General Cricket Thread (It's Come Home)

...I don't get it. I'm more concerned about Drunka getting AA. THIS WAS NOT INTENTIONAL.

Australia are the main host nation though, Mas.  The final, for instance, is played in Melbourne.  They haven't played NZ for a good while, but Oz are 2/1 favourites for the cup.  Both are decent, as you say.

And yup, Kumar Sangakkara is a very good batsman.  My favourite thing about Sri Lanka, though, is the bowlers.  They've got Rangana Herath, who looks like a bus conductor yet is absolutely lethal; and Lasith Malinga, who has the finest hair in sport since Valderrama.

Ohh as if you search the Cricket World Cup it says it's New Zealand but hey the Rugby World Cup in in England yet there's games in Cardiff.

Balladeer wrote:

...I don't get it. I'm more concerned about Drunka getting AA.  THIS WAS NOT INTENTIONAL.

That's because I messed up the joke. The Internet is a poorer place for its loss.

Let's talk about Drunka being in the Automobile Association instead! That's just - no, wait...

I'm all about the AA.

That said, I put my shoulder out by drunkenly lifting up a mate on Friday night outside the kebab van.

Pakistan and West Indies, eh? 14/1 and 16/1 odds from Balla's previous post. The worst from the top 7 and best from the bottom 7.

Can I swap West Indies for New Zealand with Mr ???, or am I going to have to learn what the West Indies are?

That's an idea: if nobody takes the final slot, I might let you swap Pakistan out for NZ and let Mas swap the UAE out for Bangladesh, as the worst teams in each list.

You will have to learn who the WI are, I'm afraid - but they're quite likely to win you £10!

Balladeer wrote:

Athrun888: England

Sorry to disappoint but they were actually my third wanted team.    I'm actually relieved that I got them, I spent all this time worrying I'd get India.

I'm more bothered by Scotland to be honest, I'll admit I had hopes of drawing a team like Zimbabwe, or at least not a team so rock bottom my local town side would give them a run for their money.

Balladeer wrote:

That's an idea: if nobody takes the final slot, I might let you swap Pakistan out for NZ and let Mas swap the UAE out for Bangladesh, as the worst teams in each list.

You will have to learn who the WI are, I'm afraid - but they're quite likely to win you £10!

I'll take West Indies as I know there decent with Chris Gayle

Erm... about that...

Also, today's humorous cricket picture is Kyle Abbott of South Africa:

Spoiler:

Ohh but there still better then UAE, Reckon I'm better then any of the UAE team.

Also dam it I'm looking at the Cricket thread also me and Drunka bright up Wrestling again somehow in relation to Cricket.

Well they are intrinsically linked. Which cricket fan can forget David Warner and Joe Root's epic cage match prior to the 2013 Ashes?

Sorry for the double post, but Treesmurf has replaced Mr. XXX in the draw! Which I'm afraid means that Mas and DL are stuck with their teams. My apologies, gents.

I have total faith in my teams.


:shrink:

The last time I drew Ireland in a sporting sweepstake they earned me the wooden spoon. Good luck to 'em - hopefully they've a better cricket team than a football team.

So, the World Cup starts tomorrow!  (This night for six of us.)  Good luck to all.  To give you a very limited idea of what to expect, here's how the warm-up matches panned out, complete with names tailored to the event (for clarity, you know) and the Balladeer Surprised-at-the-Result-o-Meter.

Matches:

Again, don't take too much from these.  The warm-ups use 15 players on each team, not eleven, and are low-pressure matches to give all the players some playing time.  Still, some interesting results there.  I'm rooting for Musichtenstein B (i.e. Zimbabwe) to surprise everyone.

Australia is, unsurprisingly, steamrolling England right now.  Engalnd's already four wickets down for a measly 71 runs, at this rate they'll be lucky if they reach 250 before getting out.  I certianly don't expect them to last the innings, and they've got no real hope of chasing down the runs.  



Oh, wait a sec, aren't I supposed to be cheering them on or something?  Umm, go England!  



You can do it!


I will say this in their favour mind you, that hattrick at the end of Australias innings was fun to watch. Some excellent fielding and bowling combined to net Finn not only five wickets in total, but ending the innings with a Hattrick literally on the last ball.


And while I was editing this the fifth wicket falls for only two runs what more than the total they had when I started writing this. All things considered I think I'll round my estimate down a hundred runs, they'll be lucky to crack 150.

Whee, England doing badly in LO cricket again! It's just like old times. And by "old times" I mean "current times". Dat James Taylor, though.

Smurf's looking good to at least reach the semis with New Zealand, unsurprisingly.

On the bright side they at least cracked the 200 run mark!  I really shouldn't be applauding such a minor feat but given the state they were in it's good to see they at least were able to pull themselves together and prevent a defeat of a farcical scale, not only that but to put over a hundred runs on the tally.  They may have lost, but at least they've put on a good show, and against lesser sides they should do a fair bit better.


Well that was a pretty crummy way to end the match, Taylor misses out on his century by a measly two runs. But not because he was out lbw, which was immediately reviewed and found to be missing the stumps. No, instead the ball was ruled to not be a dead ball, and Anderson was found to have been run out instead. A pretty crummy note to end things on all said and done, but it is what it is and Australia wins the match by 111 runs.

Taylor wuz rubbed.

In surprising news Ireland won their first match today, topping West India's score with 304 runs. Granted the West Indies aren't exactly a top tier team understatement of the century, but all things considered I'd say that's a pretty big achievement.

Good news for Zero! I reckon it'll be Ireland and Zim fighting it out for the best second-string side, unless there's a really good showing from Bangladesh all of a sudden.

Fingers crossed! I don't know the name of a single Irish cricketer (they're all married, see). *ba-dum, tish*

Oh, they're definitely not. In fact, there was an event recently, where an Australian man tried to blackmail Eoin Morgan for having previously dated his girlfriend. Er.

(Eoin Morgan, confusingly, is an Irish cricketer who captains England. Badly.)

Presuming that Athrun will be interested in this match: the hosts face off.  Possibly Drunka and the absent Smurfy as well.

Auckland looking like an awful cricket ground so far.  Too easy to clout balls for six.

EDIT: Well I was dead wrong!