Cricket- the sport not the insect

[the asian]

Deserved a century and he was obviously disappointed.

Yr. careless way to get out. And his dismissal ensured our familiar late order collapse

I was at the SCG today . But I was more impressed with Mathews (and of course Jayawardene) than Thirimanne, because those two were composed throughout their entire innings, looked completely in control and it was a real surprise when the two of them got out. For me, it was only a matter of time for Thirimanne to get out. He looked really uncomfortable for a long time, until he crossed 50, especially against Lyon.

In his defence, Thirimanne did play some cracking stokes though. Loved the pull-shot four from Johnson. Jayawardene was also brilliant today, I was genuinely sad that he couldn't complete a century, and also a but relieved that we'd gotten him out for 72 and not 272.

There was a decent crowd at the match! Good to hear you were one of them

I only watched the middle part of Thirimanne's innings and he batted well in that period, but I also heard the commentators say that his start was scratchy.
No wonders though. He was in Sri Lanka and only flew in for this test. Considering all that, it was an impressive innings.

 

[hoerpi]

This was a face saver for NZ after yesterday's shambles. Great to see McCullum being useful with the bat, there's big room for improvement in the starting XI among players available though.

 

[42x16ss]

This was a face saver for NZ after yesterday's shambles. Great to see McCullum being useful with the bat, there's big room for improvement in the starting XI among players available though.

It's disappointing that the NZ batsmen - even Ross Taylor - have been so hot and cold for so long, as they have had a very decent bowling line up for a few years now. Once they start batting consistently they could really move up the test rankings.

 

[Alphabet]

Yr. careless way to get out. And his dismissal ensured our familiar late order collapse

That appears to be the difference between the teams at the moment. Prasad et al can't bat very well, whereas Johnson and Siddle are competent batsmen.

There was a decent crowd at the match! Good to hear you were one of them

It was a lot of fun . I think we saw about 40 boundaries, 2 sixes and 10 wickets, so it was a great day of cricket.

 

[Alphabet]

Samaraweera should have many unpleasant things done to him by his team mates after a criminally awful shot like that. What was he thinking?

I don't know how Sri Lanka can keep inventing new ways to throw away great positions. They were cruising until after tea at 1/131, had Australia on the defensive. Karunaratne in particular looked in menacing form.

I guess getting Karunaratne out for 85 and not 185 and Jayawardene for 72 not 372 have been the decisive factors in this match.

 

[the asian]

Our batsmen lack the temperament to play an long innings.
Our first class matches which are club matches, are only three days and very often on bowler friendly wickets.
Cricket politics prevent the staging of theFour day Inter provincial Tournament .
And with our incompetent board cancelling Test matches it's only going to be worse

If we can somehow manage to put another 80 runs on the board, we can at least give the Aussies a fright though.

 

[Alphabet]

60 more from Chandimal and 20 odd from the rest would set a tough total of 200. Still winnable, but the tail must wag and the other bowlers have to back up Herath by at least making it hard to score.

 

[the asian]

So, It's a 3-Nil whitewash.

We can look forward to play Zim and Bangladesh. we should blood some youngsters. Pretty sure Dilshan and Samaraweera have played their last tests

Meanwhile hoping the Aussies can emulate the English and beat the Indians.
A 4-0 whitewash would be nice

 

[auscyclefan94]

Mr Cricket is a massive loss for the Australians going into the Ashes. Will make regaining the Ashes even harder to regain.

 

[Alphabet]

So, It's a 3-Nil whitewash.

We can look forward to play Zim and Bangladesh. we should blood some youngsters. Pretty sure Dilshan and Samaraweera have played their last tests

Meanwhile hoping the Aussies can emulate the English and beat the Indians.
A 4-0 whitewash would be nice

Samaraweera's got to go, he just doesn't care anymore. He should get some of his match fee docked or some other form of discipline, he let down the team in some fashion.

Also, based on how insipid we've been against a test team as poor as Sri Lanka (sorry), I'm not so sure we'll walkover India. 3-0 is a scoreline that doesn't reflect the truth, we were sub-par in Hobart and frankly dreadful here in Sydney, if it weren't for a few moments of madness from the Sri Lankan batsmen we'd have lost this by about 300 runs. Theoretical possibilities aside, we should not be getting pushed to day 5 and late day 4 by a team like Sri Lanka, especially when we are the hosts. If Herath can take 12 wickets at a very good average (considering it is Australia, after all), with virtually no support from the rest of the attack, I shudder to think what Ojha could do. He might not be as good as Herath but he'll have turning tracks and a team that won't be as reliant on him, and won't let him down that often.

Mr Cricket is a massive loss for the Australians going into the Ashes. Will make regaining the Ashes even harder to regain.

Indeed. Hussey

I suppose we could make do with his brother in England, but really, we're not in with much of a chance of victory there. Best to play for a drawn series and then give it a proper go at home.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

How do you play for draws when bowling is your strong suit? I'm looking forward to watching Warner & Watson try to bed down for a long slow knock.

 

[Alphabet]

Watson, hopefully, won't get in the team. Warner has a patient side that can do well on green tops, as his century on a golf-green Hobart pitch in 2011 can show. Clarke and Cowan can certainly score Hanif Mohammad style 600 ball centuries if they're bothered.

Also I said playing for a drawn series, rather than a draw. A 1-1 or 2-2 series would be great.

 

[movingtarget]

How do you play for draws when bowling is your strong suit? I'm looking forward to watching Warner & Watson try to bed down for a long slow knock.

They both can when they concentrate but Watson's problem is the injuries. He will be in the team but if he lasts is another thing.

 

[hoerpi]

Great showing by England, lost against Delhi with a pretty good team. Zero wickets from Finn. The absense of Swann and Anderson will probably have a big impact on the outcome of the ODI series.

 

[Alphabet]

The alarm bells have to start ringing in the BCCI now. India are imploding. This winter, they've lost 3 T20 series, 1 ODI series and 1 Test series, all at home (barring one away T20 match in Sri Lanka).

In fact, since the World Cup, their record in terms of series stands like this:

Tests: Played 6, Won 3 (against N.Z. and W.I.), Lost 3
ODI: Played 9, Won 4 (against W.I, England and S.L.), Lost 5
T20: Played 8, Won 2 (S.L., W.I.), Drawn 3, Lost 3

That's an awful record, considering virtually all their wins have come against N.Z., W.I. and S.L., aside from thumping England in the ODI series in 2011, they've done nothing of note in a series against legitimately world class opposition. The BCCI need to put the IPL aside and act now to save India's international team before they do irreparable damage.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Great showing by England, lost against Delhi with a pretty good team. Zero wickets from Finn. The absense of Swann and Anderson will probably have a big impact on the outcome of the ODI series.

Yep, struggled badly today - big lesson not to take it too easy in the warm up games in future.

Another plodding innings from Cook today too. Strike rate still higher than Clarke in ODIs though.

 

[hoerpi]

Maybe they'll let Zimbabwe tour India... First i thought that IPL would've have an impact on the tests but it's nothing that suggests that. They lose in all formats as your statistics show. It's pretty funny that they lost against ****stan and while paks are not welcome in IPL, really childish to not let some of the best players in.

My beloved NZ played today, Southee might be missed more than I thought, he's more dangerous than Bracewell who still is a great bowler. A better spinner than Patel is needed though.

 

[Alphabet]

Great performance from Sri Lanka today, we shouldn't be taking them lightly at all. They're not Zimbabwe. We should bring back Clarke and Hussey for the 3rd ODI, and possibly one of the premier bowlers as well instead of timewasters like Smith. Possibly Hilfenhaus or Starc.

The future of Sri Lankan cricket doesn't look so bleak, after all. In Thirimanne and Chandimal, and possibly even Mathews, they have 3 batsmen that have a lot of potential and are already performing quite well at such young ages. The bowling though leaves much to be desired in terms of youth development. Pradeep etc. while loveable cult figures, don't look like being good cricketers.

 

[the asian]

Thirimanna can finish a match, and he showed it on Sunday.

Hopefully he keeps performing.

We'll always be competitive in the shorter formats.

 

[movingtarget]

Good to see Sri Lanka get a result. Makes it a bit more interesting

 

[Alphabet]

There's an SCG match scheduled isn't there? They'll probably win that one as well.

Who said ODI cricket is dead? 70,000 fans in attendance for an England-India ODI at the moment, hugely impressive considering it's a meaningless match.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

No more meaningless than any short form cricket.

I'd rather they would turn out for a Test match, but such is life.

 

[hoerpi]

No more meaningless than any short form cricket.

I'd rather they would turn out for a Test match, but such is life.

There was decent crowds for the Test series except for the last one in Nagpur. About that match I'll take an ODI instead of a T20 every day. Today's game hasn't started well for England, losing Bell in the second over.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Yes, not an ideal start to the chase, but the last time Cook & Pieterson opened together they were both scoring centuries for fun all series, so it could be worse.

 

[Alphabet]

No more meaningless than any short form cricket.

I'd rather they would turn out for a Test match, but such is life.

I consider all of these bilateral ODI/T20 fixtures to be meaningless. If it's a tri (or quad) series/World Cup match then it isn't.

A good balance would be for a typical tour to have between 2 and 5 tests depending on the strength of the hosts and the tourists, with either a tri-series or 3 ODI's and a one-off T20. These 5, 7 match ODI series are just rubbish and are killing off the format. ODI cricket, when it's managed properly (i.e. not having Sri Lanka play India for the millionth time) is still a great format and shouldn't be killed off in order to make way for T20, which is just rubbish. I could name a dozen or so great ODI games I've seen offhand, I'd struggle to name even one T20 innings let alone an entire match. That's the problem with T20- it's so entirely unmemorable.