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The New and Improved Cricket Thread© - Now Roadblock Free!

Rezbit

Member
Just bowl a short and wide pie to Sehwag and he'll smash it straight to a fielder. Unbeatable strategy in the vein of bowling at Punter's pads.
 

Kerrby

Banned
So umm... how about that India?

Soon to be 3rd place tonight and will probably miss out on finals the way they're playing.
 

artist

Banned
So umm... how about that India?

Soon to be 3rd place tonight and will probably miss out on finals the way they're playing.
What about it?

Suddenly having two bad games makes it what? An interesting series.

Australia had a couple of bad games too earlier but I bet your ass was in a corner then, lol :D
 

artist

Banned
SL win but dont get the easy bonus point. Jayawardene missed quite a few tricks, SL missed those drops ..

Irfan surely has to be MoM ..
 

Dynedom

Member
Gonna start a drinking game soon where you take a shot every time SL misfields though. Seems they can't go a match in this series without some drops or missed run outs. Cost them the win in the tie against India for sure.

That being said, good on them for winning back to back being the underdog side. Not 100% convinced they can secure the final (let alone win it) yet.
 

artist

Banned
They're from India . They should be familiar with it. I am glad irfan is back. He did good.
Well duh .. but I think its more because of fatigue. Playing 4 tests, 2 t20s and then a big triangular isnt easy. India doesnt have the bench strength of Australia/SL when it comes to quicks.

Pakistan creating pressure via the default PP now, interesting if England can hang on or will they implode?
 

beast786

Member
Congrats to England Again. Amazing back to back performance by Pietersen. Truly taking the challenge after the disappointing test match.
 

artist

Banned
bhangra.gif
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i4e8yyQtDLHj0.jpg
 

artist

Banned
Stepping on nerves, one post at a time. Every time I see the blocked post from the troll, seems like my posts are hitting bulleye.
 

artist

Banned
Man, this India - Pakistan shit has to stop lads. I know that cricket makes for lovely banter, but this should be a friendly thread.
He asked for it (dancing around defeats) and is now getting it in heaps. Sucks to be him.

On the topic of the Thirimanne's runout appeal that was withdrawn.

cricinfo said:
Virender Sehwag has said R Ashwin had warned Lahiru Thirimanne before running him out for backing up too much before the ball was bowled. In the 40th over of the Sri Lanka innings, Ashwin ran the non-striker Thirimanne out, a dismissal that is called - perhaps uncharitably to the former India allrounder - Mankading.

The umpires asked India if they wanted to reconsider the appeal and Sehwag, captaining in the absence of MS Dhoni, withdrew the appeal. It was withdrawn, Sehwag said, "because if we appealed and umpire gave him out, then somebody will criticise that, you know, that was not spirit of the game". Sehwag was asked if it was not soft to let the batsman off even after the warning. "It's soft, but that's the way we are," he said.

Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, said he was not aware of the warning. When told what Sehwag had to say about Ashwin's warning in the previous over, Jayawardene said the warning should have been official. "I don't know," Jayawardene said. "Then it's… he should warn him through the umpires. You need to ask the umpires if he was warned."

The warning, to be fair to Jayawardene, was not a conspicuous one. It wasn't spotted on TV, nor did Ashwin pull out of a delivery before the actual taking off the bails. However, to be fair to Sehwag and Ashwin, this need not be the kind of official warning that umpires make to bowlers for running onto the danger area. So it is possible that Ashwin had indeed warned Thirimanne beforehand, but that was not spotted by those watching.

However, this only makes it more curious as to why India withdrew the appeal. "Everybody was discussing it, but the umpires called me and I said, 'We can give him one more warning but if he does it again we will [run him out] because that's the ICC rule'," Sehwag said. "If somebody is taking an early start, then the bowlers have the full right to run him out."

The ICC had become more strict in this ruling last year - allowing bowlers to "Mankad" somebody any time before releasing the ball as opposed to the earlier rule where you had to do it before entering your delivery stride - to keep the batsmen from gaining unfair advantage. It even falls under Law 42, which deals with fair and unfair play. Sehwag, though, had no problem with the umpires consulting between themselves and asking the captain to reconsider the appeal, despite the law being clear on it.

"I think he [Paul Reiffel, the umpire] went to Billy Bowden. Billy Bowden is the senior umpire, and he asked him, and they discussed, and they called me, and they said, 'It's your call now. If you appeal, we can give him out'. So I took the decision that okay, we can give him one more warning."

There were suggestions that it was Sachin Tendulkar who persuaded Sehwag to withdraw the appeal, but Sehwag said it was his own decision. Either way, Jayawardene said he wouldn't have even appealed. "I don't play like that," he said.

However, Jayawardene admitted that Thirimanne was at fault. "The rules have changed, I know, to try to make sure there is no advantage given to the batsman," Jayawardene said. "I probably felt there was a little bit of fault in our guy as well in trying to do that, to be honest. But I mean, end of the day, spirit of the game was the winner."

Sticking with the popular opinion, Jayawardene said that it was "nice and clean" to not run a batsman out who is technically indulging in unfair play. "I wouldn't have got the bails off in the first place, to be honest," he said. "Try and keep it nice and clean, and tell the umpires to try and keep an eye on the guy. But if he still keeps doing it regularly, and if he is taking advantage, yes then, but I think they did the right thing in the middle. The seniors got together. Like I said, let's move on."

Thirimanne, though, kept backing up too far even after the let-off. He was careful with Ashwin, but with Vinay Kumar and Irfan Pathan, he kept taking the liberty. Why didn't those bowlers try something similar? "Because they were not aware," Sehwag said. "You have to be aware. Ashwin was aware, and I was aware when I was bowling. You have to be aware when the non-striker is taking a start."
First the Ian Bell recall and this, Indian seniors too soft confirmed. Kohli should have been the captain for this match and he would have given Thirimanne a proper send off. Plus Jaywardene claiming high ground? lol
 

beast786

Member
He asked for it (dancing around defeats) and is now getting it in heaps. Sucks to be him.

Yep, really suck to whitewash the #1 test team in the world, versus getting white washed record breaking 4 test match series twice.

But then again, its the artist formerly known as irfan. What can you expect. lol
 

artist

Banned
^ like clockwork. Love it when my posts sting you. <3

Another take on the incident, umpires should have given him out after the appeal. They shouldnt have asked India for another chance.

In the 40th over of the Sri Lankan innings at the Gabba, R Ashwin spotted the non-striker Lahiru Thirimanne was about three feet outside the crease even as his back foot was about to land. Ashwin didn't go through with his delivery, turned around, ran Thirimanne out, and appealed.

For some reason though, the umpire Paul Reiffel didn't rule him out immediately, and went on to consult with the leg umpire, and asked the Indian captain if they indeed wanted to appeal. That, despite the rule changes last year, which clearly state the bowler is "permitted, before releasing the ball and provided he has not completed his usual delivery swing, to attempt to run out the non-striker."

During the time that the umpires consulted, the Indian team had a change of heart, much like they did with the case of Ian Bell at Trent Bridge last year, and withdrew the appeal. It was a classical case of this beast called "spirit of cricket" coming in the way of the laws of cricket. We criticise the ICC for not doing enough to address the lack of balance between bat and ball, but it was defeated by the players themselves in this case.

The rule change last year - allowing the bowler to run a batsman out any time before he has released the ball as opposed to previously when he would have to remove the bails before entering his delivery stride - was one aimed at taking away the unfair advantage the batsmen gained by leaving their crease early. In 1947-48, incidentally in the same country of hard but fair play, when Vinoo Mankad similarly ran Bill Brown out, Mankad found support despite moral posturing.

This particular ruling falls under Law 42, which deals with fair and unfair play. The laws of the game clearly consider unfair the act of batsmen gaining a few feet before the bowler has even delivered. India, by not continuing with the appeal, only abetted unfair play. The "spirit of cricket" also suggests - although this is not written anywhere - that the bowler should warn the batsman once before going ahead with the run-out, which is probably why India withdrew the appeal. Why such charity, though, for a batsman indulging in unfair play?

Cricket as a sport is full of idiosyncrasies that make it a special sport; this is not one of them. This one clearly puts the bowler, trying to prevent a batsman from unfair play, fight some sort of imaginary guilt before appealing for a run-out. The question "do you really want to do it" comes with a weight, with a suggestion there might be consequences beyond the game in question.

Not that this incident stopped Thirimanne from gaining similar unfair advantage in the rest of the innings. Which is good on him actually. He took note of the warning, stayed in when Ashwin bowled, but kept leaving his crease when lesser-alert bowlers, like R Vinay Kumar and Irfan Pathan, operated. He was aware of the consequences, and he was taking his chances.

There is a school of thought that India actually avoided an incident that could have brought controversy and disrepute to the game. There will be parallels drawn to the Bell run-out that India got reversed during the tea break in Nottingham last year. Opinion was divided back then, but this was clearly more generous from India. You could argue Bell made a genuine, honest mistake back then, but if Thirimanne were to plead innocence here, he would need to come up with a more meaty excuse than the ignorance of Law 42.

Bell was dopey, Thirimanne was trying to gain an unfair advantage. India should have known the difference. Then again, it should never have come down to India. Ashwin had appealed, Thirimanne was not inside his crease, the finger should have gone up immediately. Spirit of cricket should not have been allowed to come in the way of fair cricket.

In the end its inconsequential, Thirimanne can for his life cannot hit big and couldnt. But the umpires shouldnt have asked "another chance" and India should have been ruthless.
 

beast786

Member
P Name M W L T BP TP NRR

1 Australia 5 3 2 0 2 14 0.433
2 Sri Lanka 5 2 2 1 1 11 0.481
3 India 6 2 3 1 0 10 -0.733


Both England and Sri Lanka needed some time to adjust to the conditions. I would not have been surprise if PAK/Eng would have played test match now, england will win easily. Same with Sri Lanka.
 

beast786

Member
In Pakistani english, he probably meant SL would beat SA if they were to play the test series now.


For a guy who has me on ignore list, you spend more post replying to me than anyone else here. did I really got you this salty? And Indian making fun of pakistani english is typical artist formerly known as irfan stings that makes no sense.
 
Fucking Ryder. Get's into the 40's and freezes like a possum in headlights. What a fat blubbering idiot. Both McCullum's need a hit round the head with a bat as well, just outright idiots.

What a choke.

Rugby starts this weekend, maybe I can just pretend the cricket season's already over.
 
Fucking Ryder. Get's into the 40's and freezes like a possum in headlights. What a fat blubbering idiot. Both McCullum's need a hit round the head with a bat as well, just outright idiots.

What a choke.

Rugby starts this weekend, maybe I can just pretend the cricket season's already over.

Jesus Christ what a choke. 17 required off the last 4 overs, with 6 wickets in hand. Tense last over, especially after the last ball no-ball.
 

beast786

Member
Discord, dissent hurt Indian team

It has been a long tour with little success to celebrate, and the differences and frustrations between the players are coming out now, in the form of scarcely anticipated bombshells dropped during routine press conferences

The statements made by some of the senior players in press conferences indicate a clear dissent and failure of communication among the Indian team on tour in Australia for more than two months now. There has also been a near breakdown of communication between the selectors and the team management, ESPNcricinfo has learned.

Some of the statements the players have been making are not the sort people would utter without actually wanting to. If the media is enjoying the glut of bombshells that have punctuated the press conferences, it is only because the players, well-versed in the art of stonewalling tough questions during good times, are willing participants. It's been a long tour with little success to celebrate, and the differences and frustrations are coming out now.

Whether the former played some part in the latter - to put it all down to a rift would be disrespectful to Australia who have completely outplayed India - is the old chicken-and-egg question. Then again there is no dressing room that is completely devoid of personality and philosophy clashes. It doesn't take much to ensure the requisite dressing-room atmosphere conducive to winning games of cricket. Insiders are of the view that MS Dhoni and Virender Sehwag have never been great friends, but until the last few months were mature team-mates. Now, though, their differences might have begun to hurt the team. There's no point wishing them away.

The latest bone of contention on a tour of discontent is Dhoni's policy to play only two out of Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar. Two of the three openers have made their discontent known. Through an earlier press conference, Sehwag made this policy public, including saying he had been told the three were to take turns at resting. There has to be a reason why a member of the team, not known to share any team news with the press, did so now. The pressure was on Dhoni now, to make Tendulkar sit out in the third game.

Dhoni did so. Then he followed up Gambhir's 92 with an innings that began slowly but finished the job, even if cutting it a little too fine. It was Gambhir's turn now to speak out. He said the game should not have gone into the final over, and that perhaps Dhoni was waiting for someone else to take up the responsibility of playing the big shots. It was India's first big win of the tour against Australia - the only other one until then being a Twenty20 - and Gambhir's sudden forthrightness didn't quite add up.

At the toss for the next game, while continuing his rotation policy like a law, Dhoni said it was imperative that set batsmen finished games off. Dhoni had earned himself some relief purely off his own bat, but the youngsters he was backing were not performing at all. And by the time the team reached Brisbane, Dhoni was of the view that the youngsters not only deserved a chance to fail, they had earned it through their fielding. That if all three openers were to be played, India would leak 20 extra runs on an average.

This did not sit well with certain members of the side at all. Minutes after that press conference, Dhoni heard the news of the match ban because of the slow over-rate. Now, with Sehwag as captain, the first thing thrown to the wind was the rotation policy. Out went Rohit Sharma. No bowling for Suresh Raina until the 49th over, whose part-time spin had been as much responsible for his continued selection as his batting. The vice-captain was hardly, as he often is, an extension of the captain. You didn't need to attend Sehwag's press conference to know he didn't quite agree with the captain.

Sehwag's interaction suggested the scarcely believable notion that Dhoni had not communicated either in personal chats or in team meetings that India couldn't afford too many relatively slow fielders, and that it all had an accumulative effect. While the apparent lack of communication is an issue, equally grave is the communication breakdown between the team management and selectors.

While Dhoni is almost out of the loop with the selection of the squad, the touring selectors are being returned the favour when it comes to selecting XIs. It can be argued it is an ideal situation, but there is nobody - at least during the Tests there was nobody - in the leadership group who found himself in a position to make big calls. India went through eight batting failures in the Tests, but neither the personnel nor their order was changed. Sources have told ESPNcricinfo that the team management had been waiting for the selectors to pull the plug on the seniors. During the last big tour before two years of home Tests, nobody wanted to be the one making tough calls.

Nor does it help that Dhoni remains non-committal about his future in Test cricket. While he shows remarkable foresight when he says that he will retire in 2013 if he doesn't feel he can give it his best in the 2015 World Cup, his statement that he could retire from Tests in 2013 has left everybody in a panic mode, because in 2013 starts India's next away Test series, followed by two more important away tours.



While Dhoni is almost out of the loop with the selection of the squad, the touring selectors are being returned the favour when it comes to selecting XIs

When Dhoni did assume a degree of control as a leader in his format, the ODIs, his stubbornness as a captain hasn't gone down well with some players. There are certain players he backs until they have played themselves out of the team, and there are certain few who find it really hard to come back into reckoning. Ravindra Jadeja playing ahead of Irfan Pathan as the allrounder in Australian conditions in just one example.

However, by all evidence, Dhoni remains the best choice to captain India at the moment. The challenge for him is to keep the team together. The situation is not downright nasty yet, in that this still falls in PG category as opposed to the R-rated times of Greg Chappell and Sourav Ganguly. Nonetheless it is difficult for players to perform at such times. Sehwag himself has always said he plays his best cricket when he has emptied his mind of all thoughts, when he is just reacting to the next ball. It is not happening here.

There are two must-win matches coming up, India's last chance to salvage something out of a tour during which they capped their biggest low in Test cricket since the 1960s. As of now, if they are to do it, they will have to do it despite the less-than-ideal dressing-room atmosphere. It doesn't help that the custodian of the team, the BCCI, right now believes this is all evil misquoting by the evil media.
 
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