Cricket: More Than a Game

Not to worry, I was supporting your enthusiasm, Bob Woolmer was a freaking genius, he's a sad loss.

For some reason, Haakon, when I read your post about the book, I scan-read it as 'Mike Gatting's training regimes', and wondered how many pages you would need to write 'open mouth > insert pie > chew > back to start'

While I also practice the Mike Gatting school of cricket (cream scones with strawberry jam are the key), I don't think that will help me develop a better square drive.

davet010 wrote:

For some reason, Haakon, when I read your post about the book, I scan-read it as 'Mike Gatting's training regimes', and wondered how many pages you would need to write 'open mouth > insert pie > chew > back to start' :)

Haakon7 wrote:

While I also practice the Mike Gatting school of cricket (cream scones with strawberry jam are the key), I don't think that will help me develop a better square drive.

:D

Thats just quality fellas

Australia A beats India in India. Now if only they were any good at test cricket.

Well, the first SA/England one dayer is supposed to start in about 5 minutes, but unseasonal torrential rains and flood warnings make this doubtful.

A side note. One of the running jokes here at the moment is:

Q 'Where do the English cricket players stay when in South Africa?'
A 'At their parents houses.'

MrDeVil909 wrote:

W 'Where do the English cricket players stay when in South Africa?'
A 'At their parents houses.'

I love it. You guys can have Pieterson back, if you really want him. We'll hang on to Trott.

And good old Colly. He was due a good knock.

Pfffftt, no thanks. The English gave KP a contract, they asked for it.

Yeah, nice one for Colly. We batted well up front, shame about the middle order. And our bowling is still a cause for concern. Centurion also really doesn't seem to offer any of our bowlers something to use, we were looking very tame.

I was waiting to see whether Collingwood could also bring up a century of 'Y'knaa..' during his interviews, think he finished a little short, although at one stage it was looking promising..

There's something about The Great I Am Kevin Pietersen that just riles me. It's a pity he didn't opt for Australia, as they are also keen on self-promoting gobsh*tes.

And although it pains me to say it, as a Lancastrian I can't fathom for the life of me what Mahmood is doing out there. England really are cooked if that's the best we can come up with.

davet010 wrote:

And although it pains me to say it, as a Lancastrian I can't fathom for the life of me what Mahmood is doing out there. England really are cooked if that's the best we can come up with.

Damn skippy. His control is all over the place, even if he does produce the occasional peach. Just looking scary-as-hell is not enough.

Why isn't Onions back in? I rate him way over Mahmood, even if he doesn't have the same pace.

Looks like Gibbs has got the call, again. Happy with that, DeVil? I admit, that makes me alittle nervous. He's an old war horse that still has some kick.

Haakon7 wrote:

Looks like Gibbs has got the call, again. Happy with that, DeVil? I admit, that makes me alittle nervous. He's an old war horse that still has some kick.

I'm ambivalent. Our batting needs some spark, which he can provide, but he's wildly inconsistent. He has been batting well for his province though, so maybe some time in the trenches has helped his form.

It's still our bowling that worries me, Parnell is back for the Newlands game, so if he's on song that's a good thing. But I think he's under a bit too much pressure for such a youngster.

We need to win 3 in a row now, so it's good to see the powers that be trying some options.

Well, that all seemed to work for you lot - good batting from the top two, excellent knock from de Villiers, and a total that England were never going to be able to chase down. Only Collingwood and FIGJAM put up any sort of decent score, and once the latter was out and then Morgan went for a duck, Collingwood just ran out of partners then ran out of steam. All started with the bowling though, too much poor stuff pitched short. SA's bowlers played their part too, Parnell bowled very well and the spinners generally put the brakes on in the middle and forced England into risky shots, although partially understandable with the required run rate at 10 an over.

What was interesting, certainly in the commentary we get over here, is that they are almost starting to treat these ODI's as 30+20 games....looking at the score with 20 overs left and indicating that even though England needed about 200, in idiot cricket that would be regarded as an achievable target. I'm not sure how this squared with England being 4 down at the time, but I guess it was one strategy for Bumble and Gower to try and keep people viewing. I must admit to chuckling though when Gower (I think) handed over the mike after his stint to those 'great friends' Nasser Hussain and Sir Ian Botham, who I'm sure everyone knows can't stand each other.

Missed the game because I had to go to a braai with GF's family and no-one else watches cricket.

Nice to see a convincing performance, especially by our bowlers who have been a concern, mostly due to lack of experience. There's something like 115 caps between them because of the current focus on building up to the WC.

And good, dominant batting. Hopefully we can do it two more times, can't lose to England at home.

*edit*

Ok, just finished the match analysis. Nice to see Morne Morkel back on song. His bouncy deliveries are killers, if he can hit his spot. JP Duminy is also set for big things as an all-rounder. Kallis is becoming injury prone, so the deeper our bowling line up the better.

And it's nice to see a stronger focus on running singles by the batsmen, you can't rely on bad bowling all the time to allow you to cross the ropes.

Bit more like it from England today, 100% improvement. Bowling was much more sensible, catching was excellent - only Wright was not accurate in the bowling department, and then he made up for it with an excellent one handed catch to dismiss Petersen. Last match in Durban on Friday.

O.O

Holy crap!

Aussies have smashed the West [i]Indies by an innings and about 100 runs, inside of 3 days... Was a complete massacre and doesn't bode well for the entertainment value for the rest of the summer.

was that ever going to go another way?
With the senior players having been on strike it is hard to believe the windies are match fit.

superslug wrote:

was that ever going to go another way?
With the senior players having been on strike it is hard to believe the windies are match fit.

That still on? They really should be barred from the game until they sort their issues out, it's making for really boring cricket.

the players are back so I assume they have sorted it out. It does mean that none of them have played any international cricket recently though.

Nice to see England brought their 12th man, the weather, to steer us to a superb 2-1 limited overs series victory

davet010 wrote:

Nice to see England brought their 12th man, the weather, to steer us to a superb 2-1 limited overs series victory ;)

Yeah, what a damp squib of an ending for the tournament. First time we've lost a one day series at home since 1997, iirc.

Oh well, England were much better than anyone had reason to expect, I think complacency cost us.

AP Erebus wrote:

Aussies have smashed the West [i]Indies by an innings and about 100 runs, inside of 3 days... Was a complete massacre and doesn't bode well for the entertainment value for the rest of the summer.

Dunno about that, Erebus...I was watching the last hour or so of today before I went to work, and that was pretty entertaining. WI were a wicket away from getting into the tail, and there were some pretty loose shots just after the final drinks break.

australia pretty much closed up shop when ponting got out though. Gayle should have sent them in in the morning then it would have been a tight finish either way.

First day of the first SA/England test ended decently for us after a bad start. Nice to see each batman, except Smith, contribute.

Hopefully we can go on to a decent score, I'm still concerned about our bowling attack in Centurion, but it will be nice to see Makhaya Ntini back in action.

England clinging on by their fingernails for a draw after looking like possible winners at one stage. Collingwood pulled his usual defiant last man act, but that was a bit close for comfort. Not a bad result considering England were playing with 9 men....Cook and Bell must have pictures of Andy Flowers in a compromising position or summat, because there can be no other reason for their continued selection.

Graham Smith did look continually bemused by the failure of what must be one of the most awful looking strips I've ever seen to play anything like as badly as it looked. And I'm not quite sure why he brought Ntini on for the last over..yes, it would have been a nice story, but he didn't really bowl well enough during the game for that.

This was a really weird game, each innings had one outstanding batsman and one outstanding bowler and the advantage see-sawed wildly.

If KP hadn't thrown his wicket away England might possibly have taken it. The stats were against them, but all records get broken eventually.

Our guys really seem to struggle in Centurion though, I'm reasonably hopeful for the rest of the series.

I'm hopeful as well, so long as England ditch them two dimwits.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

This was a really weird game, each innings had one outstanding batsman and one outstanding bowler and the advantage see-sawed wildly.

If KP hadn't thrown his wicket away England might possibly have taken it. The stats were against them, but all records get broken eventually.

I was really hoping that Trott and Pietersen would make a good run at the score. Even if they didn't get us up to the mark, it could have made for a fun chase and would have put you lot on the back foot. Instead, KP throws it away and Colly has to save the day.

I'm going to miss the second test, but I agree with Dave. Bell's got to drop. I like the Wright option to add some more complexity to the bowling attack and some batting fireworks late in the order.

Haakon7 wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

This was a really weird game, each innings had one outstanding batsman and one outstanding bowler and the advantage see-sawed wildly.

If KP hadn't thrown his wicket away England might possibly have taken it. The stats were against them, but all records get broken eventually.

I was really hoping that Trott and Pietersen would make a good run at the score.

Well, they successfully scared the crap out of me.

That was really the most ridiculous run out I've ever seen, and I've seen some bad ones. I wonder if KP isn't a mole.

Onions did pretty well at the tail as well. We managed to keep him on strike and he survived, he definitely deserves props.

I fully expect that if England had lost that game due to Petersen's gormless running (and it truly was, how many times did Trott yell 'NO' at him ?), you'd have seen signs at the second test reading 'Well done, Agent Petersen !'.

Just a good job that we had Brigadier Block left....