South Africa charred the Windies.
De Villiers!!!! That guy is out of this world, really. The Best player playing the game now!

Australia in crisis

Not sure about them being favourites anymore. They will obviously qualify and go far. But NZ have surprised me.

WHAT A MATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Breathe
Breathe
Breathe
Starc
Such a shame he was the only bowler who had it today for Australia.

Easy to see that the lack of competitive action for Australia cost them today. Because it was all on the batting that they lost it. And I didn't watch their innings, but what I heard from the commentators were that NZ didn't really swung it all over the place that much, it was pretty much the amount of bowls that caught out Aus. They'll surely roll back. Also what was important today is that they took the match down to the wire in terms of wickets to spare, so that NZ doesn't get any sort of mental edge that might help them if they were to face each other again in the latter stages of the tournament.

Brilliant entertainment at the end. Mitchy Starcy

Lumiere_Blanche wrote:

El Gunner wrote:

Beautiful Football wrote:New Zealand Just destroyed England. Serious Human Right Violation from Southee and McCullum.

NZ stand a chance alone by having McCullum, Southee and Corey Anderson in their team.

and Kane Williamson. The kid's class.

Becoming a huge fan of this lad.
And wtf is Ross Taylor doing in that middle order of NZ ? Such a waste of space. Should replace him asap.
Great Game nevertheless.

woaa and this !
Mitchell Johnson 6-1-68-0
Mitchell Starc 9-0-28-6

I am following the CWC only for Star Sports India ads

holy shit, I did not expect it to run that close

changed my mind about Australia again.

RealGunner wrote:holy shit, I did not expect it to run that close

changed my mind about Australia again.

Wow, talk about fickle

Seriously, breh, I thin it was the lack of match time. Before today their last competitive game was 2 weeks ago.

England are horrible

It's always one thing or another with this England team. I can't remember the last game where they did everything well.

They've posted 300+ scores twice but only successfully defended against Scotland, the only team in the tournament worse than England are right now. In every other game - against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka - the bowling has been a big steaming pile of crap. Anderson and Broad, by far and away our best bowlers, have taken about three wickets between them all tournament. Finn and Woakes are clearly not capable of carrying the attack on their own. If the ball isn't swinging, the attack is pretty much useless and apart from the spin from Root and Ali there's no variation there. Bopara is the only player in the whole squad who can bowl decent medium pace but he's out of form with the bat.

The battling line-up isn't even that bad. A bit inconsistent but it's a fairly young line-up so that's expected. Ballance has done eff all at three so Bopara or Hales should come in; at least they're more aggressive players who'll score runs. I like the middle order of Root, Taylor and Buttler - probably the three most exciting batsmen in English cricket right now.

The hilarious thing about this tournament, though, is that England can still qualify for the quarter-finals so long as they beat Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

And as things/trends stand right now, England will face India then

Its cool we are reking everyone. Atleast we are WC at one sport.

James Faulkner is priceless
There's a reason why he is my fave cricketer atm.

England sent packing by Bangladesh.

Can always count on us to embarrass ourselves at a World Cup, no matter the sport.

England cricket are stuck in the 90s when it comes to ODIs at least.
Their only batsmen who can play the game the way the other teams play right now are Hales, KP and Buttler. They bat the 1st out of position, freezes the 2nd from the squad and gives the 3rd way too little time to bat. Need an overhaul. Make Root the captain and start from scratch.

Bangladesh.

Hey RG

Mole

Jay

MT

Lex

and everyone else

BOW DOWN TO YOUR OVERLORD TIGERS

M99

Unbelievable.

The World Cup will be better with Bangladesh and Ireland as well, hopefully.

Lumiere_Blanche wrote:England cricket are stuck in the 90s when it comes to ODIs at least.
Their only batsmen who can play the game the way the other teams play right now are Hales, KP and Buttler. They bat the 1st out of position, freezes the 2nd from the squad and gives the 3rd way too little time to bat. Need an overhaul. Make Root the captain and start from scratch.

Bangladesh.

For whatever reason, Hales has been in and out the team for a couple of years now and they won't give him a consistent run. Somehow they thought Ballance at three was a better option than Bell or Ali at three and Hales opening. Ballance is a decent test player but his style of cricket doesn't seem suited to one-day cricket, similar to how Cook's style just isn't suited to one-days.

They see Buttler as a finisher for the last 5-10 overs which is stupid considering he can do so much more with more time to bat. This guy isn't just some power hitter. He can build an innings as well as score consistently.

It just seems that the selectors and coaching staff just hasn't grasped what modern ODI cricket is like. Teams are seeing 350 as a par score now on good pitches; there have been three scores of 400+ in this WC. You can't envisage England ever getting anywhere close to that amount.

So we got the semis we wanted.
NZ vs SA
Aus vs India

I thought I wanted NZ to beat the shit out of SA, but now I'm not so sure anymore

South Africa ends tonight I guess.

Oh man! Feeling devastated for SA. For once why the bleep luck is not shining for them. Its always the opposite when it comes to SA. 218-3 after 38 and viola, no surprises. Bloody effing rain! If it hadn't the Proteas could have easily got in the excess of 350.
Poor team selection not helping them either.

Anyway credit to NZ for pulling it off. What a team they are looking like.

Should still be able to defend 293 in 43 overs.

Chokers gonna choke choke choke!!!!!!!!
AB had a brilliant chance to run out Corey earlier in his 50 knock. Two SA fielders ran into each other when they could have caught Elliott.
Steyn "the best bowler in the world" was RAPED!!!!

Hahahahahah, gotta love SA. Never disappoint for the lulz.
Now it's just up to Aus to set up the dream final.

That was one of the best ODI matches I have ever seen.

I've got to say SA completely balls that up. Team selection all wrong. Abbott should have played ahead of Philander and should have taken an extra bowler instead of putting pressure on Duiminy/AB to get through 10 overs. Would have provided a bit more options when Steyn is getting raped.

I didn't think the rain affected the game too much. 298 was a very defendable total. Steyn was the worst player for SA IMO. For supposedly one of the best bowlers in the world, he cost them the game.

Unfortunately couldn't get to the game due to work. Would have loved to have been there.

El Gunner wrote:Should still be able to defend 293 in 43 overs.

Chokers gonna choke choke choke!!!!!!!!
AB had a brilliant chance to run out Corey earlier in his 50 knock. Two SA fielders ran into each other when they could have caught Elliott.
Steyn "the best bowler in the world" was RAPED!!!!

Hahahahahah, gotta love SA. Never disappoint for the lulz.
Now it's just up to Aus to set up the dream final.

you know, being fiercely competitive and all is good thing, but sometimes you Australians need to show some compassion for your opponents. No wonder it was Australia of all teams that have the biggest ever victory in football, 31-0 thrashing over a poor and hapless American Samoa. Sportsmanship is also important mate.

Otherwise How can you call that performance by SA today as choking. It was NZ's game to be won with the kind of batsmen they had in their ranks and most importantly the shorter boundaries in NZ. You guys say 298 is defendabale.
Well its not, not at least here in this ground. And moreover The shorter the game the whole dynamics of run chase gets tilted in the favor of the batting side. Otherwise why in T20 teams chase 8 an over targets easily and in ODIs the same they simply fail to. 293 in 43 overs is easy than say a 300 in 50 overs. Its the way cricket works.
And yet despite all the odds against them, with one of their frontline bowlers gone out injured and shitty shitty luck, they took the game to the 2nd last ball. Otherwise how much is the chance normally of a fielder of the quality of AB missing crucial run out chances and failing to stop a 4. It was bleep luck on play today again that undid them.

How can you say it is not defendable?

For the supposed best bowling attack in the world that should have been enough runs to work with. If you just ball the right line and length, take your chances, field well and stay on top of the game pressure, that would have been enough.

It's not about being too hard lol, you don't know the sort of noise these SA pos make when it comes to their sport. FFS the arrogance and fronting when they win at something is unbelievable. I will always have a laugh when they fail/come up short. And that was a choke alright. They didn't stay composed enough. If they had more composure they could have had two run outs (don't forget the De Kock one.) Steyn always tries to go too hard at the batsman because he is over emotional, when reasonable bowling in correlation with game assessment from his part would have been the better option then just steaming in like a madman. He could have been more economical and chipped in with a wicket here or there if he did that. And another small example of how they couldn't handle the pressure was when AB tried to dive on to the ball but completely missed it and that was after he stopped it initially from going for a 4.
If you can't handle the pressure and stay in control of your emotions it is equals as a choke.