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Thread: Cricket Discussion!

  1. #1
    Banned strife_au's Avatar
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    Default Cricket Discussion!

    Yeah I don't care if cricket isn't popular...

    The current series between West Indies vs India in one dayers is quite interesting, I think West indies might just have a good chance of beating India in this series provided they get rid of yuvraj, Raina and dhoni quickly and the West Indies line up fire.
    hopefully Lara can score some runs under his belt before the test series... West India bowling attack looks quite good although in the tests they need more fire power... like have Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards and another bowler who can clock up to about the 90 mile mark like maybe Jermaine Lawson or Tino best (although he is in a very bad trot). I think thats probably the only way they can rip apart the Indian lineup.
    They also need some more stability and fire power in their middle order as Dwayne bravo doesnt seem to be contribute much at number 6... although Carton baugh is doing a pretty decent job slogging some sixes late in the innings.
    I feel they may need both Dwayne Smith and Ricardo Powell in their middle-lower order if they want to break the 250 run barrier most matches, because after lara and sarwan they dont have much striking power.
    But the problem is that they dont have the luxury of having many good multi dimensional allrounders in their team to have so much batting.
    India is a great one day side, and if dhoni fires i think its game over for the other team... more to come later

  2. #2
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    There's not as much a scope for strategy, defensive spells in ODI compared to Test Cricket.

    I pretty much stopped bothering about ODI unless it is World Cup.

    FYI, Cricinfo ran an interesting article about the current Indian ODI middle order as one of their strongest ever.

    Han Solo

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    lol I know ... the most consistent indian middle order. Not just relying on tendulkar, dravid or the dropped ganaguly ...
    cricinfo is my homepage lol

    one dayers are for entertainment... I hate how they comment on it being too batsmen friendly cos quite frankly I'd rather see more runs scored in one dayers than wickets falling constantly due to a pitch which has juice in it.
    twenty-twenty I think has help develop batsmen's into better hitters... even for test cricket.
    purist go for test cricket, which is very exciting stuff, I can stay glued to the t.v all day ... can't wait till the ashes
    Last edited by strife_au; 05-22-06 at 05:17 AM.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    I can;t wait for the Boxing day test this year as well.

    Do you know when he tickets are going to be sold?

    Han Solo

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    Banned strife_au's Avatar
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    June 1!!

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    West Indies 2-1 up in the O.D.I !! thanks to another sensational effort by Sarwan
    Sri Lanka in tatters against england... they have no hope playing vandort seriously... they were lucky to escape the first test unscaved cos england dropped so many damn catches.... this time they are gonnas for sure without sanath jayasuria.....

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    Bravo and Lara seal the series!!

    Playing what will probably be his penultimate one-day game at his home ground of Queen's Park Oval, Brian Lara produced a glorious matchwinning 69 as West Indies romped home to a six-wicket win to seal the series with an unbeatable 3-1 lead. Set a target of 218 after the Indian batting misfired again, West Indies stuttered briefly when they lost Chris Gayle, but Lara found a willing ally in fellow Trinidadian Dwayne Bravo, who remained unbeaten on 61, and their 91-run stand shut out all hopes for India.

    On a pitch which tested a batsman's run-scoring abilities - the pace and bounce was variable, and the spinners got significant turn - the Indians were again found wanting after being put in to bat. The West Indies fast bowlers - led by Fidel Edwards, who added impeccable control to his usual pacy offerings - shackled the Indian top order early in the piece. Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif subsequently injected some momentum with half-centuries, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni produced some fireworks at the end, but India were restricted to a total far below what they would have liked.

    The run-chase was to a large extent about Lara's magic, but the initial dent to the Indians' psyche came from Gayle's terrific blitz at the start. Two strokes were especially memorable - a one-handed hoick over midwicket for six off Sreesanth, and an apparently hurried defensive prod off Pathan that still had enough momentum to race to the long-off fence.

    Gayle slowed down noticeably after his frenetic start - his last 16 runs took him 40 deliveries - but by then the Lara show had begun. Hesitant at the outset, especially against Ajit Agarkar - again India's standout bowler - Lara gradually found his rhythm, pacing his knock quite superbly. The first few runs came mostly off singles, but as the confidence returned so did his breathtaking footwork against the spinners, which was easily the highlight of his innings.

    Ramesh Powar and Harbhajan Singh would have fancied their chances on this pitch, but Lara won that battle, and quite convincingly. His tussle against Powar was especially engrossing - Powar repeatedly tried to beat Lara in flight, and each time Lara rose to the challenge, padding it away when he wasn't to the pitch, but willing to take a few chances as well. A sashay down the pitch for a flick past mid-on off Powar brought up the fifty partnership, before he turned his attention to Harbhajan, in his last over. Twice, Lara shimmied down the wicket and hoisted him over midwicket for fours, and then followed it with a glorious lofted stroke - high backlift and complete follow-through - high over long-on for six.

    At the other end, Bravo, promoted to No.5 ahead of Wavell Hinds, proved to be an ideal foil, batting sensibly when Lara was blazing away, but then taking the initiative himself after the master left. He brought up his fifty by spanking a straight six off Powar, and his all-round display - he had taken three wickets with his usual clever mix of slower balls earlier in the day - won him the Man-of-the-Match award.

    If West Indies' batting was authoritative, their performance in the field was equally without blemish. Fidel Edwards ended up with only one wicket, but could easily have had a few more, and his economy rate of 2.37 suggests just how much he made the Indians struggle. Dravid, especially, was all at sea against the late swing that Edwards obtained. Ian Bradshaw kept up his excellent form in the series with two early strikes as Virender Sehwag couldn't repeat his St Kitts act and Suresh Raina failed for the second time at No.3. When Dravid was finally put out of his misery by Corey Collymore, India were struggling at 47 for 3 in the 16th.

    Yuvraj and Kaif then got together for the brightest phase of the Indian innings. From the outset, they looked to break the shackles, placing the ball in the gaps, running hard between the wickets, and putting the loose balls to the boundary. Their 80-run stand came in 16.2 overs, with Yuvraj - back in the side after missing the previous match due to injury - continuing the form, and the drives down the ground, which had almost taken India home in the second match. Kaif, meanwhile, produced his most fluent innings of the series. The runs under his belt showed as he timed the ball well from the start, getting off the mark with a spanking cover-drive, and then found the gaps far more consistently than he had in the previous matches.

    Once the stand was broken, though - and it took a magnificent delivery from Edwards to do it - West Indies tightened the screw again. Dhoni, struggling for confidence and runs in this series, was denied for long periods by deliveries fired in at the blockhole - there was a passage of play, between the 39th and 45th over, when Dhoni could only manage eight runs in 21 balls. With the overs fast running out, Dhoni finally got his act together, belted a few boundaries in characteristic style, but with Lara and Co. in such sparkling form, a target of 218 was hardly adequate.


    Kevin Pieterson aslo produced one of the most scintillating centuries you'll ever see... he decimated the great murali to all parts and yet murlai still destroyed the other england batsmen!

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    Lara seals hometown farewell 4-1

    A cavalier 62 from Dwayno Bravo propelled West Indies past 250, and three wickets apiece for the inexperienced duo of Jerome Taylor and Dave Mohammed then stymied India's run chase to ensure that Brian Lara's one-day farewell from the Queen's Park Oval would be a triumphant one. Virender Sehwag struck a magnificent, measured 95, but the inability of anyone else to go past 30 cost India dear as the West Indian bowlers overcame a mid-innings wobble to inflict another embarrassing defeat on a team that came here ranked No.3 in the world.

    Having set India 256 for victory, West Indies found the unlikeliest of new-ball heroes in Wavell Hinds. Corey Collymore tweaked his ankle in the very first over, but by then India were already one down, with Robin Uthappa having played an awful shot. Hinds, who had contributed 32 with the bat earlier, then had Mahendra Singh Dhoni playing on, as his promotion to No.3 failed to make the impact that India were hoping for.

    Sehwag started with a couple of flicks through midwicket for four, and though he was initially troubled by Mohammed - brought on as early as the 11th over - there were easy pickings to be had off the radar-less Taylor. A loft over cover, an exquisite square-drive and a delicate glance came in one over that fetched 19 runs, and when Mohammed was finally worked out, there was one huge six over long-off.

    Rahul Dravid had already gone by then, painfully slow to respond to a Sehwag call, but Yuvraj Singh made light of a crisis situation with some gorgeously timed drives. When Bravo, West Indies' go-to man in the series, came on, Sehwag responded with a superb stroke down to the sightscreen, and he celebrated a 53-ball half-century with a meaty biff through midwicket off Dwayne Smith.

    Yuvraj made effortless progress until his movement became laboured, and a beautifully disguised googly from Mohammed did him in, leaving Sehwag to shepherd the middle and lower order. The slide started with the return of Taylor, as effective in his second spell as he had been hapless in the first.

    Mohammad Kaif was too early into the shot, Suresh Raina replicated his Friday dismissal, and then, most crucially, Sehwag failed to read a slower ball. After going for 40 in his first six overs, Taylor's second burst of 3 for 7 effectively settled the game. Harbhajan Singh and Ajit Agarkar took India within reach but ultimately, like the entire team in this series, they fell well short.

    India had been insipid in the field as well, dropping two catches and conceding 13 wides and three no-balls in a listless display after Dravid won the toss. Both lapses turned out to be incredibly costly - Chris Gayle off the second ball of the match, and Bravo when he had made just 24. S Sreesanth was the bowler to suffer the first time, with Dhoni tipping the outside edge down to the boundary, goalkeeper style, while Agarkar was the one left shaking his head later in the innings, after Uthappa put down a relatively straightforward chance at deep square leg.

    Gayle made the most of the reprieve, and Sreesanth was left fuming after being crashed through cover, lashed over midwicket and then lofted over extra-cover and mid-on. Sewnarine Chattergoon had lasted just one ball from Agarkar, but with Gayle in insouciant mood, runs came at a rapid clip. Sarwan, by contrast, started hesitantly, and was fortunate when an outside edge just evaded Raina at second slip.

    Munaf Patel was initially economical without being especially penetrative, and with Gayle showing no signs of throttling back, Dravid had little option but to delay the Powerplays till the 17th over, by which time both Harbhajan and Sehwag had come on to bowl. Gayle didn't temper his approach, and a meaty swipe to midwicket and a well-executed reverse sweep from successive Sehwag deliveries took him past 50

    The very next ball, however, impetuosity got the better of him, giving India a glimmer of hope. That was the cue for delirium as Lara walked out to rapturous acclaim, and a magnificent square-drive off Harbhajan further enlivened the mood. But Sehwag's excellent spell, and Sarwan being struck a painful blow on the hand by a throw from midwicket, put the brakes on the scoring, as both batsmen found it an ordeal to time the ball effectively on a stop-start pitch. Sreesanth, who had gone for 25 in his first three overs, came back much improved, bowling two types of slower balls to confound even Lara.

    Sarwan went for 52, trying to force the pace, and though Lara struck a sublime straight six off Harbhajan, Agarkar's throwing arm was to prove too much for him. He walked off with 36 to his name, waving his bat in every direction, but there was to be no respite for India as Wavell Hinds and Bravo thrilled the crowd in the final overs.

    Bravo's running between the wickets was exceptional, with 10 twos scampered in his 50, and he thumped both Sreesanth and Munaf repeatedly over cover as the shackles were emphatically broken. Hinds also joined in, smashing two fours over midwicket before getting under a low full toss.

    Bravo was undaunted, playing with the confidence of a man who has turned more than one game in the space of the past 10 days. His unbeaten 61 on Friday was instrumental in West Indies clinching the series. Today, he went one better, and despite a heroic innings from Sehwag, it was enough to seal an emphatic 4-1 triumph for a resurgent side.

    WD WINDIES!!!

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    Fans furious at Cricket Australia at Ashes ticketing sale
    Cricket Australia sold more than 180,000 Ashes tickets in the first eight hours of trading, but the surge created by the Australian Cricket Family blocked online systems and telephone switchboards to leave many supporters empty-handed and angry. While hopeful buyers continually refreshed their browsers throughout the day, the first seat allocation in Sydney was snapped up by midday as ten seats sold every second.

    The first three days at Adelaide have also gone for the first time since West Indies toured in 1975-76, and the same response was expected at the WACA by the end of trading. Fans were encouraged by Cricket Australia to register for the so-called family in order to jump the queue, but those wanting to attend the Test in Sydney will have to wait for the general release on June 19 to try again. Almost 130,000 people registered for the priority scheme and despite Cricket Australia trumpeting the massive demand, the Ticketmaster and Ticketek sites were constantly down or busy throughout the day.

    Supporters who missed out have described the system as a "fiasco" and a "farce". "I became part of the Australian Cricket Family, but feel like a stepchild," Chris Flaherty said. "At age 53, do you think I'm too old to be adopted by a nicer family?" wrote Jillian Mitchell.

    "I am absolutely devastated and near tears," Cindy Gibbins said. "I was on the phone from 9.01am to 3.11pm and am still trying to get through. I want two tickets to the first day of the first Test, which is a tradition for my father and I."

    A Cricket Australia spokeswoman said the sales were the fastest for any season. "There have been some delays in some cities during the ticket sales process because of the demand," a Cricket Australia spokeswoman said. "Cricket Australia thanks Australian Cricket Family members for their patience and perseverance."

    More than 20,000 seats were still available at 5pm for Boxing Day, with 43,000 already sold at the MCG on a frantic day. In Brisbane there were expectations of a total crowd of 150,000 for the first Test, which would be almost 60,000 more than the record achieved in the 1932-33 Bodyline series. By 3pm 34,000 tickets had been snapped up for day one, with only 2000 remaining for the opening exchanges on November 23.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    i don;t think that i will get the ticket this year, seeing that i don;t know what my schedule is at the end of the year.

    Did you get any ticket strife?

    Han Solo

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    Quote Originally Posted by Han Solo
    i don;t think that i will get the ticket this year, seeing that i don;t know what my schedule is at the end of the year.

    Did you get any ticket strife?

    Han Solo
    No I probably won't be in australia by the time the ashes comes to Adelaide.
    Will be on holiday.
    A ticket was sold every 10 seconds >_<.. Mostly by people who is selling the first day tickets for like 14 grand on eBay.

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    Kumble and Munaf strike earlydamnit...
    West Indies 2nd innings (following on) R B 4s 6s SR
    CH Gayle c wicket-keeperDhoni b Pathan 2 3 0 0 66.66
    D Ganga b Kumble 26 66 3 0 39.39
    captain BC Lara not out 31 92 3 0 33.69
    RR Sarwan c wicket-keeperDhoni b Patel 1 10 0 0 10.00
    S Chanderpaul not out 3 11 0 0 27.27
    Extras (lb 1, nb 2) 3

    Total (3 wickets; 30.1 overs) 66
    things lookin pretty bad for W.I damnit!

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    England beat Wales but a lacklustre performance...
    England began their one-day season with an unspectacular 38-run win in their inaugural match against Ireland at Stormont. Before today, Ireland had played every international side apart from England - and the sell-out crowd were rightly expecting a riotous display from England. That they were made to work so hard - both in their batting and in defending the 302 total - spoke volumes of a team out of form, not to mention a plucky Irish side brimming with determination.

    Set a sizeable 302 for an unlikely win, they were given a confident start by Jeremy Bray and Andre Botha who put on fifty for the second wicket after Steve Harmison had removed Dominick Joyce for a duck in his first over. Although the early strike boosted England, it was a disappointing opening over from Harmison who twice conceded five wides, and the scattergun approach in his opening over rather set the precedent for an underwhelming 10 overs.

    Playing in his first international since before Christmas, his smooth approach to the crease and several rip-snorting deliveries gave the impression he was finding his form - but he certainly hadn't found his radar, which rarely pointed in the same place twice. So Ireland capitalised, with Botha cutting him with ease, and nudging singles without alarm.

    Indeed, Ireland at this stage were rollicking along at over six runs per over, until Bray - a gritty, impish sort of batsman - fell to Sajid Mahmood who, along with Liam Plunkett, showed the more experienced members of this new-look England side the benefits of bowling straight. Even Lancashire's ever-dependable Glen Chapple, making his debut for England, lacked spice and rarely threatened the stumps. Threatening the stumps wasn't something England's fielders could manage, either, in what was a dreadfully slapdash display. Even Paul Collingwood, so often faultlessly brilliant in the covers, took his eye off the ball as he and his team-mates slipped around Stormont as though they were playing in a tub of margarine.

    With the loss of Bray, the Ireland innings went into hibernation as Kyle McCallan and Botha nurdled a stabilising partnership of 58 with Botha bringing up a richly-deserved fifty. But their lack of experience told, and Ireland lost four wickets in three overs - two apiece to Harmison and Paul Collingwood - as the home side's resistance began to fade. Despite some lower-order entertainment, which finally woke up a subdued crowd, Ireland fell to a 38-run loss - but arguably left the field the happier of the two teams.

    "I thought they played really well, and put us under pressure," said England's captain, Andrew Strauss. "But we're pretty happy with the run out; most of the things we set out to do we did. Full credit to Ireland though who played really well, and showed what they're capable of."

    When Marcus Trescothick was bashing his 11th one-day hundred earlier in the day, it seemed England would waltz past the Irish without resistance. It wasn't to be. Only Trescothick had the application and power to take advantage of the treats on offer. Strauss, captaining England for the third time in one-dayers, played a fairly forgettable shot when he pulled the impressive Kevin O'Brien straight Botha at backward square. Worse was to come, when Collingwood drove uppishly, and wastefully, and Ed Joyce miscued a bouncer. Only Trescothick - pounding boundaries at will, and looking in wonderful form - could force the pace.

    Ian Bell, though lacking in any fluency, did at least partner Trescothick in a fine fourth-wicket stand of 142, but both fell in quick succession when the lure of the last ten overs proved too much.

    England were always likely to win - Ireland threatened briefly in their reply, but their inexperience told - but it was an underwhelming effort from them. They must lift their game, and fast, if they are to combat an energetic Sri Lanka at Lord's on Saturday.

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    Pretty appalling stuff... failing to roll over Ireland the minnows.
    Welcome to a vision of the not-too-distant future. In a little under nine months' time, the ninth cricket World Cup will be getting underway in the Caribbean, and on today's evidence it promises to be an event of unrelenting tedium.

    The plucky Irish, who held all their catches and produced moments of panache with both bat and ball, proved no match at all for a new-look, under-stretched England team. God alone knows how they'll fare against a side that actually gives a toss about one-day cricket.

    June was once the defining month of the English cricket calendar. The first Test of a season would take place in the opening week, and the Lord's Test - one of the three pillars of the social season, alongside Ascot and Wimbledon - would be wrapped around the penultimate weekend.

    Now, however, it is simply an excuse to unwind in the summer sunshine, as Andrew Flintoff demonstrated with his bucolic address to the nation from Frankfurt last week. There's only one World Cup that matters, as the ECB's schedulers have tacitly acknowledged.

    So, against such a backdrop of antipathy, what will this victory prove for England's cricketers? It provided a low-octane debut for Jamie Dalrymple and Glen Chapple, a chance for an emotional (and disappointing) return to old pastures for Ireland's former stalwart, Ed Joyce, and a morale-boosting victory ahead of a tough five-match series against Sri Lanka.

    At least, the England camp will claim it was morale-boosting. In fact, the flaws in England's performance were manifest. The state of their ground fielding was abysmal, while some of the shots that their top-order produced would have embarrassed ... well, the Irish. All seven English wickets fell to catches outside of the slip cordon, which was indicative of the freebies on offer, but only Marcus Trescothick, that great yeoman accumulator, had the nous to cash in while the going was so good.

    Duncan Fletcher stated after the one-day debacle in India that he already knew what his first-choice World Cup XI would be, which is either reassuring or alarming, depending on how you view it. But, Simon Jones's probable absence from all of England's winter plans is proof that nobody's fitness can be taken for granted. And so, if this is the sort of team that has to represent the nation come March, let's hope they are a little sharper than this when the going gets tough.

    This match, in fact, has been eerily reminiscent of another horrible victory - against Holland at the 1995-96 World Cup, when Graeme Hick anchored a flawed innings with an unexciting century, and England managed just six wickets in 50 overs in the field, as Klaas van Noortwijk and Bas Zuiderent ground towards an unobtainable target. It was one-day cricket at its very, very worst.

    England, however, managed to maintain that standard throughout their campaign. Four days earlier, they struggled to raise their tempo against the journeymen of UAE; two weeks later, they were panned by Sri Lanka (an ominous precedent) to lower the curtain on what remains their most dismal World Cup performance to date - and there have been a few contenders for that crown.

    Of course, this England team will cite several mitigating circumstances. Flintoff, as we know, is putting his feet up in Germany; Kevin Pietersen was rested to the disappointment of a large crowd, and though he struck in his first over, and twice more after that, Steve Harmison will be a tougher opponent when he has more international overs under his belt.

    Any one of those three could have delivered the killer punch, but that is precisely the point. In the absence of the star performers, England's reserves needed to raise their game - and by that I mean their intensity, their enthusiasm, at the very least, their ground fielding. And no matter what the scorecard tries to claim, they didn't.

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    India struck twice in quick succession to get right on top in the second Test against West Indies. Anil Kumble got a foot in the door when Daren Ganga failed to pick a googly and shouldered arms, losing his off stump. Ganga added just two to his overnight score of 26. Then Munaf Patel, bowling a superb line and length, pitched one up for the drive and got it to deviate just enough to take the outside edge of Ramnaresh Sarwan's bat. Sarwan, who faced 10 nervous balls including two close lbw shouts, made just 1, completing a forgettable match where he picked up a first-ball duck in the first innings. At 52 for 3, West Indies were in deep trouble, and Brian Lara was joined by Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

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