Same one, yeah, and he was actually really good this time but I wouldn't say quick. He was like a shit Southee, I suppose.
Same one, yeah, and he was actually really good this time but I wouldn't say quick. He was like a shit Southee, I suppose.
That opener has one of the weirder stances/guards I've seen.
Yesterday I also got a brief look (4 balls) at alleged Australian phenom Teague Wyllie https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricket...wyllie-1295848, and all I can say is that if you got runs for exclaiming 'Ooh yeah!' when a scantily clad woman walks along the boundary then he would be averaging a lot more than he does.
NZ in the last say 30 years have been incredibly good at identifying what talent there is early and then developing it to the max. They will never have depth but if they can keep finding 2 players a year they'll be OK.
Typical Teague, always thinking with his Wyllie.
Back down to the 3s this weekend for a Sunday game at home vs Aberystwyth 1s. I expect we'll get thumped but hopefully we can bowl first and make a game of it.
Played in the 2s in the weekend just gone. It was a tough game, our opponents batted first and made 243 in really warm weather. We had them 140-odd for 7 so it was frustrating to see it slip away. I came on for an over at the end and cleaned up the number 11 to get my first of the season. Then the captain came to me and asked if I wanted to open. The usual opener plays his shots a bit so I was just asked to stick around and see off some overs while he plays his natural game. We put on 70 in 16 overs, with me contributing a beautiful 7, but he was bowled just after drinks and I eventually got bowled off an inside edge in the 21st over. We lost comfortably in the end but managed to pick up 8 pts, so not a terrible result all things considered.
Ultimately, I really enjoyed opening though. I obviously need to get a bit better at rotating the strike but it afforded me time at the crease and allowed me to get into a decent rhythm at picking up the ball. Hopefully I can do it again this week for the 3s.
I think the only cricket content I have consumed via YouTube recently is the Nas/ Athers podcast Sky do but currently in my feed is 90 minutes of Long Melford 1st XI vs. Great Bromley 1st XI.
As expected, a tough day and a bit of a hammering for us yesterday. We fielded 8 lads 18 or younger, up against a side who will probably storm up the divisions for several seasons.
Fair play to our team though, kept at it in the field and put in the effort on a really hot day. On a personal note, I bowled pretty well (8-3-22-2) but batting wise I played a lazy shot and got a leading edge, easily caught for just 2.
The opponents were good lads overall - well 10 of them were at least. Their wicketkeeper was a bit of a prick from start to finish. Happy to say I had him nicking off to slip in my 2nd over, out for just 6.
There isn't a wicketkeeper in the world who isn't a mouthy little cunt.
I would say no offence to any resident TTH wickies, but you know what you're like.
Been quiet on my nights this week, and doing the usual aimless pissing about I ended up on a series of videos on the talksport YouTube featuring jarrod kimber and bumble (and some other bloke), and some of Jarrod's stuff more generally.
I was already aware of him from that podcast he did with zaltzman, but I think he's brilliantly entertaining. I may be missing some obvious flaws in his material simply by virtue of knowing fuck all about cricket, but was finding it all very compelling.
Any fans on here? Even ignoring his opinions and their relative merit, he just seems like a genuinely top bloke. Nice to see Bumble seems to really like and respect him, they had surprisingly good chemistry.
Maybe that's partly a cricket thing - in football, it's quite laughable how insecure ex-pros are about football pundits who didn't play at #thehighestlevel. How could you possibly provide the quality insight a Gabby Agbonlahor does if you didn't, right?
I like Kimber, some of his Youtube stuff is great. Also very 'neutral' in the sense that he focuses on everyone on their own merits, most online cricket outlets have gone heavily towards chasing Indian clicks in the last year or two which is about as boring as it gets.
Mega seeing Jof back. Also, is there some kind of decree that Pakistan always has a chubbster in the team? Their current keeper is a proper unit.
If it's the same guy who toured NZ last year, as well as being a proper unit, he was also proper shit.
World T20 is underway, it started at 1.30am in the UK. Canada played the USA and the latter won with some lad biffing 94 off 40 to chase 194 on a very small ground.
3.30pm today sees West Indies against Papua New Guinea. England's opener is against Scotland on Tuesday.
I had considered trying to get tickets for the Florida games but the selection ended up meh and not really worth the 4 hour drive.
Worked out well considering I have surgery to sort my ACL out Friday and would not be feeling the drive or sitting in the heat any time soon.
PNG kit is sensational. Worth getting whomped 4 times for.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/videos/c3ggdx171zjo
Absolute scenes at the end of normal time in this one. Taxi for the Oman keeper. Associate cricket is just the best.
Two really good weekends for me and my club cricket exploits.
We headed for an away game firstly, off the back of two pretty crap batting efforts to start the season (47 all out and 54 all out). They won the toss and batted and when they put on 120 for the opening wicket, it was a little worrying. Ultimately we bowled really well to restrict them and they ended 191/5 off their 40 overs. I ended up with 3-29 from my allotted 8 overs.
We started ok with the reply but a quick flurry of wickets meant I came out to bat at 84/6 after 19 overs. Their captain was swinging it miles so I saw out his last 3 overs without a hope in hell of scoring runs, and then tucked in to the replacements. Unfortunately I edged behind with about 40 needed, but a run-a-ball 41 is my best batting score ever. We fell narrowly short (162 all out) but it was a really good performance all round and earned a good wedge of bonus points.
We were due to play this Sunday so I decided to go the 3 miles up the road on the Saturday to watch our 1s play a local derby. Packed bar and great atmosphere as our captain took a 5-fer and opened the batting to make 92 and lead us to a 5 wicket win. The 2s also won at home, so the pressure was on for us to earn a first win of the season and make it a clean sweep.
Our bowling attack again fired, bowling out the opposition for just 70 (1-9 from 4 overs for me). A collapse is never far away with our batting however, and I walked out at 48/5 with the nerves jangling. Our older opener told me to just play time and he chipped away at the runs. With 8 required, I got off the mark with a big six down the ground, before clipping the next ball for 2.
3 wins from 3 for the club, and our first win of the season in the 3s. Lovely stuff.
Good stuff mate.
I'm injured. Potentially ACL.
Nothing better than winning in club cricket, especially when the team hasn't had a great run. Also nothing better than walking off the field having made some with the bat.
Saturday they sent me to Hertfordshire Prem for an exchange. God it was bizarre. I turned up at this place in Watford and there was an umpire assessor there telling me he was marking us for progression to the national panel. This was news to me, I'm top 25 in Surrey now but it's only the top 3/4 who are national panel and I would say I'm a fair way from that yet. Anyway, my colleague had one of the most bizarre heads I've ever seen, in that he had a normally shaped head, but the face was entirely in the bottom half of it. He wasn't disabled or anything, just looked bizarre. I thought I was on acid. I had a quality game and the assessor (who had gravy stains down his shirt) said I was ace, though I wasn't bothered by that as he clearly didn't have a clue. The tea was even weirder. They cooked up a load of those chicken breaded schnitzel type things that you get in a supermarket, dumped them in a bucket, and then we ate them with our hands. That was it. Not even a bun to put them in or a plate.
I should have known this but Hertfordshire cricket was absolute shit. One of the teams was good but the other would be third tier at best in Surrey. Some Kiwi bloke hit about 15 sixes over my head into the tennis courts. There's a reason everyone else in cricket hates Surrey, the more I experience the game the more I realise Surrey are just the best at every aspect of it.
A lot of Premier Divisions are shit (within context). The ECB made this push some years ago to have all areas under their umbrella, forgetting the fact a lot of the country is piss poor at the game. I've experienced Cornwall, where guys get paid eye watering amounts, and if they rocked up in our area they'd get lolled off the park.
In the nets in January. Bowled a bouncer (fast, btw) and felt a pop at the top of my calf. Assumed I'd pulled the calf and didn't bowl for the rest of the winter to let it heal. First game of the season we only batted then got rained off so I didn't feel anything, then the second game I set off to chase one in the field and it went again. A few more weeks go by of me ignoring it, just batting and generally fielding in the ring but I was in agony most of my holiday last week both at the top of my calf and also working into the back of the knee. I can walk fine but anything more tends to set it off and I can't put any pressure on it. Went to see my physio and she reckons it's almost certainly the ligaments and the calf pain is a by-product. Waiting for an MRI.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricket...briggs-1252163
I think every 2nd tier cricketer in New Zealand has a club gig over here.
Jesus.
I was just making a run in behind and went to check right. Felt like the bottom half of my leg stayed and the rest of me went. I didn't feel a pop but a crunch and thought it was just bone on bone, maybe a bit of meniscus damage so I watched the rest and drove home. Made an appointment and the doc was like "yeah its ACL" before we even did the MRI. Turns out only ACL with a LCL sprain that will heal naturally.
Sounds about same with the rest though. I can walk with no issue but trying to do anything remotely like twisting is a no go. They gave me a brace at the appointment as they knew so I have been in that most of the time just waiting. Finally doesn't look like a balloon, just in time to get cut open and start again.
Fingers crossed it's not ACL for you and something a bit more manageable!
That sounds rough Ben. Hopefully it's not too bad and you can get back before the end of the season.
Jimmy, your umpiring stories do paint a hilarious picture of club cricket in general. I do love umpiring and scoring too; we've not got a game this weekend so I might go away with the 2s and do some of both.
Club cricket is the most amazing subculture. Non-cricket people's idea of it is that it's twee and dull, the reality is so different. It's like this big swirling pit of insecurities, pent-up grudges, vanity, petulance, humour and occasional moments of genuinely heartwarming brilliance. I'm probably one of the few people who has been at the very bottom of it and now also the very top, wouldn't change a moment for anything.
Scotland munching us everywhere in the powerplay. Apparently we have never won a T20I against a European nation. That is some stat.
This ground looks smaller than @niko_cee new garden when he buys his house
Genuinely have no idea why you’d host this in the Caribbean in June. Surely it’s going to rain every other day
Never made an offer for the cricket field place which I was quite glad about when I picked up my daughter from cricket recently and saw some biffer routinely launching filth into back gardens/fence panels/the car park.
Is anyone outside of India actually interested in this? Do they even like it there anymore or is it just all IPL? The whole format just feels like absolute death now.
Test is king but think I’d prefer T20 over ODI.
I’m surprised T20 hasn’t taken off in America. You’d think it would suit the slow ones over there
T20 is trash, but as with basically anything it's fine once the stakes get high enough.
109 needed from England. Should still piss it but competitive enough
These midnight/1am starts our time are baffling. You can't even say it's for the Indian market as it's 6am there which is hardly prime time. Who is it for, the American west coast? Are they watching little else on Sunset Boulevard?
They're caught between trying to appeal to the locals to grow the game in America (fair enough) and also suit the Indian market, so we've got a pathetic situation where there's 10:30 and 20:00 local time games and sometimes nothing in between.
This New York pitch is rascal.
I see the dangerous pitch bealing is about when there is any risk of not being able to hit every single ball for six.
Dangerous pitches are probably the only interesting thing left in the cricket world west of England.
Similarly, the sizes of the boundaries - 75m and 65m on each side, and 71m straight – and slow outfield have inhibited run scoring with the boundary ropes unable to be pulled in because of ICC tournament guidelines.
Last edited by niko_cee; 06-06-2024 at 08:07 AM.
Big boundaries is the key to making T20 interesting, small boundaries are poison, yet people seem really really upset when it's anything other than sixes galore.
I don't get it either. The IPL is an absolute bore in my opinion.
The other issue is that modern batters are all crybabies and have zero adaptability to conditions, they spend so much time pinging the ball off bowling machines indoors that they think a bit of variable bounce is horribly unfair. Outdoor game, motherfuckers.
Arena cricket league would be lethal, though.
Good bowling is better than good batting.
Unless it’s KP
Torn meniscus and ACL.
Hopefully can get it back in good condition for next season...
Shit. How long they say until you can get an op?
There's a guy at my club who has had I think 4 ACL ops, two on each knee. Missed 5 complete seasons over the last 10 years. Latest comeback this season, immediately the 2s top scorer. Never leaves you.