🏏 The Cricket Thread

[jmc]

They've still got Afghanistan to play too. lol

 

[Hound55]

Not as big as if India or Australia missed out but you watch the ICC make some changes after the tournament...

 

[regwec]

I hope Ireland get through- I'll support them while they last. Then it's probably NZ for me. At least Kane Williamson played for Yorkshire.

 

[Iceman]

Ireland needed Pakistan to keep losing didn't they? I haven't seen the group table in a while.

 

[regwec]

At the very least, I hope the dead rubber is used for some experimentation. Send Bell, Broad and Anderson home now, put Bopara and Tredwell in, open with Hales and Moeen, push Buttler up to number 3.

It can't get much worse. I really believe England need to develop separate test and ltd overs teams, with minimal crossover.

 

[Iceman]

Test and one day teams should definitely be specialist. Although there are some players who would be suited to both.

 

[Iceman]

England go out in the group stages for the third time in five World Cups

Just read that. I've kind of forgotten past World Cups but that's a terrible record for a so called top nation. I thought we would have done better given that we've had some good teams in that time. Did the KP teams do better?

 

[W/ Great Power]

Woke up and was informed of the loss when I saw some Facebook statuses from my family in England frustrated about the match.

15 runs? That had to hurt.

 

[regwec]

England go out in the group stages for the third time in five World Cups

Just read that. I've kind of forgotten past World Cups but that's a terrible record for a so called top nation. I thought we would have done better given that we've had some good teams in that time. Did the KP teams do better?

Not sure what you mean by KP teams, but his presence in the team has never been as talismanic as his fans think.

A much bigger loss has been the crafty spin of Graeme Swann, and the dull, steady, grafting batting of Jonathan Trott. When we had both of those guys at their best, we rarely had an unrecoverable collapse, and the opposition could rarely score freely in the middle overs.

The value of Paul Collingwood as an all-rounder was also immense, and was instrumental in leading England to take the Twenty20 world title (seems a long time ago). A decent death bowler like Jade Dernbach also used to help.

 

[Iceman]

Not sure what you mean by KP teams, but his presence in the team has never been as talismanic as his fans think.

A much bigger loss has been the crafty spin of Graeme Swann, and the dull, steady, grafting batting of Jonathan Trott. When we had both of those guys at their best, we rarely had an unrecoverable collapse, and the opposition could rarely score freely in the middle overs.

The value of Paul Collingwood as an all-rounder was also immense, and was instrumental in leading England to take the Twenty20 world title (seems a long time ago). A decent death bowler like Jade Dernbach also used to help.

Sorry it was a silly term to use. I was referring to the era rather than the player specifically although I can't remember whether we were just good at Tests or one dayers too at the time. For some reason I have little memory of one day matches even though I've watched all the World Cups. I don't think I took them too seriously, treated them as a bit of fun rather than the actual sport of cricket. And it goes doubly for T20 where I'll enjoy watching the big hits and forget about the match completely within a week (had forgotten we'd won the T20 World Cup too!). That's why that statistic about England going out at the ODI group stage 3 times out of 5 took me by surprise as I'd assumed we'd done better than that.

And as a fan of KP's ability I would say he is probably the very opposite of talismanic given his effect on the England dressing room, just an individually awesome one day (& Test) batsman when at this best. A bit like Chris Gayle (although slightly better and more consistent in my book), a bit of an ******* who can bat very fast when he gets in.

 

[jmc]

Not as big as if India or Australia missed out but you watch the ICC make some changes after the tournament...

The thing the ICC are always going to have to contend with is no matter how much they try and rig the draw in favour of Australia, India and England they are completely at the mercy of how the teams play. They've gotten lucky that India found form at the right time otherwise they could be teetering on the edge of elimination themselves.

 

[W/ Great Power]

Ireland actually put up a decent score against India:

259/10 currently at the innings break.

 

[Iceman]

Not bad yeah. Although India are cruising at the moment. 107-0 off 16 overs.

 

[Iceman]

Finally Ireland make the breakthrough. 174-1 off 23.2 overs. That's 7/8 runs an over lol.

 

[Iceman]

Final Score 260-2 off 36.5 overs for a dominant victory

64 for Rohit Sharma and 100 for Dhawan.

 

[regwec]

Predictable, really. I'll have my fingers crossed for Ireland vs Pakistan.

 

[W/ Great Power]

The stage is set.

I'll be online and posting here on Sunday night, that's for sure.

 

[Iceman]

No cricket tonight right?

 

[Hound55]

Sri Lanka vs Scotland.

 

[Iceman]

Oh I was being dumb. Looking at an expired browser window. Cool. Sri Lanka are a team I always wanted to do well.

Not long left of the group stage now. Time for some real drama.

 

[Hound55]

Last single game day of the pool stage tomorrow, then there's double-headers until the 15th...

Then two days off... then the Finals begin.

 

[W/ Great Power]

I don't see Scotland putting up 364 in this one.

In my opinion, the only double-header that's unpredictable through the rest of the week is Pakistan/Ireland.

 

[Hound55]

Yeah, generally speaking I think Scotland is better at defending a disappointing low total than chasing a big one.

Zimbabwe/India has me curious... and frankly I wouldn't rule out England underperforming against anyone, Afghanistan included.

 

[regwec]

England should just assemble a B team, who will play for fun and without negativity.

I don't think Ireland really have much to trouble Pakistan; as with England, the worry for Pakistan is that they have a knack of defeating themselves.

 

[Hound55]

I miss Australia A. Through the 90s Australia quite often hosted tournaments with both their regular team and a second Australia A squad which had fringe guys and quality First Class players who often missed the main Australian team more for political reasons rather than due to a lack of ability.

Technically they still exist, but just not on the same level profile-wise.