Couldn't find a general discussion thread so...

A new world record one day score of 434-4 for Australia against South Africa, which at over 8 .5 an over is some going. I saw one huge six by Ponting which nearly took out the cameramen. South Africa are trying to make a game of it though, in reply they're 179-1 of 21 overs. And all this came after G. Smith suggested that the Aussies are chokers, oops.

England were at their prodding best again against Indian, defeat looks a strong possibility now. :(

I watching the Saffer game - this is astonishing cricket :o

And yes, Mark, we appeared to have played our way into a defeat :rolleyes:

It's just typical that it's on Sky Sports Xtra which we haven't got at w**k. :(

It's how one day cricket should be, huge scores with the ball smashed all over the place.

Gibbs has just got out having hit 175 off 111. SA need 136 to win off 18 overs - which really they should be able to get :o :lol:

They need Pollock from the other night. I'm surprised that they haven't sent Kemp in though, he can hit the ball a long way.

:o Un-f.cking-believable. South Africa have won. :o :o :o

It has to be the greatest performance ever!!!

Sounds like quite a match!

It was quite simply unbelievable. I missed most of the Aussie innings because I was flicking between the GP, NRL, England/India and Man U/Newcastle, but I saw all the SA innings. Gibbs was immense for SA, I've never seen anyone consistently hit a ball so cleanly out of the middle of the bat. If he hadn't got tired and spooned a catch to mid-off, the match would have been won well before the last ball.

Both captains were guilty of poor decision-making in the field, but Ponting was much worse than Smith. If Gilchrist had stood up to Lewis and Bracken early on, Gibbs and Smith would never have charged down the wicket so often to hit so many boundaries. And bowling out Lewis was a mistake - it was much harder to get the spin of Clarke and Symonds away for more than singles. Still, it's hard to feel sorry for the Aussies - the big chokers! :lol:

Saw the score on the news. Typical, I didn't even know it was on :rolleyes:

Well, England lost. 1-0 down with one match to go. :(

And after our batsmen made the pitch look like a bowler's paradise I'm sure no one's surprised that India won with little difficulty.

The high after the Ashes victory is well and truly gone.

England have put themselves in a decent position, 3 Indians out and still 300 odd ahead, very good bowling by Hoggard. Hopefully we'll be able to capitalise tomorrow, we've somehow got to get Darvid out though and soon.

And I see West Indies look like getting beat again, if they don't watch out they'll be losing to Bangladesh and Kenya next. :no:

Considering all the injuries/absences I think we're doing pretty well this series, despite the collapse in the 2nd innings of the previous test :)

We miss Simon Jones more than anyone, imo :ermm:

Good progress today, let's hope they can keep it up :thumbsup:

279 all out - could've been even better but for that 9th wicket stand <_<

We always seem to fail to ram home the advantage when we have teams in trouble. Still a decent lead, though losing both openers is a blow and I fear Bell's place might be in serious jeopardy now. :(

Bell's place in jeopardy - about bloody time - how many chances does he want? He's the modern day Ramprakash :(

A couple more but in his right position. :)

India 92-7 :o :thumbsup:


Edit: 99-8 :lmao: :thumbsup:


...and 100-9 :yahoo: When did Udal become a wicket taking machine?? :ponder: :lol:


...and all out for 100 :yahoo: Well done lads :thumbsup:

:thumbsup: Yes!

Well done England!

My Man of the Match to Dravid for winning the toss and putting England in!

Andrew :yahoo:

:yahoo: :yahoo:

Bloody hell :o

Bit of a surprise :)

Woohoo :yahoo:

How we've won this one I'll never know :shrug:

I was a little suprised as well, not only by the result but by Udal getting four wickets. Well done though. :)

And now Blackwells's out, 137-7. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory again. :no:

We need the tail to wag quite a bit.

149-9, we're f*cking good at ODIs

Maybe we'll have a miraculous last wicket stand. ;)

And then again maybe not.

What is wrong with our batting <_< 117-4 with a wicket just gone down but you're well ahead of the run rate. Do you A) carry on playing unnecessary risky shots or B) push a few ones and two's and make sure no more wickets fall.

Ooh lets go for A) and implode :rolleyes:

Another glorious defeat. Why is it that instead of trying to w**k the ones and twos until there's 10 overs or so to go, half the team tries to score soley with boundaries :rolleyes:

Get your self to 20 or 30 and then launch it but trying after only a few overs and getting caught/bowled/stumped is just feckin' stupid :frusty:

I'm not sure it is not taking the ones and twos, either way is ok as long as it works, I just don't think that some of the players are good enough. Why was Shah picked, about 20 matches with an average of 18 or so, he's had his chance and he hasn't took it. Blackwell is another, he might look good at county level but when he comes to internationals his batting is atrocious, 25 matches average 15. Why keep picking the same players, try somebody else.

The lets score in 4's and 6's hasn't been w**king though. The batsmen who've got decent scores have generally played themselves in and then had a go.

Blackwell may have been a bit crap with the bat but he has been one of the most economic bowlers ;)

True but I still think it might be the players who are playing the shots who are the problem. And why does Solanki, someone who does like to play his way in, come in so late?

And I agree there's nothing wrong with Blackwell's bowling, it is strange how slow bowlers have came a lot more into one day games when five or ten years ago they would have been knocked to all parts of the ground no matter who they were.

I think it's to do with the pitches, certainly on the current tour. On slow, turning wickets it's much harder to time the ball and/or generate enough power to score quickly, whereas the faster bowling tends to be easier to hit as the pitch takes enough of the pace off to make it easy to play but there's still enough pace to help in smacking it around . Having said that I'm crap at cricket personally so I'm not talking from experience :lol:

There's no point calling up new players to finish off the tour. Most of the current lot out there are replacements anyway - once the likes of Vaughan and Trescothick get fit again, there shouldn't be so much doubt about who plays where. Also, don't forget Shah made 88 on test debut so it's not as though he's totally useless.

Blackwell is a bowler who can bat a bit, not the other way round. If he's bowling well then he deserves to be in the team on the basis of that alone. It's time that England stopped looking at spinners as second class bowlers, especially out in India where the wickets are notoriously helpful to spinners. If there's nobody better out there (and lets face it, there are no world class English spinners) then we have to go with what we've got. We shouldn't be selecting, or even judging, our spinners on the basis of their batting average.

I agree there's no point calling up players in mid tour but if they don't show some sort of form in the matches that are left give someone new a chance, which doesn't mean someone who's been dropped previously.

If Blackwell the best spinner we've got (though I'm not convinced) then ok play him as a bowler but why play six bowlers, drop Mahmood, Plunkett or Anderson and play another batsman, we certainly need him.

I'd guess the idea is to have as much bowling as possible in case one of your bowlers gets carted about too much. Personally I agree with you, 4 front line bowlers, an all rounder and someone who can bowl a bit should be enough to do the job.

From a batting point of view (adjusts suit to hide I Love Ian Blackwell badge) Blackwell seems to lack confidence at the highest level and would benefit from w**king closely with one of the senior pro's. On the county circuit he tends to be able to get away with attacking from the offset but against the better bowling at this level he needs to w**k harder and show more patience and better shot selection. To be fair he's also been batting with England under a lot of pressure:- whilst lower order batsmen/tailenders need to be able to help you over the line they shouldn't be expected to rescue the team and win the game every time you play!

Bowled out for a below par score again :rolleyes:

At least we're being consistent. And the only english bowler so far to take a wicket is Mr Ian Blackwell :lol:

we're rubbish :( our chances in the cricket world cup will be much like our chances in the rugby world cup :( :( :(

Or the football world cup ;)

it's worrying when the football is our best chance of winning a cup - and we have such a low chance of winning that :rolleyes:

Something needs to be done, we seem to be getting worse with every game. I'm quite glad that most of the match is over by the time I get up, saves a lot of frustration. Maybe as they've won the series Indian will play a reserve team to give us a chance. ;)

Trouble is we're missing one of our best players (Trescothick) and are 2 short in the bowlers department (Jones & Harmison). Not to mention that Matt Prior is in the team as well as Geraint Jones - We really should be giving Prior a go behind the stumps and give him a decent 10 game or so run to see if he does any better than Jones, we can then put another proper batsmen in to give a bit more solidity to the batting line up :)