  Still, hearing a Two Ronnies advery for DHL is one of the good ones.

[butnut]

BIG FAT BUMP

Hello again, sports fans. Seeing as the test against NZ begins on Thursday (and I'm going to see play on Friday), I thought I'd bring this back to life. NZ could be a tricky team - they recently did quite well against South Africa. How do you lot reckon we're going to do? I think England will win, or at least, not lose, the series, but only just. (They're going to get thrashed now, aren't they?)

And what about all this Murali stuff - the plot is thickening

No shortage of support for Murali  © AFP


The Sri Lankan prime minister has added fuel to the raging controversy over Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action. Mahinda Rajapakse has threatened to sue the ICC over the controversial decision to outlaw Muttiah Muralitharan's doosra.

"The Prime Minister has decided to take legal steps against the ICC for banning [Muralitharan's] doosra and today he has discussed it with some veteran lawyers," said Rohan Welivita, the prime minister's media secretary. "He thinks that all Sri Lankans need to support Muralitharan because he is a national figure."

Rajapakse's announcement comes in the wake of a statement from John Howard, the Australian prime minister, who said that Murali chucked. Following this statement, Murali said he was contemplating boycotting Sri Lanka's forthcoming tour of Australia. Mohan de Silva, the president of the Sri Lankan cricket board, then said that Murali could skip the Australia tour if he felt strongly about it. "If Murali makes a request not to go to Australia we will definitely give him that option. We will not force him to go to a country where he is not accepted."

Murali's action has been under scrutiny for years now, but a recent study at the University of Western Australia found that the manner in which Murali bowled the doosra was a violation of the laws. The ICC subsequently instructed Murali not to bowl that particular delivery.

However, the Sri Lankan prime minister has unconditionally thrown his weight in behind Murali. Rajapakse has said that Murali is a national asset and that he would do anything within his power, and that of the government, to defend him. One thing is now certain – this issue is not going to die down in a hurry.

And then, finally, there's the Zimbabwe situation. Should we go, should anyone else? I don't think anyone should be playing them at the moment, until things take a turn for the better there. Here's to Staurt MacGill, for not going. (Or did he just get the feeling that he wouldn't get a bowl, now that Warne's back?)

[bresker]

He's a good fella, is Stu. He gets a lot of stick from some fans because he's not Shane Warne, and because he's got a brain. He's supposed to be pretty independent and not exactly one of the lads, a rather unusual Aussie sportsman.

The Zimbabwe tour is an absolute joke. The Aussies have arrived to play a three test series against a team of nobodies. It won't even be a contest. Warne will get a chance to move away from Muralitharin, I suppose.

Murali's doosra delivery has been shown to be a chuck according to tests carried out at the University of Western Australia. The bloke who carries out the tests did say that there might be a load of other bowlers chucking too, and that it's unfair that only Murali should be subjected to such rigorous examination.

I reckon the Kiwis are pretty good. They're very tactically aware and can wind up the opposition. They had the Aussies in all sorts of trouble in some of the tests and one dayers here a couple of years ago.

[jimbobsyouruncle]

I lived in Auckland for 5 years just down the road from Eden Park so had the pleasure of seeing many a one dayers down there (without having to take out a bank loan for  a ticket too)...

No doubt Tebbit would roll in his grave but Im now a Kiwi fan over England when it comes to cricket so will be sitting in Lord's on Fri and Sat rooting for the 'enemy'.  Should be a fascinating series though. NZ looking to repeat and for what could be the first time ever going into the test series as favourites. England trying to prove that they're as good as they think they are  (although thrashing a weak WI isn't really fooling anyone).

For me I think NZ will take it, but both teams will have their chances.

Roll on Thursday.

[butnut]

Just heard on the radio that Vaughan has injured himself in the nets. Carried off on a stretcher. Great - just what we need.

jimbobsyouruncle - you traitor! ;-) Let's hope for good weather over the weekend.

[Felchspoon]

On the plus side Kent beat NZ by 9 wickets.

Yet another ridiculous score involving Zimbabwe - Sri Lanka won by an innings and 254 runs after having scored 713-3 in their first innings. Surely it can't be long before there's a two-tier international system, particularly as Kenya look like getting test status fairly soon. I'd debate how much good it is doing Zimbabwe and Bangladesh getting stuffed every single game - Bangladesh have never won a test match for christ's sake.

[Partridge's Love Child]

A massive yay for St Geoffrey of Boycott's new employment with Channel 4.  I've already heard him say "corridor of uncertainty".  My favourite ever Geoffrey phrase is "cantine bolwing", a description of a bowler's duff output of rank long-hops and leg-side straying, because the batsman can just "come along and help himself".

[Kendo Nagasaki]

A massive yay for St Geoffrey of Boycott's new employment with Channel 4.  I've already heard him say "corridor of uncertainty".  My favourite ever Geoffrey phrase is "cantine bolwing", a description of a bowler's duff output of rank long-hops and leg-side straying, because the batsman can just "come along and help himself".

Did you mean "Canteen Bowling" by any chance?  Cantine Bolwing sounds like another excreble character from the latest Star Wars movie.

"Cantine, quickly, we need Jar Jar Binks for the defenestration experiments!"

[Kendo Nagasaki]

Strauss was pretty good today, although the bolwing..., sorry the BOWLING was pretty poor.

I feel sorry for the kiwi bowlers, really  just backup bowlers, with their main strike bowler (Shane Bond) injured and unable to help them out.

[jimbobsyouruncle]

Just back home from a day at Lord's. What a great days cricket. Only slightly marred by the fact my seat was hidden from the sun but not hidden from an annoyingly cold breeze that wouldn't go away nearly all day.

England in front to begin, Kiwi's clawing back to even-stevens at lunch. England dominate early after lunch and ruin it with a bag of wickets just before tea, and then after a shaky start the Kiwi's end up ahead... every time a team looked like taking control they let slip again. Its anybody's test match at the moment, just waiting for someone to make a decisive innings, or a devestating bowling spell....

Looks like my plans for Sunday have just been decided  .

[megatwat]

Looks like my plans for Sunday have just been decided .

I know what you mean. And I'm meant to be revising as well. I can see it now- "I failed my degree bacause of a test match". Not a very good excuse is it.

[morgs]

Very finely balanced... But can England win this one?  I haven't seen the weather forecast so I assume that there must be a result.  Simon Jones' bowling before lunch was great, he deserved more than he got

[butnut]

I was at Lord's on Friday, and I don't think you could have asked for a better days cricket watching. Especially as I won £30 in a sweepstake to guess Strauss' score (and I did pick 112 - really!). The first hour was sensational. 5 wickets, 100 runs, and Cairns going crazy. And then to see England put 190 for the first wicket. Shame Mr T didn't get a hundred.

But as for today - it's going to be pretty tight. I really don't want to call it. I just hope England do it!