cricket world cup

Fez · Post by **Fez** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:20 pm

i had low hopes for england going into this tournament and wouldn't you know it they've proved me right. vaugh couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo, after every match 'we've got to improve the runs at the top of the order' - that's you, cretin, hit the bloody ball not the wickets! flintoff/strauss = crap, thank god bell and petersen know what that white thing hurtling down the pitch is when they see it. boparte looks good too and he's only played for us twice!

we were awful in the group stages, though defeat to new zealand was inevitable, barely beat ireland who don't even have a proper test team, but the defeat against sri lanka was painfully close. the australians would have beaten us if we had two days to bat and prospects don't look good against south africa either.

thankfully, bangledesh have upset the table a bit and i'm still banking on sri lanka going into the semis, but its still got to come down to australia, new zealand or south africa for the title and i have a feeling it could be the team in black.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 4:03 pm

We were horrendous against Australia and if it hadn't been for some good batting by Bell and some dodgy fielding against Pietersen (he was dropped three times, two were dollys!) then I feel we would have been completely trounced. Having watched virtually the whole match I have to concur with you that Vaughan is virtually clueless at ODIs and is a much better Test captain.

Bopara does look good. So does Nixon. Anderson has been crap again. I'm not even going to bother commenting about Ed Joyce. Flintoff has been shocking with the bat but decent with the ball.

I admit that New Zealand look good but I just wonder if they will choke at the final stages - Australia have some vastly experienced players and Glenn McGrath will be wanting to go out on a high so he will be pumped up for it.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 9:04 am

After yesterdays shambolic captaining, I have a feeling that Lara will soon be out of the West Indies side. Was it me or did he just forget that they still had a third power-play?

Fez · Post by **Fez** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 3:02 pm

i think it was aggers who said during the highlights that lara is a great player but a poor leader, and the same could be said for vaugh as well. if the pressure is affecting his play take the captaincy off him so he can concentrate on getting runs - vaugh has averaged 14 runs per game and lara hasn't set the world on fire either. again as aggers said, if he wasn't the captain he wouldn't be on the team on current form

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 10:25 pm

Today I watched virtually the entire match and I was encouraged by the fact that we managed to bowl Bangladesh out for a relatively small total. However, it could have been smaller. Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton were going almost apoplectic because the English bowlers had got Bangladesh to 50-5(something like) and then changed their bowling style and allowed them to wrack up a decent total from that situation.

I won't even bother to give a detailed account of our batting performance other that this - shite.
Vaughan looked like he was in for the long haul and then....... isn't.
Strauss - is this the same guy that used to knock up hundreds and talked about as a possible FEC?
I know we've missed Trescothick but my goodness, Marcus, if you're half-fit or have half-an-arm we'd take you back now!

I don't know what the highlights will show but they should include Ian Bothams appraisal when we went 23 balls without scoring a run at 135-6 ''This has been the lowest point of the English World Cup for me and lets face it, there's been a lot of them.''
For a day that started out so positively, I have to agree with him.

Fez · Post by **Fez** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 12:45 am

poor show for me and the prospects against south africa suggest a real battering

Fez · Post by **Fez** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:54 pm

...and the prediction was right. england took a humiliating battering, every weakness in the team was exposed and south africa demonstrated why they are the best one day team in the world and england are lacking so far behind it was painful to watch. awful - heads have got to roll for this

Fez · Post by **Fez** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 1:13 pm

after two months of cricket the final was a disappointment and a bit of a farce. reducing the overs because of the weather was the early warning sign, and the sri lanka that turned out against australia was not the same side that so comprehensively beat new zealand. poor fielding verses the best batting team in the world was never going to be pretty, and the sri lanka's run chase didn't have the energy. but the end of the match, this farce of the stewards bringing on the podium for the trophy presentation when the match wasn't officially over, just highlights what a poorly organised event this was, not helped by the arrogance of the icc that everything would magically work itself out if nothing was done.

far too long, too many games, one sided matches, half empty stadiums, awful performances by england, india, pakistan and the hosts the west indies, was further marred by a predicatble eventual winner and organising from noddy's big book of official cock ups. and what are the icc saying? it'll be better in four years for the next tournement - they've said that since 1992.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:45 pm

in truth it was a huge shambles.

Ian Botham's comments regarding it were very honest and he was damning in his account of what was happening.