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The New and Improved Cricket Thread© - Now Roadblock Free!
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Tim the Wiz
Banned
Bad luck, SL. But our bowling attack helped shape that luck. Looks like it'll be an India vs Australia final.
Yeah, Mohali is a very well balanced team, even stacked up against Hyderabad, especially since Brett Lee and Sangakkara are probably at respective career high form. Also pleased to see Simon Katich in there, he's been a largely underrated player for quite some time on the international scene. I'd definitely see them near the top of the ladder as the league enters its end-game period.
As you say, Bangalore is a solid team, but lacks real firepower. Wasim Jaffer, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis aren't the type of batsmen you'd bet on hitting over 200 runs in 20 overs. I mean, I know Kallis will always accumulate runs - he's probably the most consistent number three in the game right now - but Dravid and Jaffer definitely aren't in-form at the moment.
Your bowling line-up is pretty nice, though. Anil Kumble, Nathan Bracken (best ODI bowler going around, IMO) and Zaheer Kahn should make things difficult, and Steyn is always capable of good things. If Cameron White can produce the way he does on the domestic scene, that could give things an edge, but relying on Boucher alone for the big hitting would be a tad silly. Hey, at least you're not Jaipur, right?
On paper, I'd place it like this:
1. Hyderabad - Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Scott Styris, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Chamara Silva, RP Singh, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa. By far the most explosive - and mouthwatering - batting lineup in the league, and some good bowlers that can quickly become brilliant.
2. Mohali - Yuvraj Singh, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Brett Lee, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla, Simon Katich, Ramnaresh Sarwan. Has everything in bowling from spin to pace to swing. Excellent batting versatility as well. Perhaps the most balanced side in the league.
3. Chennai Super Kings - Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Muttiah Muralitharan, Matthew Hayden, Jacob Oram, Stephen Fleming, Parthiv Patel, Joginder Sharma, Albie Morkel, Suresh Raina, Makhaya Ntini, Michael Hussey. Second only to Hyderabad in terms of batting - although more versatile. Perhaps one bowler short, though? Ntini and Murali will probably be their main sources of wickets.
4. Kolkata - Sourav Ganguly, Shoaib Akhtar, Ricky Ponting, Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Ajit Agarkar, David Hussey, Ishant Sharma, Murali Kartik, Umar Gul, Tatenda Taibu. A solid team with a mixture of immense experience in the likes of Ponting, Gayle, Agarkar and Ganguly, young talent in the shape of Hussey, Sharma and the on/off again Shoaib Akhtar, with the much underrated coming in the form of Umar Gul's ability to bowl consistent yorkers, something which made him the highest wicket-taking bowler of the Twenty20 World Cup - will we see an evident return to form here?
5. Bangalore Royal Challengers - Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Mark Boucher, Cameron White, Wasim Jaffer, Dale Steyn, Nathan Bracken, Shivnarine Chanderpaul. A bowling attack that has the potential to trouble any team, and while the batting might be slower, keeping wickets in hand do matter somewhat, even in this version of the game. It will be interesting to see how a more traditional lineup fares in this league.
6. Mumbai - Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Harbhajan Singh, Shaun Pollock, Robin Uthappa, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Loots Bosman. Another solid team with some great talent. Tendulkar, Jayasuria, Pollock and Singh can all do great things - but there's a feeling that the team could be lacking in terms of depth.
7. Delhi Daredevils - Virender Sehwag, Daniel Vettori, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Asif, AB de Villiers, Dinesh Karthik, Farveez Maharoof, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Manoj Tiwary, Gautam Gambhir, Glenn McGrath. This team is an outside chance in my opinion. But still a very good one. It has the depth, has plenty of quality team players, but if they're to win big, we'll have to find out whether Glenn McGrath is still Glenn freakin' McGrath and if Sehwag will be in-form. I'd ignore the ranking on this one, could go either way.
8. Jaipur - Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, Yusuf Pathan, Mohammad Kaif, Munaf Patel, Justin Langer. The elder statesmen of the league that bring enough experience to cover several decades at the very least. Maybe not enough young talent to keep them from getting the wooden spoon. They'll need Warney to really fire up if they want to make any real chances.
In all, this competition is just ridiculous. Yes, it will be similar to what was experienced at the Twenty20 World Cup. But seeing so many fantastic players at the same time being thrown outside of their comfort zones. It'll be great to see who sinks and who swims in this type of environment. I can't wait.
Edit: Obviously, some of these squads aren't complete yet, but the rest of the selection are largely local under-22 players or others who failed to make the cut into the initial trading pool. And some of the Australian players will probably miss at least part of the season.
Amarnath said:
Yeah, Mohali is a very well balanced team, even stacked up against Hyderabad, especially since Brett Lee and Sangakkara are probably at respective career high form. Also pleased to see Simon Katich in there, he's been a largely underrated player for quite some time on the international scene. I'd definitely see them near the top of the ladder as the league enters its end-game period.
As you say, Bangalore is a solid team, but lacks real firepower. Wasim Jaffer, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis aren't the type of batsmen you'd bet on hitting over 200 runs in 20 overs. I mean, I know Kallis will always accumulate runs - he's probably the most consistent number three in the game right now - but Dravid and Jaffer definitely aren't in-form at the moment.
Your bowling line-up is pretty nice, though. Anil Kumble, Nathan Bracken (best ODI bowler going around, IMO) and Zaheer Kahn should make things difficult, and Steyn is always capable of good things. If Cameron White can produce the way he does on the domestic scene, that could give things an edge, but relying on Boucher alone for the big hitting would be a tad silly. Hey, at least you're not Jaipur, right?
On paper, I'd place it like this:
1. Hyderabad - Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Scott Styris, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Chamara Silva, RP Singh, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa. By far the most explosive - and mouthwatering - batting lineup in the league, and some good bowlers that can quickly become brilliant.
2. Mohali - Yuvraj Singh, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Brett Lee, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla, Simon Katich, Ramnaresh Sarwan. Has everything in bowling from spin to pace to swing. Excellent batting versatility as well. Perhaps the most balanced side in the league.
3. Chennai Super Kings - Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Muttiah Muralitharan, Matthew Hayden, Jacob Oram, Stephen Fleming, Parthiv Patel, Joginder Sharma, Albie Morkel, Suresh Raina, Makhaya Ntini, Michael Hussey. Second only to Hyderabad in terms of batting - although more versatile. Perhaps one bowler short, though? Ntini and Murali will probably be their main sources of wickets.
4. Kolkata - Sourav Ganguly, Shoaib Akhtar, Ricky Ponting, Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Ajit Agarkar, David Hussey, Ishant Sharma, Murali Kartik, Umar Gul, Tatenda Taibu. A solid team with a mixture of immense experience in the likes of Ponting, Gayle, Agarkar and Ganguly, young talent in the shape of Hussey, Sharma and the on/off again Shoaib Akhtar, with the much underrated coming in the form of Umar Gul's ability to bowl consistent yorkers, something which made him the highest wicket-taking bowler of the Twenty20 World Cup - will we see an evident return to form here?
5. Bangalore Royal Challengers - Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Mark Boucher, Cameron White, Wasim Jaffer, Dale Steyn, Nathan Bracken, Shivnarine Chanderpaul. A bowling attack that has the potential to trouble any team, and while the batting might be slower, keeping wickets in hand do matter somewhat, even in this version of the game. It will be interesting to see how a more traditional lineup fares in this league.
6. Mumbai - Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Harbhajan Singh, Shaun Pollock, Robin Uthappa, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Loots Bosman. Another solid team with some great talent. Tendulkar, Jayasuria, Pollock and Singh can all do great things - but there's a feeling that the team could be lacking in terms of depth.
7. Delhi Daredevils - Virender Sehwag, Daniel Vettori, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Asif, AB de Villiers, Dinesh Karthik, Farveez Maharoof, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Manoj Tiwary, Gautam Gambhir, Glenn McGrath. This team is an outside chance in my opinion. But still a very good one. It has the depth, has plenty of quality team players, but if they're to win big, we'll have to find out whether Glenn McGrath is still Glenn freakin' McGrath and if Sehwag will be in-form. I'd ignore the ranking on this one, could go either way.
8. Jaipur - Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, Yusuf Pathan, Mohammad Kaif, Munaf Patel, Justin Langer. The elder statesmen of the league that bring enough experience to cover several decades at the very least. Maybe not enough young talent to keep them from getting the wooden spoon. They'll need Warney to really fire up if they want to make any real chances.
In all, this competition is just ridiculous. Yes, it will be similar to what was experienced at the Twenty20 World Cup. But seeing so many fantastic players at the same time being thrown outside of their comfort zones. It'll be great to see who sinks and who swims in this type of environment. I can't wait.
Edit: Obviously, some of these squads aren't complete yet, but the rest of the selection are largely local under-22 players or others who failed to make the cut into the initial trading pool. And some of the Australian players will probably miss at least part of the season.
The remaining two games for SL are do or die and if India wins even one (tomorrow or later) they are out ... I was basically rofling at the rate Australia was going after 10-15 overs and thought SL had this match in the bag as they are typically better suited on slower pitches but I guess they are having a bad patch too ..Tim the Wiz said:
As for the IPL auction, it was ridiculous in some ways. Some players got the benefit (Symonds, Ishant, Harbhajan) while some got shafted (Ponting :lol :lol :lol ) .. As for the teams, Hyderabad as the best batting power while Mohali has the best bowling power, best balanced would be Kolkatta, they even got Buchanan for coach! And yes Sheila did get me, I see that she's taking a leaf out of the Australian team tactics.
sleeping_dragon
Banned
what with the batting of all three team in this series? they are all out of form, but bowling have been consistency good from all three though.
Remember folks... just don't look! :lol
Australian batters finally showing some spark and intent.
India better appreciate that catch by Dhoni because Gilly looked like he was in for one of those innings where all you can do is sit back and watch him smash the ball to all four corners of the earth.
Enjoyed Sharma trying to stare down Hayden... you are going to be a great bowler Ishant but you are 19 years old and build like a twig, staring down a veteran like Hayden after he just belted you for 10 runs off two balls isn't going to have much effect. :lol
Australian batters finally showing some spark and intent.
India better appreciate that catch by Dhoni because Gilly looked like he was in for one of those innings where all you can do is sit back and watch him smash the ball to all four corners of the earth.
Enjoyed Sharma trying to stare down Hayden... you are going to be a great bowler Ishant but you are 19 years old and build like a twig, staring down a veteran like Hayden after he just belted you for 10 runs off two balls isn't going to have much effect. :lol
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Not seeing much improvement in the batting, i mean we are batting good but silly shots from Ponting......... considering hes been getting out the same way every time.
But yeah looks better than usual, dont know what it is with making the Aussies bat first though, i would have put them in second, get a good score put the extra pressure on the batters and i recon we would crumble even more.
But yeah looks better than usual, dont know what it is with making the Aussies bat first though, i would have put them in second, get a good score put the extra pressure on the batters and i recon we would crumble even more.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
We've been cagey and tentative for the past 5 or so matches. This batting is much, much better. Confidence building stuff.
As for making us bat first, we've struggled to set a decent total for the past few games, not a bad stretegy to put us in first. The SCG pitch looks solid, should hold up for 100 overs.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Take some of that back, we are batting a lot better, but come on guys cut back on the silly shit.
lol yeah i know, i have only watched the last 3 overs and seen Ponting struggling with an almost catch, doing a lot better than usual.
Grug said:
lol yeah i know, i have only watched the last 3 overs and seen Ponting struggling with an almost catch, doing a lot better than usual.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
Nah, bring on the silly shots, its one day cricket. The conservative approach hasn't been working for us at all this season. How many wickets have come from little nicks off defensive strokes etc.
Australia's best cricket is attacking cricket. Its been easy to forget that with our shithouse batting form of late.
Wow, we've scored in 8 overs what it took over 20 overs to get two days ago. Run rate nearly 10 an over, I'm loving this.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
get to atleast 150 then start going crazy :lol
Hope Ponting gets a century or even a half, he needs some confidence.
Hope Ponting gets a century or even a half, he needs some confidence.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Yes, that 6 was glorious.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Man it would have been awesome to see them get 100 in 10 overs, India would feel like shit if that happened.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
You dont have a radio? AM 630 freq?
I did something stupid like that, have a massive stereo and completely forgot it had a radio on it....... lost all reception on my TV and was going insane cause of no cricket
WOW LUCKY PONTING!!!!!!
But yeah AM Grandstand, awesome stuff.
I did something stupid like that, have a massive stereo and completely forgot it had a radio on it....... lost all reception on my TV and was going insane cause of no cricket
WOW LUCKY PONTING!!!!!!
But yeah AM Grandstand, awesome stuff.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
lol was coming in to say whats up with that.... hmmm........... oh well India will pressure the ICC and that will soon fix this issue.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Lookin again it looks like a friggen cup or something, you get a ball in there its not going anywhere.
Run rates slowed down quite a bit as well.
Run rates slowed down quite a bit as well.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
master15 said:
Think they are in ione now or just finished 1, think they have used only one so far.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Dammit!
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Well Hayden was halfway down the wicket when it left the bowlers hand but was a silly mistake.
They have changed the gloves as well dodgy-ness confirmed.
They have changed the gloves as well dodgy-ness confirmed.
legend166 said:
Lets hope the BCCI just take it like men this time.
Will be good to see Symonds bat today with some runs already on the board. He has been forced to bat under intense scoreboard pressure recently which doesn't really suit his game.
A nice buffer of runs on the board should allow him to play his natural attacking game.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Well we have passed the score we beat Sri Lanka in earlier this week and will soon pass the score we beat India with in the last game. Should be a good wicket for India batting as well so maybe a high scoring game for once!