Cricket

Nathan Lyon has a) just taken four wickets this Test match so far and b) is the anti-Warne but the Australian public love him?

Chris Gayle!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/apr/23/chris-gayle-fastest-century-cricket-history

and still going!

credit due but joke of a sport, t20

it's the Youtube highlights reel of international sport

Well done big man but you'd still have to pay me to watch the Royal Challengers Bangalore vs. Pune Warriors et al

Gayle, Dilshan, Vettori, Rampaul, de Villiers and Muralitharan vs Clarke, Samuels and Yuvraj doesn't sound so bad to me.

I can understand being sniffy about it not being "real cricket" but if you take it for what it is, it's an enormously entertaining tournament.

it is enrmsly entertaining (third game i attended in the past month). the only thing that keeps surprising me is how incredibly silent the crowd is. like gayle was on some crazy shit and the stadium was really quiet.

weird, they were the home side too.

i agree t20 is barely cricket but 175 off 66, whoo

"Gayle completed a fine day's work by taking two wickets for five runs." lol

the bangalore stadium is the only i've been too but the crowd is kind of impassive. of the three matches i saw, there was only one where they were into it (kind of repetitive though, they only chant RCB! RCB! over an over, sometimes they might have a small chris gayle chant) and that too only when rcb was batting. i don't know, i'm used to football crowds where there's singing and the stadium's rarely silent, but here it is more often silent than not, except for a bit of yelling for 6s and 4s. can't help that they have a terrible speaker who once in a while tries to start a wave or begins rcb chants. ab de villiers fielded right in front of me, the ppl around me were really into calling his name out, seems like a nice guy, kept turning around to wave to us. he's def the biggest crowd favourite, moreso even than gayle.

i'd compare them to the crowds i saw at the only baseball game i've ever been too (so maybe not representative of what baseball crowds are like usually), as in ppl are happy enough watching what happens and talking with their neighbors but not really supporting.

yeah sounds rather like mlb. so strange tho when the noise for the national team's short-form games is near-constant iirc

These are still relatively new franchises, I suppose. People come because they love cricket and the matches are exciting but club loyalty / passion might take a while to develop.

yeah. the game against mumbai, i was sitting next to a guy, we ended up chatting and the guy told me even though he was from blore and had lived his entire life there, he supported mumbai because of sachin. i guess i can understand that, dude is a god. so ya it'll prob take a while before there's a real supporting effort, even if some ppl are already really into rcb or other teams.

Record breaking week so far. First Englishman to hit six sixes in one over in professional cricket

http://www.espncricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/167800/167845.jpg

the brattish psychosis of someone who is going to absolutely decimate bowling attacks across the world for 20 years

He bowls pretty well too.

Zol will slay with icy precision, this dude will just obliterate without mercy. Worrying times for bowlers

Samson's still only 18 as well. He looks a hell of a player.

Just want India to pick the youngsters by this point. Stop fucking around with wasters like Raina

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BWNZKOgIcAAD-pD.jpg

fuckoffSouthAfrica

if there's one team in world cricket that could cock up a chase of 40 on a flat deck, it's Pakistan

Misbah and Younis ftw

Misbah should hopefully steady the ship.

In a way this is good for Pakistan - they won't be complacent before the next Test

job done

Cricinfo have a 'Cricketers On Twitter' box on their front page. Current top Tweet:

Graemefowler @GFoxyFowler
These fuckers take longer to turn on than my great Grandad's bellend ! #useless

;D

would quite enjoy seeing Pakistan's and SA's ODI bowling against Australia's and India's ODI batting right now

I spent too much time watching Sheffield Shield games without commentary yesterday.

Also, RIP Dave Warner's Twitter, heaven needed 12-year-old girl tweets like Warnie's and butthurt missives at everyone.

think Tino Best might be my favourite current cricketer

it's him or the two-headed Sangawardene sexbeast of destruction

I would like Tino a bit more if he was better at that whole bowling business but he is thoroughly endearing.

he's bowling a beautiful spell rn, which is what provoked the voicing of that sentiment

Shannon Gabriel otoh is a fucking disgrace to West Indies fast bowling

Holder looks by a million miles the most interesting young fast bowling prospect but appears to have been pegged as a one-day player

How is Shillingford doing? His bowling action is under investigation again.

he's bowling steadily without any doosras at all, which makes him somewhat ineffective

oh look here's Gabriel. make me eat my words

first ball hooked for four

second ball cut for four

this guy shouldn't be in international A-team cricket let alone a Test

think NZ might have the most sloggish batting line-up in Test history btw. there will be sixes

watching Best batting to save a Test is a singular joy

it must be nice watching a team with guts batting to save a test

Oh *shit* they're 50-4 chasing 112!! Serious torn loyalties as to which I should watch now

think the windies' race is run now. good effort tho

heads be rollin'

keep an eye on SA - India