Cricket World Cup thread

ringo747 · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:12

I hope England get hammered without SA losing a wicket - that is the only thing that will shake them up and maybe make the management realise that they are totally crap. Get the team sorted chaps. That was just disgraceful.

e36Adz · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:18

lemonkettaz said:
Its not over yet?

It was over when Pietersen was caught out

Oh ye of little faith

Seriously though, imagine if SA lose 3-4 early wickets, there will be massive pressure on them. Yes they are favourites to win from here but this is cricket, anything can happen and SA's form has been quite dodgy lately.

Mad old tory · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:20

Mr Nice said:
^^ Agree with your points there. Although I think we are missing and have missed over the last year the bowling of Simon Jones. Vaughn is just too injury prone and woefully short of form.

As for Freddie, since he's come back from the ankle surgery, he hasn't been the same.

The selection process needs to be overhauled to include in-form players.

As a side note, do you think the central contract system for England players is more of a hindrance than help?

Agree with you on Jones and Fred. Vaughan simply hasn't been in the Test team over the last year so it's not really fair to comment. He should have gone home after his hamstring problem and done pre season with Yorkshire rather than play in the world cup. I still think he's of great importance to England's test team and, indeed has still made some big scores recently in that arena. He should have done it properly though and come back via Yorkshire and got some practice before being brought back to the Test team.
The central contracts helped in some ways, but now they seem to be a bit of a hindrance. Our players need to be playing more for their counties so they can get match practice, but those in charge seem to think it better to shield them from county cricket instead. Take Harmison for example. All the old pros say he's a complete rhythm bowler and thrives on bowling lots of overs, yet the managment team seem to rest him all the time instead of letting him play for Durham and get some practice. International cricket almost seems to be developing into a separate game from the domestic one, with the test players barely ever playing for "their" counties. a dangerous move imo.

e36Adz · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:23

jonnyc747 said:
I hope England get hammered without SA losing a wicket - that is the only thing that will shake them up and maybe make the management realise that they are totally crap. Get the team sorted chaps. That was just disgraceful.

Fair point there. That was the only consolation for me when Pakistan got knocked out in the way they did, I'm hoping it brings some serious well needed changes!

Mad old tory · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:23

e36Adz said:
Oh ye of little faith

Seriously though, imagine if SA lose 3-4 early wickets, there will be massive pressure on them. Yes they are favourites to win from here but this is cricket, anything can happen and SA's form has been quite dodgy lately.

I'm torn tbh, kinda agree with jonny now, it would be far better for England to get battered now so that something has to be done.

Mad old tory · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:25

e36Adz said:
Fair point there. That was the only consolation for me when Pakistan got knocked out in the way they did, I'm hoping it brings some serious well needed changes!

Do you actually have any faith in the muppets at the PCB being able to do what's needed? I know I'm not too hopeful about the ECB doing what's needed!

lemonkettaz · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:26

We miss Trescothick sooo much.

Our bowling has been good so i guess there is a SLIM chance we can still win it. If we do win it then congrats to the bowling, but seriously the batting needs a slap, Vaughan cant stay opening, and Flintoff needs to seriously overcome this amazing blip of his with a bat.

Other than that, Pietersen just wasnt his day...Bell should have done better, Strauss did well i guess... that 46 would have looked better if other people had got over 50. Collingwood again would have done better if top order had more runs. Really cant expect Nixon onwards to get 100s

Mr Nice · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:31

One of the pluses though, Bopara. He's done pretty well thus far.

e36Adz · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:33

Mad old tory said:
Do you actually have any faith in the muppets at the PCB being able to do what's needed? I know I'm not too hopeful about the ECB doing what's needed!

I have zero faith in PCB tbh but I know how seriously people in Pakistan take cricket, so hopefully if there is enough pressure put on the PCB, afew of these muppets will resign/be sacked and hopefully some people who actually understand cricket come in.

Mad old tory · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:34

Mr Nice said:
One of the pluses though, Bopara. He's done pretty well thus far.

I think KP, Bopara, Nixon and possibly Bell come out with some credit for their batting, but obviously they can't all perform well all the time.

Mad old tory · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:35

e36Adz said:
I have zero faith in PCB tbh but I know how seriously people in Pakistan take cricket, so hopefully if there is enough pressure put on the PCB, afew of these muppets will resign/be sacked and hopefully some people who actually understand cricket come in.

Hope you're right, Pakistan have too many good players to keep failing like they are at the mo.

Psycho Ned · 17 Apr 2007 at 18:39

We've got very little chance of bowling SA out here especially with the likes of Saj Mahmood bowling, he'll concede half the runs off his 10 overs alone!

Flintoff is going to have to put in a Hall esque performance to give us any chance, if Vaughans got any sense he'll open with Freddie for a change.

Edit: Saj Mahmood 1st over 14 runs conceded......case rested.

Psycho Ned · 17 Apr 2007 at 19:02

Seriously is there no better opening ODI bowler in England than Saj Mahmood? He's flamin useless his economy rate is always appaling and here the Saffars are raping him for fun.

Hoggard couldn't do any worse than him!

platty · 17 Apr 2007 at 19:03

Well theyre showing up how to start an innings. Actually hitting the ball. Compared to our usual script of incredibly slow start b4 a loss of a wicket or two. Can you imagine how we'd chase 150 odd, we'd do it painfully slowely.

ringo747 · 17 Apr 2007 at 19:28

after 7.1 overs england were 9-0. At the same stage SA are 68-0. Says it all!

Psycho Ned · 17 Apr 2007 at 19:29

England still bat in one day cricket like it's 1992 faff about during the powerplays (when the Aussies, SA, Sri Lanka and New Zealanders are raping our bowling) then try and score quicker at the end. They still class 250 as a job well done when the good sides can score 300 easy now.

Between this bunch of clowns the football team and the rugby team it's enough to make you become depressed

Mr Mag00 · 17 Apr 2007 at 19:34

Between this bunch of clowns the football team and the rugby team it's enough to make you become depressed

the cucumber sandwiches will be great afterwards though.

:mad:

thats why i follow cycling, we have world class athletes there and yet no media coverage at all :mad:

Visage · 17 Apr 2007 at 19:37

jonnyc747 said:
after 7.1 overs england were 9-0. At the same stage SA are 68-0. Says it all!

It says that we're trying to take wickets at the cost of runs. We've no other option.

Mr Mag00 · 17 Apr 2007 at 19:41

what utter utter b******s of a performance, too wide and short bowling again..Yawn

fletcher to go alongside vaughan and flintoff as one day captain!!

Yas786 · 17 Apr 2007 at 20:42

e36Adz said:
I have zero faith in PCB tbh but I know how seriously people in Pakistan take cricket, so hopefully if there is enough pressure put on the PCB, afew of these muppets will resign/be sacked and hopefully some people who actually understand cricket come in.

Same here but sadly Ashraf was told not to resign so i dont expect any different cricket from Pakistan for a long time. Younis Khan the other day said hes not interested in the captains role and Yousef, who i think is a great batsman...wants to take over as captain which i think would be the wrong decision tbh. Now rumours are going round saying that Shoaib Malik might be captain.

Anyways England got absolutely hammered out there by the SA's, to me it looked like the SA's wanted to win this game more than the English. Shameful defeat for the English and they are out of the WC now. Wasnt too fussed about the result because SA will be out in the next round anyways...well i hope they are..