**Official Cricket World Cup Thread**

[Hopey]

My money's on the big one in the middle.

[cognito20]

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I understand that Lee is very important, but McGrath was one of the most phenomenal bowlers of his time and he dominated (Did he retire from ODI's?) and he truly will be missed.

[/ QUOTE ]

It was my understanding that Warne was done with everything but county cricket (he's going to honor the last 2 years of his contract with Hampshire before he retires completely), so he's technically only semi-retired, but he's definitely done with Test and ODI Cricket. I thought McGrath played his last -Test- in Sydney, but that he was going to wait until after the World Cup to retire completely. Unless I'm misinformed, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the West Indies. It would not surprise me, though, if he's taking the triangular Eng-NZ-Aus series off in preparation for his last hurrah for the World Cup. I really hope he plays, though. Australia isn't going to threepeat without him, and may not even with him. Lee is fast but erratic, and everyone else (bowling-wise)is either unproven or demonstrably -not- world-class. They actually have a very serviceable, almost world-class leg-spinner in Stuart MacGill, but they rarely if ever use him in ODIs...he's a Test specialist and the notoriously flat West Indian pitches wouldn't help him much anyway, and he's a bowler who needs help from the pitch to be at his best (note how his stats are much better in spin-friendly Sydney than anywhere else in Australia).

--Scott

[bismillahno]

There was a little talk of prop bets here, so I'll post this to stir things up a little.

Cameronw01 and I have $50 on NZ vs Australia over the 3 major world cups for our countries this year, namely Cricket, Rugby and Netball. Lowest total finish for their country over the 3 wins.

I'm sure I'm giving something up in the cricket, but I think I get it back in the rugby. I'll take the same bet with a south african if they're interested too...

[Gib]

I think Australia will still be tough to beat even after their past losses. Their main concern will be their bowling & I believe they should start by opening the bowling with McGrath. IMHO I would of like to of seen Ben Hilfenhaus bowling from the other end.

Jacob Oram is one of the most exciting 1 day cricketers to watch, for a spectator's point of view I'm hoping he will be fit to play, does anyone know if he'll play?

[skp]

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India have bowling issues too, but they could have hitters from 1-8 (well, except Dravid I guess) in the batting line up so should be worth watching.

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Dravid is quite underrated when it comes to his ability to up the ante. When needed, he is quite capable of scoring at a very quick clip. He has one of the fastest 50s ever in ODIs (in about 23 balls or something againt the Kiwis a couple of years ago). But he usually comes out into the middle when India is looking to preserve wickets while scoring say 5 runs an over. There is hardly anyone in the world better than him at that particular task.

Obviously, I am a huge Dravid fan so you can take all of that with a grain of salt.

[skp]

[ QUOTE ]
I really like South Africa this year as they have sooooo much talent and their batting order is ridiculously good.

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I think that RSA will not do as well as expected even though they are ranked No. 1 at this time. The West Indian pitches are going to assist spinners. RSA is one of the few teams that lacks a top notch spinner. Guys like Ntini are going to bleed runs on these pitches. Pollock should however be very effective given his ability to bowl in the corridor time in and time out.

I love India's chances. Their batting has alaways been good but on spin-friendly pitches, their bowling is going to look pretty good too. They have two top notch spinners in Kumble and Singh and can get some useful spin overs from Tendulkar, Sehwag, and Yuvraj.

For Sri Lanka, Murali and Bandara are going to be a handful with the ball.

I pick India, Sri Lanka, Oz and RSA to make the final 4. For the final, it depends on how the semis match up:

I like India over RSA and Sri Lanka but not over Oz (OZ have the wood on India).

I like OZ over RSA and India but not Sri Lanka.

I like Sri Lanka over RSA and OZ, but not over India.

Now that those predictions are out of the way, I sure hope that the Pakistan vs. England final turns out to be better than the last two finals [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[skp]

Those are good Cliff's notes.

[ QUOTE ]
There are some fielding restrictions at the start of a ODI, but I'm not really well versed in those. There are also no balls and wides, I forget exactly what these mean to scoring. They don't count towards the six pitches/over

[/ QUOTE ]

Wides and no-balls add 1 run to the batting side's score.

Fielding restrictions:

The first Ten overs are called powerplay 1. At that time, only 2 fielders are allowed outside a 30 yard circle radius from where the batsmen are standing. The other 7 fielders including obviously the bowler and wicketkeeper are inside the circle. Further, of the other 5 fielders, 2 of them must be within 15 yards of the batsmen in what are known as catching positions. All of this is designed to encourage an explosive start to the innings where guys can get 4's and 6' more easily.

Powerplay 1 is mandatory in the first 10 overs.

Then, at some point in the match at the fieding team's choice, the fielding side must use Powerplay 2 (a 5 over block) and powerplay 3 (another 5 over block). During these powerplays, there still can only be two guys outside the 30 yard circle but there is no need to station 2 guys in catching positions.

The fielding side almost always opts to take powerplays 2 and 3 between overs 10 and 20. They do this to avoid having to take the powerplays later on when the real push for big hits begins.

Once the Powerplays are over, the fielding side is allowed a maximum of 5 players oustide the 30 yard circle.

Generally, you will see the fastest scoring in the first 10 overs and the last 10 overs of a one day innings. The middle period of 30 overs will usually see batting teams poke the ball around into gaps in the field and take single runs. There are a lot more 4's in the first 10 overs and a lot of 4's and 6's in the last 10 overs assuming that the batting side has not lost too many wickets by then.

The bowling side is expected to deliver about 15 overs in an hour (called the "over rate"). So, a 50 over innings generally lasts 3.5 hours. They then have a 30 to 40 minute break followed by the other team batting for 3.5 hours.

[cameronw01]

Come on Shaun Tait - I have a little more hope that Australia can do it after beating England today.

[Wilbix]

Bump because it's almost go time!

Pakistan and West Indies all set to kick it off in the morning - with this, the NCAA tournament, and baseball starting up soon, it is very likely that I will fail some classes.

[HoldingFolding]

I'm looking to place a few bets; any ideas on a value bet for wicket-taker/run-scorer.