Champions Trophy - England and Wales 2013

First topic message reminder :

We have had a few prediction/ speculation type threads but this will be the discussion thread for matches in the Champions Trophy which starts this morning.

The first game is India v South Africa at the Swalec Stadium, Cardiff.

Kleinveldt is having a Dernbach

Again, Gerry, its actually his sixth game back from an ankle injury.

Morkel off now... our bowling attack without Steyn is like the Jackson five without Michael, sadly Jermaine has also just gone... Step up Tito!!!

Lopsy bags Kohli, all out for 300 is back on

kingraf wrote:Again, Gerry, its actually his sixth game back from an ankle injury.

Morkel off now... our bowling attack without Steyn is like the Jackson five without Michael, sadly Jermaine has also just gone... Step up Tito!!!

Injuries are part of the game mate

If he's not fully fit, he shouldn't be made available for selection

Look at de Lange, he's bowling fast in the nets(150kph+), but isn't deemed fit enough for the Proteas

Gerry SA wrote:

kingraf wrote:He wasnt going to average 19 in ODI cricket forever, and this is what? his 10th ODI back from injury? On the list players facing the chop, he would be pretty far down. Kleinveldt needs to go.

The average is irrelevant at present

It's the lack of pace.

Before he got injured he was around 129-133kph

Now he's 120-125kph most of the time

That's cannon fodder to high class batsmen

I would tend to agree with Gerry. I'd actually say it's less a matter of pure pace but style and in particular how hard you hit the pitch and how much zip you get. Guys like McGrath, Asif and Philander didn't/don't bowl with great pace but they hit the ball into the pitch, or get it to kiss off the surface. On the other hand the likes of Bicknell, Clark (once he lost his nip), Broad and Bresnan last year, maybe Woakes seem to just float the ball up allowing the batsmen to hit through with impunity. Tsotsobe when he first came on the scene hit the pitch and hurried you (in his first game he had Ponting out off a top-edge pull back when Ponting could still seriously pull); now he just seems very hittable. Whether he can regain his nip is all the question, but if not, his previously excellent record shouldn't save him.

Aaron Phangiso is a star fielder though... Regulation catch but he has fielded well today.

Impressive fightback for the Saffers!

Maybe not that impressive now. 279/5 with 6 overs left.

Anywhere near 300 will be a major win for the Saffas after Indias start

South Africa have pulled this back nicely. India should still end up with 330 or so but it should have been 20-30 more.

This is poor from Tsotsobe, pitch it up man

Terrible death bowling by Tsotsobe

He remains a one spell bowler and on a pitch like this, Proteas can't afford to carry him. Especially as Morne got injured

What's the score? Cricinfo has been stuck on 297/6 for a while.

Galted wrote:What's the score? Cricinfo has been stuck on 297/6 for a while.

India end up 331/6

Jadeja hammered 47 in the closing overs

332 well gettable if Hashim and ABDV get going

Thanks Gerry, not quite as disastrous as it was looking at one stage.

331/7. Perhaps not the 350-375 that was looking possible, but still a very imposing target for the Saffers.

If commentators are going to spend this tournament pretending that bowling 6 yorkers is still the best strategy at the death I'm going to go crazy. Even more so when these commentators were on the whole the ones at the IPL, where it became apparently clear that if you relied on just bowling yorkers you got tonked.

Having said that, a good effort from SA. The death overs were par rather than huge, so after the start, India will be fractionally disappointed. SA could just chase this down.

I wouldn't put any money on SA chasing this down though.

In the words of many Hip hop rappers I cant remember... "We gonna get got" in other words, we on a hiding to nothing

Early wicket for India 13/1, Ingram gone.

77/2 after 10 overs. Lost one more wicket that they would have liked with Amla gone in truth, but it's still game on.

114/2 after 15 overs. Good going thus far by Peterson and De Villiers.

155/3 after 25 overs, superb fielding to remove Peterson. Right in the balance now, India need a wicket or two more to force the issue, while SA need a partnership.

180/3 after 30 overs. It's South Africa's to lose now, they're very well set.

De Villiers is the one. If he is there at the end South Africa would win you'd think

Duminy's gone. I haven't jinxed them have I?

De Villiers loses his head, and that's probably the game for India. 184/5.

I apologise to the South African people.

Absolute carnage between the wickets today from South Africa

And there we begin our own choke.

Embarressing, you can't chase 330 because you pick $h1t bowlers.

This is going to be interetsing. Seems like a very similar task at this stage that NZ had v England last game!!

Nearly all over, 9 down. SA have sent the injured Morkel out to bat despite needing 75 more.

Net run rate could be a factor in the groups Duty. That's why Morkel is out there I would think

You could be right there, and they've certainly cut the margin of defeat by a sizeable 28 runs and counting.

Ok that is game for deffo.. Well done India!

well done both teams. SA are seeing the long game..

The closer South Africa get, the more they'll think of what might have been. Fine resistance by McClaren. Been a good day for India, Dhawan should get man of the match for that match-winning ton.

Nice weather today as well, I just hope the rest of the tournament continues in such a vein.

There is something very neat about an innings that has 300 balls and 10 wickets..

Superb batting from Ryan Mclarren but its not enough. India do look class, they have to be favorites to win the whole thing don't they?

WI v Pakistan today.

WI have been making good progress in ODIs over the past year but I think Pakistan are big favourites today - the WI batting line-up doesn't cope particularly well with swing and mystery spin. Pakistan will struggle to get a really big total too with their line-up but should manage more than WI.

Is Gayle playing? If so I have WI in with a shout, I don't think you can ever rule there batting out.

Plus it hasn't really been swinging too much so far in the ODI's this summer

Morkel has been ruled out of the Champions Trophy after the injury he suffered yesterday. That's another blow to South Africa's hopes.

Pakistan in a world of trouble here.

15-3 with Roach tearing through the top order

Brilliant start for the West Indies and Roach. Also hearing that Michael Clarke is out of tomorrow's game versus England with injury.

Bit cheeky that by Ramdin

Pakistan stalling at 108/5 after 31 overs.

Nice knock from Misbah but Pakistan well short. Too many wickets - the value of keeping wickets in hand again demonstrated (as it was yesterday BTW). Poor shots and shot selection in particular from Jamsheed. The tail should have supported Misbah more - Wahab was unlucky and Irfan did his best, but Ajmal's run-out and in particular Junaid's hack were very poor.

A few early wickets could still make it interesting.

If I were the West Indies I'd be worried about getting 20 overs out of Bravo, Pollard and Samuels. Whilst Bravo can bowl 10 overs on a good day, he has his bad days, and Pollard/Samuels for 10 overs could be a major problem if they don't get early wickets...

Extraordinary batting performance from Pakistan - Misbah with 96 no, Jamsheed with 50 before a stupid shot and no-one else getting more than extras with 6...

If they don't get Gayle in the first 5 overs, this could be finished inside 20...

Mike Selig wrote:Nice knock from Misbah but Pakistan well short. Too many wickets - the value of keeping wickets in hand again demonstrated (as it was yesterday BTW). Poor shots and shot selection in particular from Jamsheed. The tail should have supported Misbah more - Wahab was unlucky and Irfan did his best, but Ajmal's run-out and in particular Junaid's hack were very poor.

A few early wickets could still make it interesting.

If I were the West Indies I'd be worried about getting 20 overs out of Bravo, Pollard and Samuels. Whilst Bravo can bowl 10 overs on a good day, he has his bad days, and Pollard/Samuels for 10 overs could be a major problem if they don't get early wickets...

True. They do have Gayle as another option for a few overs, but 20 overs of part-time isn't easy. A keeper who's a better batsman than Ramdin would let them play Sammy, who's a useful enough limited overs bowler

I have to say, Johnson Charles is one of the worse international batsmen I have ever seen, and I include guys who play for France in that. As far as I can make out, his method is to play by numbers, swing his bat in a vague arc and hope it hits the middle. He misses as many as he hits, and eventually hits one straight up to be caught, dropped or land safely by some fluke.

It actually makes me angry to see someone quite so poor playing at this level.

15/2, some hope for Pakistan now. Gayle is the key wicket - if he stays in he can win this very quickly.