General Cricket Thread ...

[PKBasu]

The real find for Sri Lanka was opening bowler Vishwa Fernando, who took 4 wickets in each innings, and then scored 6* at #11 to enable Kusal Perreira to steer the side home.

[prasen9]

South Africa's batting looks terribly weak. If only de Villiers had retired before India went, we may have had another famous victory overseas.

[rajitghosh]

With Gayleforce on West Indies could cause a surprise or two in the World Cup. England's performance in West Indies raises serious questions as to how this over hyped Indian team got so badly thrashed by England.

[RohitG]

Some questionable decisions by the team management wrt selection of the playing XI and the toss factor. England also had the home advantage

[jaydeep]

Good interview by Sanjay Bangar.

‘What makes India unique is it’s consistently playing risk-free cricket'

[Sin Hombre]

Honestly that's not a great interview, and playing "riskfree" cricket at low S/R from the likes of Rohit and Dhoni is exactly why we will lose the WC.

[prasen9]

Precisely. I have seen teams get to 0 wickets in 30 overs. Okay, now, I think it is basically a T-20 without powerplay overs. But, no, they keep playing as if it is not. 15 overs left and 8 wickets in hand. Again, a T-20 situation, you should be able to add 120 odd runs. No. In the modern game, you have to take risks.

You have to play optimal-risk cricket and not risk-free cricket. Which might mean lofting in the first powerplay. And, then trying to minimize dot balls and then hit 4s and not 6s. This is what Kohli does well but Rohit does not. He is either defending or trying to hit 6s. Generally, bad strategy. Singles off every ball, try to hit 4s in from overs 20-40 and pick your gap and loft. Don't try to hit 6s over a player.

[jayakris]

A nice article on what I will always consider the greatest innings in Indian cricket history. Kapil's 175 at Turnbridge Wells in the 1983 world cup. Without that impossible win, we would be nowhere in that world cup. I will never forget listening to the radio commentary and simply going numb. I just could not believe what Kapil Dev was doing after we were down at 17 for 5.

And I still can't believe that somehow this is one that nobody recorded. (Is that perhaps the last world cup match to not be televised? what was the last official ODI to not be televised?)

Kapil’s masterpiece — a tipping point in India’s sporting history

That kind of an innings can happen in ODIs these days, but what Kapil did that day was so unimaginable those days, 36 years ago.

[Rajiv]

And I still can't believe that somehow this is one that nobody recorded. (Is that perhaps the last world cup match to not be televised? what was the last official ODI to not be televised?)

BBC had the rights to cover the tournament.

Unfortunately the day Kapil was creating history the BBC guys throughout UK went on a flash strike for a day which resulted in the epic innings going unrecorded.

Semi's and Finals were the only 2 matches beamed live by Doordarshan and in the semis Yashpal Sharma making room and flicking on the leg a Bob Willis thunderbolt for a six is forever etched in my mind

[prasen9]

BBC actually managed to get some crew to work. They decided to cover the West Indies game because they were the kings of cricket then. And, needless to say, people did not have hand-held devices.

[Tolamu]

England were dismissed for 85 runs in the first innings in one-off Test against Ireland at Lord's on Wednesday, 10 days after winning the 2019 World Cup at the same venue. Ireland pacer Tim Murtagh registered figures of 9-2-13-5, helping his team dismiss England for their fifth-shortest innings by overs (23.4). Only three of England's batsmen scored in double digits.
Ireland scored 207 in reply.

[PKBasu]

Yes, beautiful swing bowling by Tim Murtagh, Mark Adair (debutant) and Boyd Rankin. But the nightwatchman Leach is giving them a lot of trouble this morning.

[prasen9]

England has a selection problem of theirs. Their middle order is Bairstow and Buttler. Both not elite batsmen in tests. You need some other solid bat to support Root. If you keep selecting Bairstow and Buttler, then you will wallow in mediocrity. I would choose Root, Foakes (very good keeping skills and solid keeper-bat) and Stokes in the top seven. Then, you need two openers and two middle-order bats. Ollie Pope should have been given a proper run. The other they are trying is Roy. Burns is the opener. What happened to Tom Westley?

Australia, of course, returned the favor by dropping Joe Burns for Bancroft!

[PKBasu]

Ben Stokes has just added massively to his legend!

[Prashant]

Ironically he was out with two runs required, but Australia had burned their reviews...