Cricket: More Than a Game

So this game is going a lot better. Nice to see the Mighty # back in style. I think we should aim to get to 400-420 and put the Aussies in to bat an hour before lunch.

Amla was never going to keep failing. It was only a matter of time.

The tail has papered over the cracks of the top order for a while. That can't keep going either.

I wonder if any of us have it in them to grit out an innings and maybe some weather intervention.

Bruce wrote:

Amla was never going to keep failing. It was only a matter of time.

The tail has papered over the cracks of the top order for a while. That can't keep going either.

I wonder if any of us have it in them to grit out an innings and maybe some weather intervention.

I hear that Day 5 could be a bit damp, which might help our cause.

Once again, the top order f*cked up. The pitch is doing absolutely nothing, so it's incredibly disappointing to see them drop a bunch of wickets again.

Once they get the top order actually producing runs, then we might be in with a show.

Oy vey. Game ain't over yet.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Oy vey. Game ain't over yet.

Yes it is... oh god it is...

That's a bit more like what I expected from the Australian batting lineup. They still have this ability to absolutely capitulate at the fall of a wicket.

9 for 60! Ugh that is pathetic. 3-7 couldn't manage 10 runs between them.

That bating effort was a total disgrace. Obviously you can't win every game, and losing to SA in SA is not surprising, but go down with a little bit of a fight. At very least with the chance of rain tomorrow knuckle down and make sure the game goes into the fifth day.

I feel like this is the first time the Aussies have been challenged in 6 months and outside the openers they handled it about as poorly as they could.

So David Warner seems to be learning about grace in defeat from the English team. Two days later they are complaining about ball tampering, without having the sack to actually say as much.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/south-af...

MrDeVil909 wrote:

So David Warner seems to be learning about grace in defeat from the English team. Two days later they are complaining about ball tampering, without having the sack to actually say as much.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/south-af...

He's such a numpty

For all his faults - he certainly walked the walk.

The ebb and flow of this series has been great so far. Punch and counter-punch. Love it.

Bruce wrote:

For all his faults - he certainly walked the walk.

I thought I'd replied to this the other day, but obviously forgot to hit post. Very true, he's becoming quite a powerful test cricketer.

I like this from Andy Zaltzman.

Warner transmuting from a fist-flinging idiot with a seemingly endless collection of stupid things to say, into one of the most influential players in Test cricket with a seemingly endless collection of stupid things to say.

And we are still in deep shit, getting deeper. Not the best timing for Graeme Smith to announce his retirement. I'm sorry to see him go, but his form hasn't been great for a while.

A nice tribute from the same Zaltz piece linked above. Very long, but I'll quote my favourite bits.

His fifth hundred on these shores was at The Oval in the first Test of 2012. He and Amla laid the foundations for South Africa's 637 for 2, grinding England's previously-all-conquering bowling attack into a pulp in their wildly different styles, a good-cop-bad-cop combination that was like watching Margot Fonteyn dance with a rhinoceros. As an England fan, it was massively irritating.

...

There were times when he was almost comically vulnerable to swing, as when Matthew Hoggard left him face down in Johannesburg, as if he was desperately searching for his lucky termite Nigel in a crack in the patch, whilst the umpire's finger rose majestically skywards. As an England fan, however, these sporadic failings served only to make his triumphs against us all the more massively irritating. And all the more impressive. If Jacques Kallis was a one-man walking coaching manual, Smith often appeared to be the product of a rogue laboratory experiment to design a robot to teach young children what not to do whilst batting. Hands, arms, legs clodding off in all directions. Bat clumping down at mathematically unfeasible angles. Ball pounding the midwicket fence when it should by rights have been nestling in third slip's hands.

Despite his technique from the outer reaches of peculiarity, Smith's extraordinary eye (he has also pouched of 169 catches, mostly at slip), and his even more extraordinary will, generally prevailed. He averaged 61 in South Africa's Test victories, only fractionally less than Kallis, Amla and de Villiers (although, with fewer not outs, Smith scored more runs per innings in his team's wins than any of his Protean contemporaries and most of his predecessors).

I'm sad to see him go, as I've said before he's not popular here, but he really is one of the greats, and I would have liked to see him go out on a high. Opening batsmen don't seem to get that opportunity though. And batsmen who do don't take it.

Disliked him for the same reason I respected him - because he was good and from the opposition.

Aussie team seems to be the catalyst for a few blokes pulling the pin lately. Odd coincidence I'm sure.

The most nerve wracking 250 run win ever.

For all the bollocks he talks, maybe Davey Warner was correct about Trott.

Bruce wrote:

For all the bollocks he talks, maybe Davey Warner was correct about Trott.

Yeah I read that yesterday. Quite disappointing.

From what I have seen so far, the T20 World Cup is being played on schoolboy sized ovals. 60m for a 6 is a joke.

175 will be the par score for the tournament unless the pitches play up.

Bruce wrote:

From what I have seen so far, the T20 World Cup is being played on schoolboy sized ovals. 60m for a 6 is a joke.

175 will be the par score for the tournament unless the pitches play up.

Wait, there is a international cricket tournament going on right now?

AP Erebus wrote:
Bruce wrote:

From what I have seen so far, the T20 World Cup is being played on schoolboy sized ovals. 60m for a 6 is a joke.

175 will be the par score for the tournament unless the pitches play up.

Wait, there is a international cricket tournament going on right now?

Ha! Neither Oz, England or SA want to acknowledge that right now.

AP Erebus wrote:
Bruce wrote:

From what I have seen so far, the T20 World Cup is being played on schoolboy sized ovals. 60m for a 6 is a joke.

175 will be the par score for the tournament unless the pitches play up.

Wait, there is a international cricket tournament going on right now?

No, there's a beer tent slog on, apparently.

How hard are they praying for rain in Headingley?

England about to fall to 5th in the test rankings.
Cook seems to have lost the plot.

Watching Day 3 of the final Test vs India.

Can't decide which is worse - the Indian side, who are just a complete and utter disinterested shambles - poor on the field, club standard bowling and batting which isn't even that good, or the umpiring, which is nothing short of a disgrace.

Essentially, what appears to be happening is that the on-field umpires seem totally unconversant with the rules of the game. No balls have been missed by the bucketload (and we're not just talking about ones you can only see with two replays and a micrometer, but good size ones), and both Broad and Anderson were given out to shockingly poor decisions. I don't think DRS is active this series, either.

Here's a couple of tips for you, umpires. A batsman cannot be given caught out off his glove if his glove is not in contact with the bat (so Broad shouldn't be out), and a batsman cannot be given out LBW if the ball would not have gone on to hit the wicket (so come back, Jimmy Anderson).

I strongly doubt India will last the day.

davet010 wrote:

Watching Day 3 of the final Test vs India.

Can't decide which is worse - the Indian side, who are just a complete and utter disinterested shambles - poor on the field, club standard bowling and batting which isn't even that good, or the umpiring, which is nothing short of a disgrace.

Essentially, what appears to be happening is that the on-field umpires seem totally unconversant with the rules of the game. No balls have been missed by the bucketload (and we're not just talking about ones you can only see with two replays and a micrometer, but good size ones), and both Broad and Anderson were given out to shockingly poor decisions. I don't think DRS is active this series, either.

Here's a couple of tips for you, umpires. A batsman cannot be given caught out off his glove if his glove is not in contact with the bat (so Broad shouldn't be out), and a batsman cannot be given out LBW if the ball would not have gone on to hit the wicket (so come back, Jimmy Anderson).

I strongly doubt India will last the day.

Turns out they can't even last 30 overs...

I'd be pretty disgusted if I was an Indian supporter, but I have little sympathy as their administration has prioritized people who can play T20 and One-Day cricket.

The point was made during TMS that because the Indian Cricket Board don't allow their young players to play overseas, then they miss the exposure to pitches other than their flat dust tracks. Then when they come over here, or play anywhere where there is movement in the air, the players with poorer technique get found out.

That said, it's not just the prioritization of slog cricket that hurts the Test team, it was the complete lack of effort and any apparent attempt to fix the deficiencies which became apparent early on in the series. That shows a disrespect not just for your own supporters, but for all fans of Test cricket, because the last two matches were a procession of shots that weren't even club standard. When you watch England v Bangladesh (say), you get the feeling that the fault is with whoever promoted Bangladesh to full Test status, and that the players are genuinely trying. With this India side, you got the feeling that a number of them patently just didn't care, and that's what will drive the public away in the end.

-.-

Useless idiots

Anyone else going to the World Cup final next year?

SpaceDog wrote:

Anyone else going to the World Cup final next year?

I really should book some tickets to that...

Too late on the currently available tranches.

Might be some more later when the corporate troughs are known to be over-filled.

Bruce wrote:

Too late on the currently available tranches.

Might be some more later when the corporate troughs are known to be over-filled.

I just did a quick check, there are at least 2 B grade seats left.

I've got a couple of B tickets on the SE side of the stadium in Section M16

Yorkshire! Yorkshire! Yorkshire! Back where we belong - champions!