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    Sep 5, 2008

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    I must be getting old

    By Scott last year, mid-September Leave a comment on this post

    I remember back in the day when going at 5 runs an over was a fair rate of knots. In this brave new world of Twenty-20, even 10 an over isn’t always enough, as the West Indies found out this morning. Pity Chris Gayle, who scored the first ever International century in this form of the game, 117 off 57, and still ended up on the losing side.

    A hell of a way to make a living, being a bowler in this day and age.

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    3 Responses to “I must be getting old”

  • amit wrote:
    September 12th, 2007 at 5.34 am

    The purist in me is crying…!

    But then I guess it is as painful and stupid to be a purist in these heady days as it is to be a bowler…!

  • Innocent Abroad wrote:
    September 12th, 2007 at 8.25 am

    It was a cracker of a game, though - if even only half of them are this good, the 50 over format is going to look pretty friendless.

    Jury’s got to be out on bowlers, though - neither side had a front-line spinner, let alone a world-class one. Assuming you’re right, possible “tweaks” (pun intended, too cheesy to miss) might be -

    scrapping the fielding restrictions, which don’t seem necessary in this form of the game on the evidence (this I think likely);

    giving bonus points for wickets taken in group matches and leagues (I know we haven’t had any T20 leagues yet, but I’d expect the English counties to want one fairly soon, with play-offs on the Rugby League model).

  • Soulberry wrote:
    September 12th, 2007 at 9.47 pm

    That was a brilliant match. Gibbs matched Gayle. The beauty was they played cricket rather than the “hit and giggle” the press has been about.

    But today’s match was even better - Zimbabwe vs Australia. For those who take joy in encouraging underdogs, this was the match to see. The Zimbabwean body language was perfect, their fielding top class, their bowling had the variety and quickness of thought behind it and the batting was calm. Brendan Taylor was cool and purposeful.

    Worth staying awake for the final match of what was billed to be a picnic day out for the the big three teams - NZ, Pakistan and Australia.

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