Its Summer! - the Fever Cricket Thread. (Part 2)

Glad i got tickets to the semi now. Banked on us finishing top and gaining home advantage for it. Providing we make it of course, imagine what the atmosphere will be like!

No way are the Aussies man for man better than us. Classic game and if we do meet again in the finals we certainly wont want to let the Aussies back into the game the way we did yesterday because i cant see them letting it slip a 2nd time.

Good lol read regarding Ch9:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/feb/13/...

We've been in good form, and this Aussie team isn't as good as they were 10 years ago by any stretch, but they do have a lot of quality players. 

Exactly this. As much as i hate them, Aussie are a quality side. They have world class players with bat and ball. If we meet them again i would not be surprised at another nail-biter, whatever the result.

Really think you guys are under estimating how good the kiwi side is.Frankly prefer our batting lineup to theirs.Would suggest we might have more guys in the ratings if we got to play the number of games they do.

Their batsman's rankings are not really accurate as they have been to scared to face our bowlers in recent times.

Cmon Zimbo.

Some of our players have improved so drastically in a short-ish amount of time that the rankings don't necessarily reflect how good our side is

For example I think Boult is bowling a bit better than his ODI ranking of 56 suggests

How many times have we played Australia of late? Sod all I believe. In fact maybe once since the last World cup?

Last played Australia in June 2013 at the Champions Trophy, before that it was at the 2011 world cup.   The last time in Australia was in February 2009 and in New Zealand it was March 2010. 

Taylor for Zimbos looks a real classy player.

Then he gets out...this will be close I reckon.

Nope.  Stupid Zimbos.

Looked like the Zimbos were gonna cruise in for a bit there! Done now.

Captain's knock here, we may have spoken too soon......

We didn't actualyl play them though did we? Game was rained off from memory.

Man for Man - I think Aussie are a better team at the moment but believe there are inches in it, not miles.

Team v Team - We are the better team. There is no sniff of internal issues that plague Australia at the moment, no player is more important than the other and the overall balance of the Blackcaps team is superior with genuine spinners and all rounders + we are the best fielding team in the world at the moment and that is often the difference in a game.

Verdict - there are players in world cricket who could take a game away from us (Johnson, Sharma, AB, Dilshan, Finn...hahaha - jokes) but if we play to a game plan and take these players out as a factor, we're a top 3 side at the moment.

Was at the game again yesterday. Didn't think we had much chance beforehand but was hopeful after we made 309 which shouldn't be that easy to get. Masterclass from Sri Lanka though and it was never in doubt from the first over, just had to sit there and endure it hoping they might collapse. Batting first and making 300 at least made half the match enjoyable and we at least got to cheer a few times instead of being miserable from the start like last week. Think it was the first time I've seen an England player make a hundred live too so that was cool.

Think that probably means we're out now with Bangladesh getting that unexpected point against Australia. Couple of funny moments from the croud. Early on the guys sitting next to us were talking about work and the middle-aged woman in front of us turned around and shouted at them "I flew thousands of miles to watch the cricket not listen to your business meeting." Didn't catch their reply but they moved seats shortly after and never returned. Later on a guy in the row behind us with an northern English accent and wearing Perth Glory shirt returned to his seat and said to his mate: "Bloody hell it wouldn't stop. Every time I lifted my arse off the seat more came out. Fudgeing arse is on fire"

The ICC have made an absolute balls up of scheduling yet again. A rest day in the middle of the groups ffs? There should be two games every day till the knockouts. No wonder it takes 6 weeks to finish the damn thing. Also rather bizarre how some teams have played four games while others sit on two. Even with odd numbered groups it is strange.

Agreed, it's a mess. At one point, NZ had played 3 games while others had played 1 - not a single sense was made that day.

Yeah the schedule seems ridiculous. It's not like football or rugby where teams a lot of recovery time. There's no reason teams can't play every 2-3 days at least in the group stage. Didn't Ireland play on day 2 and have still only played twice?

A long way in to the comp now and still ages to go. Here's where I think things will end up based on likely(??) results. I think I've got the QF set up right, dates may be a bit mixed.

Note: NZ have already qualified for the QF and are the only team to do so this far due to having played 4 games already.

Group A

1. NZ
2. SL
3. AUS
4. BAN

Group B

1. IND
2. RSA
3. WI
4. IRE

QF would line up as...

18 March - IND vs BAN

19 March - SL vs WI

20 March - AUS vs RSA

21 March - NZ vs IRE

Semis IMO

24 March NZ vs RSA

26 March IND vs SL

Final

29 March ....who knows... I'd like to say NZ vs IND...

Thoughts?

Is pitch availability a reason for it? Imagine it takes a while to prepare a cricket pitch. 

I wouldn't think so as they generally have two usable pitches on each block but not sure if they have more than one drop in available for venues without a block.

Could be, but there should be enough pitches that gaps between games could be shorter without the same pitches being played on every couple of days. Also with many of them being drop in wickets due to the grounds being used for other sports, I wonder how possible it is to have 2 (or more) identical ones so that one can be used while the other is being prepared for the next match. There should be a way of reducing the long gaps between games.

Absolutely there should and the gaps should be even for all where possible.

Generally it's pretty easy to prepare two pitches at once. Lots of games in this tournament are played on a used wicket too so I don't think pitch prep has too much of an effect on scheduling. I'm pretty sure most venues have a week between games and I think that maybe we (Eden Park) and Wellington would have it the toughest given we only have one 'drop in' in at a time. Aussie grounds with 'drop ins' have a full block of them in for their summer so they don't have to worry about doing wicket moves between games. It's not ideal moving a partly prepared pitch. 

Aussie vs Afghanistan...predictions?

This could be the most one sided match in the competition if Aussie bat first and see out what is sure to be a fiery opening spell.

I don't think it will be as lopsided as some might think.  The Afghani's have the best bowling attack of the minnows from what I have seen.

From what I have seen, it will be lopsided.

At 226-1 from 32 overs I think I will admit here that I was wrong.  I really did think they could keep them to around 300. Looking at 450 at this rate.

It's really no fun at all watching these "Associate Member Nations", AKA minnows, get slaughtered by the big boys.

Overall though, I really think most of the associate teams have added something to the tournament. There is a real diversity of cricketing skill and heritage there. 

To be fair if we are talking about lopsided rubbish, England.

I take huge pride in predicting correctly that a HUGE team like Australia would smash a new team like Afghanistan. I'm the ultimate cricket predictor.

There are no limits to Leggy's wisdom

QF tix locked in. Giddy up!

Scotland will never win a World Cup cricket match.

Man, the decline of the Windies is sad :(