The Cricket World Cup Thread

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 01 Mar 2011 10:12

agarkar was a pretty good death overs bowler iirc...good inswinging yorker.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 01 Mar 2011 11:19

pragyan ojha was not selected for WC squad inspite of being one of best spinners in last IPL. chawla is close to dhoni(?) and gets more chances. but being a leg spinner, any inaccurate loopy deliveries (and he provides plenty) will get struck with force.

imo Raina should play in place of yuvraj. both can bowl and hit hard, but raina is less injury prone and better fielder and better in running along boundary.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 01 Mar 2011 11:47

Sreesanth's way is to be aggressive

Asking the quickie to reduce or put a complete full stop to his antics, would seem very unfair and taking away a vital weapon in the bowler's armoury. This was proved in the first WC match against Bangladesh. Sreesanth was uncharacteristically quiet even though he received some stick from the Bangladesh openers, spraying the ball around and leaking 24 runs off 1 over.

The right armer would have typically shot back after a boundary or an inside edge, but the aggressiveness was conspicuous by its absence and Sreesanth looked like half the bowler he is.

Dhoni has always been a shrewd captain, his move to publicly ask Sreesanth to stay in his limits could be seen upon as tough on the budding quickie. The public telling-to could only be to ensure that everyone thinks Sreesanth will keep to himself and not constantly hassle the opponents.

The Indian captain will know what impact Sreesanth has on the opposition with his sometimes non-stop banter. The kind of impact he had against South African skipper Graeme Smith in the recently concluded Test series: Smith tried to hit the Kochi player out of the attack but only managing to hoick a shot straight into the fielder's hands. That got Sree pumped up and he produced a spell that was top-drawer stuff which helped India draw level in the series.

rkirankr · Post by **rkirankr** » 01 Mar 2011 14:47

Warne had predicted it as a tie 7 hrs before the match

Has the atma of paul gone into shane warne or there is more to it

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 01 Mar 2011 15:01

Well after reading about the Aus-Zim watch being probed by ICC anti-corruption unit, i am starting to doubt eng-ind match

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 01 Mar 2011 15:37

archan wrote:sorry, who is RS? Shastriji?

Yeah , who is RS?

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 01 Mar 2011 15:41

Rhiti Sports ?

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 01 Mar 2011 17:44

yep RS=the blaypoy krikeeter of yesteryear

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 01 Mar 2011 17:46

Er, with respect who is Ravi Shastri to "call" SRT and say "bring Dhoni"?

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 01 Mar 2011 17:49

it wasn't portrayed as him ordering SRT. more like an elder brother to kid brother kind of thing.

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 01 Mar 2011 18:05

Malinga takes 6/38 :o against Kenya

Second hat trick in a WC

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 01 Mar 2011 18:21

Singha wrote:agarkar was a pretty good death overs bowler iirc...good inswinging yorker.

unfortunately he is also highly unpredictable
i have seen him win matches
and i have seen him throw them away
all in the final overs

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 01 Mar 2011 18:29

I still remember the match against SA in '99 WC where he singlehandedly lost the game for us.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 01 Mar 2011 18:51

Dilbu, what do you call the pranthanic shows against umpires then? They are there to prevent ugly incidents. Dhoni has a point in asking pranthan to tame down a little bit. Pranthan should be intelligent enough to use his skills in a controlled aggression against right target., with right body language. His aggression on the batsmen with the ball is all that we want., and nothing against anything else. Who cares if he really kills people with the pace of delivery? Not just dhoni, even a remote spectator can't displace this kid.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 01 Mar 2011 19:01

Marten wrote:
Singha wrote:pragyan ojha was not selected for WC squad inspite of being one of Mahdi was right though - If the problem is with our bowlers, then we need to have one of these chaps sit out and have Pranthan back against Ireland on the dead pitch in place of Chawla and let Ashwin have a go in place of Pathan. We should be able to survive with 6 batsmen, no?

Nope Parathan needs to sweat a bit, he needs to be brought in only from the West Indies Game, Nehra should be given all the chances and going by past experience he will injure himself before then.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 01 Mar 2011 20:05

I would rather risk pranthan getting banned by ICC for kicking an umpire than lose a WC match with toothless bowling.

oleonau · Post by **oleonau** » 01 Mar 2011 20:21

Once again we failed to snatch defeat from the Jaws of victory!!!!

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 01 Mar 2011 21:47

I think Ashwin is our best spinner for limited overs cricket with Bhajji.I do not know why Chawla was picked ahead of Ashwin.Ashwin+Bhajji will be handy as the wickets get drier.

Mahdi,
I see more than a trace of bitterness when you talk about players from a certain state.It is one thing to be indignant about chauvinism and another to crib about players who earn India caps on merit.There are many shades of grey in our national discourse.It is very difficult to be 'neutral',unbiased and politically correct on certain issues.Thankfully,cricket which is only a sport is not one of them.JMTs .

rvishwak · Post by **rvishwak** » 01 Mar 2011 21:55

I think including Raina instead of Kohli would be better. Viraat dravid is more of an accumulater and this role can easily be played by Gambhir,God and Dhoni when the situation demands. More or less on Indian pitches Viraat will be wasted like he was in the last match against the angrezs. Whereas Raina can blast through the opposition bowlers even if only 15-20 balls are available to him which he has done quite often both for TI and CSK and not to forget his intelligent bowling. In terms of fielding both are almost equal with Viraat having a slight edge in slip position. On the bowlers TI should have bhajji in attacking role otherwise Ashwin is the better choice. Based on our batting performance giving 6-7 runs per over by a spinner should not be a problem till he is taking wickets.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 01 Mar 2011 22:14

chawla can be replaced by raina, definitely.. and a nice replacement satisfying all corners of the game. he can bowl as can gawd, sewag, yuvraj bowl. So, nice addition there with some blazing runs as well.

odds are favoring nehra or pranthan next game with munna taking a rest. can deepak chahar take over munna now as a surprise try?

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 01 Mar 2011 22:47

raina is not half the finisher kohli is. he has already saved us from embarrassment more than once. raina is a good player but suffers from brainf@rt far too often.

calling a player who effortlessly scored at 120 SR without taking any risk slow puts serious question marks about understanding of cricket. against eng he came in at 7 with a handfull of balls to spare. what was he supposed to do ?

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 01 Mar 2011 23:00

what was he supposed to do ?

change his foot works perhaps?

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 01 Mar 2011 23:16

Raina can't replace Kohli. We have enough big hitters in the team. Kohli has the temperament to come in at number 3 or 4 when we have lost quick wickets and survive under pressure. He is also a good finisher like Rahul said. Raina can replace only 2 people in the team. Pathan and desi Sobers. Desi sobers has managed to secure his place with that 50 against englishstanis. His problem is that from TI's best fielder he has made the transition to being a liability on the field. He doesn't even run fast between wickets anymore. I remember Dhoni being pissed off at him in the last game when he refused to take a quick single despite Dhoni calling for it.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 02 Mar 2011 00:30

well, he can surely replace chawla.. I was not touching kholi at all. kholi is perm now.

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 02 Mar 2011 01:56

I was not touching kholi at all. kholi is perm now.

It is KOHLI and not KHOLI!! Kohli is a north indian caste of Kayasthas like Bachchan and Aroras

archan · Post by **archan** » 02 Mar 2011 01:58

Bajwa ji, don't bang your head against a wall.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 02 Mar 2011 02:29

maaf karna bhai [did I put h here correct?] - Kohli ko jai ho!

Mahendra · Post by **Mahendra** » 02 Mar 2011 02:42

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 02 Mar 2011 06:48

sobers looks in worse physical shape than most of us keyboard jockeys. I swear his paunch is bigger than mine and he aint no aravinda de silva or ranatunga who were paunchy but small, lynx-like and sharp on their feet. even the original sobers (WI) was a hard partying animal who'd bed someone late into the night but show up refreshed the next morning to score high and take wkts.

habal · Post by **habal** » 02 Mar 2011 07:57

Australia-Zimbabwe match under cloud

MUMBAI: The Australians landed in trouble on Tuesday when the International Cricket Council (ICC) has initiated a probe into their performance in the World Cup against Zimbabwe last week.

Already bitten by the defeats and slump in form, the Australian openers, Shane Watson and Brad Haddin, allegedly under-performed, batting slowly in the first 11 overs against the minnows, leading to suspicion that the players helped betting irregularities.

It is learnt that the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) has scrutinised the match after questions were raised over the two openers scoring just 28 in 11 overs and 53 in 15 overs in the match that Australia went on to win easily.

. . the ICC ASCU was keeping a close vigil on all matches in the World Cup and the slow start by the Australian openers must have raised the eyebrows

Shane Warne: Genius or Match-fixer

Before a ball had been bowled, Warne wrote on his Twitter page: "Looking forward to the game between India and England - should be a cracker. My prediction - a tie!"

Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene & Samaraweera also under scanner

Sri Lanka batsman Mahela Jayawardene has taken legal advice over doubts raised on a state-run TV channel about the way he and another batsman performed in the World Cup defeat by Pakistan.

Sri Lanka, who are one of the favourites to win the tournament, lost Saturday's Pakistan game by 11 runs as Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera were out for just two runs and one run respectively when the team was trying to accelerate the run rate against the powerful Pakistan bowling.

State-owned Independent Television Network (ITN) in an analytical documentary aired on Sunday criticised several Sri Lankan players including Jayawardene and Samaraweera for their poor performance.

Jayawardene when asked about the allegations before the Kenya match said he had consulted his lawyers over the matter.

"The lawyers will decide what proper course of action should be taken," he said.

ITN also accused a businessman of betting 2 million rupees ($18,053) on Pakistan's victory without giving any further details.

"We are treating the matter seriously," said Nishantha Ranatunga, the secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket.

partha · Post by **partha** » 02 Mar 2011 08:02

habal wrote:
Shane Warne: Genius or Match-fixer

Before a ball had been bowled, Warne wrote on his Twitter page: "Looking forward to the game between India and England - should be a cracker. My prediction - a tie!"

All "expert" comments in that article are by Pakis. Well, when it comes to comments about match fixing, who better than expert fixers

habal · Post by **habal** » 02 Mar 2011 08:17

When it comes to 'fixing', they know best.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 02 Mar 2011 09:30

is he up and about? media reported Liz flew to aus for a romp and observers noted a store delivering a huge new bed to his carefully screened residence.

he is a genius, works hard, plays harder...somehow delivers top results by his own unusual methods.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 02 Mar 2011 20:56

well they lost against BD from this situation.

hmm, both pierce brosnan and yardley of london being taken to the cleaners.

SandeepA · Post by **SandeepA** » 02 Mar 2011 20:59

I repeat Bangalore is a 350+ pitch in this post-T20 era. See how even Ireland can look good chasing down anything less than 350.

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 02 Mar 2011 21:10

Yes, they are giving them a big scare. Will be crazy if this one ends up in a tie as well.

James B · Post by **James B** » 02 Mar 2011 21:12

Wow!!! John Cusack and Conan O'Brien are giving a scare to einglistanis.

PS; Conan O'Brien makes century of 50 balls, perhaps fastest century in a world cup.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 02 Mar 2011 21:13

they have been clubbing away at the english for an hour now.

good luck boys.

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 02 Mar 2011 21:15

Any of the unwashed Cricket thread regulars going to India - Ireland match?

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 02 Mar 2011 21:17

We jinxed them... Cusack out.