**Official Cricket World Cup Thread**

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
Malinga's 4 wickets in 4 balls is, I believe, a first in ODIs and not just a first in World Cup history.

Has anyone pulled off the feat in test cricket?

I recall that Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka, in the 2003 World cup, had 4 wickets in the first over of the Bangladesh innings. The over went something like this:

W W W 4 0 W.

The Bangles were 4 for 4 after 6 balls....lol. I think they got bundled out for about 35 runs or so and Sri Lanka reached the target in about 5 overs. The whole match was over in about 90 minutes. Who said that cricket takes all day to play?

[/ QUOTE ]
Caddick took 4 wickets in 1 over vs West Indies but not in 4 balls.

Malinga was so so close to all 5 to win the game.

chez

[bismillahno]

This thread is long overdue for a bump.

Has been a fairly mediocre cup so far, though I'm happy with NZ's performance. South Africa and the West Indies have been very disappointing. Its been a good time to be Irish or Bangladeshi though.

Aus vs. Sri Lanka should be interesting tonight, and the must win South Africa-England game later. Australia are looking very strong for the title.

[Fadook]

I hope Sri Lanka will be subjected to a lot of flak after this farcical match against Australia. This should have been the best match of the Cup so far, instead Sri Lanka effectively conceded it before it even began. Totally unsportsmanlike and shameful.

[CopTHIS]

[ QUOTE ]
I hope Sri Lanka will be subjected to a lot of flak after this farcical match against Australia. This should have been the best match of the Cup so far, instead Sri Lanka effectively conceded it before it even began. Totally unsportsmanlike and shameful.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's like they expected to lose and wanted to be able to say "oh, we didn't have our best bowlers out so it doesn't really count".

SA V England today for effectively a quarter-final game. Given how messed up SA get in World Cups this will be interesting.

[Fadook]

I'm hoping England will surprise as all by actually playing well for an entire match. Results-wise, it's amazing how everything has fallen into place for them. Could be a great match if both teams put their best out there.

Re Sri Lanka: I've heard suggestions that this was a tactical ploy so that Australia wouldn't have a chance to get used to Murali and Vas before a possible final, or to manufacture a loss to avoid playing Australia in the semis. I'd guess the latter may well be true.

[CopTHIS]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm hoping England will surprise as all by actually playing well for an entire match. Results-wise, it's amazing how everything has fallen into place for them. Could be a great match if both teams put their best out there.

Re Sri Lanka: I've heard suggestions that this was a tactical ploy so that Australia wouldn't have a chance to get used to Murali and Vas before a possible final, or to manufacture a loss to avoid playing Australia in the semis. I'd guess the latter may well be true.

[/ QUOTE ]

The TV pundits in the UK thought it was the latter, but I'm not sure how much more likely SL would have been to avoid Oz with a loss.

For today, I reckon it's 50:50. SA are better on paper but something seems out of place with them. Take the Bangladesh match - they gave up with 10 overs to go even with Gibbs still in. This was, presumably, to protect the net run rate. And then when the have WI over a barrel, what do they do? Bowl Smith etc to get through the overs quickly. Maybe not getting fined for a slow over rate > increasing the net run rate > trying to save an almost lost game. And today we hear about 4am drunken binges etc, maybe just paper talk, but you can't compare them to the Aussies for preparation and attitude.

[imitation]

It would take something quite amazing for Australia not to win this, also and I know this has been mentioned in the press everywhere but [censored] this world cup is so long.

[skp]

[ QUOTE ]
I hope Sri Lanka will be subjected to a lot of flak after this farcical match against Australia. This should have been the best match of the Cup so far, instead Sri Lanka effectively conceded it before it even began. Totally unsportsmanlike and shameful

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree.

Ian Chappel was going on and on about how SL's decision to rest key players should be questioned by the ICC; heck, he even made the ridiculous suggestion that the anti-corruption unit should get involved.

But when OZ played the Kiwis in a 3 game series just prior to the WC, they rested about 6 of their key players and we didn't hear boo from Chappel about that.

Frankly, I see nothing wrong with SL's decision. It was a nothing match - why risk injury to the quickies Vaas and Malinga? As for Murali, it's less likely he gets injured but why expose him to the Oz batsmen in a nothing match?

If I were a SL fan, I would have been pissed if Jayawardene played these guys.

The argument about the fans getting screwed has some merit but that happens all the time in dead matches. Besides, it's not like SL used rank rookies to play the match instead of the rested players. The guys that played were among the 15 best players in all of Sri Lanka and I am sure the 3 replacements appreciated the opportunity to play in a WC game.

[CopTHIS]

OK, it's official. England suck really badly at one-day cricket [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[skp]

An entirely forgettable tourney for Flintoff. As bad as they are, Vaughan really doesn't deserve to be on the English ODI team. You can't have a captain playing as poorly as he does. It just filters through the whole team. The Aussies have long had a policy of going after opposing captains in an effort to demoralize the rest of the team.