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    Cricket

    the tabbing needs to be sorted out doesn't it, you have to press Tab about 7 times to get into the main message field.

    Anyway, i need a new thread to inform you all of my cricketing prowess/feebleness.

    This morning I have bruises on my two middle fingers of the left hand, the left palm, and the top of my right foot. As well as a strained right shoulder.

    This is because there was only 5 of us practising at nets last night so I was much more in the thick of the action.

    Taht was my last nets before the season starts, hopefully I'll get picked at some point. My batting and bowling have both come on tremendously, but I still struggle with full balls on leg stump, get myself in horrid positiions for them.

    I'll be sure to keep you updated, you lucky people.

    #2
    Cricket

    I'm going to be playing tonight. Well, if you want to go into precise detail, it's my morris practice night and we habitually warm up by playing a game that bears no resemblance to cricket but less to any other sport, with a morris stick, a tennis ball ans a chair. The carpet in the hut where we rehearse takes a bit of spin, and my action's every bit as good as it was forty years ago (a hat-trick on the beach at Perranporth. I must consult Wisden to check whether the feat of bowling one's own father, mother and seven-year-old sister with consecutive balls has ever been achieved before.)

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      #3
      Cricket

      We had kicked around the nicknames of the Indian Premier League teams on the old board, and the list now seems to be complete. It also appears to be the lamest collection of names since the original MLS:

      Mumbai Indians
      Bangalore Royal Challengers
      Deccan Chargers
      Chennai Super Kings
      Delhi DareDevils
      Punjab Kings
      Kolkata Knight Riders
      Rajasthan Royals

      And the logos?



      WG wept.

      The only possible consolation is that the names are so similar that they are likely to fall into disuse.

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        #4
        Cricket

        WG Wept. I like that, though I think the old man might have swallowed his objection given the money on offer.

        My friend who arranges nets seems to have vanished off the face of the earth so I'm not likely to play much. I'm not capable of more than a bit of "Botham after his back op" style bowling. Not even Tom Graveney has predicted "many more wickets" in my new style.

        Anyone else scared of South Africa yet? They even have a spinner with some good figures, Paul Harris. He looked decent in a passage of play I saw against West Indies recently too. Maybe I'll have to give up my jokes about Hugh Tayfield being recalled at last. Steyn is good and quick, Ntini a thoroughbred and Morkel is doing all right. Maybe a fourth seamer short, though I expect they'll play one instead of the spinner for much of the summer.

        The batting looks good.

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          #5
          Cricket

          Aye, Grace would have loved this. Although I doubt he'll be grave spinning at imminent events nearby- it's hard to imagine Beckenham CC, pleasant though it is, staging anything in the foreseeable future likely to compete with the Punjabi pajama circuit.

          South Africa here this summer should be good. It looks as if Flintoff will play if even three-quarters fit, though I hope he uses the NZL tour to get plenty of county games rather than blocking out Oram maidens.

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            #6
            Cricket

            "Anyone else scared of South Africa yet? They even have a spinner with some good figures, Paul Harris. He looked decent in a passage of play I saw against West Indies recently too."

            Paul was our previous club pro at V.R.A. - actually a nice guy. He came to visit last summer, and spent a lot of time coaching my kids and generally hanging out with them.

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              #7
              Cricket

              Harris is close to 30. Did he take some spin bowling elixir to suddenly make him useful?

              SA beat India in three days, at Ahmedabad. It's not often that India lose inside three days at home. Last time might have been against SA as well, in 1999.

              Anyway, McKenzie is doing well opening with Smith. No arguments about Kallis being useful. De Villiers is improving (scored a double century yesterday). But weak points in our batting reside at 3 and 5, with Amla being vulnerable, and Prince making Kallis seem explosively hyperactive. I have no idea how Prince has contrived to accumulate an average in the 40s.

              Boucher we know is a great wicketkeeper, and a very useful batsman when the chips are down.

              Steyn is developing into a very special fast bowler. His figures are impressive. Both Morkels are useful, but they'll never be world beaters. Ntini still has a bit of juice in him, but is relying increasingly on his experience.

              And, yes, SA are a seamer short. Nel is a clown, and Zondeki -- leading wicket-taker in domestic cricket this season -- lacks international class.

              SA will do OK in England, but they'll get fucked in Australia, I fear.

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                #8
                Cricket

                Forget Zondecki's bowling. Last time he came here he batted really well with Gary Kirsten and won a test.

                England are going to need some Javed Akhtar style-umpiring this summer.

                Good reports of Flintoff's fitness. It's not impossible he could be a test match number 6 again, and bowl 20 overs rather 50 in a test. But we haven't worked out how to do that yet.

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                  #9
                  Cricket

                  Do you really think AF can play regularly for England again other than as a front-line bowler? If he can't trust his fitness to 20 overs per day, they should pick someone who can. As we've discussed before, the problem batting position is #8 rather than #6, but Broad may get a run.

                  Anyway, talking of comebacks, how fares B.D'oorio on the Mummerset veterans circuit?

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                    #10
                    Cricket

                    It doesn't look like it at the moment, admittedly, but I can't see what terminal change there can have been since he was scoring 8 successive test fifties. He was a perfectly adequate 6 for a few years before that. I'm assuming he can still bowl quickish for those twenty overs a test I'm talking about, and maybe build up. You're right that a batting number 8 would help the "Flintoff at 6 for balance" argument.

                    If this isn't possible, then I suppose we're left with him as an English Shane Bond. Nice to have around but missing a lot of games.

                    One worries that he's going to be a professional 20-20 player some time soon. Um, did I just mention Bond?

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                      #11
                      Cricket

                      In the meantime, Wisden is almost out. Just pre-ordered my copy.

                      Sports Book Of The Year Every Year.

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                        #12
                        Cricket

                        Apart from when they make batshit crazy pronouncements like naming Kallis as Cricketer of the Year...

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                          #13
                          Cricket

                          I was interested to read that ESPN acquired Cricinfo recently. I think they were owned by Wisden before, so we'll see what the consequences are for their coverage.

                          The ESPN Empire Marches On. Not that I have a high horse to sit on about it right now.

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                            #14
                            Cricket

                            1,210 test runs at an average of 86,42 (and 20 wickets at 25,75) in 2007 not good enough for you, Raskolnikov? Regardless of how little you think of Kallis approach to batting, you are making a fool of yourself by calling the award a "batshit" decision. Show me a player who deserves it more, and explain why.

                            Kallis in 2007:
                            January: India (home) 54/32 (SA win)
                            January: Pakistan (h) 18/60* (SA win)
                            January: Pakistan (h) 24/91 (Pakistan win)
                            January: Pakistan (h) 28/51 (SA win)
                            October: Pakistan (a) 118*/18* (SA win)
                            October: Pakistan (a) 59/107* (draw)
                            November: N Zealand (h) 29/186 (SA win)
                            November: N Zealand (h) 131 (SA win)
                            December: W. Indies (h) 0/85 (W. Indies win)

                            Four consecutive tests in which he scored centuries; only once out in four innings in Pakistan (with two 100s and a 50), and a 50 in every test in the year. I suggest that this is a remarkable record.

                            Oddly, in Bangladesh he flopped, but scored a century last week in India.

                            On another note, India apparently have prepared a bit of a dustbowl for tomorrow's third test in Kampur.

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                              #15
                              Cricket

                              Tubby Isaacs wrote:
                              In the meantime, Wisden is almost out. Just pre-ordered my copy.

                              Sports Book Of The Year Every Year.
                              I'd agree with that.

                              Just ordered tickets for Saturday and Sunday for the Headingly test with S.A. Friends have had some very nasty experiences with Ticketmaster recently, so I hope I actually get them.

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                                #16
                                Cricket

                                Impressive batting figures, and, bowling wise, has he still got the late outswing? He's probably underrated as a bowler over here because in 1998 Cronje seemed to have given him orders to bowl outside offstump when slowing England down was hardly a priority. Last time I think he missed a couple of tests and was last seen disappearing into the Oval stand off Flintoff.

                                He's class.

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                                  #17
                                  Cricket

                                  £50 or thereabouts, Tony?

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                                    #18
                                    Cricket

                                    £38 plus a booking fee.

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