The Cricket Thread

And, hello, guys! This is a thread that I started for, well, all those tropers who love, as Tam put it, 'the thwack of leather on willow'. In short, all things cricket!

So, on the 17th, India face Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane for their second Test after managing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at the Adelaide Oval, when we collapsed from 242/3 to 315 all out, 48 runs short of the target. Hopefully we'll give a better display in the next three Tests - I'd hate for a whitewash to happen, even in Australia.

Also, Sri Lanka face England at home in Colombo's R. Premadasa Stadium, in the seventh and final game of the ODI series. Having already clinched the series, the game is a dead rubber, but both Sri Lanka and England will play for pride.

Pakistan lead New Zealand 2-1 in the ODI series held in the UAE, and will clinch the series should they win the next game in Abu Dhabi. But New Zealand are a strong team, and they should be able to fight strongly for the series.

So... enjoy, and let's discuss the game of bat and ball!

Brilliant! Top thread.

Good luck to India. I've always felt India didn't quite fulfill its potential at cricket, but recent years have seen a real improvement.

Sri Lanka are the obvious choice for me, a Scotsman, to support. But England have been poor recently.

Good luck to NZ I suppose. I'd like to see a stronger team from them.

—

So, let's jump off: Greatest cricketers of all time?

I am an Indian. A Mumbaikar, on top of that.

Who do you think I'm gonna put up?

Of course it's the Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar, who else?

Also, Dhoni, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman from India.

Now that my national bias is out of the way:

• Every member of the Australian team who won the World Cup in 2003 and 2007. Gilchrist, Hayden, Ponting, Bevan, Waugh, Waugh, Mc Grath, Lee, Gillespie, Warne, Symonds, Martyn, even the more part-time people like Mc Gill (the other Australian spinner). No team has dominated world cricket like they have. Not even us.
• Jayasuriya, Vaas (no, not that Vaas), Jayawardane, Sangakkara and Muralidharan from Sri Lanka.
• Inzamam, Wasim Akram and Akhtar for Pakistan (yes, even I do not deny it)
• Styris, Cairns, Fleming and Mc Cullum for New Zealand.

England has had a decent team, but no real legends - even Pieterson and Panesar have only barely managed to raise the English game to 'quite good'.

edited 15th Dec '14 7:50:50 AM by arcanephoenix

Oh Inzaman...remember when someone shouted "Aloo" at him and he went apeshit?

Interestingly, that world-class Australian team managed to lose the Ashes to a fairly average England, but hey. No love for Imran Khan, Brian Lara, Don Bradman, Jardine, etc? Mike Gatting was pretty damn good too. Ian Botham. Mark Ramprakash was brilliant at club level but never seemed to be able to work the same magic on the international field.

And, of course, the incomparable Garfield Sobers:

edited 15th Dec '14 8:15:32 AM by Achaemenid

Imran Khan was before my time, I actually forgot about the entire West Indies, and the Don was much more so. I mainly talked about the guys I've seen on TV, because players are, I believe, remembered best with context.

Inzy was a bit of a live-wire, but he mellowed down considerably (and became even rounder) with age. I think Shoaib Akhtar was the bigger hothead of his time, though. And... well...

edited 15th Dec '14 8:21:46 AM by arcanephoenix

One question I have about cricket, and it's bugged me for years. Why are the West Indies side of the present day a sad and forlorn reflection of the time when Sir Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd starred in the side and dominated Test cricket?

What happened? Did the other Test nations just get that much better or is there something more sinister at work behind the scenes to explain them not winning much in recent history?

Bit of both. Economic collapse in the Caribbean and the rise of new sports - football and basketball - have really hammered the Windies. People just aren't as interested in it any more.

edited 15th Dec '14 9:22:45 AM by Achaemenid

A shame, because the West Indies teams I remember from the 80s or so were astoundingly good.

Graham Gooch's 333 at Lord's in 1990 and total score of 456 for the match remains a Test record, so he has to be counted as one of history's greatest batsmen. I watched most of his triple century. A shame he was idiot enough to play in South Africa and flout the boycott. Can't fault the man's ability to sore runs, though; I believe he's still the highest scorer for England ever.

Second test between India and Australia has begun at the Gabba.

India have chosen to bat first and are now 213/3, with Murali Vijay the highlight of the Indian innings with 123 off 193. Double centurion at Adelaide Virat Kohli got out cheaply here, but a decent partnership has begun between Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane.

EDIT: And day one is over, with Vijay out for 144 and Rahane and Rohit Sharma at stumps, with 75 and 26 respectively. India are at 311/4, only the second time that a visiting team have managed to score 300 on the first day of a test match at the Gabba. India have dominated, mostly, and the game is ours to throw away. Or to win, but I'm not particularly optimistic after Adelaide.

edited 17th Dec '14 12:51:51 AM by arcanephoenix

After the third Test between Australia and India, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni announces his retirement from Test Cricket

Dhoni will be missed in Test cricketing circles. After only playing 60-odd Tests, it seems the longest form of the game was not for the man. While he did get India to the No 1 spot in Tests, most victories had been at home, and his away record is woeful. Still, it'll be great to see the man prepare for our defence of the World Cup next year.

The Cricket World Cup starts today in New Zealand and Australia! It's the first World Cup for the Afghan Team, and Scotland is there also, so what could happen?

edited 13th Feb '15 7:37:29 AM by Greenmantle

*chirping*

(Hey, someone had to make that joke. Might as well be me.)

Apologies. I was searching for this thread.

Today was a good day for the joint hosts - New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by slightly under a hundred runs, while Australia hammered England by over 110 runs.

But tomorrow is the big, big fixture, the fixture over a billion people have been waiting for. A fixture that is always passionate and almost always memorable, and the most fierce international rivalry in world cricket.

India face Pakistan at 9 am IST.

Everyone is preparing for this big time - it may still be St Valentine's Day in many parts of the world, but no love is lost between these two sides that are always having an outside chance at the World Cup. India, the defending champions, had defeated Pakistan in the semifinal in 2011, before defeating Sri Lanka in the final.

And so, the finals is upon us. There were a lot of awesome moments, and some disappointing moments. Now all that's left is this question.

Who will win this battle between hosts?

I'd like New Zealand to win, because Australia already got their hands on the title. More than once.

edited 26th Mar '15 6:02:10 PM by Diamite

Most Indians will be rooting for New Zealand, considering the way we were defeated by Australia after an unbeaten streak in the entire tournament thus far. Also, because the Black Caps haven't ever won it.

I'm actually rooting for NZ too. It'll be tough, especially after their first game in the group stages...