Any comments on this game, please add below. West Indies have made 300+ in all three games, while South Africa’s big guns – Amla and ABdeV – have not fired. Should be an interesting contest, because if the Windies win this, suddenly South Africe might get the nerves.
Sorry there’s not been a lot else. I hope to do a full comment on the week’s nonsense tomorrow or Saturday. But to the person who suggested four day test matches – leave. Now. Just leave.
Being Outside Cricket 
I’m thinking of popping along to this if, in the words of Paul Whitehouse, anyone fancies a pint.
Keeps pissing down, though.
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Duminy and Philander out injured for SA – their lower middle order looks fragile. Parnell dropped for Abbott. Benn returns for WI.
Very strange batting by SA openers – not one single and no sense they were looking to rotate the strike. First single after 6.4 overs.
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Poetseye on the Guardian’s coverage of the ECB proposals:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/feb/26/england-steven-finn-pace-cricket-world-cup#comment-48124641
Also there’s a ticking-off for those who don’t worship at the altar of Selvey from RogerApex. He’s the antidote to modern journalism apparently.
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Interesting way of spelling “shameless, haughty establishment shill”. Currently being snide on Twitter with people saying the ECB plans are a load of rubbish.
And keep your eyes peeled for a “big bats” tweet or article following the overnight action.
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Wow! ABDV and SA just broken so many records not going to try to list them all. Kevin O’Brien’s fastest WC century one record that survives – by two balls.
Jerome Taylor’s one-handed boundary catch to dismiss David Miller worth watching as well.
Selvey article on big bats can’t be far off…..
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Just mad. I turned on when SA had just lost their 2nd and 3rd wickets and were 140 odd for 3 after around 30 overs or so but noted that ABDV was at the crease. I was thinking that should he get himself settled then a score of 320 or so would be on! That’s just mind numbing stuff.
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WI 52-4. Dave Richardson’s life gets no better.
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Neither did the umpire’s lives get better. A few balls later:
Which became 53/5, after Simmons did not bother to review the umpire’s decision – there was a substantial edge.
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If you thought 52/4 was bad, 63/7, with Sammy and Russell both gone, is the kind of competitive match that Dave Richardson really cherishes.
Can we rename this the “bat first, unless you’re Ireland” Cup?
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Well this one has been riveting.
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West Indies all out for 151.
The biggest losing margin (shared), in the World Cup.
The biggest losing margin in runs, in the World Cup Previous record was 215 by New Zealand, vs Australia 2007.
This tournament is becoming a farce. How many successful chases were there by Full Members? 1, by New Zealand vs England.
Suggestion for Dave Richardson:
The ICC can reduce the cricket by 7 hours, if they just turn this into a toss calling competition. It has also the advantage to the ICC, that you can cut down on players’ cost, and have about 4000 games a day, between 10 “teams”.
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I am discounting the successful chases of Zim vs UAE and Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan. I was referring to matches between Full Members only, since they are supposedly the only ones who can play competitive cricket.
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D’Arthez – I’m not in the right time zone to see many of the first innings, are the pitches changing a lot through the day?
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The pitch was a bit two paced first up, hence the slow innings by Amla. It was certainly not an absolute belter. At the 30 over mark, SA were just 147/3, which suggests that 300 would have been a good effort then, especially as South Africa was missing Duminy, and still have not solved the #7 issue. They’re really missing Kallis.
West Indies really have a poor attack. Amla averaged 91 in ODIs against them, AB 76, and Misbah 69. Those are the three highest averages of any ODI batsmen (minimum of 10 dismissals) against a particular top-8 side, by the way.
WI have an extremely poor record chasing 300+ for victory (highest total 300/3, against SA in 2004 – target was 298) against anyone. Even Bangladesh (313/6 against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, and 309/6 against New Zealand in Fatullah), and Zimbabwe (against New Zealand, 329/9 in Bulawayo again) have achieved that feat. Ireland have chased down 300+ on a few occasions as well, against Full Members too (West Indies, just a few weeks ago, and England in 2011).
What West Indies need is someone up front to play in the Trott-anchor role. Why on earth Chanderpaul is not involved with the ODI team is beyond me. Kraigg Brathwaitte may also fill that role (he needs to work on his ODI-scoring game, but once he is in, he is hard to get out).
Bang-Crash-Wallop looks great when it comes off, but when it does not, 60/6 can be expected.
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To be fair to the WI players, I think it’s psychologically very difficult to mount this kind of chase. If the openers don’t manage a minor miracle, then everyone’s head drops. No one, no player, no fan gives a toss about net run rate (in fact I’d say it’s an idiocy that it is the tie breaker.) So after about 10 overs of the chase the game is either live or dead – and if dead, I can’t blame the players for not being able to stir themselves into full concentration…
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Eoin Morgan defends awesome Peter Moores. Guardian. By – do I need to say?
No comments enabled.
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Not another close contest between two of the Big Teams – this is getting boring!! – what happened to ‘batter a minnow’???
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Ian Herbert gives four-day tests a deserved kicking:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/test-cricket-needs-to-be-loved-not-shoved-to-the-boundaries-10071050.html
How serious is this proposal though? Is it more of an outrider to be dropped in an apparent ‘compromise’ while the one they were always serious about (franchises) gets through?
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Just imagine if the ECB had scheduled some games against SA 2012-17 we could have seen ABDV in England anyway.
Just imagine if we had a press corps who held the ECB to account for their scheduling – but now I’m getting really fanciful.
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You got all of three Tests in the period 2009-2016. Pity that in one of those three Tests he was not even required to bat.
So that means you got one Test innings for every 2 years. I dare not rattle of the comparative numbers for the Indians and Aussies …
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Peter Miller says Dave Tickner has just come up with the tweet of the World Cup.
I am inclined to agree.
(Look it up, I can’t do links on my Kindle)
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For those without the time or desire, I’m guessing you mean the one that says:
A real shame that Dave Richardson v The Associates has been such an uncompetitive and one-sided contest.
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Yep.
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Dave Richardson speaks again! There are several versions floating about but this is the fullest one I’ve seen:
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/size-2019-world-cup-still-decided-icc-065358435–spt.html
I’d normally pick out the particularly idiotic statements but, frankly, this one has me beaten.
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