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Cricket VI


Stubby

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So... Pakistan in the final.

Try and tell me you all saw that coming.

I had picked them to be the flop of the tournament!

Great stuff from Pakistan. Hopefully this can help provide a much needed boost to Pakistan cricket in general.

ETA: Interesting comments from Warne re:Ravi Bopara:

"Bopara is a good first-class cricketer, but he is not an international cricketer,'' Warne told the Daily Mirror. "I think he's got all the talent in the world, but I just don't think he's got the temperament.

"He can be put off his game too easily and he's too worried about how he looks. Let's hope England aren't relying on Bopara [for the Ashes] because they could be in trouble.''

I can see what Warne is saying here, but I would still much rather that the English pick Bopara in front of Bell and Vaughan (Bell is just hopeless against Australia, and Vaughan is well past his prime now).

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I can see what Warne is saying here, but I would still much rather that the English pick Bopara in front of Bell and Vaughan (Bell is just hopeless against Australia, and Vaughan is well past his prime now).

I'm not sure I agree with Warne here. Bopara does seem to have shown better temperament than many of his England colleagues, particularly in the two one-day matches in his first year in the team where he chased down a big target against India with only Stuart Broad for company and nearly did the same against Sri Lanka in the World Cup (although he got out last ball with a boundary needed on that occasion). A lot of other English batsman would probably have either given up or panicked in that situation.

I can't really remember him having any problems with his temperament more recently, did Warne actually give any evidence for his assertion? Of course, the Ashes will be a completely different level of pressure so he might crack, but so far I'm not seeing any signs of it.

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did anyone else here see the catch that Jenny Gunn dropped against Australia today?

If she'd taken that, I reckon it would have been the best catch I'd ever seen. And it only bounced out because her hand hit the ground hard

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Well it's SL vs Pak

who would have thought that ??

I'm not surprised about SL. I'm a little bit more surprised about Pakistan, although they always had a chance - weren't they the finalists in the last tournament as well? I think South Africa missing out is the biggest shock, although they do seem to tend to underperform in the latter stages of major tournaments.

The SL vs Pakistan game was a bit weird, only one batsman on each side really seemed to have any success. Chris Gayle was the only batsman into double figures on the Windies side. I wonder if nerves got to the Windies, it does seem strange to lose three wickets in the first over to the unheralded bowling of Angelo Mathews. It's a pity Dilshan didn't quite get to a century, it was a great innings and if Sri Lanka win this tournament they're going to owe a large part of it to him.

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Awesome stuff from Afridi - he really showed his experience in that innings.

But what a tournament from Pakistan. Against all odds, they have come from nowhere to win a major international trophy.

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This will be a big boost to Pakistani cricket at a time when their inclusion in international competition has been seriously jeopardised by other factors back home. Even if this is "only" T20.

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Great stuff from Pakistan - they sorely need legitimacy in the cricketing world order and the best way they can do it is by winning and playing strongly on the field. It will allow them to at least have greater pulling power if they are going to go for the neutral venues route of match play. They need international matches as much as possible and the better they play, the more likely it'll be that other places (like England) might open their grounds to them.

As for Warne questioning Bopara's suitability on the world stage...five years ago that might have had an effect. Ian Bell had a dominating run against Bangladesh right before his first Ashes series and then was dismantled by Warne, McGrath and co, only making double figures in 3 out of his 10 innings. Bopara has had a similarly excellent run in the leadup to the Ashes but I'm not sure that we have the world-class bowling attack to consistently get inside batsmen's heads and stuff up newbies like Bell in 2005. When others look at the Aussie attack there's no more fear factor. Johnson and Lee may be pacy but they bowl more bad balls in one over than McGrath bowled in a day's worth of Test cricket. Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration...but you get the idea. ;)

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Johnson and Lee may be pacy but they bowl more bad balls in one over than McGrath bowled in a day's worth of Test cricket. Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration...but you get the idea. ;)

This. Bopara has looked composed at the crease in the innings I've seen him play. The South Africans over this past summer are a prime example of what Jeor is talking about. When McGrath and Warne were playing, I could sense that they were nervous about facing either of them and there was always this feeling that a wicket was just around the corner. I never got that feeling over the summer. Also, Warnie just likes having a sledge.

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Australian top-order struggled yesterday. Not a great start for them in English conditions.

However, Ben Hilfenhaus has had early success in Sussex's innings. I would expect him to perform quite well on this tour - he is in the Matthew Hoggard/swing bowler mould.

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Cricinfo has an article entitled "Gilchrist questions Flintoff fitness". Rather ironic given Shane Watson's normal state of fitness. I'm actually not really worried about him being an uncertainty on the Test field in the sense that it's a foregone conclusion he'll injure himself mid-Test. I'm more worried that in the process of injuring himself (pulling a hamstring in the outfield, breaking down while he's walking to his fielding position) he might actually injure someone else by bumping into them or something.

Ok, a little harsh. ;) But the Australian selectors have to be crazy if they're still thinking of including this guy in a Test team. I doubt he's played more than half a dozen cricket matches of any state in a row without having had to sit one out due to injury, and he's really not getting any younger either. Marcus North is the No.6 guy for now.

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Interesting how the bowling section is going to pan out. At this stage Johnson is in, and I'd say that unless he has a major meltdown, Stuart Clark will be a shoo-in. His style (accurate, bit of bounce and seam movement) is very well-suited to English conditions, just as McGrath's bowling was deadly in English conditions. That leaves only two bowling spots for Hilfenhaus, Lee, Siddle and Hauritz.

It's too early in this match (and I believe there's one more tour match to come) to say, but I think Siddle is next in line out of those four. We saw in the Australian summer that he could be almost as fast as Lee and could regularly bowl in the 140-145 kph range. Lee is going to be a headache; he's clearly underdone but the selectors may have some loyalty to him for what he's done in the past few years. They'll find it hard to make the shock (but correct if going simply on form) decision to omit Lee from the starting XI.

As for Hauritz...the first Test is reputed to be a spinner's dustbowl, how the tables have turned. But Hauritz is a defensive spinner (by his own and by the selectors' admission) and turning pitches are for attacking bowlers. That, and picking a side based on how a pitch is going to play is a rather inexact science, made worse by the fact that you don't have the certainty of playing someone who's definitely going to make the most use of it.

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pretty straight forward as far as I am concerned. it should be johnson, lee, hauritz, siddle and bolinger with johnson coming in at seven. chuck hauritz out if you wish to include another batsman but as far as I am concerned playing four pacers is the way forward.

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in other cricketing news, pakistan will visit sri lanka for a three test series. west indies and india'll be wasting time playing some ODIs.

pakistan team selection is a bit of a headache since the majority are either unreliable, bit part or plain untested. aside from younis, yousuf, gul and potentially misbah the rest are as likely to be an epic fail as they are of routing the lankans.

the sri lankan team should have a few selection headaches as well. mubarak goes - there's no doubt about that. they have to pick someone to partner malinga and their bowling's sorted.

this should be a fascinating series. If i recall correctly pakistan's beaten sri lanka away on the last two tours and the lankans would love to wipe that off the slate.

my prediction: 2 - 1 to Lanka.

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