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Cricket... the game, not the insect

 
 
 
So there is a pause in the Ashes, and check to see how the US Major League Cricket is going.

Turn it on, and I flashback to the South Africa World Cup (football). What is that noise?! Whistles? They gave everyone whistles?!?! You know, abroad, whistling is done to boo... because it is ANNOYING!!! Trying to get Americans into cricket. You bring over bowling talent like Rabada... but you give the people showing up... whistles?!! Turned that off, started another game without the home team... or fans apparently because it is upper 90s, no shade, and humid. Sounded much better.
 
Jebus! In America, there is usually the known sports gap in summer. NASCAR and MLB. For people that watch other stuff, there is the Women's World Cup, Tour de France, and The Ashes... as well as Indycar. India and Sri Lanka are also testing it. Too much to watch!

Meanwhile in England as the English team attempts to even the series, Australia went for a modest sum of 317. And got Duckett out quickly. That'd be the end of the good for Australia. Zach Crawley would bat what would have been an ambitious T50 strike rate over 100%... of 189. Root, who partnered during a portion of the remarkable run would come just shy of 100 himself, as the ball took an odd bounce and left him stumped. All in all, 6 of Englands batter's (BATTERS) achieved half centuries, and narrowly avoided the follow on with nearly 600. Bairstow is still on the pitch, so I presume if he gets a century, they declare or until Anderson gets out. Bairstow is currently 10 shy of the century.

Stoke's England in this series have been all about high strike rates. The score a lot, early, and then get out. Lowest top 6 batters was over 60%. England have batted just 16 more overs, and have 265 more runs than Australia!

ETA: If there is a failure in this game, it is the Aussies had England down to their last wicket at 526.
 
Aussies getting hammered by England, and turn to dark arts to make it rain. Slaughtered 42 goats in a late night ceremony after Day Three. Mission accomplished but they still played Day 4. They wanted to slaughter more than 42 goats after Day Four, but they were out of goats, only able to slaughter 24. Might start around 1 PM local.
 
Twit isn't happy in his latest xhit.


The whole Bairstow thing was a bit sloppy. And Australia won the first two tests. England needed to win the next three to gain the urn back. It rained, yes, because of the goat sacrifices, but that is why you bring goat to The Ashes. What a baby! What twits like Morgan should be taking from The Ashes is that with the change of leadership, England are on par with the other top nations again. They should be heralding that! Almost like they can't remember the last Ashes... you know, when England had to park the bus in order to obtain a slight moral victory via a single draw? Though that could be a trauma related issue.
 
Cricket is such an odd game. In the sense of it being built on a lot of failure. It comes down to the bowling side failing around 40 to 50 percent of the time from preventing the opposing team from scoring. And over 96 percent of failure from getting the batter out. It gains its intrigue from the fact one moment within all that failure changes the game significantly, and while the bowling team is usually not preventing the batting team from scoring, each moment with each ball carries a heavy weight of significance, completely unlike baseball where pitches are aggregated to create significance. In cricket, any ball can be The One.

...and the fact that an important series of five day long test matches that take over a month to play can be rendered meaningless by weather! :mad:
 
And it is a draw. An absolutely remarkable test series. England down 2-0, effectively won it, if not for the rain, and drew the series. Stokes' ODI in Test cricket style opens up options for time management and provided them enough time to finish this as a draw.

Now who wants to watch The Hundred?! :D
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Cricket is such an odd game. In the sense of it being built on a lot of failure. It comes down to the bowling side failing around 40 to 50 percent of the time from preventing the opposing team from scoring. And over 96 percent of failure from getting the batter out. It gains its intrigue from the fact one moment within all that failure changes the game significantly, and while the bowling team is usually not preventing the batting team from scoring, each moment with each ball carries a heavy weight of significance, completely unlike baseball where pitches are aggregated to create significance. In cricket, any ball can be The One.

...and the fact that an important series of five day long test matches that take over a month to play can be rendered meaningless by weather! :mad:
Click to expand...
It's an education in the futility of hubris.

It teaches us that, in the face of nature, no man, no team of men, no matter how skilled, can do more than place the tiniest of pressures on the fates, and that ultimately the weather (be it only light drizzle) can make fools of the mightiest individuals.

Also, don't wander out of your crease while the ball is still in play.
 
Meanwhile in the CPL, rainouts are leading with 4 out of 6 fixtures being rained out. Highlight of the tournament so far is Barbados in the second game had just one player scoring more than Extras given away by the bowling team (22), St. Lucia. And only two others got with more than half that total! Yes, they lost.

Meanwhile India defeated Ireland by 2 runs (DLS) in their first T20, having batted 47/2 in less than 7 overs. Yes, India would have won, but winning via DLS without playing half the overs seems ridiculous. Yes, I get it, T20 is ridiculous too, but must we resort to scoring hyperbole?
 
CPL managing better in St. Kitts and Nevis then Barbados. But Barbados, not so much. Down three wickets by the third over. Scored 61 in just 12.1 overs, bowling out to Trinbago who had more than triple that total! Top four are wide open. If Barbados doesn't improve, they'll be stuck down below with St. Kitts and Nevis.
 
CPL title was determined. It was a rematch of the qualifier. Guyana lost the qualifier, but won the title game, soundly by 9 wickets... and it wasn't even that close. A target of 95 to win the T20 Caribbean title. Trinbago were dropping wickets like hot potatoes! Extras contributed the third most runs for the Knight Riders, with third highest batting total being on 10 runs, 5 batters had 1 or fewer runs! Guyana hosted the finals, so made for a happy home crowd.

A bunch of ODIs on-going, as the world prepares for the ODI World Cup. At least the part that isn't watching the Rugby World Cup.
 
Concerns arise among South Africa's cricket team and doping. :D

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England and New Zealand opened up this year's ODI World Cup with a doozie of a spanking. The Black Caps thoroughly dismantled the England side, who had an early bowling highlight of a 1 ball duck that would be the end of the English bowling highlights. The remaining two batters for New Zealand would play until the chase was completed, which took a lot less time than it took England to get that high.

Of course, England does like to do things the hard way.

New Zealand will play next against whipping boys Netherlands while England will have a harder time at it against a more locally popular Bangladesh. Pakistan look to gets things rolling quickly with their own match against the whipping boys tomorrow.
 
It looks a lot like polo to me, in that it’s probably more fun to play than to watch, designed as a spectator sport for the wealthy-and-bored-to-tears class. Kinda like upscale baseball. Or football. Or Basketball. Aw screw it - I’m going to just watch hockey even though I can’t play it, and don’t even like to watch it. At least it’s fairly nonstop, and only has three quarters (periods).
 
Australia defeat Sri Lanka and are now tied with England at 1-2. People who gambled at that probably would have scored a good deal of cash. India and South Africa are flying high. New Zealand are also undefeated.

India spanked Pakistan, it wasn't even close. The next three games will be jobbers, then Australia face Pakistan as Australia will be desperate to get up to 2-2 instead of packing early at a 1-3 start. Saturday will be likewise for England as they face South Africa. England lost to Afghanistan the other day, so they've pretty much have given up the number of losses possible before trying to get into the knockout round.

I haven't paid too much attention so far, with the Rugby World Cup on going and the Road Atlanta finale for IMSA.
 
History happening? South Africa have been cruising at the World Cup. Playing jobbers Netherlands today, they had Netherlands down to 82/5 and 112/6 and 140/7. They managed to finish with 245/8 in a shortened 43 over innings in large part thanks to a 78 not out from Scott Edwards.

South Africa are currently 94/5 nearing halfway on their innings. If Netherlands could recover, so can South Africa, but the margin of error has evaporated. Defeating South Africa would make the tournament a success for Netherlands.
 
Jebus, England suck at the ODI World Cup this year. I woke up and usually it is around the mid 30s over wise for the first batting team, and Sri Lanka are about to bat and I was confused. I then see that England were already out.

Might take a little wind out of the sails for Afghanistan and their victory over England.
 
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