The Cricket Thread

[Santoshbhat]

Ball turning square and Ashwin gets only 3 overs?!!!

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

Ball turning square and Ashwin gets only 3 overs?!!!

Perplexed by Dhoni's captaincy today. Pandya given overs on a rank turner, Raina/Yuvraj not used much.

[Eddy]

All is well that ends well.

Kohli just switches on his God Mode Cheat Code while chasing !

[pratyush6]

Well, we were lucky yesterday. It was a very important toss and everyone read the pitch wrong. MSD should have bowled his spinners instead of Pandya. Afridi missing a big trick by not keeping Aamir on against Kohli - he eventually made the difference between the sides.
Dhawan again was a flop. Rohit looked to go for big shots again, gifting his wicket away. Yuvi looking good is great news for us though.
Pak should be proud of themselves of the fight they gave and nice to see Afirdi's sportsman spirit in the presentation as well, must be a brave man to say what he did.
MSD would be crucified for saying such things. On the plus side, really good to see Kohli playing - he seemed determined to finsih the game - I hope the openers learn a thing or two from him. Right now they look like the weakest link plus Raina.

I know Dhawan will fire in one odd game, but is it worth keeping him on for that only? Also, I don't get why keep playing Pandya -untill he gets really bad balls, he wont score, and he can't get a run in tense situations. Might be better off playing Negi/Bhajji.

The pitch was a shocker - I understand it was because of the moisture underneath but seriosuly, this is just plain bad for a WT20. Everyone involved should be ashamed for producing such a pedestrian pitch.

[NPV]

Pakistan relied too much on a pace attack and part time spinners on a spin friendly track...but not complaining at all since that helped us
In other news, hoping SL vs WI will be a great game hopefully with a Gayle storm as well and should be a great game to watch live at the stadium.

OT: why does Sanjay Manjrekar keep saying 'Shekar' Dhawan for Shikhar Dhawan ??

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by NPV

OT: why does Sanjay Manjrekar keep saying 'Shekar' Dhawan for Shikhar Dhawan ??

He keeps saying a lot of things that he shouldn't, I hate his commentary.

On team selection and who to bowl, let's just say that MSD has always done something contrary to what would seem obvious and he has had more success than failure (at least in the limited overs format) so I just go along with it.

But I think it is high time that Dhawan is replaced by Rahane, but that does not seem likely to happen.

[chakri400]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

The pitch was a shocker - I understand it was because of the moisture underneath but seriosuly, this is just plain bad for a WT20. Everyone involved should be ashamed for producing such a pedestrian pitch.

What's wrong, the match turned out well because of the pitch. Tired of everybody scoring big runs on flat pitches. It was great to see quality shots being played by umar akmal, Kohli and yuvi against the turning ball.

[amit_snk]

Originally Posted by chakri400

What's wrong, the match turned out well because of the pitch. Tired of everybody scoring big runs on flat pitches. It was great to see quality shots being played by umar akmal, Kohli and yuvi against the turning ball.

I watched the match between Australia and Newzealand live at Dharamshala on 17th and believe me sixes and fours do give lot of entertainment to people in the ground. T20= entertainment, that is what crowd demands, but yes, it shouldn't be overdone like the match between England and S. Africa, right balance should be maintained.

[NPV]

SL-WI game was a good one to watch live at the stadium though a low scoring game. Obviously the spectators wanted to see Gayle bat and that never happened. The crowd was behind the WI team wanting them to win but wanted a wicket to fall so that Gayle would come in to bat! And, the dropped catches by SL fielders didn't amuse the spectators.

[msdivy]

I had mentioned Pakistan team being rusty. Yesterday they provided proof of this. While chasing, they had to get 58 in 5 overs with 7 wickets in hand. Most teams would have gone for the target and top would have overhauled the target. But Pakistan could score just 36 in those 30 balls. And the unbelievable thing, they did not score a 4 or 6 in those last 5 overs !

[NPV]

India beat Bangladesh today
Australia beat Pakistan
India-Australia result does not matter

India is placed second in Group and meet WI in Semi-final
Yes, we can dream

[RaguHolla]

Originally Posted by NPV

India beat Bangladesh today
Australia beat Pakistan
India-Australia result does not matter

India is placed second in Group and meet WI in Semi-final
Yes, we can dream

How? India , Australia beat exact same teams (Pak, Ban) means, plus we have worst run rate! In this situation Ind vs Aus is Pre-quarter! Winner takes all.

If Australia gets beaten by Pak, Then Australia must win against India, and Run-rate comes in to picture between Pak vs Ind vs Australia . Then we can only hope that we had enough run rate and won't get beaten badly!

India best hope get Big win against Ban, Win match against Australia.

[babhishek]

Lets hope for a big win tonight as the first step!

[harry10]

Originally Posted by babhishek

Lets hope for a big win tonight as the first step!

A win will do. In all scenarios our best way to semi final is beating Bangla and Aussies. So, rather than worrying about Nrr we must concentrate on just winning these 2 games.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by chakri400

What's wrong, the match turned out well because of the pitch. Tired of everybody scoring big runs on flat pitches. It was great to see quality shots being played by umar akmal, Kohli and yuvi against the turning ball.

The pitch was horrible. Same as Dharamshala. This is a WT20 event, we can do whatever we want in a bilateral series (like against SA Tests). Plus T20 matches are supposed to favor big hitting. I don't mind spin, but balls stopping and two paced wicket simply is not good enough.

Both of them looked like the old 5th day Test tracks - T20's are not supposed to be like that. And this is a WC.

Semis Scenario: India need to win today and against Australia to go through, we are never going to qualify based on run rates.
In the other group, WI and England look favs, SA had a shocker against Eng, don't see them making it.