Comments for this match below. Also, please read Soap and Shower Gel below if you haven’t. I worked on them! Like the Glossary, it can be added to all the time. I’ve missed out loads.
The first two QFs have been dull. Will this one be closer?
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Being Outside Cricket 
Can’t see Pakistan beating Australia. If I had a shirt I’d put it on the Aussies to Win. Still think NZ will win the cup – and I did say that before the tournament started. Just fancied them to win.
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Dave Richardson’s latest on the 2019 format:
http://m.foxsports.com.au/cricket/icc-world-cup-2015/cricket-world-cup-minnow-future-still-up-in-the-air-but-icc-keeping-debate-alive/story-e6frf3ju-1227270295316
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Rugby, on the other hand……
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31924309
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I see Ponting has come out and said that only the best teams should play in world cups.
Personally, I think it’s just an Aussie plot to keep The poms out of the tournament.
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Awhh, c’mon Blue, why’d ‘Straya want to give up a chance to pommie bash?
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Australia 59-3. Clarke bounced out by Wahab Riaz and caught on short leg (in an ODI! defending 213!).
This could be tasty.
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Wahab all over Watto. Ducking, weaving, splicing – finally a hook and dropped at long leg. Rahat Ali the fielder had caught Warner but that was as easy as it comes. Score would have been 82-4.
Steve Smith looks like he’s playing a different game. No trouble at all for him. The other Pakistan bowlers need to keep the pressure on more.
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Aus taken control now… Lots like a stroll.
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and as I write that Smith falls!
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Wahab back into the attack – Maxwell dropped in the deep straight away!
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Tougher chance than the Watto one but should’ve been taken. Bizarre shot by Maxwell!
Neutral third umpire Shane Warne reckoned the Smith LBW was missing leg and he hit it. It wasn’t and he didn’t. Australia didn’t have a review as Finch had wasted it on his LBW which was hitting middle half-way up.
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Australia won by 6 wickets with 97 balls to spare. A doddle? Don’t believe it!
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Easy in the end for Aus, shame Wahab had no back-up (or reliable fielders)
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Wahab Riaz ends with 9-0-54-2? I demand a recount. This more tells the story……
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As if he couldn’t get any more likable, Wahab gave a lovely post-match interview where he was very gracious and not at all bitter or angry about the missed chances.
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What is lacking is obviously some ECB media training.
Full credit to Wahab. Great effort. It was just not meant to be his day today. You’d go to the cricket just to watch players like him bowl.
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Poor Rahat’s going to cope all the flak here but there was also:
1) The way Wahab was bowling the ball was likely to go to long leg – Rahat had nearly dropped the Warner catch and a better fielder could have been moved there. 20:20 hindsight is wonderful.
2) More seriously, Pakistan lost this as much with the bat. Misbah and Akmal holed out to deep mid-wicket off Maxwell. Haris Sohail played an awful ‘feet-in-concrete’ drive when well set. And there was…..
3) Shahid Afridi – he’d batted really well in the warm-up tournament against NZ but here with lots of overs left he came out thrashing and gave it away. His bowling also built no pressure and he only took two wickets in the entire tournament.
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Afridi has never made an ODI World Cup 50. The two fifties he made in World Cups, were in the T20 World Cup of 2009.
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This makes me think that part of the issue with “big bats” is that fielding positions haven’t adjusted. Big bats send some bad hits over the rope, but it should also send other thick edges and leading edges further than before – but the fielder has to be in the right place to take advantage…
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So ends Quarter final number 3 and another fairly one sided affair. There isn’t much suspense in this tournament. It’s not a great advert for competitive cricket. Have no idea what can be done. The top sides are head a shoulders ahead of the rest.
Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and England are not exactly minnows and they have been blown away. In their desire to give the spectators their wish to see endless fours and sixes the admistrators have destroyed the balance between bat and ball.
Maybe we will get two good semis.
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I have maintained this for years, but 220-240 par wickets should be the norm, not the exception. It does not really matter if that is achieved by actually producing pitches that are a bit more lively, or by not putting idiotic artificial restrictions on the fielding side.
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The fielding restrictions are ridiculous. You take away the skill of captaincy. Not a big issue with England mind as the coach does that job now.
Cricket seems to have been dumbed down for the YOOF market.
Quite a small difference between the quality of one team over another translates into a huge margin of victory.
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