Cricket

[Busaholic]

87 runs is a margin by which Australia would lose a match, not win it.

111 runs though, that's the right margin for England to lose - and they picked a good way to finish it off through Anderson running himself out and stranding Taylor two short of a ton. Taylor did everything right to earn himself a match or two on the sidelines by arguing it long and hard with the umpires (the run had taken place off a ball with an unsuccessful LBW appeal) so hopefully for England's sake they'll take pity on him and consider a lost century to be enough punishment.

Until the run out to close out the match, all nine wickets had been taken by the three Mitchells. I wonder if ten wickets have all been taken by bowlers with the same first name before (other than Mohammeds, and other than Anil Kumble taking ten on his own) in an international innings?

I've noted the (deliberate?) omission of the name Jim from that list, 10 in an innings, 19 in a match against, oh, let me see, who was it, oh yes, AUSTRALIA, Old Trafford, 1956, the game that first got me really interested in cricket. Laker was the surname and he went on to forge a very successful TV commentating partnership with Richie Benaud for the BBC - each of them knew when to speak and when to remain silent, a craft entirely absent from the current crop.

 

[Whistler40145]

Yes, not only did Laker take 10 wickets for England v Australia, but also for Surrey in a tour match v Australia.

 

[DownSouth]

There is some conjecture over the events of the last ball of tonight's match, namely that a dismissal overturned on review does not allow the batting team to benefit from any runs scored after the initial decision was made, and so the ball should have been dead rather than in play for Anderson to be run out.

I didn't happen to notice whether the batsmen had taken off for the leg bye before the umpire raised his finger for the initial decision of Out. This must have been the reason that the third umpire ruled that the ball was live and the second appeal (for the run out) was therefore to be upheld.

I've noted the (deliberate?) omission of the name Jim from that list, 10 in an innings, 19 in a match against, oh, let me see, who was it, oh yes, AUSTRALIA, Old Trafford, 1956, the game that first got me really interested in cricket. Laker was the surname and he went on to forge a very successful TV commentating partnership with Richie Benaud for the BBC - each of them knew when to speak and when to remain silent, a craft entirely absent from the current crop.

I wasn't aware that Kumble's 10 was the second in Test history as I didn't have a stats page available when I wrote that first post, thanks for pointing out the first.

The question still stands - has there ever been a combination of bowlers with the same first name who have taken all ten wickets in an international innings?

 

[tony_mac]

Well, the ICC have confirmed that the runout call was a mistake.
Maybe they should go back on the pitch and replay the final wicket

 

[DownSouth]

Surely with five penalty runs added to Australia's total for unsportsmanlike behaviour (attempting to steal a run which was illegal).

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Surely with five penalty runs added to Australia's total for unsportsmanlike behaviour (attempting to steal a run which was illegal).

Not quite sure why you might think the run was illegal, nothing wrong in attempting a run despite an appeal for LBW being made! (or are you being lighthearted?)

Either way, England were well and truly walloped, I wondered whether they would reach 100 at one point, thought James Taylor batted exceedingly well (with help from Woakes)

 

[Phirstman]

Do you think the opening day should have seen the hosts play two predictable walkovers against Afghanistan and Scotland instead?

Of course not but I agree that different 'high profile' games should've been considered.
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It looks to me like England will be in an even fight with Bangladesh for 4th-5th place in Pool A.

NZ and Aus will walk the group.

After that Sri Lanka (weak bowling, decent batting) and England are reasonably evenly matched for me. Bangladesh may have a say but I think they'll struggle in foreign conditions and take fifth.

Scotland and Afghanistan will have their moments but will flounder.

 

[Whistler40145]

I can't see the West Indies going very far.

Then you've got India & Pakistan, I wonder how far they'll get?

But, how good will South Africa be?

Nobody has mentioned Ireland yet, but they will be good, but not too good.

 

[balne-wonderer]

ICC admitted that the dismissal was wrong. To me, replay the game, simple as..You can't just say because it was no.11 it doesn't matter. In cricket, every wicket matters and Aus didn't take every wicket legally. They could have recalled Jimmy but they didn't.

Tainted win for Aus. Shame, bad for the game. Home nation though so no major shock

 

[Phirstman]

unless Morgan is sacked (sorry, carrying an unspecified injury) and replaced by Taylor before the next game.

Taylor has little experience of International Cricket - far too soon for him - he hasn't even scored 1,000 international runs yet let alone be captain!

Root may have been a good bet to replace Cook when he was sacked but sadly Morgan got the gig and we have to stick with him now. Agree Morgan was a poor decision though as it was a bit of a retrograde step and has been battling poor form for a year now.
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I can't see the West Indies going very far.

Then you've got India & Pakistan, I wonder how far they'll get?

But, how good will South Africa be?

Nobody has mentioned Ireland yet, but they will be good, but not too good.

WI will struggle. Sadly Ireland don't look as good as in previous World Cup's to take advantage - they got pounded by Scotland in a warm-up. Ireland Vs. WI will be very interesting though.

SA will do well, probably as well as NZ (joint second best sides, losing finalists or semi-finalists). Aus will win the Cup.

 

[Whistler40145]

IMHO Morgan shouldn't be Captain, but not Taylor or Broad. I'm not so sure about Ballance in the squad and I'd prefer Bopara and he should be bowling.

 

[Phirstman]

ICC admitted that the dismissal was wrong. To me, replay the game, simple as..You can't just say because it was no.11 it doesn't matter. In cricket, every wicket matters and Aus didn't take every wicket legally. They could have recalled Jimmy but they didn't.

Tainted win for Aus. Shame, bad for the game. Home nation though so no major shock

Replay the game!? I don't think so! There have been poor decisions made in matches for months and years and decades and centuries! Do we have to replay all of those as well?

 

[Busaholic]

Taylor has little experience of International Cricket - far too soon for him - he hasn't even scored 1,000 international runs yet let alone be captain!

Root may have been a good bet to replace Cook when he was sacked but sadly Morgan got the gig and we have to stick with him now. Agree Morgan was a poor decision though as it was a bit of a retrograde step and has been battling poor form for a year now.
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WI will struggle. Sadly Ireland don't look as good as in previous World Cup's to take advantage - they got pounded by Scotland in a warm-up. Ireland Vs. WI will be very interesting though.

SA will do well, probably as well as NZ (joint second best sides, losing finalists or semi-finalists). Aus will win the Cup.

Taylor has captained the Lions with success. Graeme Smith had hardly played test cricket before captaining SA. WI have done quite well in World Cups even in recent years.

 

[DownSouth]

... nothing wrong in attempting a run despite an appeal for LBW being made! ...

Fair enough - but it's only fair if said attempted run comes at the risk of being run out, there's already too many freebies for batsmen.

In the future this could be rectified quite simply - just tell the umpires that in DRS matches if the batsmen try running leg byes on a LBW appeal, he should wait until they are done with all the running (and running out) before he gives the pointy-fingered signal of doom.

The fact remains that Anderson was going to the striker's end at full pace and therefore not able to see Aleem Dar raise his finger - at the instant the finger went up, he would certainly have been watching the ball which at that point was on its way after Maxwell pulled the trigger. That makes it a fair contest between him and Maxwell, and so the eventual result (despite the technical error) is less of an injustice than the one which happened after the match (when Aaron Finch got Man of the Match ahead of Mitchell Marsh).

The more immediate solution for this tournament if England feel aggrieved would be to adjust their net run rate to match the result they would have got if the match was decided by Duckworth-Lewis. According to the old D/L tables which still give Shaun Pollock nightmares, it would lower England's net run rate from -2.22 to -2.28, but it would benefit them over the course of the tournament because a 41.4 over match carries less weight than a 50 over match.

Not quite sure why you might think the run was illegal, ... (or are you being lighthearted?)

Correct.

If I had my way, anything resembling baseball more than cricket would be penalised - including attempting to steal runs when the ball is not in play, and commentators using the word batter in any context other than talking about fish and chips

More entertaining penalties could be called for (could Billy Bowden get his crooked finger around the trigger of a taser?) but five run penalties may be more practical until certain difficulties get smoothed out.

Of course not but I agree that different 'high profile' games should've been considered.

Which matches would you have scheduled for the first weekend, keeping in mind the need to balance the tournament's sporting integrity (the groups were seeded according to the ICC rankings in 2013, not randomly drawn), travel schedules for player and promotional priorities?

 

[Phirstman]

Taylor has captained the Lions with success. Graeme Smith had hardly played test cricket before captaining SA. WI have done quite well in World Cups even in recent years.

Big step up from List A cricket to International. Fair point on Graeme Smith but he went on to captain his country for more than a decade and is a rare phenomenon in that respect.

WI are a fading star and have been further crippled by devastating internal disputes. There is a major issue with finances over the past couple of years and now Dwayne Bravo and Kieran Pollard have both been controversially omitted from the team - drastically weakening the side.
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Which matches would you have scheduled for the first weekend, keeping in mind the need to balance the tournament's sporting integrity (the groups were seeded according to the ICC rankings in 2013, not randomly drawn), travel schedules for player and promotional priorities?

As Ainsworth said, select the same four sides but switch who plays who, so either:

Aus Vs. NZ and Sri Vs. Eng

or

Aus Vs. Sri and NZ Vs. Eng

Probably the second option is better if they wanted to kick off with both host countries playing their opening games at home.

 

[DownSouth]

Big step up from List A cricket to International. Fair point on Graeme Smith but he went on to captain his country for more than a decade and is a rare phenomenon in that respect.

Smith was already an established player when he took on the captaincy, and he also had the support of the South African board who knew well enough that his captaincy was a long-term project they couldn't expect to see flourish immediately.

Taylor is not yet a locked-in senior player who could survive a form slump (Anderson, Broad, Bell and Root are the only ones who can) and the English board is too easily swayed by short-termism to do the same thing.

WI are a fading star and have been further crippled by devastating internal disputes. There is a major issue with finances over the past couple of years and now Dwayne Bravo and Kieran Pollard have both been controversially omitted from the team - drastically weakening the side.

Bravo is a big loss from the ODI team (he was in the most recent ICC ODI team of the year!) but Pollard isn't really, his batting is not good enough and his body is too fragile to justify his place with the ball in 50 over cricket.
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As Ainsworth said, select the same four sides but switch who plays who, so either:

Aus Vs. NZ and Sri Vs. Eng

or

Aus Vs. Sri and NZ Vs. Eng

Probably the second option is better if they wanted to kick off with both host countries playing their opening games at home.

How would you have smoothed over the issue of travel schedules with the players who would have had an extra three international flights added by swapping over the matches?

England would have had near enough to a whole day consumed by travel in the short period between their last warmup match and playing in Christchurch.

 

[Phirstman]

Smith was already an established player when he took on the captaincy, and he also had the support of the South African board who knew well enough that his captaincy was a long-term project they couldn't expect to see flourish immediately.

Taylor is not yet a locked-in senior player who could survive a form slump (Anderson, Broad, Bell and Root are the only ones who can) and the English board is too easily swayed by short-termism to do the same thing.

Think we're agreed on this one, so no further comments from me!
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Bravo is a big loss from the ODI team (he was in the most recent ICC ODI team of the year!) but Pollard isn't really, his batting is not good enough and his body is too fragile to justify his place with the ball in 50 over cricket.

Agreed on Bravo. Pollard could hold down a place as a finisher in all likeliness. He's a bit of a bits and pieces player but he'd easily get into the squad at least. The fact neither are there suggests something is awry in the camp.
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England would have had near enough to a whole day consumed by travel in the short period between their last warmup match and playing in Christchurch.

Easy answer is scrap the last warm-up match. England have been warming up for this World Cup for six months with tours to Sri Lanka and more recently Australia, annoyingly scrapping any Test Cricket in that time. We didn't need any more!

The extra warm-ups clearly did us no good anyway judging by this morning (last night to you if you reside in Australia!)

 

[DownSouth]

Moving on from last night's feature match to today's big one of India v Pakistan at Adelaide Oval, it's going to be all about survival of the fittest today with the weather looking like this already even though it's only just after 9am...

I put water bottles in the freezer ready for this one a couple of days ago.

The crowd will be a factor too, Adelaide Oval is a very loud venue even with AFL fans (they drowned out the siren at a couple of matches last year) so it will be incredible once you add in the passionate fans of India and Pakistan!

 

[Busaholic]

Graeme Smith was made captain of South Africa at the age of 22 years and 82 days, having played in 8 test matches and 22 ODIs, so his elevation was a huge punt which paid off - Taylor has bags more experience of captaincy and vice captaincy, many more games and centuries under his belt than Smith did when made captain and his lack of test matches has more to do with his physical stature and the ingrained prejudice of people like Pietersen - imagine if Tendulkar, Gavaskar, Kanhai or, dare I say it, Bradman hadn't been included in their respective test teams because of such attitudes!

In this week's 'Cricket' newspaper in UK, Paul Nixon, the wicketkeeper/batsman who performed a few rearguard actions with Ravi Bopara in the West Indies World Cup series speculates that Taylor will be the highest scorer for England this time (this before the first game) but, noticeably to me anyway. does not talk Bopara up which he's done in the past. Actually, he says he wouldn't back England at 20/1 let alone the 10/1 on offer.

India starting off with a win. but then they've never lost to Pakistan in a World Cup game anywhere. Kohli my tip for highest-scoring batsman this Cup.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

SA will do well, probably as well as NZ (joint second best sides, losing finalists or semi-finalists). Aus will win the Cup.

South Africa recovered splendidly from being 83-4 to proceed to 339-4.

Miller and Duminy in particular were flamboyant in the last 6 overs when no less than 111 runs were added, the highlight being the 48th over when Miller took no less than 30 runs from it.

 

[DownSouth]

Last night's match at Adelaide Oval was certainly an interesting one, being a match between a batting team (India) and a bowling team (Pakistan) which came down to which was better at the other's specialty.

The Pakistani bowlers did a very good job of bowling to their fields and not giving any of the Indians much chance to slog which was reflected in the score of 7/300 from 50 overs where India should have scored 330+. I think Pakistan could have come home with the win if they had their first choice spinners available (Saeed Ajmal has now had his action cleared and could return to the side) and just one or two batsmen with more experience to back up Younis, Shehzad and Misbah.



The various 'non-cricket' pre-match bits of a World Cup match were definitely better than for any normal Australia home match that I've ever attended. Before the match they had a Welcome to Country from an Elder of the Kaurna Nation for the two captains spoken in both Kaurna and English, the presentation of the World Cup itself by a World Cup Champion in Shaun Tait (the equal-leading wicket taker of the 2007 World Cup in Australia's unbeaten side - also a popular figure in India) and an awe-inspiring didgeridoo fanfare as the whole crowd stood for the entry of the national flags and teams.

The only disappointing bit was that the national anthems were recorded instead of sung live, especially as a friend of mine would have gotten the gig. She's from a Sri Lankan-Australian family, and has done the national anthems for Sri Lanka and India at Adelaide Oval for about 15 years now, doing so well that she was personally thanked by both Dhoni and Jayawardene with a signed shirt from each team after she did the anthems the last time they played each other here in the tied match of 2012. I can understand the ICC being nervous about the anthems getting stuffed up (it happened at the netball in NZ when Australia played there a couple of years ago) but perhaps they should pay for each of the non-hosting teams (and Australia when they go to Eden Park) to bring a singer with them instead of using a recording.

The area I was in had mostly Indian fans, it was very disappointing that a not inconsiderable number of them booed at the conclusion of the Pakistan national anthem, and all the way through the introductions of the Pakistani players. If Australian or English fans did that to India or Pakistan, we'd be accused of racism. The Pakistani fans were generally nicer when waiting in queues and on the train home

The shocking thing about the experience was the level of in-your-face commercialism coming from the ICC which was off the scale compared to a normal Australia home match or a Big Bash League T20 match. Even some of the normally unbranded stadium food outlets (i.e. just the Adelaide Oval logo, which is not banned by the ICC) have been rebranded as KFC, but at least they haven't gone so far as renaming the stands on the eastern side of the ground which are named after South Australian football legends.


Oh, and congratulations to Zimbabwe for making South Africa work for their win yesterday, and to Ireland for producing the first 'wrong' result of the Cup over the West Indies today.

 

[Busaholic]

Oh, and congratulations to Zimbabwe for making South Africa work for their win yesterday, and to Ireland for producing the first 'wrong' result of the Cup over the West Indies today.

Only got the scorecard to go from, but the Zimbabwe batsmen saw Steyn and Morkel off. But for Imran Tahir they might have got closer or even scraped home. Ireland's was a team performance unlike Kevin O'Brien's one man performance against England at the last world cup. Can Scotland beat NZ to record their first-ever World Cup win? That truly would be the mother of all upsets.

Now that Eoin Morgan has signed for the IPL and shown where his true allegiance lies there really is no reason not to depose him as captain, retaining him in the team only for the eventuality that there is no other fit member to fill an eleventh place.

 

[DownSouth]

An interesting side effect of hosting the World Cup is that it is forcing some unconventional hosting arrangements on the tail end of the Sheffield Shield season. Competition is serious, not just for this summer's title but also for baggy green caps next summer as it is expected that the 2015 away Ashes series will be the final international series for Chris Rogers, probably Michael Clarke and maybe even Brad Haddin ahead of a heavy period of rebuilding the team before the 2017-18 home Ashes series.

Victoria does not currently have a First Class certified ground other than the MCG, and so they will be playing two of their three remaining 'home' matches at Alice Springs and the other against South Australia at Glenelg Oval in suburban Adelaide.
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Can Scotland beat NZ to record their first-ever World Cup win? That truly would be the mother of all upsets.

I don't think so, NZ is looking too well-prepared for that.

Beating England, on the other hand, wouldn't be so much of an upset given their propensity for losing to Associate teams in tournament play.
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Can Scotland beat NZ to record their first-ever World Cup win?

No.

Scotland 142 (36.2 overs)
Machan 56, Berrington 50, Anderson 5-1-18-3, Vettori 8.2-1-24-3

defeated by New Zealand 146/7 (24.5 overs)
Williamson 38, Elliott 29; Wardlaw 9.5-0-57-3, Davey 7-0-40-3

The Black Caps should be a little concerned at the recovery of the Scottish innings from 12/4 after the first five overs. They should have put it away for much less than 142, and they will need to step it up a bit when they play Australia and England who have players like Mitchell Marsh and James Taylor coming in down the order to launch potentially match-winning counter-attacks.

After taking seven wickets in their defence, the Scottish bowlers will surely be looking forward to having a crack at Ballance, Root and Morgan (a trio which together sounds like a dodgy lawyers' firm).

Today's potentially useless fact is that Dunedin, the venue for this rather short match, is named in honour of the old Gaelic for Scotland's capital city Edinburgh.
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Well done to England, getting a win over New Zealand in the big game.

 

[Busaholic]

Well done to England, getting a win over New Zealand in the big game.

Shouldn't that last part have been in magenta (the new pink according to Harriet Harman)? So both sexes have a chance to beat the Kiwis in cricket in the space of 24 hours!

 

[DownSouth]

Shouldn't that last part have been in magenta (the new pink according to Harriet Harman)? So both sexes have a chance to beat the Kiwis in cricket in the space of 24 hours!

We'll be finding out in about 3-6 hours which of the England teams is more deserving of having the link to the result posted in a colour associated with weakness.

England (men) won the toss and batted, after the 10 overs with field restrictions they are 43/2. The ECB might want to consider offering Tim Southee a passport, so far he's on 5-0-23-2 and going well enough for McCullum to back him up with four slips on a flat deck.
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Ironically, it will be in Australia's interests for England to get a win today, as their match against Bangladesh tomorrow will almost certainly be washed out by Cyclone Marcia, or at best a D/L farce. This has been coming for the best part of a week now, and it's a great shame that there was no plan to reallocate the match to a more suitable venue (Adelaide tomorrow has a 0% chance of any rain) when this was entirely predictable for Brisbane in February.

In the event of a washed-out match, each team is awarded one point (two points for a win) instead having a pro-rata amount awarded at the end of the group stage according to their win/loss record in all their completed matches (i.e. 1.2 points if they have a 3-2 record) which would be fairer.



The NZ-England series is now level at 1-1.
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England get shot out for 123!

NZ are now in with a chance of both men's and women's teams beating England with the same score on the same day!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Just logged on to find that England had progressed to 104-3 and had then collapsed in dramatic fashion to 123 all out.

Southee 9-0-33-7. A remarkable bowling return indeed.
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Just logged on again and after just 9 overs, New Zealand had raced to 112-1 with McCullum now out, but not before hitting 77 from 25 balls with 7 x 6 and 8 x 4.

In comparison to the bowling return of Southee, Finn has decided to register the amazing bowling return so far of....2-0-49-0... Heaven help us.

Charlotte Edwards should take over as captain of the men's team.

 

[DownSouth]

And it's all done in 12.2 overs (with the dinner break interrupting the Kiwi innings) with Stuart Broad showing his true colours by bowling five wides to deny the batsmen the winning runs.

All the credit goes to NZ though, they had a shock against Scotland and did well to put that behind them and not make the same mistakes the next time a minnow team set them a deceptively small total.

 

[Johnuk123]

English cricket has reached a new low, they might as well return home now.

 

[ExRes]

All the credit goes to NZ though, they had a shock against Scotland and did well to put that behind them and not make the same mistakes the next time a minnow team set them a deceptively small total.

I like that, very subtle indeed

 

[ainsworth74]

Bahahahahaha

Oh that truly was a personal highlight of an England performance!