World Cup, fourth warm-ups: live discussion

By Will last year, mid-March Leave a comment on this post

So the final warm-ups are today, and some fascinating matches in store, not least England against Australia. Duncan Fletcher has been wittering - “It’s an important game, but we’ve still got to use it as practice”. Usual nonsense.

Anyway. Post your thoughts on the matches which all begin around 13.30GMT

New Zealand v Sri Lanka
Three Ws Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados

Pakistan v South Africa
Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground, St Augustine, Trinidad

Australia v England
Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown, St Vincent

India v West Indies
Trelawny Stadium, Jamaica

Tags: 2007-world-cup, australia, england, india, live-coverage, new-zealand, pakistan, south-africa, sri-lanka, west-indies |

Comments to “World Cup, fourth warm-ups: live discussion” Aditya Kuber wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 9.58 am

I bet India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand win… potential semi-finalists, I tell you!

Wraye wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 2.22 pm

I won’t allow myself to make any predictions at this stage. I prefer to believe in the power of prayer and the fact that well-timed toilet-breaks bring wickets. Plus, I have a nasty case of foot and keyboard/mouth disease. Let’s not even mention Bell being on the front cover of Playfair 2007. Ooops!

Caroline wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 2.44 pm

Ooooh dare I say it or will it put the mocca’s on him? Vaughany’s batting well so far . . .

If he gets out now, at least I can go to bed without missing anything.

Zainub wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 2.46 pm

I totally second Wraye. My only worry, at this point is that my blog host is down for maintenance for the whole weekend, such a gap in blogging could potentially be a bad omen for the lads, but I will continue hoping, and praying, and of course, the well-timed-toilet breaks ought to come-in-handy as well. All hail the fat lady that sings.

Zainub wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 2.48 pm

This is no fair, no one has TV coverage for the Pakistan game, even the folks down here in Pakistan are showing Vaughan scoring runs one half a knee!

Wraye wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 3.15 pm

Grrr! Cricinfo didn’t update for ages and then jump from 103/1 to 115/1. Be grateful you can see the cricket, Zainy, I have nothing at all apart from CI! Boo hoo.

Must calm down now, Vaughany and Bell have their 50’s and it’s only a warm up game. The boys are merely “practising”, right?

Wraye wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 3.22 pm

There you go, Bell didn’t even last an hour since my post at 2.22pm. Better shut up for now. However, I note with glee that both WIndies and South Africa are already 2 wickets down too.

Aditya Kuber wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 4.49 pm

Wow! Who would have believed INdia could bowl so well… even Irfan Pathan has picked up wickets! Incredible performance. Hope the batters can measure up!

Aditya Kuber wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 4.54 pm

India is burning up the Windies! Who would have thought? Now I hope the batters measure up!

Michael wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 5.10 pm

West Indies - Kind of puts Viv Richards back in his place doesn’t it?

South Africa - Maybe they should have played on cement? Batsmen I tell you… gotta have true bounce and no swing and no seam to be happy…

New Zealand - Strong platform? And it’s 30/0 after 10? Oh yes, there was that Bangladesh game…

England - So Hoggy CAN bowl a bit. And Vaughn can bat a bit. I am extremely disappointed in Flintoff these days. He’s supposed to be a world beater and I was really warming up to him after Ashes 2005. And that’s saying a lot coming from an Aussie. What is up with him? Seriously.

Michael wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 5.15 pm

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/wc2007/content/story/284560.html

What the hell is it doing in India? If the public wants to see it, they should book a flight for Sydney. Australia is the only place it should be.

Kathy wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 5.17 pm

Agreed, Michael, Flintoff cannot bat to save himself these days. And all the commentators still think he’s going to save the world every time he comes to the crease. He gets a much gentler ride than most.

But Vaughan was looking sharp â€” sharp enough for McGrath to have words with him! Let’s just hope he hasn’t ripped anything (touches wood). Vaughan and Bell were the ONLY good things about that innings.

Michael wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 5.22 pm

In my constant search for a live scorecard to watch, I found myself at The Guardian who claims they have a snazzy desktop scorecard. It’s a little better, it does show England is 140/4 after 31 overs with Collingwood on 2 and Flintoff on 4.

However the text on the left paints the story.

“Preamble Hello. England collapsed from 122 for 1 to 197 all out and will be losing this match shortly.”
http://www.cricket.mailliw.com/archives/2007/03/09/world-cup-fourth-warm-ups-live-discussion/#comment-172132
Â» World Cup, fourth warm-ups: live discussion - The Corridor (a cricket blog)
A bit harsh the brits, aren’t they?

BTW - I *am* buying a subscription to watch the games via willow.tv and recommend it to anyone who can get it. I watched the entire Ashes and ODI series through willow.tv and was impressed with the feed most of the time. They did have moments of poor performance, and like every good tech company blamed my connection. Despite speakeasy.net/speedtest telling me that my connection was above 4mb. *sigh*

Michael wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 5.23 pm

However the text on the left paints the story.

“Preamble Hello. England collapsed from 122 for 1 to 197 all out and will be losing this match shortly.”

A bit harsh the brits, aren’t they?

Michael wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 5.24 pm

However the text on the left paints the story.

“Preamble Hello. England collapsed from 122 for 1 to 197 all out and will be losing this match shortly.”

A bit harsh the brits, aren’t they?

I want the update system that the Indians seem to have discovered

Michael wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 5.31 pm

McGrath has words with everybody though… And while it smacks of arrogance, it’s so vital to have a fast bowler with snarl. Batsmen are dominating the game; so much so that I feel the bowlers should be aiming to shake them up a lot more and be free to have “words” and intimidate them. I also think bowlers should be allowed to give the batsman a send off. The sport is really in danger of becoming a pansy affair.

I like Bell. I hate to admit that. He was destroyed in Ashes 05 and showed a lot of grit in 06/07. Though I don’t like Collingwood. I would have preferred to see Graham Thorpe one more time in Collingwood’s place.

Tom wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 8.56 pm

Hooray Australia won against a Test playing nation!

Albeit a practice match, but at least Tait showed he can take wickets in the Caribbean.

Michael wrote:
March 9th, 2007 at 9.44 pm

The one exciting finish for the day… Comon New Zealand!

sudip wrote:
March 11th, 2007 at 7.06 pm

Nice blog. I just viewed later but the best team won. I was sure Pakistan will will and will win the cricket world cup 2007.

indhp wrote:
March 15th, 2007 at 2.48 pm

World Cup Cricket Final 2007 is between ?

The World Cup Cricket 2007 has started without a clear favourite to win the cup. Thanks to the recent debacle of Australia. Which two teams will reach the final ?. Any team which reaches the semi final has a chance to win the cup. Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties, which is the beauty of the game. My choice for the world cup semi finals are Australia, New zealand, West indies and India.

Michael wrote:
March 15th, 2007 at 5.26 pm

The only debacle was the insatiable appetite to cram more ODI’s down our throats. So a response was formed; Australia-A traveled to New Zealand instead.

Kathy wrote:
March 15th, 2007 at 6.52 pm

If that was Australia A, Michael, then Australia can glory in its Ashes whitewash over England A. And I think you’ll find the Chappell-Hadlee series is a small but regular part of the cricket schedule honouring two great cricketing families and the trans-Tasman rivalry. If Australia have overbooked themselves elsewhere, you can’t blame the series in NZ. Or sneer at it, as Gilchrist did, and got roundly censured for it.

Michael wrote:
March 15th, 2007 at 8.44 pm

It matters not to me who it was, so long as they were English. Vaughn was missing indeed, Cook was a more than capable replacement for Trescothic and Jones was great in Brisith conditions but I feel we proved quite mightily that the English speedsters have nothing in Australian conditions.

You have a good point though, they are two great families. The timing of the series was brainless however.

Overbooked elsewhere? The Tri-Series in Australia has been played since 1979. The World Cup 1975. No, it’s the Chappell/Hadlee series that has been overbooked this year. It is only the third series, of which only two have been completed. I wouldn’t call it regular yet.

Kathy wrote:
March 15th, 2007 at 10.18 pm

Oh, I guess that means if you take Lee out of the equation, then we proved mightily that the Aussies can’t bowl in NZ conditions.

The Chappell/Hadlee series has been agreed on by both countries as a regular fixture. If Australia then turns round and sets up a ludicrously long CB series â€” and everyone, I think, except England, thought it was ludicrously long â€” that’s not NZ’s fault.

Michael wrote:
March 15th, 2007 at 10.21 pm

Clearly didn’t bowl good enough.

What do you mean sets up? It’s been this way since 1979, bar a couple changes to 6 game format and even 10 game format. 8 game format has been the standard for more than 20 years.

20 years.

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World Cup, fourth warm-ups: live discussion