Cricket

South Africa didn't really 'choke' - Pakistan has some great players. Their best form can beat anybody.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, June 19, 2009 8:02 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

odds on that on their best form they can't beat sri lanka. SA choked big style against spin in the middle overs.

interesting points though about the development of T20 - when it started it was a batsman-friendly slog fest, but this has been a tournament of bowling. shame about SA as Parnell was the best bowler of the tournament (Gul and Aamir ran him close). yet england's failure was down to batting deficiencies - we are behind the times as ever.

aamir? madness.

best bowlers are in the best teams and he's 17. not as destructive as angelo tonight but still well in control, great rhythm and pace.

aamir has been distinctly second-tier. gul, mendis, parnell, afridi have been the unquestionable bowling stars

hell, even graeme swann's ahead of aamir

i kinda <3 swanny but still this is unbiased judgement

Malinda's the best guy I've seen, though admittedly my access to the tournament has been limited. I've been very impressed with the format, much to my surprise. 40 or 50-over cricket is surely dead in the water, but test cricket looks even tastier to me because it requires basically the opposite qualities to 20/20.

(As an aside, how do we feel about a separate Ashes thread? This one's getting quite long, and on the off-chance that we get another classic I kind of feel that it should be properly documented for future generations)

Malinga? Huh?

Also, there's a thread on COGH for the Ashes. With my name in it. :D

aamir has been distinctly young for an international tourney. and while no major fireworks also no major embarrassment.

and please save me from the cantona-afridi axis of evil. it's a wankfest too far.

malinga has been excellent

Malinga has been good, if not quite up to the standard he set during the last 50-over WC. If he's the best guy you've seen, you've been ignoring large swathes of SL's bowling innings, especially the bits involving spinners.

Aamir has 'done well for a 17 year-old', sure, but this still doesn't justify the pedestal you put him on. I'd say quite a few decent 17 year-old bowlers would do ok if they had Afridi and Gul bowling alongside 'em.

i watch lots of cricket. malinga has bowled well this tournament and SL are still in it.

it's not an aamir pedestal, but your argument that he's only as good as the bowlers around him misses the point that his captain was prepared to let him open the overs against the tournament favourites, before afridi/gul bowled. and ok he didn't take 4 wickets but nor did he fk his team up.

There's a very good argument to suggest that opening the bowling is the least pressurised or important bowling role in this format of the game, hence why folks like Darren Sammy, Kieron Pollard, James Anderson lol joeks or Sanath Jayasuriya have taken the new ball in this tournament. Aamir bowls left-arm, which is already gonna get you some freebies, even at top-level. IIRC he got somewhat pasted vs. England's oh-so inept T20 batting line-up.

Malinga's been good but he's also been far more expensive than usual. Would dig out the stats but can't be asked.

It's one thing not fucking up, another thing entirely winning matches. Neither Aamir nor Malinga has really struck a decisive blow.

team game

Aamer wasn't really any worse than the rest of the bowlers against England and that was his first game so I'd cut him a bit of slack. He's definitely bowled a lot better since but is hardly threatening, just a tidy bowler to have as an opener.

Also Pakistan are more than capable of beating Sri Lanka on a good day, but all these years of supporting them makes me pretty sure they wont have two good games in a row. They're both pretty evenly matched otherwise. They've both gotten by on some pretty sub par batting performances only to be saved by their bowling.

Also! Comical Pakistani fielding is hardly worth noting anymore, but this made me laugh and laugh and laugh
http://static.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/105000/105043.jpg

At least Pakistan seem to have five or six batsmen who can turn it on, rather than Sri Lanka's three. And yeah, whatever's team game point taken. I've only got issue with those who would choose those particular bowlers for the pedestal! I'm not quibbling their selection or their contributions.

It'll be a good final, because both sides have superlative T20 bowlers.

I didn't see that incident bit apparently it was A+ lolz. Stick to bowling Umer

I'll say this: Malinga would be close to a world T20 XI. Maybe even in it.

go on then cards on the table, the best 3 bowlers of the tournament country matters?

gul, mendis, parnell, afridi have been the unquestionable bowling stars

― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Friday, 19 June 2009 22:32 (2 days ago) Bookmark

take out afridi perhaps

also, more importantly, hurrah for the fairer sex

England Women should be playing in The Ashes, they'd have a better chance. And as a bonus, since Collingwood is a girl so he can stay.

*limp grammar jibe*

more human beings like claire taylor kthx

i mean she's gotta be frontrunner for SPOTY, fuck Button

(intentional)

England Women should be playing in The Ashes, they'd have a better chance.

Er, they did. And they won.

And as a bonus, since Collingwood is a girl so he can stay.

And none of the men's test team are test players, yeah we know.

Hey lads, I'm only warming up.

That's fine, we're waiting.

well done on sri lankas dodgy lower order for getting a competitive score after being 70-6 and looking well beaten.
Pakistan should still win if they dont lose early wickets but with sri lanka's good bowling attack its a competitive score at least.

this is too easy for Pakistan

boring final

the crowd are quiet. Need a few wickets to fall quick to at least try make it more difficult for pakistan to win.

finally the crowd, realising its allover, have woken up and are celebrating

just like football world cups, a great tourney with a boring one-sided final as one team underperforms. Sri Lanka were never in with a chance,Pakistan always ahead and thoroughly deserved winners. Congrats to Pakistan.

Time for Official Ashes Cricket Thread 2009: England Vs Australia

Raises the prospect of day night tests

Andre Nel's a rum character isn't he? I mean, I'd seen him bowl in Tests, and knew about his suppsed alter-ego Gunter, but I went to the first day of Middlesex v Surrey yesterday and his oddness really stood out.

Following through to have words nearly every ball. HOWLING with despair when he felt that, if the batsman had played a different stroke and the ball had been a bit better, he might have got a wicket.

On one occasion when the ball flew through quite close to off stump he fell over as if shot, curled into a ball and started and went AAAAARGGGGHHGHH. He did get Shah's wicket next ball though, so maybe it worked.

Most amusingly of all he tried a weird double action for one delivery, which completely put him off his stride, the batsman, quite understandably, pulled out of the shot and moved away from the crease, the ball looped very slowly and very wide out of the top of Nel's hand, and eventually trickled into the perplexed batsman's toes. Whereupon Nel gave a MASSIVE shout for lbw. I think he was joking. I hope he was.

Highlight of the day - a 200 ball 48 from Billy Godleman. Jesus. Shah was good though.

And Harmison delivers a brute of a ball to Phil Hughes who can only fend it off to gully apparently. Should England play Harmison?

i say yes others say no

if we lose the 1st test he might get back in

Onions gets Ponting for 1 as well - loose waft apparently. I'd like to see Harmison play because I enjoy it when he sticks it up 'em so to speak, but I suppose selectors want people who'll repay them sticking with them, something Harmison has consistently failed to do. And, apart from the memorable opening spell at Lord's and those two amazing balls at Edgbaston (Clarke and Kasprowicz obv) he was our weakest fast bowler, in an admittedly strong attack. I say 'apart from', obviously they were all absolutely crucial moments.

the slow ball that got clarke was the pivotal moment in the series 4 years ago. That was the moment i realised we could win.I'll always thank him for that. Hes so frustrating as he has so much talent

That Nel post is quite superb.

Andre rouses the Cardus in us all

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/8128701.stm

ICC, please stop fucking around.

this is how nazi germany happened

"Some Test matches finish in four days and some in five and we want as many people as possible to turn up to these matches. We want Test matches in certain countries India to be more spectator-friendly," said Morgan.

I remember reading about a four day day night test match during the beer hall putsch, exactly the moment it started.

Nazis were always going on about the Four Hundred Year Reich Four Day Test

Quite a good barney going on on Sky just now, the Lancashire CC chief exec blaming everyone else (including the players!) for the match being abandoned on his waterlogged ground