Sports Cricket World Cup 2023

[Tonbridge(aka Swanley)]

we're gone I think.

SAFFAs are a good chance of choking against the Afgans as they have nothing going on the game.

Be very interesting these last fixtures.

 

[tyrael]

Glenn Maxwell saves us lol. What a beast 201*

Is that the greatest ODI innings ever?

 

[Makasene]

Glenn Maxwell saves us lol. What a beast 201*

Is that the greatest ODI innings ever?

Has to be you would think when considering his injury plus match situation.

Our match against SL is likely to be rained out completely

Maxwell probably did save us literally. An Afghan win and a rain out for NZ would knock us out

 

[Ever Hopeful]

Spare a thought for the Afghani that dropped a goober from Maxwell early on in his innings.

 

[Noitall]

Spare a thought for the Afghani that dropped a goober from Maxwell early on in his innings.

Hopefully the taliban spare him.

 

[CWC]

Maxwell did to AFG what Michael Bevan to us in 2003, Bond ripped AUS to 87/7 and we let them get to 200+ and lose by almost 100 lol

Now we need SA to bat first against AFG and England to return us a favor against PAK

Would SA throw the game away to spit on us after knocking them out like 3x in a row before?

 

[jonesy101]

Maxwell did to AFG what Michael Bevan to us in 2003, Bond ripped AUS to 87/7 and we let them get to 200+ and lose by almost 100 lol

Now we need SA to bat first against AFG and England to return us a favor against PAK

Would SA throw the game away to spit on us after knocking them out like 3x in a row before?

And Andy Bichel was the Pat Cummins of the time! That Bond effort was the greatest ODI spell I think I've ever seen.

 

[3rdstriker]

Boult is still one of the very best bowlers in the world and his bowling has been fine. Santner is also one of the best bowlers in the world. Ferguson is excellent, Henry is very, very good. Sodhi bowls a bad ball in the over, but can be very effective in shorter format cricket. Southee is a year past retirement. Neesham never was. Shaheen Afridi who is the best ranked bowler in the world was taken to the cleaners too remember. As was Haris Rauf who people are also writing off despite being brilliant in fair conditions. In the last few months I have consistently seen the South African, Pakistan, and England bowlers labelled as ineffective, and they are just not in fair conditions.

It is pointless blaming the bowlers. Some of these pitches are rolled mud, yesterday's pitch looked like a piece of glass from the aerial shot. These lower bouncing pitches with no swing, seam or spin of any kind have an excruciatingly small margin of error (if any). Players can use bats that have all the meat at the lower end of the blade and just swing through the line. If you are Fakhar, you can swing your meat axe to balls outside off and launch them over mid-wicket with no fear because the ball is going to stay on its exact line, and bounce directly into your hitting arc.

This is a world cup for those strong burly hitters, and it is not a world cup for the technicians. 50 0ver cricket will indeed be a relic of the past if it is treated like an extended 20/20 of big hitting for fan value. I have my knickers in a twist as you can tell, because this is just not what 50 over cricket is about. Though tilted in favour of batting, it has always ensured that there is something in it for everyone, and in the past pitches like this have been declared poor, and taken off the world circuit until they are made more sporting. Even in India there has always been early swing (no seam), spin in the middle, and reverse swing late. We are getting none of that.

Still though if you score 400 runs even on a state highway you should be able to take 2 wickets.
Especially if it's a crucial world cup match and also rain is on the horizon.

 

[Tonbridge(aka Swanley)]

Maxwell did to AFG what Michael Bevan to us in 2003, Bond ripped AUS to 87/7 and we let them get to 200+ and lose by almost 100 lol

Now we need SA to bat first against AFG and England to return us a favor against PAK

Would SA throw the game away to spit on us after knocking them out like 3x in a row before?

SA are a chance of choking, so yes Afghans have a good chance against them.

 

[Hardyman's Yugo]

Battle of the wooden spoon coming up. I can see a Dutch win tbh

 

[Tonbridge(aka Swanley)]

Battle of the wooden spoon coming up. I can see a Dutch win tbh

If England don't play some of the squad today, they have learnt nothing.

 

[Hardyman's Yugo]

If England don't play some of the squad today, they have learnt nothing.

I’m still trying to work out why Stokes went there when he needs an operation quite badly to bowl again

 

[Ever Hopeful]

Still though if you score 400 runs even on a state highway you should be able to take 2 wickets.
Especially if it's a crucial world cup match and also rain is on the horizon.

You'd think that we would have been able to strike, but lots of good players have looked silly in just the last week.

No 1 bowler in the world Shaheen Shah Afridi 0/90 vs NZ
Starc 0/89 vs NZ
Marco Jansen 1/94 vs India

etc, etc. It just hasn't mattered where people bowl at times.

I just think that even accounting for some of our impotence, people have not compared us fairly with the other teams who have also had their struggles. We have had one shocker vs SA, and very poor periods vs Aus, and Pakistan, but otherwise have been in the contests. We are the only team that have pushed India (relatively) close.

South Africa who look like world beaters have been crushed by India by 243 runs and lost to the Netherlands.
Australia got out of jail against Afghanistan, smashed by South Africa and India
Pakistan were beaten by Afghanistan and have struggled to get over the line in others.
England (pre-tournament favourites to meet India in the final)...

India's winning margins (honestly, this is ridiculous):

6 wickets with 52 balls spare
8 wickets with 90 balls spare
7 wickets with 117 balls spare
7 wickets with 51 balls spare
100 runs on a dodgy pitch vs England
302 runs
243 runs

Vs New Zealand they won by 4 wickets and only 12 balls spare... a comparative nailbiter.

 

[jonesy101]

I firmly believe without Duckworth Lewis intervention that Pakistan would've got the wobbles at some point during that innings and reaching 402 was unlikely.

 

[Noitall]

I firmly believe without Duckworth Lewis intervention that Pakistan would've got the wobbles at some point during that innings and reaching 402 was unlikely.

We’ll never know, if it rained in that aussie game yesterday they probably would have lost being down on wickets until maxwell went in? Mammoth score though 402.

 

[Inruin]

Thunderstorms forecast for our game against Sri Lanka. Weather could knock us out of the finals

 

[Ever Hopeful]

I'm conflicted. I want England to find some form, and then beat Pakistan to throw us a bone. But it would also be hilarious for them to miss out on the Champion's Trophy

I can't say that the West Indies have been missed much. Netherlands, and Afghanistan got here on merit.

 

[Inruin]

I'm conflicted. I want England to find some form, and then beat Pakistan to throw us a bone. But it would also be hilarious for them to miss out on the Champion's Trophy

I can't say that the West Indies have been missed much. Netherlands, and Afghanistan got here on merit.

To be honest, I had forgotten about the West Indies until you just mentioned them. Bit sad really how far they have fallen

 

[Makasene]

Thunderstorms forecast for our game against Sri Lanka. Weather could knock us out of the finals

They are predicting a washout abandonment of our game sadly.

It leaves a scenario to qualify of:

Afghanistan Lose
Pakistan Lose

Afghanistan abandoned
Pakistan abandoned

There is no suggested weather issues for the other games so we will be praying for South Africa not to choke and England not to England lol

 

[Makasene]

I'm conflicted. I want England to find some form, and then beat Pakistan to throw us a bone. But it would also be hilarious for them to miss out on the Champion's Trophy

I can't say that the West Indies have been missed much. Netherlands, and Afghanistan got here on merit.

Afghanistan were automatic qualifiers.

Sri Lanka and Netherlands came through the qualifying tournament. West Indies, Ireland & Zimbabwe the main ones to miss out.