Rest of the World

First topic message reminder :

I figure a thread for cricket stuff from around the world that doesn't warrant a series-thread is useful

Dont underestimate how bad Sri Lanka are! Beyond Herath and Mathews they are very ordinary.
West Indies middle order has rallied a bit and look like giving them some kind of total. Their bowlers are their strong suit (if Bishoo has one of his good games)

Wow, the most outrageous piece of fielding right on the boundary has won a third consecutive T20  for Afghanistan.

Bangladesh needed four off the last ball to win. It was smashed down to the long-on boundary, and somehow the fielder clawed it away in mid-air to save the game for his country.

And Rashid Khan, again, a tight four overs conceding just 24 runs.

https://youtu.be/x0qZDZAq36U?t=12m10s

That really is great stuff for Afghanistan!

Meanwhile Windies are 350/7 and exposing just how weak the Sri Lankan bowling unit is ( and making the point as to how weak their top order is)
Century for Dorwich.
I do wonder how Sri Lanka managed to get ranked above Pakistan who not long ago were a very handy test side and showed in England they have a good mix of new talent emerging even with the loss of the old stars.

Yep, great grind from the West Indies, Dowrich in particular. 150/5 to 414/8. Occupied the crease for 153 overs and counting. Old-school batting!

Sri Lanka still in this, of course. If they could match, or even better, the Windies first innings score, then Herath could play a pivotal part on a crumbling, turning wicket in a one-innings shootout.

Don't agree with the decision to declare, but we'll see how it pans out.

16/2. Maybe it was a good call to declare.

Sri Lanka 31/3 at close...are they England in disguise?

WI are not short on international quality talent....they can beat any-one any day in any formats...more so in the shortest....only lacks the will/ interests & consistency in longer formats
Remember they beat Eng in Eng last years chasing a biggish 4th inning total on the bakc of their opener's hundred in each inning

there is a one-off test match coming up agaisnt Afg...Kohli is resting / recuperating from slip disc
India should not take this lightly and prepare a seaming pitch for this game
Dunno where it is

KP_fan wrote:there is a one-off test match coming up agaisnt Afg...Kohli is resting / recuperating from slip disc
India should not take this lightly and prepare a seaming pitch for this game
Dunno where it is

Kohli was never due to play that game I thought, what with signing for Surrey for practice before the England tour. Is that move now off?

His Surrey stint was cancelled due to injury

Sri Lanka 179/9, including 40 extras.

Extras is on 89 for the game now out of just 735 runs. The number of byes and wides and only 1 wicket in each teams first innings being lbw or clean bowled really shows just how horrid the plays been. Discipline in the west indies middle/lower order seems to have been the difference...not chasing wide balls or playing loose shots and having a much lower ratio of boundaries in their scoring shots to the Sri Lankans. Doesn't sound like the keepers have had a great time of it for either team.
West Indies now 360 ahead with 6 wickets and 2 days left. Hard not to win comfortably from that position.

Well done, Dowrich!

Sri Lanka 176/3, chasing a world record 453. Mendis leading the charge on 94*. They've probably lost at least one wicket too many at this stage, but if Mendis bats through the morning session and is ably supported by his teammates, then it could get interesting.

Duty281 wrote:Sri Lanka 176/3, chasing a world record 453. Mendis leading the charge on 94*. They've probably lost at least one wicket too many at this stage, but if Mendis bats through the morning session and is ably supported by his teammates, then it could get interesting.

I haven't watched this game but from our previous tours, I know pitches go flat in WI as game progresses
277 needed on last day....ls still heavily in WI favor, but "do-able" by Lanka
75-25 in WI favour

I see on scoreboard Chandimal Rt. Hurt....is he able to bat again

Yes, Chandimal retired due to dehydration, so he will be fine to bat today.

Agree that it's about 75-25 in Windies favour.

Windies have got sri lanka 6 down now!

seems pitch spun & WI continue to remind every 4 game they have the ability to beat a top side
although Lanka is closer to the bottom, yet a full test playing nation

India are dominating Afghanistan so far. 248/1 at a very handy rate...play suspended. Praying for a rained off draw might be a bit ambitious for Afghan though.

Rashid Khan finding test Cricket a little harder than ODI and T20 at the moment.

Pretty good fightback....unfortunately for Afghanistan India have ridiculous depth to their batting.

No suprise Rashid got tap...same thing as Narine, batsmen have longer to sit on you and wait in tests...hopefully its just a blip for him though..

sri lanka have made 4 changes for game against Windies...including dropping Herath!

....and are off to a pretty bad start. 74/3

saw only highlights...will find time during weekend to see live.
Few observations...

--That the Indian opener on a benign pitch walloped nervous Afg bowlers should not take away one fact that differentiates Afg from other minnows.....

They seemed to have the fire-power to take 10 wickets in limited overs and 20 wickets in tests, needed to win
two 140kph pacers and 2 good spinners...they will bowl out sides, every where....need a 5th bowler though

Their batting will probably be found wanting.......so in make-up they are a bit of poorer cousins to Pak
Wafaadar, Rashid and Ahmadzai had good spells late in the day and pulled them back

--Ind did the good thing of playing all 3 openers instead of sitting one of the out for a specialist but less capable middel order batsman
Dhawan is a home track bully in the same class as Sehwag....he did play Rashid ver well using his feet
Vijay is a better all condition opener......and Rahul more capable than Dhawan in seaming conditions
Vijay and rahul should open in Eng

--rahul should be kicking himself for not converting....as should Rahane....who scores in difficult conditions but misses out in easy games

That Afg lost the toss and will have to bat last makes it even more dfficult
we need to see some sparks from them.....they need to avoid an innings defeat like the irish did

India 474 all out - better than it was looking at one point for Afghanistan, albeit India well on top.

Fast turning into a massacre. 78/6 ....at this rate they will be all out twice without making the follow on target.

Yeah seems to be a tough blooding into test cricket for them, but as someone on twitter pointed out, 10 years ago to the day Afghanistan were playing Jersey and Japan in Division 5 of the world cricket league - still amazing how far they've come!

Had plan to watch live D3& 4 over weekend
Now Afg all out for 100 odd....India has enforced follow-on
43 overs in the day
will the game go into Tomm

Afghanistan first match will be a two day affair, I think. Afghanistan should be allowed to play India's home season of Ranji as a separate team. This may improve their first class game.

subhranshu.kumar.5 wrote:Afghanistan first match will be a two day affair, I think. Afghanistan should be allowed to play India's home season of Ranji as a separate team. This may improve their first class game.

No. They should be playing test matches against all the other nations...

129/11 now ...still a long way off from 20 wickets meeting the follow on total!

West Indies going well too with Roach and Gabriel bowling Sri Lanka for 25 and 2/0 at stumps.

Sri Lanka without their two biggest stars look really short on quality (although de silva is a good addition). Their seamers are pretty hopeless.

Could be the first time west indies have won two tests in a row for 4 years!

Jesus Afghanistan really are getting slaughtered.

More high quality first class cricket would be more beneficial than this. At least the players will know just how much they have to work on to become test cricketers.

I saw coach Inzy's interview and he confessed Afg has not played much 4 days cricket ....so getting upto what test match cricket is like will take some time

There's a good chance that Afghanistan will be all out twice for less than the Indias were when their first wicket fell.
That would be quite a thing.

the quest in second inning is will Afg crumble to their lowest test total ever
Or will they surpass their highest test total ever

Real shame for Afghanistan, but they're hardly the first side to be gazumped by India in India - heck we're barely 18 months removed from England giving up a triple century to Karun Nair!

Would be good to see them get some series in against the likes of West Indies, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc.

So I will have to rethink my time allocated for watching D3 and 4 live
Highlights will be like a wickets-fall package 24 in a day

They need a FC system that gives them a LOT of 3 and 4 days games with focus on innings building

Yes, Afghanistan got hammered. But India in India is a bloody tough assignment first up.

Agree with Olly that they should be looking to play series against Windies, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, not to mention Ireland and Zimbabwe. Walk before they can run!

Well in the end they scored exactly the same across the entire team in both innings as the Indian openers did in one.

Lets never forget though that England once beat Australia by an innings and 579 runs.

WI bowl lanka out for 250 odd and seamers do the damage this time
WI is proving far superior to lanka so far in this series

Gooseberry wrote:Lets never forget though that England once beat Australia by an innings and 579 runs.

And New Zealand took 26 years, slightly exacerbated by the war, before they first won a test match.

One positive for Afghanistan...it can't get any worse!

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

subhranshu.kumar.5 wrote:Afghanistan first match will be a two day affair, I think. Afghanistan should be allowed to play India's home season of Ranji as a separate team. This may improve their first class game.

No. They should be playing test matches against all the other nations...

It's very difficult for a newbie team to get a series with other teams looking at the low revenue these games will generate. Well the cricket board are not that generous these days. So two to three matches every season in Ranji, some streak in Irani trophy will help them play along some of the full time Indian players.

Above all I agree with you.

Also, for a start, every team visiting India should play at least one match against Afghanistan in Dehradun(Their home turf) in North India.

The best moment of the match

Not great for the crowds either ....first two day test in India , Indias biggest ever win, and only the fourth time a teams been bowled put twice in a day.
3 days lost revenue for the ground, TV companies won't be happy either.

It's not going to be that bad every time but this makes the case for a two division test set up stronger.

watched Highlights

--Afg batsman-ship was disturbing.
They are horrible technically....most of them not getting behind the line of the ball, remaining leg side of the ball...no decisive feet movement , stand leaden feet in the crease....ready to swing across the line to mid wicket or occasionally making room over cover

and that'w why 11 of them fell LBW or bowled

--they  only know how to play T20 or 50overs at most ......haven't learnt how to get right behind the line of the ball...
It's not something they can learn easily without having FC system

Put them in on a green seaming pitch on the first morning against a good seam attack.....Anderson, Bhuvi, Boult type seamers can skittle them for less than 50

Sri Lanka test today was marred with controversy. The Sri Lankans refused to take the field for the first two hours after being accused of ball tampering. Ugly scenes.

Still the game is ongoing (for now). Delicately poised at on day three - Sri Lanka 15 behind, but 9 wickets still left in their second innings. 1st innings scores of 253 and 300 suggest this isn't the easiest pitch for the batsmen.

Lanka 150 on with 5 wickets in hand
this is heading towards an interesting finish

Gabriel's taken 13 for 111 in the match ....pretty incredible stuff!
Stiff target of 293 and 2 down for 30 as I type. Sri Lanka are in a winning position here despite West Indies making a habit of scoring lower order runs

The Chase from 43/2 to 296 is difficult looking at the fourth innings batting of WI. Hope getting retired hurt is pretty much like a debacle. However they are trying to hold the fort as of now.

For SL it is pretty much a game of pride to come back in the series and also recover from the ball tampering issue raised.

From here SL is winning. but we can see draw as an option unless some miracle happens.