healer

First of all, we need a show of hands as to who actually watches/follows cricket. I know there aren't many on the board, but if you're a fan of the game please make yourself heard.

As for WC'07, I honestly have no idea who's going to win this thing. I'd like South Africa to win, and with them recently named no.1 ODI team in the world, I've got some high hopes.

So how about it - any predictions, hopes, thoughts? I know the Aussies and the Poms have been mouthing off about their chances (and I know we have quite a few on the board), so I'd like to hear from you folks.

Oh, and keep the team-bashing civil - we all know the Indians can't field worth a damn, but that doesn't mean we have to go saying it to their faces.

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DJ Happy

Yes. Cricket is Life.

I too hope SA can put their past WC demons behind them, but their performance in last night's warm-up against Ireland wasn't the best of omens. And the fact that we have a couple of quota players in the squad means we can't afford any injuries in our first choice XI. Aus is still the team to beat though, despite their current 5 game losing streak.

healer

I missed the warm-up game, but looking at the results is not filling me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. At least Andrew Hall is putting his hand up - I hope he's a starter once the pool games start.

I think the SA vs Aus game will tell alot about both teams' mindset, especially since they're my choice for the final.

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spindles

Actually, we beat zimbabwe overnight, so we are on a one game winning streak
Strange line up - Oz played 6 bowlers (given 2 squad injuries and Gilly still in transit, I guess we picked what we had available). Actually looked like a 12 man lineup, so not really a proper ODI - maybe we are still on a losing streak

Aussies chances for the tournament rest on the return of Symonds from injury. With he, ponting and clarke missing from the NZ trip our fielding looked rather pedestrian. I think we are unlikely to get beaten after posting big totals in WI like we did in NZ.

Favourites? probably Oz and SA. I don't think England really have turned a corner ~ more that Oz was dropping off at the end of our summer...

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DJ Happy

The other warm-up games are providing interesting clues as to the state of the pitches, all of which have been relaid and are pretty much an unknown quantity. It seems early wickets are the norm, with NZ being reduced to 75/6 before losing to Bangladesh (!), Pakistan hobbling to 66/4 against Canada before staging a recovery, and India limping to 62/3 against the Netherlands before regaining their composure and giving them a good thumping.

I didn't see SA's game against Ireland, but reports say the pitch was slow and rather low, which could've accounted for the high number of batsmen getting bowled. Anyway, Ireland are a decent team and have beaten the Windies before, chasing down 292 in the process.

Sorry spindles, but your 5 game losing streak still stands! The warm-ups aren't even List A games, never mind ODIs, as all teams can field 13 players (11 bat, 11 field). Aus only had 12 available though.

spindles

yep the 9.30am kick off time for games is certainly going to provide a lot of early assistance for the bowlers.

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healer

Luckily, the games will all be starting around 15:30 our time. You have no idea how much it sucks to wake up at 2AM to watch a cricket match.

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mykockle

I recently got back into cricket being removed from it for about 10 years. I grew up in the UK, and up until very recently had no avenues to watch it here in Denver, CO. My first match in about 10 years was the recent Twenty20 between the Aussies and England. I'm slowly trying to get back into it in prep for the WC this year, but I'm not sure on the viewing options I will have.

highthief

Well done Windies. Glad to see them open up with a win over Pak.

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aKula

Another follower of cricket here! I think Australia's losing streak is officially ended now. Though unofficially it will only end if we beat South Africa.

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spindles

It is either a losing streak or it isn't - not our fault we play two minnows before SA.

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healer

From the way the Australians played yesterday, I'm hoping to see similar batting displays from SA. The pitch at St. Kitts seems to be slower, providing more assistance to the batsmen than the bowlers, which means the quicks will have to bring their A game.

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spindles

It seems like Zimbabwe dropped the bundle this morning - and ended with a tie with Ireland. Reading the commentary on cricinfo, seemed like a real nailbiting finish. Ireland great bowling at the finish - 10 runs needed to win off three overs, 4 wickets in hand for Zimbabwe - 4/9 off the last 4 overs.

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Grey2000

DJ Happy -

A Gazz-fan here ? On TFP well stone me if that ain't the most amazing thing.

You are a wise and insightful fella make no mistake.

healer

spindles, I watched the last half hour of that Zim-Ireland game with an open mouth. I couldn't believe they let the game get away from them like that. But great bowling from the Irish and some really Alan-Donald-like running between the wickets from Zim gave the boys in green a draw, only the 3rd draw in WC history. Incidentally, the other 2 both involved SA...go figure.
Gazzer was the shit.

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spindles

The big news today has nothing to do with on field activities. Bob Woolmer - coach of Pakistan has been found unconscious in his room and later died in hospital. Tragic episode in Pakistan's terrible world cup (having been bundled out of the tournament by Ireland). A tragedy - he seemed to have been well respected. RIP.

and also the dropping of 'Freddy' Flintoff for imbibing one to many lagers and sinking a boat. Really depends how serious England are, but being dropped for a game against Canada is not the same as being dropped from a game against a stronger team. I guess we will see whether he stays out of favour...

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Laugh-O-Matic

The death of Bob Woolmer was a bigger shock than India losing out to Bangladesh.

spindles

It is a bigger shock now that the Jamaican police are treating it as a murder investigation. Someone (or more than one) takes their sport way to seriously

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highthief

This is nuts.

It must have been someone close to him. Killing someone via manual strangulation strikes me as personal, you know? If someone was "hitting" him for match fixing or something, they'd more likely shoot him or stab him. Not like weapons are hard to come by in Jamaica.

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healer

If I were a Pakistan team player, I'd be scared shitless. First they got fingerprinted, and now DNA sampling of every team member before they go back home. Good grief.

The police are apparently leaning towards the thinking that it was more than one person, seeing as how Bob was such a big guy. And the fact that there were no signs of forced entry just makes me think that it was someone who he knew.

I still don't get the strangulation thing though. Why?

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highthief

It seems very spur of the moment, an emotional reaction, but who knows how it may be viewed in Pakistan. To a western perception, it is an emotional, spontaneous way of killing someone.

The Jamaican police are right though - Woolmer is a very big guy and strangling someone with bare hands is a very hard thing to do, physically. A man might strangle a female victim where there is a big size discrepancy, but Woolmer must've weighed in at 250 at least.

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spindles

Maybe we could discuss the cricket??

Good win by the Aussies yesterday. Maybe the bowling isn't as bad as I thought, though it helps having 377 to defend.

I saw on another Board that people didn't think Kallis was particularly good as a one day player - and I think that was shown yesterday. While he is a good batsman, he just doesn't seem to be able to go hard when necessary. SA were really in the contest until the run out of DeVilliers.

Congrats to Hayden - fastest hundred in World Cup history - 66 balls and really carried on by Ponting and Clarke.

And finally good to see Andrew Symonds return to the field - Aussies look a much better team with him playing (though gotta feel for Hodge - century in last start and dropped).

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BlackKittyKat

SA cricket fan over here.....

I hope SA wins this world cup.

The match against Sri Lanka the other day was a nail biter towards the end just when we all thought South Africa had it in the bag Malinga get our guys out 4 times in a row WOW that was amazing.

But we won and that put us back on the table.

Well lets see how we do against Ireland on Tuesday.

Laugh-O-Matic

I wonder why newbies like Bermuda, Netherlands, canada and Ireland have been selected for the WC.

healer

That's a good question - how were the teams participating in the WC chosen? Was it based on world rankings? WC qualifiers?

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Laugh-O-Matic

I hope it wasn't to a feeble attempt at making Cricket more popular.

highthief

The test-playing nations qualify automatically, while the other nations as mentioned go through a qualifying process. As Ireland evidenced, anyone on their day can beat virtually anyone else in this format.

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healer

Thanks, highthief.

So we're a good ways through the Super 8's and already the teams from down under are putting their hands up in a big way. The Aussies look good all-round, with good batting performances from their openers and top bowling backing them up. The Kiwis gave the Bangs (is that right?) a good lashing yesterday and they're looking a lot better than I expected.

Today SA are playing Ireland which, most would think, would be an easy game for SA to win. The Irish are apparently in high spirits after SA narrowly beat Sri Lanka last week, thinking that if they put the squeeze on SA'll crack like they tend to do. I'll be watching the game closely.

Right now I predict SA, NZ, Aus and England in the semi's.

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fatbob

The Kiwi's are looking amazing i reckon but healer i think i'd disagree with your semi's prediction, i can see sri lanka taking the 4th place ahead of england...

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spindles

I'm with fatbob on this. England came into the super eights a step off the pace (coming second in their pool). While not an insurmountable obstacle, they would have to beat two of the teams mentioned to make it to the semis, or have other results go their way.

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healer

SA loses to Bangladesh. Banglafuckingdesh!!

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spindles

welcome to the club of teams beaten by Bangladesh. They are not a bad side. At least you haven't lost to Ireland - that would be embarrassing

Oz winning run at world cups is just going on and on. Last loss in a WC was to Pakistan in 1999.

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spindles

well, SA got back on track for the semis - and in doing so have all but knocked out the host team. So me and fatbob really look like we know what we are talking about now

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Laugh-O-Matic

I really liked Pietersen's batting. Pity they still lost to NZ. Flintoff brightened things up, and the drunk fans did their bit too.

@healer, Sri Lanka stand a good chance of the semis too.

Can't believe they beat India.

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With those eyes of vacant blue;
You'll be very sorry, Florrie
If I marry you.
Though I'm easy-goin', Florrie,
This I swear is true,
I'll throw you down a quarry, Florrie,
If I marry you. - Saki.

spindles

Well, the semis are finally here after the longest tournament in sporting history. Is anyone still awake?

Sri Lanka vs New Zealand
I think this will be close - though there seems to be a lot of support for Sri Lanka. I think this will come down to who is up that day - both teams can be world beaters on their day. I'm backing NZ in a close finish.

Australia vs South Africa
Oz has the form on the board - 20 (i think) world cup games without a loss. The return of Watson certainly makes the side look more balanced. An easy win to the Aussies (did you expect anything else from me )

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healer

You realize I can't just let that go, right?

So much for the NZ vs Sri Lanka game being close. I was expecting a shitload more from Fleming and his men. That said, Sri Lanka did everything right and deserve their place in the final. Jayawardene made all the right moves (and got a little bit lucky) and the matchup between them and SA in the final should be a good one.

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spindles

I get to stand by my original comment of an easy win. I only saw the first few balls of the SA innings, but thought there was a lot of movement - really surprised at how attacking the SA batsmen were. Gibbs and Kemp showed that it was quite possible to make runs (though against an older ball this may have been a little easier).

With around 20 overs to spare, Oz had a lot of ammo left...

Funnily - I heard Gilly interviewed on a local (Sydney) radio station. He said he feels like a baseball 'bunter' - throwing his wicket away to let the good batsmen come in. Hopefully, he will bring his A game on saturday.

My only regret? My 9 month old son picking the innings break to scream for 1/2 hour. I little later and I would've got to watch more than the end of the SA innings and Gilly getting out


PS and I stand corrected about NZ - they are rubbish

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Jimellow

Is there any cricket coverage online, whether it be via torrents or live web streams?

It's a game I've never seen played, or understood, but it remains intriguing to me.

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spindles

there are certainly torrents available - search for cricket world cup 2007 - though the ones I found quickly are group game highlights only. pm me if you want more detailed directions.

There are some clips on youtube, though what exactly they all are I cannot tell you.

The site I use most for my information is:
http://www.cricinfo.com/
This site has live text description - which is usually enough for me when I'm not actually watching cricket.

I'm really not too interested in streaming sites - it is the middle of the night here when games are played and the Oz games are all live on FTA TV, so I can sit in the dark in my lounge room and watch

There are streaming sites like:
http://www.willow.tv/EventMgmt/Default.asp
but it doesn't work in Oz (says my IP address is not valid). This is a pay site though and that might not be your thing...

Obviously our local TV and newspaper coverage in Oz has pretty good coverage. Being defending champs and looking most likely to retain the title might give you an understanding of our interest in cricket

News sites like http://www.smh.com.au and http://www.abc.net.au/cricket are worth a look for their cricket coverage, though these will be pretty Oz centric.

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healer

Man, that game sucked.

I was still at work when the game started. To have to sit a my desk and watch wicket after wicket tumble (via online updates) was excruciating.

That said, my hat's off to the men from Oz. They out-thought the SA team, who played their usual stint of predictable cricket. Add to that some absolutely shocking batting performances, and you have the perfect recipe for a huge anti-climax of a semi-final.

Hopefully the final will be a better game than the semi's. If they get a pitch that takes some turn, Sri Lanka will be in with a good shot at ending the Oz winning streak.

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