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March 29, 2024, 01:13:53 AM

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The Awfully New Cricket Thread

Started by aaaaaaaaaargh!, March 02, 2009, 06:23:53 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Toad in the Hole

Surely Harmison is gone, S?S!?  We can't keep on picking him on the basis of *those* performances in the West Indies five years ago.  And he's been found wanting in this series.  Time to give some new blood a chance, or at least see if Jones can be nursed through a series.  Though I don't know that there are any outstanding quicks around the county circuit.  Mark Davies for a McGrath type role?

Shoulders?-Stomach!

I think they'll pick him again as they've not given themselves enough wriggle room with other options. Amjad Khan clearly won't have the nerves for it, he was bad enough trying to bowl line and length to idiots like Ryan Hinds, so he needs a bit more time. Or he'll just be the next Mahmood and vanish. They've burnt their bridges with Hoggard, they worked Sidebottom into the ground and he seems permanently immobile now, they won't even attempt to try Simon Jones again because of spurious fitness reasons.

I'm quite sure it's going to be Broad, Flintoff, Harmison and Anderson for the pace attack. Most likely Anderson and Harmison will be permanently ditched after the Ashes if they don't do anything.




Shoulders?-Stomach!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2009/3/15934/html/scorecard.stm

What in the bowels of hell is going on?

New Zealand 619-9 :S 3 centuries!

Plus Vettori and Patel have already set about making the Indian spinner look rather foolish.

I can't quite figure out why Franklin came in before McCullum...

rjd2

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on March 27, 2009, 02:02:34 PM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2009/3/15934/html/scorecard.stm

What in the bowels of hell is going on?

New Zealand 619-9 :S 3 centuries!

Plus Vettori and Patel have already set about making the Indian spinner look rather foolish.

I can't quite figure out why Franklin came in before McCullum...

I dunno Franklin is absurdly mediocre. Ryder played a lovely knock, he looks quite comfortable in test cricket. I still dont think they will win the game, it is a batsman pitch so I expect India will be able to draw it.
England are a fucking shambles right now.
The Oz 20/20 game is looking much more interesting.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Let's not dwell on that ODI we just got thrashed in too much, but it is extremely worrying, our tendency to utterly capitulate.

Anyway- something more fun- New Zealand have a fantastic chance of beating arguably the best test team at the moment in a test match:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2009/3/15934/html/scorecard.stm

Impressive considering India have a very decent tail.

They've got two days to get 9 wickets. They might have to bat again mind you but it just shows you the value of winning the toss on the easy wickets around the world these days.

Draw for India. Underlining the weakness of New Zealand's bowling attack. I suppose Jesse Ryder's form in the Test's will be a plus point for the Kiwi's.

Good Victory for England last night despite KP's big time flouncing. I'm not really sure what's going on in KP's head at the moment. He's certainly lost his aura, and looks woefully out of touch.

rudi

"Me want to go home. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" would be my interpretation...

They should play the ODIs before the tests on tour; everyone's just antsy by this time, otherwise.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Plus if England lose a test series, the prospect of then playing the same team at one-day cricket isn't exactly appealling I would imagine.

Both of these sides are utterly mediocre, it would probably be best if the last ODI was a wash-out so we can get KP home. What with the flouncing and the labelling of Chanderpaul as someone who 'only plays for himself'- rich considering Chanderpaul routinely makes runs when the rest of the team fails- rather like a certain boisterous South African.

Mmm, Jesse Ryder does look a decent player. Pity he has to be an arsehole as well (his fat-smug looking face just does not help). Gambhir's torturously slow century and partnership with somehow-even-slower Dravid denied anyone even a hint of excitement. India's 4th innings batting is so good at the moment, you begin to wonder how they managed to fuck up so badly to start with.

More generally, batsmen just seem to be able to work these pitches out by the 5th day, making it extremely difficult for the fielding side to affect the result. You need Murali or Mendes and a nice dustbowl (or maybe the England batting line-up) before anything starts to happen.

rjd2

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on March 30, 2009, 02:24:41 PM
Plus if England lose a test series, the prospect of then playing the same team at one-day cricket isn't exactly appealling I would imagine.

Both of these sides are utterly mediocre, it would probably be best if the last ODI was a wash-out so we can get KP home. What with the flouncing and the labelling of Chanderpaul as someone who 'only plays for himself'- rich considering Chanderpaul routinely makes runs when the rest of the team fails- rather like a certain boisterous South African.

Mmm, Jesse Ryder does look a decent player. Pity he has to be an arsehole as well (his fat-smug looking face just does not help). Gambhir's torturously slow century and partnership with somehow-even-slower Dravid denied anyone even a hint of excitement. India's 4th innings batting is so good at the moment, you begin to wonder how they managed to fuck up so badly to start with.


It was torture to watch although to cut Gambhir some slack he is normally very attacking, their was  nothing to be gained by slogging madly from an Indian point of view. New Zealand bowling problems have been well documented, Mills while a formidable ODI bowler struggles in the longer format and O Brien and Martin will never destroy anyone. Its such a pity that Bond can not play for them anymore.

actwithoutwords

Gah. With the novelty of access to live cricket I was going to put this on half an hour ago until I realised my parents were watching a film. And Flintoff's done gone and got a hat trick, to (effectively) win the series. I've never seen a hat trick live, I don't think the Cricinfo ball-by-ball counts. Gah.

The Gayle wicket was vital, I think on that wicket England were 20-30 runs lighter then what would have been a defendable par score, so you have to applaud the bowlers for doing a fine job in defending a reachable target. Broad and Flintoff were bloody excellent.

Looks as though Flower is going to get the coaching job and faces a lot of tough decisions. The West Indies home series is now a must win to get some momentum and form going in to the Ashes. Ideally for the 20/20 World Cup England will take a big risk and chuck in a combination of Youngsters, Lions players and form county players because there really is no point risking anyone established in the England setup ahead of the Ashes. Do we really want a repeat of Broad getting hit for six sixes in an over?

England's Provisional 20/20 World Cup Squad has been announced:

QuoteK Ali, J Anderson, G Batty, I Bell, R Bopara, T Bresnan, S Broad, P Collingwood, S Davies, J Denly, J Foster, A Flintoff, S Harmison, R Key, S Mahmood, D Mascarenhas, E Morgan, G Napier, S Patel, K Pietersen, L Plunkett, M Prior, A Rashid, O Shah, R Sidebottom, G Swann, C Tremlett, S Udal, C Woakes, L Wright.

Some decent picks, it's good to see the likes of Foster, Ali, Key and Bresnan back in the selectors thoughts. A few leftfield selctions as well in Woakes, Morgan and Udal.

From that squad I'd go for this eleven.

Key (capt.)
Napier
Bopara
KP
Collingwood
Flintoff
Foster (WK)
Broad
Udal
K Ali
Bresnan

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Interesting choices.

Will Kabir Ali and Tim Bresnan cut it? I remember them getting knocked about in their one-day 'careers'. And 20-20 is just a more concentrated, pressurised version of that.

On the tour of South Africa in 2005 I saw Ali get taken for 6 fours in an over, which kind of put me off him for good. I know his form's picked up over the last couple of years and of course he can potentially Mascerenhas a few balls to the boundary.

Plus I think we should be giving international experience so I wouldn't pick Udal, rather use him as back-up. I've still got an eye on throwing a Pietersen type wild-card in for the Ashes this summer, at a loss for a decent number 3 or a spin-bowler that's going to do the business.

Napier
Prior [wk]
Bopara
Pietersen
Collingwood
Patel
Flintoff [c]
Mascarenhas
Broad
Rashid
Anderson

Both Bresnan and Ali have improved a heck of a lot since their debuts. Bresnan in particular is a good 'death' bowler.  I'd pick Udal for his ecomomy because I don't know if Rashid or Patel would provide the same control. It's not easy to pick a team as we have a lot of fast medium / seam bowlers and no real pace or variation. The other worry is that we still don't have enough big boundary hitters. What we would give for a Sehwag at the top of the order or an Albie Morkel in the middle.

I think the ECB are learning to approach the the 20/20 games like South Africa have done, select a Botha type captain, blood a few youngsters and leave the main captain Strauss to concentrate on ODI's and Test Matches.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Surely Mascerenhas needs to be picked though. His strike-rate is ideal for the format and he can bowl very economic spells under pressure (and like all our other bowlers, sometimes gets tanked).


rjd2

Erm interesting squad,good to see Napier picked. I still mantain that if India click they will kill everyone
Gambhir
Sehwag
Raina
Youvraj
Rohit Sharma
Dhoni
Y Pathan
Seriously nobody has that kind of power in the competition.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote"If you're dead you can't earn any money. Life's obviously more important than earning cash."
New Zealand's Ross Taylor expresses his relief at the IPL's move from India to South Africa on security grounds

Apr 16, 2009

Mmm yes, but the decision of the 'Indian Premier League' to make a last minute switch to be hosted in South Africa shows that earning cash comes a ridiculously close second.

See also how there's now a 7 1/5 minute break after 10 overs for erm 'analysis'.

rudi

I don't understand w... ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... christ I can be dumb sometimes, can't I? :-)

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Bell's got 176 for Warwickshire. At that rate he'll be back for the Windies tests if not the Ashes.

Looks tough going in overcast conditions elsewhere but the wickets themselves are all looking fairly lifeless.

EDIT: See Durham's 1st innings being pwnd by Durham's uni team:

http://content.cricinfo.com/countycricket2009/engine/current/match/383230.html

Pitch is presumably a nightmare but Harmison had no trouble going for 4 an over and picking up no wickets unlike those other wankers who went for about 1 run an over and got people out.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

http://content.cricinfo.com/pakvaus2009/engine/current/match/392616.html

Pakistan beat Australia in the first ODI in Dubai.

Australia oddly decided to try and set a platform by batting first even though they only had 2 properly classy batsmen in the side, and that's being generous to Marsh.

It was all about Shahid Afridi though really picking up 6 wickets; still one of the truly great one day all-rounders.

rjd2

nteresting times for England with the PUIL and county season starting. KP has been brutal in the IPL; he has failed every time with the bat spectacularly. Freddie has been poor, not as bad as KP but still bad. Ravi thankfully for England looks like he knows how to play 20/20 his knock on Friday was superb. Shah and Collingwood have yet to play which is a shame as both are competent in 20/20.
Philip Hughes scored 118 and 65 in his county match and apparently seems very comfortable in English conditions.
Best all round batman in cricket right now? He seems equally super in 20/20, IPL and test cricket and he is still very young...



It's not all bad on the Ashes front - Anderson just picked up career best figures, Broad got a few wickets. And erm...Ian Blackwell is in ominous early season form.....

Shoulders?-Stomach!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/8021570.stm

QuoteEngland squad: Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann.

Fairly brave test pick. You can't accuse the selectors of sticking with the old guard anymore. Bit worried about the batting but I'm glad they picked Bopara, he may be our ace in the pack. The tail can all do a job if need be but it often doesn't work out like that.

Strauss
Cook
Pietersen
Bopara
Collingwood
Prior
Broad
Bresnan
Swann/Panesar
Onions
Anderson

The selection says to me that they're desperately unsure of their batting options. I'd have picked Ian Bell after his response but he's so underwhelming for England you can see why they've decided to do without.

It's worth bearing in mind a)this most likely won't be the ashes squad but also b)that there were a lot of question marks about the England side before the 2005 Ashes, such as whether Bell would cut it, Vaughan's batting form sliding away, Harmison's bowling form sliding away, Pietersen vs. Thorpe, whether Giles was good enough, Geraint Jones full stop, Simon Jones' fitness.

So...

Strauss looks to be in good form early season, he quickly knocked up 150 yesterday, Cook scored against the West Indies for Essex despite his finger problems and Bopara is doing well in the IPL, and assuming they play to form and one of KP, Pietersen and Prior also comes to the party then the batting looks strong. I'm pleased with the bowling selections and I think we will convincingly bowl out the West Indies even with two debutants.

The one concern is that the players will underestimate the West Indies, remember this team can graft and fight, unlike any West Indies team that has toured England in the last decade. A drawn series would be nothing short of a disaster.

rjd2

KP has been totally and utterly hopeless in the IPL, it will be interesting to see how he responds when he plays the West Indies.

rjd2

Colly has been named captain for 20/20 world cup, which is a bit depressing as he was ordinary enough last time he was in charge. Morgan has been called up which fucks Ireland over big time as well, as he was one of the few stars that Ireland have in their ranks.

Quote
   
ICC World Twenty20 2009

Collingwood named Twenty20 captain

May 1, 2009
   Paul Collingwood knows exactly what he wants to do at the nets, St Lucia, April 2, 2009
Not good enough for the IPL, but Paul Collingwood is England captain again © Getty Images

Paul Collingwood has been confirmed as England's captain for the ICC World Twenty20 and will lead a squad including James Foster, Robert Key, Graham Napier and Eoin Morgan as the selectors continue to unveil a new way of thinking.

Morgan, the Ireland and Middlesex batsman, earns his first England call-up as does Napier while Foster and Key return after long periods out of the international scene. Foster's recall for the first time since 2002 means there is no place for Matt Prior in the latest change to the wicketkeeping position.

"The reason is simple. Twenty20 is a quickfire game and you want a wicketkeeper who stands up to the stumps because we've got people who take the pace off the ball," explained Geoff Miller, the national selector, to Sky Sports News, "and he's been excellent over the last couple of years in Twenty20 putting pressure [on batsmen] while standing up to the stumps. That was the reason why, plus the fact his batting down the order has improved dramatically. He was the best for that choice."

Key has been rewarded for his impressive domestic Twenty20 record with a chance to open the batting and selected ahead of his team-mate Joe Denly. Napier, who played his first match in the IPL on Friday, hit the headlines last summer when he smashed 158 for Essex and Sussex.

Samit Patel, dropped from the one-day series in the Caribbean for being unfit, has been overlooked as has Tim Bresnan who was named in the Test squad two days ago.

Collingwood returns to the captaincy less than a year after resigning alongside Michael Vaughan and just a matter of weeks since he said he didn't want the job. Although he had some success as one-day captain - notably a series win away against Sri Lanka - he also had his fair share of problems.

During the first World Twenty20 in South Africa he miscounted Andrew Flintoff's overs during one match meaning he didn't bowl his full quota. The following summer against New Zealand he was at the centre of controversy for not recalling Grant Elliott to the crease after he'd been run out after a collision with Ryan Sidebottom.

He has spent the last two weeks unable to get a game for the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL, but there were not many other realistic candidates although there was some thought they should have been adventurous and handed it to Key or Dimitri Mascarenhas. However, his non-selection in the IPL did not concern Miller.

"It doesn't worry me. There are a lot of tactics and strategies being worked out in the IPL, and he was obviously part and parcel of that," Miller said. "He'll have been practising and working in the nets so it's not like he'll have been without cricket. And he'll have gleaned and learned a lot from the IPL. The [lack of playing] doesn't interest me - what does is what he's learned."

Squad Paul Collingwood (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Andrew Flintoff, James Foster, Robert Key, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Eoin Morgan, Graham Napier, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright


Shoulders?-Stomach!

http://content.cricinfo.com/engvwi2009/content/current/player/247235.html

Oooh holy crap, 20 year old Chris Woakes has just destroy West Indies taking 6 wickets for the Lions. 6-43!

Just in case you were wondering whether he got lucky with a couple and finished off the tail, he dismissed the top 6 in the batting order.

http://content.cricinfo.com/engvwi2009/engine/current/match/383273.html

Currently on the scorecard Devon Smith is listed as scoring a 368 minute innings of 8 runs from 13 balls.


rjd2

after proving to be worst acquisition in the history of the IPL, KP has just been dismissed for a duck, sucks to be him right now.

rjd2

Bopara got a century, sorry bell and Shah we have our number three for the ashes!
I noticed Bravo is in the IPL still as aparantly he is not ready to play test cricket, its a pity because he adds so much to the West Indies. He is a super bowler, fielder, batsman, probably one of the best all rounders in the world right now.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

So is the IPL still on then?

Yeah, I don't want to blow my smug load but I'm glad England had the balls to select him at number 3. He makes a nice change from the unassertive Bell and Shah's nerviness (should he really be anywhere near a new ball on the first morning of a test match?).

I wasn't confident of Bopara by any means but I was and still am incredibly hopefully he could develop into a crucial player and after this he surely must be first in line for an Ashes space.

My best friend who I talk to the most about cricket and who knows far more than me has had a downer on Bopara which was based on a mixture of him being a bit of a cocky arsehole, being run out all the time and generally being out of his depth in Sri Lanka but I'm sure when I talk to him next he might be won round to the idea. I know for certain he doesn't have any better ideas, he was talking about Rob Key for christ's sake.

This series could do with Bravo for Windies and Flintoff for us, it's a great pity we have neither.