World Cup 2015

First topic message reminder :

Warm Up game between Ind and Aus ongoing...
it's an official ODI...though after so much cricket why do these sides need a "warm-up"

India's bowling in melt-down and the two most dangerous guys in Aus side Warner and Maxwell get 100s

Looks like Ind will be chasing 375

VTR wrote:

msp83 wrote:Ireland should play test cricket rather than acting as supply ground for English poachers who have already started contemplating Docrell for their deprived spin department!

In an otherwise good comment this stood out. We are hardly poaching Ireland's players as they choose to learn their trade in County Cricket, then it is a natural progression for them to play for England if they are good enough - it offers access to significant financial awards as well as the top level of competition. The players involved will be well aware of the choices they are making - no poaching necessary

look i have no propblem with ireland at all. And i want them to do well. But its the english system making them what they are!!

They need to get there own first class system in place before they are offered Test status.. Otherwise they will end up just being exactly like there football team that on the whole are all english with some irish roots but just not good enough to get into the English team..so the reverse will likely to happen!

Please dont say they are a supply ground for england- We are the nation offering there cricketers a living..

We do have a multi day competition now called the Interprovincial Championship. Leinster, North and North West play in it, basically union teams. Munster could eventually be added and perhaps one day even Connacht. So the potential First Class structure is in place. Zimbabwe can do with 4 FC sides.

I live just outside the real cricket heartland in the North West. But go 10 miles north and most villages have a cricket team. The North West Cricket Union is very rural. Sion Mills is 10 miles away, the venue the last time we beat the Windies!

Football team isn't as 'english' as it used to be myst.
Still a few in there like you say wont get a game for englnd.

But not as bad.

England "poaching" of Irish players:

Joyce - played a few ODIs
Rankin - played a few ODIs and a couple of Tests
Morgan - obviously quite proninent in ODIs

That's is over a span of roughly ten years, hardly a conveyor belt of talent!

This is the group of death:

only SA and Pak are guaranteed of QF

any two of WI, Zim, Ire and Ind will make it through

Regardless of the first loss......Pak are guaranteed...they will thrash every other side certainly except SA...and SA will beat everyone certainly except Pak.
Both are by far very superior bowling sides.

the other 4 will give each other run for money.......

barring UAE...this is a very evenly matched group

and i think Ire has done enough to qualify as a regular ODI side.....and should Scotland deliver a few wins.......then both Ire and Scot should be given a good ODI calendar by all regular sides...
and then for the next world cup the top 10 sides should qualify......
it's quite likely if Ire and Scot are given a regular run....one of them might be in the top 10 at the cost of BD or WI

Mystiroakey I do not think Irish cricketers are a supply ground for England, far from it as you point out. I think we get frustrated seeing our best players leave and play for another country. I'm sure you would understand our frustration, if lets say Jimmy Anderson, Ian Bell and KP (I named these as they are the English equivalents) started plying their cricket in another country and then decided to represent that country because they would earn a bit more money. It hurts, it really hurts and is so frustrating. Ireland is a small country which does not support a fully professional national sporting league. We don't have the simple demographics for it, without running a major loss. The only way would be maybe having a pan European league between irish, Scottish, dutch teams a la the PRO12 rugby league. Would this be allowed? Also what constitutes a 1st class system? Who decides? Is there any transparency in how they decide? Are there written rules? Anyone know?

The ICC has no interest in giving us any sort of status or test status, because they don't want to share the money. Ill give you a few examples, the ICC said they would expand the world T20, so they created a mini pre-tournament for the smaller teams and then reduced the number of teams in the main event. For the 50 over world cup they reduce the number of teams, and then stage the qualifying tournament in Bangladesh, who happen to be a full member!! They say the top8 ranked sides will qualify automatically, but then say the higher ranked sides don't have to play the smaller ones as they won't have the time, so it is really a token meaningless gesture. Our income/sponsorship depends on reaching world cups, its what fuels the youngsters dreams, yet the ICC put as many obstacles as possible to play in such things. Cricket is the only game which wants to contract so they can keep all the money for themselves. This is the rubbish we(associates) put up with. Would you be annoyed if England had to put up with this nonsense? I'll leave it up to you.

I must apologise for the rant. Anyway c'mon Scotland tonight and to all the associates!!!!

Scotland have already won this world cup in my eyes. That kit. Magnificent

Also Trent Boult is gonna tear us apart in the summer. What a magnificent bowler he is

Here's a good point I saw on Twitter, why are the co hosts in the same group?

Could be an early night for us, guys! 14/4 off 6.

Anyway, whilst I have your attention, please allow me to ask an off topic cricket question -
Sangakkara wasn't bought in today's IPL auction. Does that now definitely rule him out of playing IPL this year or is there any other way he still could? The reason I ask - as fellow Surrey supporter Olly knows - is that Sanga is likely to be playing more for Surrey this English summer if he's not in the IPL. Thanks.

Apologies if my off topic question scared everyone off!

Back to topic, a recovery of sorts being mounted by Berrington and Machan but understandably with 4 down so very early on it's slow going.

Currently 89/4 off 25. Not that different to the West Indies score at the same stage last night and they topped 300. However, I do feel that's not a true comparison. The Kiwi's seamers have much more bite than Ireland's and the suspicion lurks that one more Scotland wicket will soon lead to another.

Think a realistic aim for Scotland at this stage is 220 off their 50 but even that won't be easy. A couple more quick wickets and they could be wrapped up for a lot less.

Whatever the final Scotland score, very hard to envisage anything other than a New Zealand win. Odd to think that Scotland comfortably beat Ireland in one of the warm ups.

Delighted to see Matt Machan, a player of clear talent ever since his early days with england u19s, and Richie Berrington (who I'm surprise d has never got a sniff of a county deal) putting up an excellent fight against NZ. Tough work against a tough side, but admirable spirit.

Gun. Sorry to any Scotland fans, that one's my fault, I fear.

Hi Pack - yes, given the dreadful launching pad score of 12/4, Machan and Berrington have played very sensibly and well.

Poster's curse - just as I'm about to send, Machan holes out. 10 overs too soon for Scotland's liking. Currently 110/5 off 28.

Having reached 50, Berrington also departs quickly. Following Machan's wicket, Scotland really needed him to stick around.

118/6 off 30. That 220 I was hoping for is currently looking some way off. Scotland will do well from here to bat out the overs, I fear.

Oh dear! Although I did rather see it coming - Scotland all out for 142 with almost 14 overs unused.

Sound professional performance from New Zealand ensuring this game didn't become a banana skin for them. Decent fighting contributions from Machan and Berrington but nothing else from Scotland.

Night, folks.

A little cruel, I suppose, but I was hoping Scotland batted first and got skittled real quick. Nothing personal, but the six tie breaker is a real thing, and I need some collapses for mine to be the closest

If Iain Wardlaw had held that simple catch near the rope it would have been 119/6... and an even more interesting finish.

He had bowled well earlier though, getting some juicy edges through to the keeper.

by the look of the score card....NZ's 7 down would indicate that Scot did compete and gave them a bit of scare

Olly wrote:Here's a good point I saw on Twitter, why are the co hosts in the same group?

Marketing.
Famous rivals have been grouped together to ensure these crowd /TV audience pulling games definitely happen.

How on earth are Pak better than India, KPF?

atletico86 wrote:Mystiroakey I do not think Irish cricketers are a supply ground for England, far from it as you point out. I think we get frustrated seeing our best players leave and play for another country. I'm sure you would understand our frustration, if lets say Jimmy Anderson, Ian Bell and KP (I named these as they are the English equivalents) started plying their cricket in another country and then decided to represent that country because they would earn a bit more money. It hurts, it really hurts and is so frustrating. Ireland is a small country which does not support a fully professional national sporting league. We don't have the simple demographics for it, without running a major loss. The only way would be maybe having a pan European league between irish, Scottish, dutch teams a la the PRO12 rugby league. Would this be allowed? Also what constitutes a 1st class system? Who decides? Is there any transparency in how they decide? Are there written rules? Anyone know?

The ICC has no interest in giving us any sort of status or test status, because they don't want to share the money. Ill give you a few examples, the ICC said they would expand the world T20, so they created a mini pre-tournament for the smaller teams and then reduced the number of teams in the main event. For the 50 over world cup they reduce the number of teams, and then stage the qualifying tournament in Bangladesh, who happen to be a full member!! They say the top8 ranked sides will qualify automatically, but then say the higher ranked sides don't have to play the smaller ones as they won't have the time, so it is really a token meaningless gesture. Our income/sponsorship depends on reaching world cups, its what fuels the youngsters dreams, yet the ICC put as many obstacles as possible to play in such things. Cricket is the only game which wants to contract so they can keep all the money for themselves. This is the rubbish we(associates) put up with. Would you be annoyed if England had to put up with this nonsense? I'll leave it up to you.

I must apologise for the rant. Anyway c'mon Scotland tonight and to all the associates!!!!

I understand your point and I was going to give the same example of potential success. The rugby rabbo.. If you could produce a marketable tourny including say scotland and Holland plus whoever else likes cricket then you have a shot at sharing the cost and increasing revenues.

My point stems around the facts though.

At the moment some think england poach irish players.

Well I am not sure. Morgan aged 14 at Dullwich college stated his dream was to play test cricket for england..

Ok that hasn't quite worked out but he is a shorter form capo.

If we look at how good Ireland are at rugby we can see that potentially you could have a high quality cricket team.

But if you are given test status without a decent domestic set up. The questions will go full circle akin to your football team (ireland poaching english players) Your selectors may end up picking brit players that have irish roots as they will have the access to better facilities from day one..

Ok maybe Ireland are producing better footballers these days in Ireland. But even recently I have heard them tapping up players like kane who are english and have been in the english set up for years.

I am a palace fan and we produce a lot of players for other countries, Moses and Bolaise are two prime examples.

Englands sporting system is a breading ground for talent , not the other way round.

This Pak being a good bowling side is one of the biggest myths floating around due to their history. Thats not really true of their current bowling attack, which bar Irfan, is very ordinary.

KP_fan wrote:

Olly wrote:Here's a good point I saw on Twitter, why are the co hosts in the same group?

Marketing.
Famous rivals have been grouped together to ensure these  crowd /TV audience pulling games definitely happen.

and also the ODI seedings from a couple of years ago I believe.

kingraf wrote:A little cruel, I suppose, but I was hoping Scotland batted first and got skittled real quick. Nothing personal, but the six tie breaker is a real thing, and I need some collapses for mine to be the closest

The average was a worrying 11 per game before this match, so it's coming down nicely after today!

Well played Scotland as well, the smaller nations are giving a good account so far

The Loaded Dog wrote:

KP_fan wrote:

Olly wrote:Here's a good point I saw on Twitter, why are the co hosts in the same group?

Marketing.
Famous rivals have been grouped together to ensure these  crowd /TV audience pulling games definitely happen.

and also the ODI seedings from a couple of years ago I believe.

The same seedings that had england as top seeds!!!!

mystiroakey wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:

KP_fan wrote:

Olly wrote:Here's a good point I saw on Twitter, why are the co hosts in the same group?

Marketing.
Famous rivals have been grouped together to ensure these  crowd /TV audience pulling games definitely happen.

and also the ODI seedings from a couple of years ago I believe.

The same seedings that had england as top seeds!!!!

We must be the worst top seeds in any tournament ever held!

VTR wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:

KP_fan wrote:

Olly wrote:Here's a good point I saw on Twitter, why are the co hosts in the same group?

Marketing.
Famous rivals have been grouped together to ensure these  crowd /TV audience pulling games definitely happen.

and also the ODI seedings from a couple of years ago I believe.

The same seedings that had england as top seeds!!!!

We must be the worst top seeds in any tournament ever held!

Yes, you were the Caroline Wozniacki's of cricket at the time.

The Loaded Dog wrote:

VTR wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:

KP_fan wrote:

Olly wrote:Here's a good point I saw on Twitter, why are the co hosts in the same group?

Marketing.
Famous rivals have been grouped together to ensure these  crowd /TV audience pulling games definitely happen.

and also the ODI seedings from a couple of years ago I believe.

The same seedings that had england as top seeds!!!!

We must be the worst top seeds in any tournament ever held!

Yes, you were the Caroline Wozniacki's of cricket at the time.

Maybe we aren't that bad then Tennis is a good shout for bad top seeds, I am sure you used to get the odd clay specialist as number one seed at Wimbledon who would then crash out in the early rounds

VTR wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:

VTR wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:

KP_fan wrote:

Olly wrote:Here's a good point I saw on Twitter, why are the co hosts in the same group?

Marketing.
Famous rivals have been grouped together to ensure these  crowd /TV audience pulling games definitely happen.

and also the ODI seedings from a couple of years ago I believe.

The same seedings that had england as top seeds!!!!

We must be the worst top seeds in any tournament ever held!

Yes, you were the Caroline Wozniacki's of cricket at the time.

Maybe we aren't that bad then  Tennis is a good shout for bad top seeds, I am sure you used to get the odd clay specialist as number one seed at Wimbledon who would then crash out in the early rounds

Yeah, you were good at the time. It looked good from up there for a while, didn't it? Quite like Woz... the prettiest No.1 in a while too.

Just seen highlights of the New Zealand innings on Sky.

Despite the Kiwis winning by only 3 wickets, it didn't look as if they were ever really worried. If anything, they were in too much of a rush. Scotland put up a decent fight with the ball but it was New Zealand's lack of application and concentration that accounted for most of their wickets.

Anyway, New Zealand looked a good and well balanced bowling unit. That brought them the win which matters most at this stage. However, they'll clearly face tougher opposition and will need to up the batting part of their game if they are to progress as far in this tournament as some think.

To be fair to the Clay Merchants. They can justify their ranking by saying if the tournament was played on a kinder surface, they'd boss it...

I'm not sure there are any playing conditions where English national team could win a coin toss at the moment.

kingraf wrote:To be fair to the Clay Merchants. They can justify their ranking by saying if the tournament was played on a kinder surface, they'd boss it...

I'm not sure there are any playing conditions where English national team could win a coin toss at the moment.

They beat your lot at the toss last time they played a game.
Number one seeds for a reason.

The last time we played you, Smith and Kallis were still playing... and more importantly, it was a knockout match. Hardly an achievement.

Looking at the squad though, sweet Jesus we were Poopie two years ago.

Ingram
Amla
Peterson
De Villiers
Faf
Duminy
Miller
Mclaren
Morris
Kleinveldt
Tsotsobe

Of that team, less than half made the plane to Australia

And we dont have KP or swan.

Swan was huge to us. I dont really understand why he quit-It must have been injuries. But I would have thought he had a few more years in him

I dont think KP or Swann were much use at the toss, despite their personalities.

Aye i suppose.. But you know swanny- He is a bit of a geezer- he may have a double headed coin in his back pocket

ShankyCricket wrote:How on earth are Pak better than India, KPF?

Much more potent bowling

Looks like Joyce has taken a small/little swipe at the authorities on twitter. I think the point he makes is dead right!
Couple of points on Scotland, they showed good fight and kept respectability. It is pity they were blown away in by the whirlwind that was boult as they heavily rely on a couple of top order batsmen. One thing Holland were skittled out by Sri Lanka in the world T20 I think, but came back strongly against South Africa and England. I think Scotland may still give somebody a scare, probably Sri Lanka or England, as Australia too strong.

Afghanistan going beautifully after Bangladesh decided to bat.

The Bangladeshis are 52/2 after 16.4 overs, with two new batsmen at the crease.

Mirwais Ashraf - a seamer for Afghanistan - highlighting the virtues of accuracy: 16 consecutive dot balls with two wickets.

Golden chance for the Afghans on their World Cup debut.

114/3... I have no idea how much Afghanistan think they are capable of chasing, buy this is going rather well for them. Al-hasan is going to be a big wicket now. Also, the six count is low, which is good for me.

130-4 now. after 32. Not to long ago, 250 would have been a rather decent effort from this quagmire. Bangladesh can still be looking at 300

3-3. Are they england in disguise?

Anyone else finding this match a little painful to watch?
It looks beyond Afghanistan's reach at the moment... unless there is a similar increase in the scoring rate towards the end of their innings.

Misinformation Alert:
Forget it Haydos... Manuka is a Maori word. Some sort of flowering plant. Also a famous brand of honey in this part of the world.
Nothing to do with "30,000 years of Indigenous inhabitants..."

The idea was NZ and Oz would eventually become one nation - hence the reference to many Maori place names in Australia (and the new capital in 1927) especially in the late 19th / early 20th century.

Hi LD - just looking in on this game for the first time. Obviously good for Bangladesh but, as you suggest, not very watchable for the neutral. 24 overs left and Afghanistan 5 down and well behind the rate. Seems all over already.

guildfordbat wrote:Hi LD - just looking in on this game for the first time. Obviously good for Bangladesh but, as you suggest, not very watchable for the neutral. 24 overs left and Afghanistan 5 down and well behind the rate. Seems all over already.

Had a long day here, G. Hard slog out the back yard but it's starting to look great. Quite hot here... about 2 hours from Canberra.

Yeah, I've started to put my sore feet up and switched over for some light Aussie comedy shows.

Probably an early night for me. I'll check the scoreboard in the morning for this one.

Well at least Bangladesh finally managed to put them out of their misery. At least England can be comforted that they dont have the worst batting line up in the tournament.

Good win for Bangladesh. World's current best all-rounder showing his class, and another solid performance from Mushfiqur Rahim. Afghanistan has a decent bowling unit, probably the best of the associate sides, but their batting is far too trigger happy with not much in terms of technical solidity. Would make for good watching at times, but not for long, and not sustained.......

And what on earth is happening? 2 days, 2 ODI matches, 4 innings and not a single 300+ totals?!?!? The
apocalyptic moment?
Surely its time to make 1 full-toss mandatory in every over? Cut down the outfielders to 1 during powerplays and 2 otherwise? Increase powerplay overs to 25 at least?