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Official Water Cooler Cricket Thread


the saint

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In a build-up to the Ashes from an Aussie front, the talk right now is about who will be batting at number 6, and surprisingly that is centred around how Glenn McGrath comes back.

 

If McGrath is bowling well, then Michael Clarke will be at number 6, if it isn't coming out too well then it will be Shane Watson.

 

Other than that the only other possible suprise in the Australian line up will be Stuart Clark as a bowler, an honest fast-medium out swing bowler with a decent seam position and a surprising off-cutter.

 

Sean

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In a build-up to the Ashes from an Aussie front, the talk right now is about who will be batting at number 6, and surprisingly that is centred around how Glenn McGrath comes back.

 

If McGrath is bowling well, then Michael Clarke will be at number 6, if it isn't coming out too well then it will be Shane Watson.

 

Other than that the only other possible suprise in the Australian line up will be Stuart Clark as a bowler, an honest fast-medium out swing bowler with a decent seam position and a surprising off-cutter.

 

Sean

Stuart Clark did well against the Saffers though.

 

For England, the key is Panesar. If he is bowling well, he can fill an end all day and allow us to rotate the other 3 main bowlers around him. Then we can take all our batsmen and play Flintoff at 7. A line up something like this:

 

Trescothick (Assuming he is well)

Strauss

Cook

Pietersen

Collingwood

Bell

Flintoff

Read

Harmy

Hoggy

Monty

 

If the Aussies get after Panesar then an extra bowler is required to avoid overstressing the seamers and then the problem of England's tail rears its head again.

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Oops, I should have given the team also (not that it has many surprises):

 

Langer

Hayden

Ponting

Martyn

Hussey

Clarke/Watson

Gilchrist

Warne

Lee

Clark

McGrath

 

Not sure about Clark's batting, McGrath may get another run at number 10 ;)

 

Sean

 

Edit: As an extra thought, damn this team is getting on in years, too many are holding on for the world cup or next Ashes in England. We need to blood some younger players.

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I am not so sure that Freddie as captain is a good idea, he already has too much to do. Traditionally bowlers and allrounders are not the best choice as captains. They usually bowl themselves too little or too much.

 

Many say he is the next "Botham", and rejoice at his new posting. Perhaps it should be remembered that when Botham was captain, he played nowhere near to his ability. It will be interesting to see how he goes as captain.

 

Sean

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  • 2 weeks later...

Pardon the pun, but I am sure that the Asian teams are glad that Darren is out of their hair.

 

Personally, I think it's about time that he was reigned in and I have never forgiven him for that famous "ball hitting the shoulder" Tendulkar incident. If you ask me, cricket needs more umpires like Benson (who recently retracted his own decision after consulting w/ the leg umpire) and less polarizing figure like Bucknor and Hair.

 

Of late, there have been numerous analogies of his ursine bearing, but his pig headedness and tendency to wallow in this own righteous interpretation of the laws seems more porcine to me...

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With Australia and India in the same group, England can forget all about advancing to the semi-finals. I wouldn't be one bit surprised if the Poms finish last, regardless of whether West Indies or Sri Lanka will be the 4th team.

 

"We don't have the quality reserves to shore up the better players being injured," Geoffrey Boycott told BBC Sport.

 

"The reserves do the best they can but it does lessen the team's quality when you have too many fill-in players."

 

Sir Geoffrey knows this game better than most.

 

England reached the Champions Trophy final when they hosted the event in 2004 but since then have won only 16 of their 43 one-day games. This summer they were thrashed 5-0 by Sri Lanka before coming from 0-2 down to draw 2-2 with Pakistan.

 

Roland

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Sri Lanka are definitely worth a punt. The top order is in great form, they have quality spinners - ideal for the sub-continental conditions, and a decent opening seam pair too. Add in bags of experience in the side, and they are definitely in with a shout.
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India vs England...

 

Oh dear.

 

Sean

Yes, pathetic performance by the English batsmen. However, I think this is worse ...

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/6054084.stm

 

On the other hand, why would it be any different in cricket than in other sports? The era of "cricket, the gentleman sport" is long gone. Big money at stake, and some cheat. Sad but true.

 

Let me emphasize that I'm not picking on Pakistan in particular. Shane Warne was the first player to violate the rules. I'm sure there are and have been others; they have just escaped until now.

 

Roland

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I am fairly sure Warne wasn't the first Australian to test positive, but what I am thinking of is domestic cricket. For some reason the name doesn't come to mind as it was pre-2000 I believe.

 

I am sure there are many domestic cricketers that have tested positive but been hidden away and never heard of again.

 

Sean

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As you would expect, the odds have changed dramatically:

 

Australia 2.75

England 26.00

India 3.75

New Zealand 8.00

Pakistan 11.00

South Africa 13.00

Sri Lanka 4.50

West Indies 17.00

 

Would have been nice to get on Sri Lanka at 7s.

 

Sean

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