Saturday, February 10, 2007
The most hilarious tournament ever: England beats both Australia and New Zealand
You can call it "the game of glorious uncertainties." I just think it's funny. England lost every single game they played in Australia this season including a 5-match test series which they lost 5-0. Then they win 5 matches in the Commonwealth Bank Triangular series against Australia and New Zealand and they become champions. Australia loses this tournament at home for the first time in 14 years.
Does this change things for the World Cup? For one, it buys England some respect which is always useful. They did it without Kevin Peitersen or Michael Vaughan. Maybe all England needed to do was to get rid of Kevin Pietersen - disruptive influence that he'd become. Hopefully KP, now chastened, will come back and play a better game a la Ganguly.
Australia will have to play much much better, especially against S. Africa if they are to retain the World Cup. They'll miss Symonds and they may have peaked too early.
Link
Does this change things for the World Cup? For one, it buys England some respect which is always useful. They did it without Kevin Peitersen or Michael Vaughan. Maybe all England needed to do was to get rid of Kevin Pietersen - disruptive influence that he'd become. Hopefully KP, now chastened, will come back and play a better game a la Ganguly.
Australia will have to play much much better, especially against S. Africa if they are to retain the World Cup. They'll miss Symonds and they may have peaked too early.
Labels: australia, cricket, england
Link
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Australia losing the plot? Did they peak too early?
Australia started at 170 for 1 in 30 overs in the first of the 3-game finals of the CB Series triangular, but finished the innings on 252, losing 6 for 23... Against England. Unbelievable. This is a wide-open World Cup friends!
Update: England have beaten Australia. Australia has peaked too early. If Australia does not come back fighting like crazy in the last 2 games, then that's it for them. Of course, they'll still make it to the semi-finals, but they won't have a chance against S. Africa.
Link
Update: England have beaten Australia. Australia has peaked too early. If Australia does not come back fighting like crazy in the last 2 games, then that's it for them. Of course, they'll still make it to the semi-finals, but they won't have a chance against S. Africa.
Labels: australia, cricket, england
Link
Ricky Ponting complains about too many matches against India
Ricky Ponting complains that Australia is playing too many games against India and not enough against the other countries. Before this, he was complaining about too much cricket in general. I don't think there is too much cricket. A few reasons:
Link
- Australia could not play much cricket and be like New Zealand: a talented team that can't win on the big stage.
- It's wrong to diss the Indian advertiser and the Indian viewer who are basically underwriting the whole cricket venture around the world.
- There isn't too much cricket - NBA players play 80 games a year in regular season + the playoffs. From Cricinfo stats, it seems like the cricketers' workload is comparable - about 80-90 days of international cricket per year at most. It's harder for the bowlers, of course. But mature teams should be able to rotate their bowlers.
Link
