General Cricket Thread (It's Come Home)

This ODI series is hilarious.

First match: England win by 81 runs (D/L), Sri Lanka get 144 in second innings.
Second match: Sri Lanka win by 157 runs, England get 99 in second innings.
Third match: England win by 10 wickets, Sri Lanka get 67 in first innings.

So England will get thrashed again next match, maybe somewhere in the thirties, and Sri Lanka will score single figures in the decider.  If either team thinks this is decent practice for the World Cup, they're very very wrong.


Also for heaven's sake put Chris Jordan in the test team. Started off the season as the best bowler in the county championship, is now the best bowler (arguably) in the ODI series.

Two test matches against SL, both going down to the last over.  One should have been an England victory, the other a Lankan one.  Sadly the SL number 11, Nuwan Pradeep, was better at blocking than our own Jimmy.  Must be the hair.



It's like Samson from the Bible or something.

Anyway, at least this means that England can't hide behind their number 11 and Moeen Ali getting them out of jail.  Much though I love his creepy Titan-like grin and his choirboy origins, Cooky shouldn't be captaining.  He should be scoring double-hundreds while someone like... I dunno, Bell maybe?  Bell or Broad captains.  Rest of the batting line-up looks solid, just inconsistent.

Triple post, but it's another hilarious match and another Cook picture.



He seems to have a bit of Mitch in this one.  Anyway, India vs. England Test 1 featured:

• A really dead wicket;
  
• Mohammed Shami, the Indian number eleven, improving his best test score from in the teens to in the fifties;
  
• Jimmy Anderson improving his best test score from 34 to 81;
  
• Alastair Cook bowling utter shite for two of the last three overs, including an impersonation of Bob Willis, and a wicket! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBmY5Q58Yg4

Just look at those lower order scores.  Just look at them!

In a sad turn of events Phil Hughes, who was rumored to be on the cusp of getting back in to the Australian test team for next week's test against India has been critically injured by a bouncer today. He was knocked out at the scene and is in intensive care right now. My thoughts are with him and one can only hope he gets through this.

I saw that. Hope he recovers. Best wishes to Sean Abbott, too - he must be feeling horrible.

Yeah, can't forget about Sean Abbott either, the mental demons he's likely experiencing as the bowler of that delivery are likely very horrible and one can only wish the best for him as well.

The world cup of some form of the game starts soon right, should I care about England in it as I know when the rugby & women's football starts I will care about those.

Erm... I don't care about any World Cup apart from one of the two cricket formats (the other is "joke cricket"), so I'm probably the wrong person to ask? England are rubbish at the limited overs games in the World Cups anyway, so if you do plan to follow it, prepare for disappointment.

Then again, as an English football fan you're probably okay with that.

I don't even know what format is coming up or what is the joke format is the only one I can stand is T20 & maybe ODI as it's quicker and doesn't take 5 days to what might still end a draw.

I actually barely follow England in football it's just there, I didn't watch either game recently but did watch the women play Germany on Sunday. And weirdly in rugby my welshness comes through.

T20 is definitely the joke format. All strategy, all attempt to build an innings, goes out the window in favour of wild slogging. ODI (which is this coming World Cup) at least has an element of innings building to it.

Tests are still king, and Athrun (and Oldschool) will agree with me on this. Yes they can end in a draw after five days, but edging to that draw can be one of the most gripping things for the almost-down-and-out team. (Granted, you can also get high-scoring bore-draws, which nobody wants.)

I prefer the wild slogs and razzmatazz that T2O brings.

I do get the whole strategy thing hence why I've said before I can see you being a fan of American football balla.

Must be that time of the year for me to go BBBBBBBBBOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!! Again


Though honestly I've had to sit through a T20 game and I wasn't bored :affraid: I didn't mind seeing them try and slog it


EDIT: So I just saw on Twitter that Hughes has passed away.

In even sadder breaking news Phillip Hughes has now passed away, this has been absolutely tragic and my thoughts go out to everyone involved.

Yes, I can't even be annoyed with Shanks at the moment. Poor Hughes family.  Poor Sean Abbott.  And poor every other batsman, suddenly aware of his own vulnerability.

Took it upon myself to change the title of the thread.

It's a good change, respects must be paid. And speaking of paying respects, the first test match has been officially postponed until further notice, and the funeral is to be held on wednesday the third of december.

After that, though, I really do think that cricket must move on.  The NZ vs. Pakistan test has apparently had a very gloomy ambience to it, despite BMac scoring the fourth-fastest double century.  And I'm sure that's not what Hughes would have wanted: he'd have wanted more good-quality enjoyable cricket, bouncers and all.

Cricket in general, yeah, but it will possibly take some time for Australian cricket to get back on its feet.  Warner was at the match from what I've heard and a former team mate of Hughes at the state level as well I believe, and Clarke today in a press statement could barely keep back the tears, so if that's anything to go by I'd say the majority of the Australian cricket team isn't mentally fit to play any time soon.  As right as you may be about what Hughes would want this loss has left them wounded, and that will need to heal before more cricket can be played properly.

That's fair enough. The people there at the death blow, and those who knew Hughes well, are going to take longer to get over it.

And suddenly all the feelings have risen up again. Michael Clarke - the tough dog, Mr. "Get Ready For a Fucking Broken Arm" - has just reduced me almost to the brink of tears. Great speech. I don't think I'll ever be able to loathe him again.

I only saw snippets of the speech because there was an absolutely massive thunderstorm overhead while it was on and I couldn't have any electronics plugged in because of potential power surges frying them, but the snippets I saw later were incredibly moving.

The first test against india is underway, it's been slow and steady for australia currently sitting at 3 for 263, although really it's more like 4 for 263 because clarke has tragically fallen victim to some kind of back problem (recurring or new it isn't know yet) and had to leave the pitch, which is a real shame because he was on absolute fire at sixty and looking like he was in the zone and he and Warner were about to take the match away.  For him to have to leave the pitch under those conditions this match of all matches must have really hurt.  

Warner has also had a fantastic innings.  He made 145 off of 166 balls, falling victim to one of his only misplays when he sied the ball.  To be fair the ball almost made it, but alas almost doesn't cut it and india had their breakthrough wicket.

In news on Clarke, he's left the grounds for scans, really sad news.  There was hope that it was just a rogue spasm and that he could come back later, but it seems like that's not the case.  


Few hours later and Smith is doing extremely well, his 72 runs just kind of crept up on me.  Alas we're at the tail end now and with Loyn just getting out for three we could be on the edge of a collapse.  But we'll see, if Smith keeps it together and his partner can hold down the other end another fifty or more runs is still very realistic.  Haddin is no slouch with the bat so nothing's over yet.


All up a fine day of cricket, both teams did well and India managed to turn things around just in the last over getting Haddin out.

I'm afraid that I haven't had so little interest in a Test series since Bang v. Zim.  At least in England v. India, there was a feeling that India could take advantage of the England team's weakened mental state (for the first 2.5 Tests anyway).  There's nothing like that here.  I'll start paying attention if India win a Test, but I see a whitewash on the cards, especially since this Adelaide Test should be the least pacey (and hence most even) of the four.

Well done to Clarke for making it back out there, though, but he ought to rest for the World Cup.


I'm more interested in (and entered the thread to post about) Sean Abbott's six-fer for NSW, including a wicket taken by a nasty bouncer.  Onya Sean, as I believe they say "down under".

The test has been a good watch honestly, entering day five with any result still completely possible is a rare treat.  India looked like they might be finally losing their mental edge at the end of play today however, there was a bit of clear frustration going on and a bit of verbal fencing between Smith and one of the bowlers who thought smith should be out.  Still, hopefully they'll get their heads back in the game and tomorrow proves to be as good as it's looking like it might be.

Speaking of clarke's batting performance, Warner has been pretty amazing as well.  Almost one and a half centuries the first innings, and now another century the second innings, all after the really rocky last couple of weeks. He's had a bit of a spotty past but it's been good to see him grow as a player over the years.

And yeah, I heard about Sean Abbott's six wicket haul, it's great to see he's made it back after what happened.

Seen on Twitter:

"TEAM STATS
Mitches: 3
Marshes: 2
Mitch Marshes: 1
Non-Mitch Marshes: 1
Mitch Non-Marshes: 2
Non-Mitch Non-Marshes: 7
Non-(Mitch Marshes): 10"

Today's picture of a cricketer looking a bit stupid is Dale Steyn!