The Cricket Thread

[capriccioso 2,545]

Well, this opening partnership has pretty much ended the contest.

Another 60-80 run partnership after this one and India have it in the bag.

[Ankit 3,176]

India are just a wicket away from crumbling. Why did you retire VVS?

[capriccioso 2,545]

Raina is offensively awful.

[Ankit 3,176]

Raina is offensively awful.

He has a long way to go to cement his place in Test Cricket. Good ODI player but on fast and bouncy pitches, one short ball and he is walking back to the pavilion.

[capriccioso 2,545]

He has a long way to go to cement his place in Test Cricket. Good ODI player but on fast and bouncy pitches, one short ball and he is walking back to the pavilion.

It's not only that. His mentality is unsuited for test cricket. He's just too aggressive. You can get away with that if you are Sehwag or Gilchrist, but those two are among the greatest of all time to play the sport and its foolish for young players to try and copy them.

[Ankit 3,176]

It's not only that. His mentality is unsuited for test cricket. He's just too aggressive. You can get away with that if you are Sehwag or Gilchrist, but those two are among the greatest of all time to play the sport and its foolish for young players to try and copy them.

It's because of T20 cricket. Isn't it?? I mean most of the crowd if you ask them would watch a T20 match rather than a Test Match which is just sad. So kids today find it an easy way to stardom. Play aggresive cricket, find a IPL team and voila you are famous. Raina is that very breed. Take for example Pujara(the guy who made a century in the first match against NZ and some 40 odd runs in 2nd innings chase). He is famous through the domestic scene of being a guy who once settles in goes on to make heavy runs in an innings. But he takes his time and hence no takers for him in T20. On the contrary is Ravindra Jadeja.That bloke played some good shots in IPL 1 and guess what, he was in ODI squad before Pujara. Thank god he is no where near consideration for ODI now and he will never come close to being a test player.

I don't think Raina can ever make a cut into test team. Once Yuvi regains his fitness, Raina will be on sidelines. I just hope there are more youngster like Pujara who won't go toward the glamour side of cricket and concentrate on being a Test Player.

But with IPL circus, i don't see it happening.

[capriccioso 2,545]

It's because of T20 cricket. Isn't it?? I mean most of the crowd if you ask them would watch a T20 match rather than a Test Match which is just sad. So kids today find it an easy way to stardom. Play aggresive cricket, find a IPL team and voila you are famous. Raina is that very breed. Take for example Pujara(the guy who made a century in the first match against NZ and some 40 odd runs in 2nd innings chase). He is famous through the domestic scene of being a guy who once settles in goes on to make heavy runs in an innings. But he takes his time and hence no takers for him in T20. On the contrary is Ravindra Jadeja.That bloke played some good shots in IPL 1 and guess what, he was in ODI squad before Pujara. Thank god he is no where near consideration for ODI now and he will never come close to being a test player.

I don't think Raina can ever make a cut into test team. Once Yuvi regains his fitness, Raina will be on sidelines. I just hope there are more youngster like Pujara who won't go toward the glamour side of cricket and concentrate on being a Test Player.

But with IPL circus, i don't see it happening.

I can't think of many young (even relatively young) players that come into test cricket already with a patient approach. Pujara, Cook, and Cowan are all I can think of, off hand; and Cook and Cowan are in their late 20s. Most have to modify their approach once they start playing test cricket, like Mathews, Warner etc.

[Ollie 4,400]

Well that was great from Bell. Going great, nice pitch, 23-0 after 4 overs and he gets LBW to a slowy spinner and wastes a review. Great start, bad wicket to lose. Stupidity. And we all know Bopara will get less than 30.

EDIT: Oh, Bopara gets a duck!

23-0

23-2.

Idiots.

[Ollie 4,400]

One day cricket is dying. There was a stage when 300 was a realistic target. 250 was average and 340 was very getable. Now it's amost being played like test cricket this ODI match i'm watching atm has been awful. Hardly any boundaries, no 6's, going at around 4 per over.... And there are powerplays. The lack of ambition is embarrassing.

First 10 overs should get you around 65 - 70 runs, not fucking 40!

Then the other powerplays should get you at least 30 a piece.

Where have the scores of 300+ and the big hitting gone? I wanna see some excitement, this is plain shit. And some of the wickets that have gone down really leave a lot to be desired.

No way England can win now. 2-2, move onto the T20's.

[Duppy Conqueror 1,494]

really poor shot selection by virtually all the England batsmen today..183 is well below par and has given the bowlers a very hard task not to lose this ODI. Dernbach has got Smith tho. 11-1 South Africa..could see it coming with Smith ,the bowlers were dragging wider and wider and he fell into the obvious trap..t.11-2 now woo hoo..it`s on like donkey kong. it`s a batters pitch but it`s a bowlers day so far.

[Duppy Conqueror 1,494]

that second wicket delivery was a beauty by Jimmy tho. du plessis continues to struggle much like Bopara.

[Ollie 4,400]

de Villiars and Amla. This is the game right here. If we can break it before they get to 50,60 we've got a great chance. I still think the target is too low tho, should always bat your overs.

15-3 both numbers 3's suffering.

Ok 76-3 this game is OVER. Brave effort tho, Amla is just so hard to dismiss. He's a robot. 106 needed, can't be a problem.

[capriccioso 2,545]

One day cricket is dying. There was a stage when 300 was a realistic target. 250 was average and 340 was very getable. Now it's amost being played like test cricket this ODI match i'm watching atm has been awful. Hardly any boundaries, no 6's, going at around 4 per over.... And there are powerplays. The lack of ambition is embarrassing.

First 10 overs should get you around 65 - 70 runs, not fucking 40!

Then the other powerplays should get you at least 30 a piece.

Where have the scores of 300+ and the big hitting gone? I wanna see some excitement, this is plain shit. And some of the wickets that have gone down really leave a lot to be desired.

No way England can win now. 2-2, move onto the T20's.

Join the club.

There are two reasons for this. First, we have been spoiled by the likes of Gilchrist, Sehwag, Gibbs, Afridi, Jayasuriya and Gayle blasting bowlers as openers. That was probably the most talented generation of aggressive openers we will ever see, they had the skills to score 70+ in the first 10 overs regularly. You can't really expect that to be sustained for decades because players like that are freakish one-offs. It was bad luck that they all play(ed) around the same time.

Also the new rule of a new ball from either end makes it far tougher to score early on. Its shit, its made it possible for batting teams to be defensive for the first 40 overs and then smash 100 off the last 10, as you can't get reverse swing going with a 25 over ball (one of the main reasons for the alarming decline of Lasith Malinga). I'd rather see a high tempo sustained throughout the innings. These days 240 is a good total...

Of course if you want to watch 600 run games you could watch as many games as you can of the West Indies or New Zealand home matches, Caribbean and Kiwi grounds are tiny. Also when you've got the likes of Gayle, Sammy, Pollard, Russell, etc. to call upon, you can pile on a mountain of runs.

[Ollie 4,400]

I get your point but i believe every international side have batsmen capable of being deadly in the powerplays even with 2 new balls . I remember Sri Lanka in the world cup, constantly smashing 60-70 runs off the powerplay setting themselves up. They'd use Dilshan, a genuine hitter with a sensible batsmen and if he was out cheaply, they'd be a bit more steady but if not, 300+ was on the way, you have to take that chance. Throw 1 wicket away, it won't kill you. Sometimes the results will be amazing. West Indies do it with Gayle. The new ball should come off the bat better and there's no reverse swing so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

The powerplays need to change. The first 10 overs should be powerplay and the last 5, that's it. Or maybe it should be cut to 40 overs? I get the feeling now that 50 is too many overs, if you play aggressively how they want you to and you lose wickets, you have a tough time rebuilding as another wicket and you're fucked.

And also England need to bring Luke Wright back. One of my favourite one day cricketers and one of the best in the business. Sure, he'll have his first ball ducks but he'll get you boundaries, 100 from 100 balls and he'll be aggressive, hitting bowlers all over the place. He's also a bloody good bowler. Why Wright and Prior aren't in this team beats me. I saw them both smash Kent all over the place the other week. First time i've seen some real hitting in cricket for a long time, it was like watching a different sport.

So many people say cricket is boring. At the moment, i can't prove them wrong.

[capriccioso 2,545]

You're overlooking a couple of things with the Sri Lankan example. The World Cup was hosted in Asia, quick bowlers rarely do well there in ODIs. The pitches and weather are far too advantageous to the batsmen. Also that was before they introduced the new ball at either end rule, which has changed the dynamics. Dilshan isn't really a slogger, you can't count on him to hit a 70 ball hundred, that is more in the Gilchrist-Sehwag etc. range. In a way though he's almost the perfect ODI opener. He can stick around through the tough periods and he can take the bowling apart in the early overs if the conditions are right for it. That's probably the short to medium term future for ODI openers, they will be in the Dilshan/Amla/Smith mould.

The problem is that keeping wickets in hand are much too important now, with the new ball at both ends. Even if they had bought this rule in 5-10 years ago when those names I mentioned were in their best years, I think teams would eventually open with more conservative partners.

Anyone who says cricket is boring is a charlatan!

[capriccioso 2,545]

Who else thinks Andre Russell looks a bit like Mario Balotelli?

[capriccioso 2,545]

@Ankit, were you old enough to see this live?

It didn't work out too well for Aamir but it takes a lot of guts to taunt an Indian bowler in his home stadium. It was utter idiocy from Aamir's part though, he should have either kept his mouth shut or blocked that ball instead of trying to smash him. When you're 1/113 and scoring at 7 runs per over and only need 288 to win, you can't do things like that.

[Ollie 4,400]

I just wish Batsmen would really have a go in the powerplay. New ball, old ball, rain, sun, wind, swing, reverse swing, cross seam, up seam, shiny whatever. It's a ball, the field is up, hit it!! It was a shame Morgan did what he did tho, he tried it and miss hit it to Amla but at least he tried. At least the T20 WC is soon, looking forward to some excitement there in Asian Conditions.