The Cricket Thread

[LeoRahi]

I posted it before, India are a different team in ICC tourneys.

 

[Aaron-Bcfc]

Put a small stake @4/1 on Ireland to win when they had the windies 30/1. Looked like it was going to pay off when they had them 80/5 but it was vital they got rid of Sammy sharpish. Had they've done that I think the windies would've struggled to reach 200, but Sammy (with help from Simmons) has ended up taking them to comfortably to 300. Would take a miracle for Ireland to win now, chance wasted for them

 

[Aaron-Bcfc]

Saying that, it's showing the re-run of when they chased down 328 to beat us a few years back. I remember them beating us but didn't realise it was that high. Maybe they do have it in them

 

[lordofthepies]

Ireland absolutely cruising here. West Indies not calling up Bravo is a joke.

 

[LeoRahi]

Amazing Ireland beat WI. WI is a joke of a team and they let go of Bravo and Pollard is nothing but brain-fart.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Full blown test status coming for Ireland?

 

[DarkSithLord]

Full blown test status coming for Ireland?

They deserve it but I just cant see it happening

 

[RavenBish]

Looks like they'll have a shot in 2018 if they win the Intercontinental Cup AND beat Bangladesh in a series...so unlikely you'd say but possible.

Shame we can't offload Morgan back to them now.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Looks like they'll have a shot in 2018 if they win the Intercontinental Cup AND beat Bangladesh in a series...so unlikely you'd say but possible.

Shame we can't offload Morgan back to them now.

We definetely need another team adding to the test scene I think. Not only would it benefit them, it would make a nice change to take a series somewhere else. I disagree on Morgan though, he will come good eventually.

 

[RavenBish]

Morgan's in Cook territory now though, it's been 18 months. The 2013 series loss against Australia was the last time he remotely looked like an international batsman. The whole 'come good' thing is proper English, especially considering he's not a Test player either that they need to protect.

At least try something else with him, why not move him up the order? Makes me laugh that the one in-form batsman they have, Taylor, is the player they're moving up and down the order constantly to accommodate others. Let Morgan attack early or late in the innings rather than him coming in and finding a new way to get out every time by over-thinking it.

 

[LeoRahi]

FFS don't blame Morgan for his bad performances off late. Guy is a top class player, just hit a bad phase. I won't be surprised if he 'comes good' this WC

 

[Pyeman]

I liked the batting order to be honest, swap Hales for Bell and it would've been MY ideal side.

My criticism of the batting line-up wasn't the line-up itself, more the fact that England keep chopping and changing. We need to get a degree of continuity so people can feel comfortable in their roles.

Also, I'm happy to include Hales, but get rid of Bell? I think that's a risk myself. Bell has shown himself to be one of our more dependable batsmen on this tour. My only previous concern was about his ability to score at a SR of 100+, but he's shown he is capable of doing that.

As for Morgan, we've ended up in a pretty helpless situation. You can't make a guy captain, then drop him before the end of his first tournament. Having said that, in terms of performance, he's easily the player who should be axed first. Unfortunately that's the nature of any sport where one of the playing staff is also an integral part of the management structure.

 

[Super_horns]

Whilst some of the games have been good its a bit of a slow burner only having one a day..

 

[JJH]

Been staying up far too late every night watching the ICC Cricket World Cup..

Australia, what a gash place too choose it ay?

 

[Saddlerrad]

In fairness Morgan hit a ton a few weeks back against Australia, something Cook hadn't done in yonks. As weird as it sounds, I think Cook being bad was more of a detriment to the side than Morgan is currently.

I do agree though, he needs runs, consistently and very soon.

 

[RavenBish]

Whilst some of the games have been good its a bit of a slow burner only having one a day..

A month to get through the group stages is nothing short of farcical for a World Cup competition.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Agreed. Should be 2 or 3 a day minimum with 1 at an obscure time to make sure it gets done at a reasonable speed.

 

[Inspector Todd]

Is there likely to be a separate thread for the County season?

 

[DarkSithLord]

Is there likely to be a separate thread for the County season?

Dont thinks so. It was all in one thread on TFF.

 

[CFC91]

It's good to differentiate though

 

[DarkSithLord]

It's good to differentiate though

True. Feel free to start a separate thread for the County season.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Can have as many seperate threads as you like ... may have one for test cricket only. I can't wait for all this ODI jargon to be over anyway. Bring on test cricket, it feels like an age since we've been there. Only 6 or so weeks to go now until we are in the Windies I believe.

 

[RavenBish]

Amen brother. ODI is the worst form of cricket, they're like the cage matches of cricket.

 

[lordofthepies]

T20 is easily the shittest form of cricket. At least 50 over resembles actual cricket.

 

[Stevencc]

It's test cricket or nothing for me, I never enjoyed the ODI game.

 

[RavenBish]

T20 is easily the shittest form of cricket. At least 50 over resembles actual cricket.

Nah, T20 for me is something that's easy to differentiate and is that fun alternative to appeal to a broader audience, in some ways it's like a completely different sport. The problem with ODI is that it's gone from what it was to now some weird hybrid whereby it's not as tactical/interesting as Tests but not as entertaining as T20.

 

[lordofthepies]

T20 is an almost entirely different sport. A much shitter one, designed for idiots. At least 50 over cricket has room for a bit of narrative and is unlikely to be completely decided by one good/terrible spell.

 

[Saddlerrad]

50 over cricket tries to be something it shouldn't. One day cricket should be a completely different alternative to test cricket - and it isn't.. Athers likes 50 over cricket, which kind of sums the game up with his personality. It's traditional and 30 overs of it resembles test cricket, then either side you get a few hits out of the park. But it's actually too long winded and boring for quite a lot of it. The middle overs are slow and predictable, I suppose some would say it compares to test cricket in that sense, except you only have 1 innings and it's very easy to see where a game is going early on. Test cricket is like a good 5 day game of chess. A 50 over game of cricket is like telling a long distance runner they must sprint the first and last mile of a 5 mile run, because that's the way it should be.

I don't like it, it bores me and England are shit at it. T20 is great family entertainment that will draw enough casual viewers in that could eventually trickle into enjoying test cricket. However, it's not directly good for test cricket. Gives kids the wrong impression, that cricket is all about smashing the ball as hard as you can and accumulating runs as quickly as you can. The West Indies and IPL are currently what is everything wrong about T20 cricket.

Just give me test cricket, loads of it. For every series we play 5 tests, 5 ODi's and 2 T20's - I'd rather we just played another 5 test match series each year. It's a money game though and ODI brings a good source in, sadly it's not going anywhere.

 

[Skinner]

I'm gunna go against the grain here, my favorite format is ODI. It's a good balance between test and T20.

I don't agree at all about what you said about ODI being a game of 10 overs of T20 30 overs of test and then 10 overs of T20 again. ODI, especially recently sees a lot of games won and lost in the middle order i.e a batting collapse or an explosive partnership.

Test cricket is too long for me to be able to watch as I don't have much free time and I don't get much enjoyment from following the scores. I don't like T20 much as it's the cricket equivalent to a game of knockouts. So ODI is perfect for me.

 

[Jackinky]

England v New Zealand tonight, will be very tough for England to get anything out of it I reckon.