20/20 World Cup

[TANGODANCER]

An Australian cricketer sent home for being drunk.

[Little Green Man]

Beaten by a nation most wouldn't even know had heard of cricket, let alone play it...!

Holland have a few first class players these days - Doeschate/Zuiderent/Kervezee - but still, it's pretty embarrasing. Surely someone (Collingwood) ought to have said to Broad (who otherwise bowled a superb last over) 'whatever you do, don't f*ck it up with an over-throw'. It's not as if England haven't done it before, the dozy feckers (a game against New Zealand springs to mind). I bet Strauss is livid ahead of the Ashes.

Having said that - Twenty20 - meh...

[Verbal]

Well, at least I had the two openers in...

[Prufrock]

I don't really get cricket, and certainly don't follow it, but did we just manage to lose to Holland? They don't even play it do they?

[Dujon]

An Australian cricketer sent home for being drunk.

Indeeeeeeed, Sir, the ghosts of the passed would be horrified.

[England v Holland] One can but laugh. I will cry when England are beaten 0-3 in a test series against this team of hard hitting magicians.

[Bruce Rioja]

Beaten by a nation most wouldn't even know had heard of cricket, let alone play it...!

6,000 participants, I beleive. The Dutch are coming I tellz ya, and when they decide that they're doing something they do it properly.

[jmjhb]

That was hilarious, absolutely hilarious. I was finding myself rooting for the Dutch to do it in the end.

So many mistakes in the last few balls it was untrue.

[Verbal]

Great article by Andrew Miller on England's arcane complacency...

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/conten ... 07652.html

What gracious, accommodating, spare-no-blushes hosts England have turned out to be. What a sensational tournament they have just set in motion. Forget the IPL, with its glitz and gaudiness, and beyond-the-boundary's-edge entertainment. All England could do to rescue an evening as dank as their dressing-room was provide a cricketing contest that required no hyperbole. That's exactly what they came up with, conjuring up a humiliation that might even bump Gordon Brown's own meltdown off the front pages of the morning papers. England are dead in the drizzle. Their tournament, however, is soaring through the clouds.

How the game needed a night like this. A perfect capitulation from a host team that, in the accidental admission of the captain Paul Collingwood, took a punt with its selection and fielded a weakened team in anticipation of "a big year ahead of us". What an absurd approach. Not even the prospect of hosting a World Cup - a World Cup! - could shake England out of their arrogant assumption that there's only one contest that counts this summer. Bring on the Ashes? Not on this evidence. Keep them as far away from this contaminated attitude as possible.

The most damning statistic on a sorry evening for the hosts was the sixes count - the most basic indicator of 20-over competence. The Dutch cleared the ropes on four glorious occasions - the pinch-hitting Darron Reekers managed it twice in the first three overs alone - as they followed the orders of their captain, Jeroen Smits, to go down swinging and see what they could do. "I'd rather be 80 all out than 130 for 5," he declared, an attitude that transcended the gulf in status between the sides. The margin of Netherlands' victory was far, far greater than that scampered final run. Victory went to the team that wanted it most, and England, shamefully, barely seemed to want it at all.

"It's pretty hard to take, you call them sides the minnow sides, but today they've thoroughly deserved their victory," said Collingwood. "When you get 160-odd on the board you think you've got enough, but they played with plenty freedom and belief, and they ran better than us between the wickets. The boys are devastated in the dressing-room, but we've got to bounce back, and play a hell of a lot better on Sunday."

Ah yes, Sunday - the real start to England's campaign. Pakistan are the opponents, a daunting team at the best of times, but England may not even get the opportunity to put this debacle behind them. The forecast for the weekend is nigh on apocalyptic, and a wash-out would mean their sorriest World Cup exit yet - yes, worse even than 1999, when they did at least manage to get their opening ceremony underway. But that looming rain-band is all the more reason to question the bewildering complacency England showed in selection, with their two cockiest performers, Kevin Pietersen and Graeme Swann, left on the sidelines to nurse injuries that surely would not have prevented them playing at, say, Cardiff on July 8.

Pietersen's absence was the most unforgivable decision, and when quizzed about his fitness, Collingwood's flustered response spoke volumes. "He woke up this morning very, very sore. It was a surprise to him, and more of a surprise to the rest of us, to be honest. We hope he'll be fit for Sunday, but we're obviously not going to take any major risks, simple as that. He's involved in a big year ahead of us, but this is a must-win game on Sunday, and if he's fit he's playing."

So which is it, Paul? Does Pietersen play through the pain to rescue a World Cup campaign, or does he sit on the sidelines and nurse that Achilles until the Ashes? Even in their hour of desperation, this team cannot bring itself to focus on the present. Too many non-events against a supine West Indies side allowed them to believe they were over the traumas of the past year. And yet, the first side they played this summer who really wanted to beat them was Scotland at Trent Bridge on Wednesday, and - had it not been for Pietersen's soothing half-century - that is almost certainly what Scotland would have done.

If the Dutch took heart from that effort, tonight they added extra soul to create a simple but effective cocktail that left England punch-drunk. "Tonight's performance has surprised a lot of us," said Collingwood. "I thought they were well planned, they stuck to their strengths, and their batting did surprise us. Every time we got a wicket we thought, right, we're on top of them here, but every batsman seemed to score boundaries from ball one. That kind of freedom doesn't come easy. All the players went out and played with that kind of belief, and put us right on the back foot."

Are you serious, Paul? What on earth did England think would happen? Did they honestly believe the Dutch would rock up to what is effectively their home World Cup, and do nothing more than go through the motions? No, there's only one side in the world who would be that deluded. England projected their own misguided prejudices onto their opponents, and found a reflection that was nothing like their preconceptions.

"We played brave cricket tonight," said the Man of the Match, Tom de Grooth, unwittingly echoing Collingwood's pre-series declaration, but doing so in a voice that carried the strength of his convictions. His captain, meanwhile, remained cheekily grounded in his assessment. "I think we played okay," said Smits. "Batting-wise we played up to our capabilities 99%, but in fielding and bowling, there's still room for improvement. We played okay and we're looking forward to our next opposition, that is Pakistan."

England are unlikely to be looking forward to Pakistan with quite the same relish. All their thoughts have turned to sackcloth (and Ashes), and Collingwood, one senses, cannot offload his captaincy burden quickly enough. He was handed the job reluctantly when Andrew Strauss decided to distance himself from this campaign, in what seems in hindsight to have been the shrewdest dereliction of duty imaginable. His orders at the handover would have been simple - maintain our momentum if you can, but at least return my team with some shred of its dignity remaining.

Whoops. Strauss may not be able to lift the ball in the air without picking out long-on, but at least he has a grasp of basic tactics, and can maintain a diplomatic straight face when events go against his men. Sadly for Collingwood, a decent man but a hopeless leader, he has fallen short in every regard. As lugubrious in the build-up as Mike Atherton in his Captain Grumpy heyday, his failure both on and off the field tonight was absolute.

Collingwood's worst decision by far was his reliance on Adil Rashid in those decisive middle overs. Who better to turn to in a crisis than a debutant legspinner, in the rain, with short boundaries? It wasn't that Rashid bowled badly - he did alright in the circumstances, leaking his runs at nine an over. It was that he was bowling at all.

"We were taking a bit of a gamble with Adil today," said Collingwood. "He's not played a lot but we thought that exposure would do him the world of good. Graeme Swann, he knows what he's all about with his offspin and the experience he brings, but a legspinner in Twenty20 cricket is certainly a wicket-taker. I guess we took a bit of a punt on Adil, he bowled exceptionally the other night, and he's certainly a player for the future. Why not put him into a game like this?"

As soon as he said this, Collingwood tried to cram the words back into his mouth, but it was no good, his foot was already wedged firmly in place. "I probably used the wrong word there, if I could take that back I would," he said. "We all know what Adil can do, we've seen what he does in training and he's shown what he can do. We took a gamble on his experience, not on the skills he can produce."

So it's official. This tournament, a global tournament, a direct descendant of the same World Cup that England have failed to win even once in its 34-year history, is nothing more than a knockabout to fill in time and ascertain form before the Ashes begin. Somebody save us from this monstrous delusion. The world is moving forward but England are looking back. And now even the minnows are biting at their heels.

As the long-forgotten Alesha Dixon might have put it, had she been permitted to sing in the rain, "the boys done nothing". On Sunday, if the fates have any decency, England's World Cup journey will come to an end after a pitiful three days. And the teams that actually want to be here will carry their tournament for them.

[Tombwfc]

Can't argue with any of that.

I can't honestly remember the last time we won a game where you thought 'That's a bloody good win that'. This summer we've beat the West Indies who couldn't be arsed to such a degree it was almost laughable, and we've beat Scotland, in a warm up game. There were a couple of good ODI wins against the WI over there, but before then it's probably South Africa this time last year when we last played really well.

Odds on KP making a recovery in time for tommorow?

[Verbal]

Reminder for anyone who wants to join the TW fantasy league in the Metro, details up there ^


I heart Warner, Fletcher, Yuvraj.

[jimbo]

Reminder for anyone who wants to join the TW fantasy league in the Metro, details up there ^


I heart Warner, Fletcher, Yuvraj.

I don't find myself hearting Watson, Haddin or Michael Clarke. Gambhir is my only player who can hold his head high.

[Verbal]

Did you see Brett Lee's 27 over? Phenomenal stuff from Gayle.

[Tombwfc]

Gayle (c) - 88
Iqbal - 15
Taylor - 21
Dhoni - 26 (+ a stumping and a catch, if that counts for owt)
Oram - 8
Sharma - 2 Wickets

I don't so much <3 Gayle, I think i'd have his babies. One of those sixes is still going.

[jimbo]

Gutted I missed the action today while I was sat in the pavillion at Maghull without Sky. Could have done with watching Gayle to cheer me up. Anyways, the positives - England are the second best in Europe.

[Verbal]

Gayle (c) - 88
Iqbal - 15
Taylor - 21
Dhoni - 26 (+ a stumping and a catch, if that counts for owt)
Oram - 8
Sharma - 2 Wickets

I don't so much <3 Gayle, I think i'd have his babies. One of those sixes is still going.

Did you count that yourself? I ask as my scores for today haven't come up

[Verbal]

Gutted I missed the action today while I was sat in the pavillion at Maghull without Sky. Could have done with watching Gayle to cheer me up. Anyways, the positives - England are the second best in Europe.

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrBWMKrJeM

[Tombwfc]

Gayle (c) - 88
Iqbal - 15
Taylor - 21
Dhoni - 26 (+ a stumping and a catch, if that counts for owt)
Oram - 8
Sharma - 2 Wickets

I don't so much <3 Gayle, I think i'd have his babies. One of those sixes is still going.

Did you count that yourself? I ask as my scores for today haven't come up

No, I actually have no idea what the scoring system is. That's just the runs/wickets they got.

[Verbal]

ah k

Here's the scoring

Batting:
Each run scored +1pt
Bonus for 50 to 99 runs scored +10pts
Bonus for 100 or more runs scored +25 pts
Each duck (excluding bowlers) –25pts
Strike rate of 200 or more +20pts (minimum 20 runs scored)
Bonus for a ‘6’ +2pts

Bowling:
Each wicket taken +25pts
Three or more wicket bonus +30pts
Maiden over +20pts
Economy rate of 4.50 or less +20 pts (minimum 1 over bowled)

Fielding:
Each catch taken +10pts
Each stumping +15pts
Each run out +15pts

[Dan.M]

Is the irish chap Eoin Morgan per chance? If so, for some reason he plays a reverse reverse sweep... :/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuB4lstP ... re=related

Also, did anyone watch Bangladesh? Got to love the square-facing scoop over the wicket keeper that Ashraful plays - quite inventive, if suicidal.

Oh, and as for that, I tried one in nets last night and now have a tasty bruise on my stomach.

Did that one in U15s one at FSCCC. Got caught on the Boundry though, Thank feck it was a no ball.

[jimbo]

Unbelievable catch to get rid of Boucher in the Scotland game by Coetzer. At least ABDV is fighting bravely for my fantasy team.