GLuvsMtb

Its a tough one. Cricket in essence was a gentlemen's pastime that migrated over the decades into a highly competitive and lucrative sport. Filling up stadiums is as important as TV schedules. The reason Aus, England and India are now the big three is because of their ability to fill stadiums and sell TV rights when they compete, not because they are necessarily the best in the game, so commercial sense will always precede aspirations for a fairer contest. The basic concepts of cricket namely the toss, playing out a long innings before changing from batting to fielding, the cricket ball losing condition quickly, pitches degenerating, etc. is not meant to be fair, but to test different skills at different times. The toss alone plays a role, but to make it fair, sides should probably bat in 10 over innings, change over from batting to fielding, bowl the next 10, and change over again (like a baseball play). I don't know if I would like to watch that, maybe it should be given a go and lets see what happens? Another option is to handicap the side that wins the toss somehow. If they bat first, deduct 10%, if they bowl first, add 10% to the side that lost the toss and batted. Now this handicap differs from ground to ground and with varying conditions on the day or seasonal (dew for instance) changes. It is very difficult to take all the factors into account to calculate the handicap. Perhaps the fairest system is one where the World Cup becomes a World Championship or league where sides play each other home and away and at the end of the series they either win based on a log standing, or they play a final where the inequalities will come to the fore again. Perhaps we should just abide by the fact that cricket is not designed to create an even playing field.

Provided that we don't have an oopsie against WI and / or Pakistan... mind you, if we lose another game we deserve a spot against Aus / NZ in the QF.

We were comprehensively beaten by an Indian side who had their plans worked out and stuck to them. De Kock, Amla and Duminy fell to known weaknesses in their armories and our bowlers failed to capitalize on a solid start. Today I missed Jacques Kallis with his good cricket brain and ability to change the game with bat and ball. India remained aggressive with their field placings, much like NZ and Aus have been in this WC. Perhaps we can learn from this. After today we are probably not noted as one of the favorites anymore. Maybe not a bad thing. Hopefully Parnell played his last game in this WC. He clearly struggles in big games and teams like Aus and NZ will exploit that. Lets hope Vern can make a quick recovery as I think his injury cost us about 20 runs. The positives are much less extras, Tahir bowling well and our fielding looks to be sharp.

Its been good tight bowling. Nothing to put away.

You said it. Too many fans and too few students of the game.

So if we run into a rampant Starke or Southee on a seaming wicket, or Warner or McCullem simply play out of their skins to score 150 off 80? To be fair, on current form NZ and Aus looks much more like WC contenders than us. A home crowd is like an extra fielder in high pressure games. I'd like us to do well, but if we are beaten by a better side in a pressure game we should be mature enough to take it on the chin and move on. We can ill-afford to crucify our side if they end up losing to a better side. Do the basic well and we will give ourselves a decent chance.

Unless Aus gets another NR. Then the team with the best NRR goes top. That'll be NZ at this rate.

Meanwhile the weather Gods may be smiling on the sides in Group A. I think its safe to say that tomorrow's Aus - Ban match will be called off due to the current weather conditions. Thoughts and prayers to the folk of Brisbane though.

Zim racked up a good win today against a fired-up UAE side. Between Zim and Ireland I would really like to see one of them progress to the knock-out stage. WI will know that they are going to have to get their acts together if they want to prevent this from happening. I'm looking forward to the England NZ clash tomorrow morning early. Lets hope that the Black Caps klap the poms hard.

You must really not like the guy. I feel for the 2 kids who will most likely have a mommy in Ireland and a daddy in SA. They will only know their dad through the eyes of the media and by the insensitive comments of us keyboard ninjas.

I trust my 2 with my life. It grates my chops when uninformed people refer to farm mixed breeds as Boerboels.

Ok, so far everything (well most things) have gone according to the script. Aus and NZ put down serious markers and dispelled any thoughts of an early upset, SA avoided a speed wobble against a fiery Zim side with some proper batting, India showed why they will go a long way in this tournament and WI underperformed miserably to give Ireland a well-deserved win, reminding the other contenders in group B that they will have to play full strength sides against the smaller cricketing nations and play well at that. England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan will not go into panic mode yet, but will have to play extra well in the qualifiers. WI will be lucky to progress to the next round at this rate, The top sides will look at Net Run Rate early and try and create a margin of safety should there be weather affecting matches that they would have banked on winning. SA's match against India is going to be telling. It seems like SA would have been better served to have a triangular series with Ireland and Zim, opposed to a 5 match series against WI who today showed just how poor they have been all season.

Best buddies

Well done Stormers. An away win against a confident Bulls side. The SA conference promises to be a tight affair.

I am actually very happy that the Kiwi's gave us a bit of a skrik today. A run-a-ball 100 from # and 4 for 40 from Dale would definitely changed the game, but that is neither here nor there right now. NZ at home is as dangerous as any of the top 3 sides and people that does not recognize this may well be in for a big surprise. They are a bunch of street fighters and they all try to pitch in. They all got into double figures and the highest score was 66. If they lost the game they would have been criticized for all getting starts and then throwing it away. While not seeing the game, I would think that we could definitely pick up the intensity and hopefully we do not under estimate the likes of Zim, Ireland or the UAE. One exceptional performer from the opposition, a few loose deliveries, dropped chances and one or 2 soft dismissals in our innings and its game on.

I guess a MAMPAR is a rather big and wild MAMPARRA?

A reasonable warm-up for the boys this morning. I would have liked a full game to see whether we could absorb the pressure in the last 10 overs. We got 2 wickets just before we came off for rain and went at 8,17 per over from overs 40 until we went off for rain. As things were, we had to chase down a revised target, something that probably suited Sri Lanka more than us. We were comfortable half way through with 116 after 15 overs, but a few quick wickets in succession and some good bowling from Herath in particular saw us chasing 10 an over towards the end. The unlikely hero was the Vern with 13 off 6 when it was needed most. It is still early days, but if a player like the Vern can become our "20 off 10" guy, it would add a great dimension to the side. It was nice to see us absorb some pressure and come through it with a win. In games like these you take away much more from a 3-ball win opposed to a 30-ball win.

Joey 1 Ball 0

Phoebe always have to lean against something when she is laying down.

Joey doing his rounds collecting kisses.

Its quite disgusting. I am a little ashamed of my beloved WP this morning. If someone cheats, don't protect them with fuzzy statements, tell them in front of everyone where to get off.

Its quite disgusting. I am a little ashamed of my beloved WP this morning. If someone cheats, don't protect them with fuzzy statements, tell them in front of everyone where to get off.

With an average of just under 35 and a strike rate of around 85 he'll find a spot in any other team bar perhaps Aus and India. Its good to see Rossouw hitting some form. It will give him a huge boost. Like Faf he's been up and down the order making it difficult to settle.

I have never got the feeling that Parnell is up to international standard. His batting technique is limited and his bowling is ill disciplined (that is putting it lightly). With JK I always had that feeling as he had a presence (QdK gave me that same feeling before he made it into the Proteas setup). A true All Rounder should nail down a spot in the side as either a batsman or a bowler in his own right. Parnell does neither well enough to be there, nor does Behardien. The difference is that Behardien has shown consistent form in the domestic scene in the last 2 or 3 seasons, but seems to struggle with the step up. He bats a bit higher up domestically, but there is no room at the top of the order for him. I certainly would not want to drop AB, Miller or JP down the order to accommodate him. I would much rather play Phangiso or Abbott, with an extra batsman (Rossouw by default). Ontong would probably have been a better fit to bat at 7 or 8 opposed to Behardien and it would have ticked the politically correct boxes too.

A few went through the keepers legs as byes , and sometimes the spinners take a chance on a wide to try and get a stumping. Front foot no-balls needs to be looked at as this is unforgivable, we only conceded one of those.14 wides are probably 7 too many.