Champions Trophy

[Etienne]

Despite the fact that all eleven of their team should be shoo-ins for world player of the year, South Africa are mysteriously getting an absolute shellacking from Sri Lanka's batsmen. 290-3, 4 overs still left. Steyn and van der Merwe seem the only bowlers to have kept a lid on things, but Steyn isn't going to get to bowl his allocation.

[Etienne]

Champions Trophy

Parnell gets Jayawardene and Samaweera in consecutive balls to put the brakes on.

[Kid A]

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Dilshan's an awesome limited overs batsman.

The 2 spinners have got decent figures for SA so far - Murali & Mendis must fancy their chances.

Is there any terrestrial TV coverage in England for this or is it all on Murdochvision?

[longeared]

Champions Trophy

All coverage is on Sky, no highlights on BBC or Channel 5. It's not even being covered by TMS as far as I can see.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Champions Trophy

There was the unusual sight of two catches in two balls not being out- a no-ball and a free hit. Or alternatively two balls which between them yielded only three runs.

I still don't get this free hit lark. Why is overstepping more serious than firing down a beamer (for which there is no free hit)?

[ursus arctos]

Champions Trophy

I never realised that was the case, and you are right that it is hard to explain why one would write the rule that way.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Champions Trophy

I suppose there's some core of gentlemanliness behind it. That a bowler "couldn't possibly" bowl a beamer deliberately, whereas he might seek an advantage by overstepping. But it makes little sense.

[Etienne]

Champions Trophy

Blistering start from Smith in response. Spin on now, crucial time.

[ursus arctos]

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And Mendis gets him first ball . . .

[Etienne]

Champions Trophy

The Saffers might want to talk to Pakistan on how to play Ajantha.

[Wizard in Black]

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No Herschelle Gibbs? Looked everywhere online, can't seem to find a reason why he's not playing, must be due to injury...run-rate dried up considerably, personally I'd have put Duminy further up the order, the man is a machine.

[Wizard in Black]

Champions Trophy

Whoops, the "forum curse"...as soon as I click on submit, down goes Duminy...my bad.

[longeared]

Champions Trophy

Gibbs has a rib injury.

Not caused by playing football, unlike cricketers from a certain other nation.

[Wizard in Black]

Champions Trophy

Cheers for that link, at least its a genuine cricketing injury. I absolutely love watching Gibbs, one of my all time fave one-dayers...England v Sri Lanka friday is going to be hilarious, I pity the england fans attending this one...

[Tubby Isaacs]

Champions Trophy

I think England will lose all 3.

[Kid A]

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West Indies Volunteer XI have made an unsurprisingly poor start against Pakistan. WI currently 51-7. An embarassment for the WI boardproper team and the tournament as a whole.

[Gangster Octopus]

Champions Trophy

Is that the lot who were stuffed by Bangladesh?

[Etienne]

Champions Trophy

Edged by Bangladesh, yes.

Nikita Miller manages to inch the score up to 133.

[ursus arctos]

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After having failed to take a wicket while giving up 100+ runs in two matches against Bangladesh, Gavin Tonge has taken two in three overs today.

His middle name is Courtney . . .

[ursus arctos]

Champions Trophy

Tonge now has 4 for 16.

Pakistan is going to win easily, but the Indians and Aussies will take some comfort from their performance.

[Etienne]

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Apart from anything else, the more the Pakistanis struggle, the less chance they have of winning a tie-break on run rate against the other teams.

[Tubby Isaacs]

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ouch, tino

[axel]

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Have you seen the England squad? Not very inspiring.

Where's Trott, Bell, Cook and Mascarenas for starters? All better than a lot of this shower. Trott got a century on debut and they still stick with Shah and Bresnan, both of whom have done nothing in the internationals. Collingwood is not good enough with the bat either but at least is a decent enough fielder/bowler.
Swann and Rashid should both bowl, try something interesting.

Andrew Strauss, captain (Middlesex) James Anderson (Lancashire) Ravi Bopara (Essex) Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire) Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire) Paul Collingwood (Durham) Joe Denly (Kent) Eoin Morgan (Middlesex) Graham Onions (Durham) Matt Prior (Sussex) Adil Rashid (Yorkshire) Owais Shah (Middlesex) Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire) Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire) Luke Wright (Sussex)

[Wizard in Black]

Champions Trophy

dimitri dicks on half of those players...

[King On The Rye]

Champions Trophy

Not sure about that. His ODI record is lamentable, although he's a nice fellah.

Cook had a dismal summer - Bell's was nothing special, either.

Trott, by contrast, had a great summer but if we're going to pick him we might as well drop the pretence and call us ourselves South Africa B. Not that we're as good as them.