Just woke up, why are they talking about England
Just woke up, why are they talking about England
Still think it’ll be close. Australia staggered over the line against a less intimidating South Africa bowling attack and that was after a rampant start. They were a dropped Cummings catch and lbw away from heads going.
Kohli leaving one first up.
It pains me to say it, but I love watching Travis Head smoke it through the covers.
Shami's thatch just makes me laugh.
Quite how Bumrah hasn't got a wicket in that over is anyone's guess.
Rahul doesn't keep very often does he? He's scrap.
That six from Marsh was incredible. Swinging ball 90mph fuck that, off you go.
Feel like this innings isn't going to last very long, one way or the other.
The two wickets absolutely garbage shots, but even from here they're in nurdle-it-home range if they can preserve wickets.
‘You can really see how well Smith deals with pressure. Even though it’s only 8 balls.’
Gone next ball
And he should have reviewed it.
Weird as he usually reviews everything.
I said outside the line live. Bafflingly poor decision (those aren't difficult at all) and baffling that he didn't review it.
Can't believe he's not reviewed that. He gets so far across he's often outside the line.
Marsh getting out so early is killing them. If Head can't shut the crowd up soon it's curtains.
It never looked out live
No idea why Travis Head didn’t tell him to review it. If smith wasn’t sure he should be backing him up to make the decision
Non-striking bats (and bowlers, mostly) don't have a clue on line, they're at the wrong angle. Smith of all people should know where his off stump is.Originally Posted by Waffdon
Every game in this tournament has felt like there is a possibility for a few early wickets, but after that it's down to whether the batsmen get themselves out or not. Would not recommend.
Harsha just starting to sound a bit funereal here. I'm holding out until 50 to win.
Fucking lol at that. Seething, they are.
It's happening...
Any signs of tears(or anyone still sat) in the stands?
Kohli is going to trip over his lip on the way off the field.
My Indian mate is going full Yevrage. Unreal scenes.
Imagine not winning the World Cup in your own country.
The last 25 overs or so was fucking amazing. A slow strangle of psychological doom. Sanjay Manjrekar spent an entire commentary stint trying to claim conditions were to blame, and Harsha Bhogle sounded like there had been several deaths in the family. The great man Shastri saved it a bit in the last 30 runs by giving it some beans.
I think the crowd had a part in the team bottling it. They're great when India are on top but never get behind them when they're under the pump, so as soon as Australia got the upper hand, it was always finished unless Jadeja or Siraj had a freak over and nicked a couple of wickets. The crowd gave up 80 runs out, so then the team did too.
One moment stood out when Australia were about 65-3 and the crowd were understandably loud, then Head rocked back and pumped a six over mid wicket. Immediate silence. And not just for 30 seconds. That was it from them. Silence until someone on the field gave them another moment to shout about (which never ultimately came).
The Indian culture is strange that they need validation in everything they do. Hence, they've got no fight when they're up against it. It's either romp to victory or nothing.
It's a country in the grip of nationalist ecstasy, and has been for the last 10+ years. That's quite alien to us as Europe probably hasn't had such a thing since, well, the 1930s or earlier. Unfortunately the realities of sporting competition can get in the way of that kind of crafted narrative, and that's when the people, whether in the crowd or Kohli looking at his broken stumps, don't know how they are supposed to react to failure.
They’d get their arse handed to them in a war. Pakistan should invade.
That's incredible.
This mentality is why they won.
Sanjay Manjrekar, writing in the Hindustan Times today, with one of the all-time great seethes.
Sensational stuff. Too many highlights to pull any of them, just bask in it.Australia did the exact opposite of what South Africa does, they raised their game when it mattered. India obviously would be hurting from the result in the final but in time they will find peace in the fact that a champion cricketing nation beat them.
It’s six World Cup titles for Australia now. Next best are India and West Indies with two each. The big takeaway for me from Ahmedabad was how an unconvincing entrant into the final was able to reach true excellence when generally a stage like this gets most to fumble.
This unprecedented performance of Australia in this World Cup started even before the first ball was bowled. One of the most brilliant decisions you will see was taken at the toss, and I said this on the TV coverage the moment Pat Cummins said we will field first.
The pitch was tacky, a bit rough on the top and likely to turn from ball one, so Australia wasn’t really taking a huge risk by going against the cliché of putting runs on the board in the big game.
They knew their pacers would get some lateral movement in the afternoon, plus the sandpaper like top meant that reverse swing could come into play with Mitchell Starc as one of the best exponents of it in the world in their side; also, the slower balls were going to be a great option to go to if nothing else worked.
If dew comes in later, batting was bound to get easier, the ball wasn’t going to turn as much, plus the slower ball as a lifesaver for the seamer when nothing works was not going to be an option.
It was actually a ‘win-win’ scenario for the team bowling first. After that it was all about execution. And that’s where Australia just nailed it! The big moment for me was when Travis Head ran the way he did, backwards, and took that Rohit catch.
It was as much about great athleticism as it was great temperament and the ‘champion DNA’ that Australian cricketers tend to have. At that moment in front of around 100,000 people, Head was thinking nothing else, not the stage, not whose catch it was, he was just driven to do the seemingly impossible because it just needed to be done.
India losing the toss, for me was huge factor, all of us who saw the pitch before the match felt that it just gave the weaker team, Australia, more ammunition.
Let me give you an example. The rough surface meant the ball moved off the seam a little and also didn’t skid onto the bat in the afternoon.
That phenomenon took care of Shreyas Iyer. Reverse swing got KL Rahul. A slow afternoon pitch also meant a batting unit concerned about not losing wickets managed to hit two boundaries in 29 overs.
India’s final hope Surya also could not produce his T20 magic, because of the sluggishness of the pitch, so it was impossible for India to recover after losing early wickets to get a score that would be out of reach of a team chasing under lights in much improved batting conditions.
A good batting pitch and India would have managed to get over 300 and then we would have seen a better contest. This unique surface meant the toss suddenly became a game changer and Australia made their own luck by opting to bowl first.
Don’t think too many other teams would have gone against conventional wisdom, but Australia did. To put it simply, the 10/10 India was beaten by the conditions first and then by a team who when it mattered, had individuals who dug deep to find the champion within.
I believe India are still the best 50 overs team in the world, just that they don’t have the World Cup to show for it.
Tremendous.
Yeah, that's good seethe.
Just watched Zimbabwe get turned over by Uganda in the World T20 qualifying tournament. These tournaments are just wall to wall scenes, so much better than the finals.
Zim now in real danger of not making the 20-team finals in June. Namibia certain to get one of the two African spots and Uganda or Kenya now well placed for the other.
Kenya in a major tournament. Feels like the good old days.
I also watched them yesterday and would you believe Collins Obuya (star of the 2003 World Cup) was not only still turning out for them, but was man of the match with a blistering 80-odd. Couldn't believe he was only 42, thought he'd be nearer 50.
Stokes had his knee surgery yesterday. He's adamant he'll be fit for the Test series in India, which starts in less than two months. How is he going to recover that quickly? No way was this only a cartilage clean up, and anything more usually requires quite a bit longer than two months. So either he doesn't play, or he does and plays solely as a batter again and ruins his knee properly when we rock up on that Dharamshala outfield.
Stinks of bad planning and you can just see the outcome already.
Rwanda currently 65/8 against Uganda. If the latter win, they qualify for the T20 WC and Zimbabwe miss out.
When they play whoever the number one seed is in their group they will get absolutely poleaxed, but great to see such nations coming on.
As for the WI v Eng series, what the fuck is this squad: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/.../series-squads
Embarrassing if we lose a game to that.
Their 50 over cup has been on TNT the last month or so and I've ended up with it on in the background a few times. Absolutely shocking standard, I fear cricket has gone over the edge in the Windies.
The complete lack of young talent is what shocks me a bit, everyone who plays in the island cricket seems to be 34, the rare exceptions are seam bowling all-rounders who get hunted by the IPL and are ultimately very shit. It also seems to be completely impossible to score runs on their decks. The only person I can find with a first class average of 40 is Tagenarine Chanderpaul.
40 Overs
47 Overs
Never change England.
Needless to say we've managed it at the first attempt. Curran absolutely tragic.
Good on Mitchell Johnson for digging out 'Davey' and his retirement series.
Ye beat me to it, absolutely brilliant isn't it. Always nice when people so concisely and accurately dismiss stupid stuff like this.
He would be gone if they had a replacement, or at least a replacement who goes at it HARD. There isn't an opener in the Shield who strikes at over 50 really, plus they've decided Bazball is bullshit, so unlucky I guess. Renshaw and (sit still in the aisles please) Bancroft seem to be the current next cabs off the rank.
Excellent stuff.
Whatever happened to their wonderkid with a head made entirely out of concussions?
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