Cricket

The kids in Mumbai are right, Test matches are old hat. ODIs are back! THREE-NIL!!!

Cameron White should stay in at No. 3 btw. Ricky can have the rest of the tour off.

Please, folks, a big hand for your Natwest Series winners!!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_al_2n52q1Eo/Rs6nfdHJuRI/AAAAAAAAANc/VuNfdaqGmR4/s1600-h/1077519.jpg

Shah hits form!

hell freezes over too

pigs in the sky celebrating Owais Shah

out for 98..

wtf england, a win again and SA are out!

how the fuck did this happen lol

never in doubt

sting in the TAIL

nice to see a bit of fight from england. gonna have to take early wkts though or its in vein

vein?

i know what i meant

would help if we knew how to run between the wickets etc etc

anyway, will require good bowling now

omg worcestershire just signed SHAKIB AL HASAN

this makes me so happy it is unreal

also India are getting mashed at home after winning the toss XD

If Sachin Tendulkar scores 200 runs in an ODI and Louis is not around, does it make a sound?

He's the man, but I'd dispute the Beeb's assertion that he's the finest batsman to have played the game.

was going to bump this thread actually, and echo neil's sentiments

Agreed. Not really suggesting him as an alternative, but I saw some footage of Archie Jackson last year - Scottish born Australian batsman, contemporary with Bradman. Died v young of tuberculosis.

Not only was extraordinarily graceful and athletic, lithe almost, but he looked completely different to every other batsman for the reason, easy to discern to the modern eye, that he looked, to the degree that this is commensurate with grace/athleticism etc, looked like a batsman of today.

Extraordinary to watch and curiously moving.

tried to watch the highlights of this on youtube. damn, the BBCI works fast.

*BCCI. anyway there's one clip of the celebrations set to some boshing music.

IPL is live on ITV4 this year...interesting

In this warm-up game instead of the conventional method of trying to bowl Bangladesh out so they can bat again, England have gone the other route and tried to give them as many runs as possible to encourage them to declare so we can bat again. Isn't this, ah, rather an interesting take on competitive sport? I mean, I know these warm-up games are often just contrived ways of giving a side match practice but 111 off 5 overs for Cook (bowling this is)? 78 off 4 for Carberry? What the hell kind of practice is this anyway?

it's only a warm-up game

Yeah, maybe, still pretty shoddy I think. Bit patronising to Bangladesh as well, several Test players in there and it's a warm up game for them as well.

i gotta say, my problem with it is minimal, although maybe some of the stronger nations wouldn't have resorted to such tactics...cook is a new captain

good game for tredwell and trott, not to mention raqibul, who i'd written off

Fair enough. Not worried about KP either, he usually rises to big occasions and has occasionally failed to rise to smaller ones. Tho he might well be concerned i suppose.

drop him and play steven davies imo

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47445000/jpg/_47445447_sp_466.jpg

What did these guys actually do? The quotes makes it sound most heinous: "For the shameful act of Shahid Afridi, which has brought the game and country into disrepute, he be fined Rs3m", etc.

its sad, he tried to eat the ball :(

yeah he tampered with the ball - poor form but it happens, but openly chewing on the ball is a bit much!

if the PCB have a spine they should also ban inzamam ul-haq from holding any position there - he's been doing a fair bit of the destabilising himself with a view to getting the coaching job, apparently

lol ok the IPL is all on Youtube

Glad we got Tamin out (he was dropped twice) but that was a brilliant knock. I think the pressure of trying to become only the 5th batsman ever to get a century before lunch got to him. Well done Tredwell getting his 1st wicket.

Would have liked to have seen him getting his century tbh. Especially since the decision looked a bit dodgy.

^^^agreed

interesting day's play. sadly for bangladesh i fear their bowlers will once more be shown up horrendously

FOR FUCKS SAKE COOK USE A THIRD MAN.

Lord help us if Strauss loses form and has to quit as captain. Cook doesnt have a fucking clue about field positions.

christ, he puts a third man in, then removes it with 2 balls to go. and then right away the 20th 4 down to third man today. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, Captain Cook sends Ian Bell to the third man boundary. In other news, a number of stable doors have been slammed following a number of escaped horses. Then, for no adequately explained reason, the third man is removed - and equally predictably, Bresnan finds the edge and Naeem profits from another four through third man! The TMS crew seem as exasperated by this as I am - Butch now estimates 50 runs have been leaked there this morning.

Everyone watching this is fucking screaming at Cook , is he the only one who cant see the runs England are haemorrhaging down to 3rd man?

419 all out.

Cook hasn't been that impressive has he? Cautious is fine, I guess, but it's been really stodgy and wooden (perhaps in some respects a bit lack his batting, if I was feeling unfair). Like the fielders at mid-on and mid-off yesterday, allowing the single, but also positioned far enough in to be hit over the top of.

I know people will say it's early days, but I seem to remember being quite impressed with Strauss when he first came in (before the interregnum of Flintoff and Pietersen etc), and slightly surprised they didn't have him for the 2006/7 Ashes.

lol cricket

Jonathan Trott's innings was quite something. Slower even than that Billy Godleman one I saw at Lord's last year.

he will hit 200 and be crowned our new lynchpin

or he will succumb in the morning as england tediously crawl* to within 20 of bangladesh

*graeme swann will not crawl

Embarrassing stuff by England. Trott out, Prior was plum LBW but the umpire didn't give it.

RIP Alec Bedser http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/8603054.stm

he'd have never stood for this twenty20 boiling ;-)

but yeah, RIP, he was actually pretty good

bit of an understatement there Lol J

nice username btw