CWC Day 15 thread - Super 8's Australia V West Indies

KevIRL

First game of the super 8's and both teams already have 2 points. Could be a great game, and I suspect the outcome will tell us more about the Windies than the Aussies.

I have a sneaking feeling that The West Indies will win it

Thoughts?

Updates here from 14.30 today

DMC

It also could tell us a lot more about the Aussie bowling attack if Gayle and Chanderpaul clatter a decent score in the first 10 overs.

Interesting to see what way the stadium will be. Various states of disarray are reported.

Rjd2

Australia have a fine record against West Indies, I expect them to win although it will be interesting to see how the Aussie bowling attack do. Tait is good but he is very expensive and I have a feeling that Gayle being as aggressive as he is may try to smash Mc Grath out of the place. I had a wee punt on Michael Clarke to top score in the tournament (my other tip India to win it looks a real long shot at the moment) so I hope he gets a few runs

Peter B

16-1 after 5 overs. Gilchrist out after been caught behind. Hayden still no runs after 16 balls.

Rjd2

Different story now 40 or so runs of the last 6 overs. Hayden is beginning to look very good. He's a horrible person but in this form he could do something very special. He's 16-1 or so to be top World Cup batsman.

Rjd2

Breakthrough Ponting is gone.

Rjd2

209-4,Symonds and Clarke are the men who walked. Hayden should get his century very soon. Theirs a big score for Australia here if they want it. 270 or so I reckon.

delta_bravo

Rjd2 wrote:

Hayden is beginning to look very good. He's a horrible person but in this form he could do something very special.

How is he horrible? I dont really know much about the aussie cricketers

KevIRL

248-4 (44ovs)

KevIRL

That was a great six from Hayden followed by a lovely 4, then another 6! massive stuff

269-5(44.4ovs)

KevIRL

19 off that over

KevIRL

Hayden batting some amazing stuff another 2 4's and a 6 off ths over

KevIRL

Hayden 152 from 139

KevIRL

Rain delay Aus 286-5 (46.2ovs)

KevIRL

Watson knocking out a six as well

297-5 (3ovs left)

KevIRL

Hayden gone attempting another 6

b bravo c Samuels for 158 (143balls)

Aus 297-6 (47.1ovs)

KevIRL

Aus 322-6 from their 50 ovs

Watson 33 not out

DMC

delta_bravo wrote:

How is he horrible? I dont really know much about the aussie cricketers

I get that impression too, he appears to be a arrogant person. I could be totally wrong, but he doesn't appear to be the most endearing of characters. Bloody minded, as the Aussies say...

DMC

KevIRL wrote:

Aus 322-6 from their 50 ovs

Watson 33 not out

I really wished this service was available while I trudged around a shopping centre this afternoon!

KevIRL

DMC wrote:

I really wished this service was available while I trudged around a shopping centre this afternoon!

haha. A text service, hmmmmmmmmm now theres an idea....

KevIRL

Windies target set at 163 off 20ovs

KevIRL

Here's the latest from cricinfo....no more play today anyway


16:01 local, 20:01 GMT Play has been postponed until tomorrow. Even with the reserve day, we have to take into consideration that there was a rain interruption in Australia's innings, shortly after which Hayden got out. So D/L may have something to say about that. Until the match officials decree anything, I cannot give you a definite answer as to the target for West Indies.

DMC

TV have said that as there was no play, the West Indies will resume tomorrow chasing 323 with the full 50 overs.

Kinda negates the toss a bit!

KevIRL

DMC wrote:

TV have said that as there was no play, the West Indies will resume tomorrow chasing 323 with the full 50 overs.

Kinda negates the toss a bit!

Confirmed on Cricinfo...

16:01 local, 20:01 GMT Play has been postponed until tomorrow. The target for West Indies will indeed be 323 from 50 overs. Thats because Australia played out a full 50 overs. Had rain curtailed their innings, only then would the D/L ruling have come into play.

county

didn`t see any of the action today but it seems a tough target to reach especially against the aussies

KevIRL

county wrote:

didn`t see any of the action today but it seems a tough target to reach especially against the aussies

Hayden was v impressive.

Id say the Windies would take a days rain now if offered to them

Rjd2

delta_bravo wrote:

How is he horrible? I dont really know much about the aussie cricketers

Its his whole persona which annoys me, and the fact that his sledging when on the pitch is meant to be pretty nasty. He's got a reputation even when beaten of being a very poor loser as well refusing to give any praise to the opposition. Himself and Ponting and to a lesser extent Mc Grath are the reasons why Australia are disliked by many people. Their was a superb article on Cricinfo a while ago which explained why they were so disliked. I will try to find it later.
Also to give Australia some credit, I really like Gilchrist, Clark, Langer and to a lesser extent Hussey. They play hard but fair.

EDIT FOUND IT
http://blogs.cricinfo.com/meninwhite/archives/2007/03/dramatis_personae_australia.php
ramatis Personae: Australia


Like any good political machine that operates on the margins of the straight-and-narrow, the Australians have the rhetoric of respectability pat (Click
to enlarge)
© Getty Images


Cricket sides are creatures with personalities. If the World Cup is cricket’s greatest stage, the teams are its characters. And if we’re going to work our way through the cast, it’s appropriate to begin with the hero of the last Cup and the one before that: Australia.

Australia is a protection racket gone legit. You can see glimpses of the lawlessness in Ricky Ponting’s early delinquency, in Shane Warne and Mark Waugh’s brush with bookies, in Glenn McGrath’s snarling unloveliness, in the constant sledging, the occasional racial slur (Darren Lehmann’s ‘black c__ts’ for example), in the pleasure the Australians take in their rep as bully boys. When I watch Ponting spit into the palms of his hands and rub them together, some shabby-genteel part of me cringes, and a stereotype is reinforced. With the exception of Adam Gilchrist (whose popularity shows you that with a sprinkling of good humour, the Aussies could have been liked, not just admired) they feel like political operators with knuckle-dusters, conducting a dirty but legal election campaign.

But like any good political machine that operates on the margins of the straight-and-narrow, the Australians have the rhetoric of respectability pat. A year or so ago, Ponting began to make pious noises about Australians setting standards of good behaviour on the field. A kinder, gentler Australian team is about as likely as the Godfather giving himself up to the olive oil trade, but Ponting knows that in these politically correct times it’s important to talk the talk. At its best the Australian team is a mafia with flair: watching Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist hoodwink, harry and hammer the opposition over the last decade has been the great spectacle of contemporary cricket.

But with McGrath in decline, and without Warne and Brett Lee, the Australians seem duller, their bowling seems efficient rather than devastating, almost South African in its sameness. Mike Hussey is a batting phenomenon: his runs, his average put him in the highest company, but there is an ordinariness, an anonymity to his presence at the crease which makes his record even more remarkable than it is. Matthew Hayden, Hussey and Ponting are fine batsmen by any measure but where Gilchrist’s genial aggression makes me grin even when it’s India that’s suffering, these three come across as bouncers working you over, not debonair bandits pulling off a heist. If the Australians were to be cast in a movie, they’d be Al Capone’s gang in The Untouchables, and I’d be rooting for Costner to bust them.