General Cricket Thread (It's Come Home)

And so the Ashes began today, Australia's big rivalry with its parent nation England.  Needless to say I'm tuning in to it, who else?

Australia just owned in the first Innings.  It's early yet and England can still turn this around, not to mention Australia has to follow this up with a strong performance with the bat for it to actually be beneficial, but it sure is cheering to see Australia start this series off like this.  Now for some batting.

Now do I let him have this, or do I really annoy...  Oh, it's an Aussie posting about the Ashes.  After that first innings, annoyance it is!  

Although maybe the thread with the highest views-to-posts ratio in the entire forum (seriously, it's ridiculous) serves a different enough purpose from this one.  What do other people think?

(Seriously though what happened to pretty much all of the England side?  Especially KP?  Oh well: come on Jimmy.  Maybe Pietersen will do his not-that-unusual trick of being alternately rubbish and brilliant, and score a century in each innings next match.

EDIT: Don't want to annoy you that much any more.  Oh well.)

Very well then, I shall rename it the Ashes topic instead.  


And christ that was a disastrous start to the Innings. No need to annoy me, Cowan just did so anyway. It seems every time I see him bat he gets out in some ridiculous manner.

Now all two of us will post in it. It'll be like the wrestling thread, only with two people posting instead of five.

EDIT:    

Oh well, nothing wrong with a small dedicated fanbase!  


And f***. Clarke just went. Whatever I was calling Englands first innings is now officially better used on Australia's so far.

Hence me dancing men.  

Still, Clarke at least stopped the hat-rick.

Juuuuuuuuust breaking the balla/athrun chain.

You must be taking the piss, Athrun.

The ashes how can anyone get excited theres only two teams in it, so engalnd beat oz or vice versa big whoop.

To which I retort, how can anyone be interested in wrestling? it's all fake.

Not a bad end to the day, all told.  Not a good end either: that would have been England being still in.  But not a bad one.

Balladeer wrote:

To which I retort, how can anyone be interested in wrestling?  it's all fake.

To which I retort: it's a soap opera, for boys. Like EastEnders, only less violent.

Phillips wrote:

You must be taking the piss, Athrun.

Course not.  It's not for everyone, in the same way Chess is not for everyone, but the talent required for it in both the mental level and the physical level to be at the top is what I find appealing.  As for the Ashes, I like cricket, was born in London, and raised in Australia since the age of 2 or so.  So the Ashes are the ultimate series between the two countries of my heritage, not to mention even ignoring that England and Australia are just plain rivals anyway.

Perhaps it isn't the most important thing in sports in general, but as far as Australia and England go it's the big rivalry in the sport that defines both our countries.  

masofdas wrote:

The ashes how can anyone get excited theres only two teams in it, so engalnd beat oz or vice versa big whoop.

That could be applied to any sporting rivalry mate.  

After all, most sports involve two people or teams dueling one another until a result is made.


Oh, and closing thoughts on the day, much the same as Balla, only more negative because Australia really seemed to try their hardest to mess up the excellent start they made when they owned England with the ball. But still, it's too early to count either team out just yet and we'll see what day 2 pulls up. I think after day two we'll be able to see whether Australia can hang in the match or lose it however. But then, the same applies to England once they bat again as it did Australia when they messed up, so we'll see.

my point was, like you say two teams like in a football match but there's another 18 teams in the league or at a world cup there's 32. I'm not saying cricket is bad but just the event, if it was a T20 world cup and either nation won surely that's bigger as you beat all these teams and the best in world.

And balla wrestling isn't a sport it's entertainment like any other made up programme or movie.

beemoh wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

To which I retort, how can anyone be interested in wrestling?  it's all fake.

To which I retort: it's a soap opera, for boys. Like EastEnders, only less violent.

Hmmmm...

(I've always found Eastenders as boring as... well, as watching cricket to be honest. A version which eschews the "normal people" for more violence doesn't really sound like my cup of tea. Each to their own, though.)

masofdas wrote:

my point was, like you say two teams like in a football match but there's another 18 teams in the league or at a world cup there's 32. I'm not saying cricket is bad but just the event,  if it was a T20 world cup and either nation won surely that's bigger as you beat all these teams and the best in world.

Even in things like that all sports have their rivalries, and when those rivalries get paired up it ends up being a big event for the two teams and their fans.  And different things have different places, the series is about seeing who is best overall rather than just who happened to be best in one match.  In a series of matches you may get lucky on one or two matches but the better team will win in the end, whereas in something like a tournament setting that isn't always a conclusive result.  

The allure of a tournament is the elimination factor and backing your team as far as they can go before their luck runs out.  The allure of something like a Test series is seeing which team is genuinely the better side.  At least that's the way I see it. And that's why I view the Ashes to have more importance than, say, the T20 World Cup. A duel between two of the sports greatest rivals.

Just to add my view on this thing.. Meh Cricket is sooo boring  

To be honest I'm not even really sure why I enjoy it myself. I think it's a combination of my dad having always watched the cricket, plus there being lots of lovely numbers to get stuck into, plus the Aussies frequently coming across as arrogant gits who need taking down a peg (sorry Athrun, but I think the team even go out of their way to give that impression sometimes. "Sledging" and all that). Not that they seem to have many pegs left to go down at the moment, anyway.

Let's not mince words, though: watching cricket is boring. For the most part, nothing's happening. I'd never watch cricket: I just follow the live updates on the BBC. I couldn't watch it anyway because I don't have or want Sky, but I'd never go to a live match or anything.


That said, roll on day 2. England need to get the Aussies out early before the sunlight rolls in.

Point taken Althrun, but still not my cup of tea. I know what your saying about rivals etc i always to get day of when MAN CITY play the rags as it's a huge event.

All I'm going to say at the moment is: thank goodness for Anderson.

Got to give a bit of credit to Smithy too.  I'd never heard of him before now, but he's put Australia back in the game.  Almost a shame that he mucked up.

EDIT:

The BBC wrote:

The new man is the rock-hard Brad Haddin. A key figure, the 35-year-old wicketkeeper recalled as vice-captain to add some experience. The sort that can bat all day. A single to get off the mark, then another trademark Hughes cut for four.

WICKET - Haddin b Swann 1 (Aus 113-6 29.1 ovs)

 

Holy cow, did our batting order get even worse than it was in the summer?  I've seen some poor performances this year, but this is just.... I expect this sort of play from Bangladesh.  Our bowling attack is great but the batting is just... well, to be completely blunt going by this innings it's complete shit.  114-8 is just pathetic.  That's bad even for a one day match, much less a Test match.

This has taken an amazing bowling attack effort and put Engalnd back in to a dominating position.  If their innings was a disaster this is a blasted cataclysm.

Each side has one good bowler and a couple of hangers on.  I'd like to see Siddle and Anderson playing dodgeball.

Looking at England yesterday, it was hard to understand why they were favourites.  Now, not so much.  I really miss the Aussie PM from our office.

EDIT: Jellicent isn't doing too badly though!

Yeah, the Australian batting has been in shambles for a while so I was actually kind of expecting this actually.  I'm sure you heard about the homework fiasco during the India tour for example, that's a good example of how the batting is at the moment.  A mess.  I just hope the new coach can get it sorted by the time England comes to Australia in the summer

But still, the tail is wagging at the moment, so we're not out just yet.  As bad as the batting part of the team is one thing it has got going for it is the bowlers can actually all bat a bit.  Still they shouldn't have to be picking up the slack of the actual batsmen.

Edit: aw yeah, a Six!  

What are the odds that Jelli gets bumped up a couple of slots in the near future?

EDIT: Flipping hell, where have they been hiding this one?  Or have Finn and Swann just given up?  "We've got our two wickets apiece, no need to try any more."  Come on, chaps!

Ah I see, and yeah, there's no way he'll be number 11 after this.  Honestly this is more impressive imo than a century from a normal batsman, and on his debut no less!  

And damn, another six, this guy's awesome!