double post
When I played cricket (always nominally limited overs, though often neither side was remotely likely to bat through 40/50 overs), I would either open, batting right handed, or bat at 7-9 batting left handed.
In 20/25 over matches (second XI) I would open batting left
I’m right handed in every other way, but I could tonk it over the on-side as a lefty with a lot more power. Couldn’t drive the ball through the off side at all though.
Given that many batsmen who bat left handed are actually right handed, surely if there was that much of an advantage you’d expect most players to bat left handed…?
I imagine it’s pretty hard to switch, so not everyone can do it.
Meanwhile the UAE and Afghanistan got absolutely smashed by Pakistan and Australia.
Scotland and Bangladesh hopefully shouldn’t be as one sided.
Looking good so far.
Scotland 8/318.
Bangladesh after 15 are 1/91.
Game on … go you Scotties
Scotland 318/8 (50 ov)
Bangladesh 322/4 (48.1/50 ov)
Bangladesh won by 6 wickets (with 11 balls remaining)
Bugger.
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Meanwhile the UAE and Afghanistan got absolutely smashed by Pakistan and Australia.
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Someone needs to check out Nasir Jamshed’s Cloud. He has to have compromising pictures of Waqar Younis in there. Only reason I can think he is still being picked.
Following last night’s result, match abandoned between Bangladesh and England in Adelaide more than likely eliminates England (I assume Oz will get the points required to not be overhauled by England). Forecast (according to Cricinfo’s little graphic next to the fixture on their list) is for rain.
I am actually in a slightly unusual position of hoping for rain to save England - just not from a match situation but from our own side. Maybe then we will overhaul our pitiful selection, coaching and tactics.
I have a question regarding the TV graphics: after each ball is bowled, a reading appears on the screen that says BV up/down by some percentage. Does anybody know what BV stands for? Ball Velocity perhaps?
Ball velocity is usually just shown as an absolute speed, rather than a percentage relative to the previous ball or whatever. I can’t think of anything that BV could be offhand.
A quick google suggests that a lot of other people are confused as well, but the consensus seems to be that it’s for “Bounce Variation”, an indication of how much the bounce has varied for that particular delivery compared to home conditions.
The forecast is actually for a shower or two, most likely in the morning. Given that it hasn’t rained in Adelaide for almost two months, I wouldn’t hold my breath for a match-abandoning downpour.
Besides, it sounds like Kevin Pietersen will be playing for England again soon; maybe he can get into the side to play Bangladesh and inspire a win.
Cumbrian, I can’t follow your post- when was the match between England and Bangladesh abandoned in Adelaide? The Australia/ Bangladesh match in Brisbane was abandoned.
Yeah - it’s not clearly written.
Parsing:
A) Following the previous night’s result (a Bangladesh win over Scotland);
B) If the result in Adelaide between England and Bangladesh is Match Abandoned, England go out. They will have one game left (against Afghanistan) and be three points behind Bangladesh following their win against the Scots, so can’t make up the gap;
C) The forecast is for rain - according to Cricinfo - though Artfog is saying that this is not that likely to affect the outcome.
Even if England win against Bangladesh, a match abandoned between Bangladesh and New Zealand in their last match, will leave England with a lot to do (they’ll need to smash both Bangladesh and Afghanistan to boost their RR).
I stand by my hope that this plays out and England fail to qualify. Only humiliation will change their tactics in this form of the game. I don’t trust them to lose to Bangladesh though, so a rain out seems safest to hope for.
Thanks for the clarification. I was listening to the racing forecast in Adelaide tomorrow and they said there could be a shower and it would make no difference at all to the grounds as they are so dry. I wouldn’t hang out for rain in Adelaide.
I was looking at the Pools before and I think it will be difficult to qualify- would this be the earliest they have exited (even allowing for different qualifying conditions).
I think England have been probably the biggest disappointment for me in the tournament. They have a lot of experience but the bowlers have looked innocuous. Anderson really must be near the end of his career.
However, other disappointments as well. Windies were poor batting again tonight. When their opening batsman averages about 20 I guess you have worries.
I am looking forward to the Sri Lanka/ Australia game on Sunday. I think it will decide who places 2nd in the A pool behind NZ.
Well, India are keeping it interesting: 63/3 with only Kohli breaking double-figures so far. WI seem to be bowling really well - going for just 4.23 an over.
(Earlier, I was going to suggest that India were demonstrating a new strategy to complement the “bat first get 300/350/400” approach: bowl first, get them out for <200 and cruise. Might hold back on that one just now.)
It’s not quite as humiliating as 1999 - we failed to qualify from the group stages into the Super Six round then, losing out to Zimbabwe for the final qualifying spot, so this would be joint earliest we’re gone home (I’m acting like they’re going to go home, win these two remaining games and they’ll probably qualify, unless NZ drop it against Bangladesh). Zimbabwe were better than they are now back in 1999, but England were at home for that World Cup, so failure to qualify then was pretty terrible. That was the nadir from which Fletcher and Hussain started to turn us round though (around the same time, we were bottom of the Test match rankings as well).
There’s been some interesting analysis written up here about how Broad and Anderson have not been able to swing it. Apparently, it coincides with us dropping Bopara - ever since they’ve just bowled gun barrel straight. There might be something in that but I think it more likely that Anderson is shot (he’s never been consistently right since we bowled him into the ground to with the Trent Bridge Test in the last Ashes) and Broad is not yet all the way back from injury, so is out of form.
I’m not really disappointed in the England team. They’re badly selected, coached and have a poor grasp of tactics required to win ODI games in the modern age. There’s some talent in England for ODI cricket - just most of it isn’t in the team. Alex Hales and Jason Roy should be opening. Mo Ali should be in the finisher role. Stokes should be in the team. So should Liam Plunkett and James Tredwell. All of this stuff is obvious to anyone whose paying half attention to the England team, which tells me our selectors are not really paying that much attention to what is going on.
Aus/SL will be a good game I think but Aus will win reasonably handily. The best game of the World Cup was their game against NZ and even though they batted brainlessly, they proved that they have the firepower with the bowling to make almost any total competitive. Their bowling versus Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Mathews should be a good watch.
India now 4 down, so it is interesting.
Nice summary Cumbrian.
It was awful batting against NZ- as though they had never seen swing bowling before- and I think bad captaincy keeping Johnson bowling. Anyway that is done and dusted. I have been trying to work out who will play who given the probable quarter finalists but it gets too difficult.
Dhoni came in and made it look easy, much like Holder had done earlier for the West Indies, in fact, to raise their score to something less embarrassing.
I’m happy that India have won, though, because it very much keeps Irish hopes alive.
I suspect the Irish, Pakistan match will be more or less a pre QF. Unless Pakistan win tommorrow, (ha!) in which case, Ireland have a mountain to climb.
Who is the guaranteed Semi Finlaist in Pool A, aka the team which plays SA in the QF.
Looking at the fixtures, I suspect you’re right. There’s 3 teams chasing 2 spots here, the WI, Pakistan and Ireland. Of these, Ireland and Pakistan have yet to play each other. Pakistan have to face off against the very strong SA side as well. The WI have a bit of a gizzit against the UAE, meaning they should finish on 6 points. If Pak loses to SA and beats Ireland, they will end up on 6 points.
Ireland have 3 games to go - the one against Ireland, one against India that they will struggle to compete in, and one against Zimbabwe. If they lose to India and beat Zimbabwe - not an unlikely scenario - that will leave 3 teams on 6 points going into the NRR blender. If Ireland beat Zimbabwe and Pakistan - an only slightly less unlikely scenario - they will go through and Pakistan will be going home.
SA themselves have to play Pak and the UAE - hard to see them losing both of those, so they should be safe. India are through - possibly a chance for Ireland to steal a win against an unmotivated team? (no). If Ireland can win any two of their remaining 3 games they will go through, and if they can win 1 they have a chance, even losing to Pakistan. Pakistan need to win against Ireland or SA.
In the other group, the analysis is a touch more difficult because of the draw between Bangladesh and Australia. I do know it doesn’t look good for England, though, because they can win all their remaining games and still not qualify. Those remaining games are against Bangladesh and Afghanistan, so it’s not unreasonable to expect England to win both, but Eng have been shockingly awful so far. The only slight ray of hope for England is that if they finish 4th, it looks like they may well be facing India in the quarters, who they beat repeatedly in the tri-series warmup. But that seems a long time ago now.