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Bangladesh have won again, beating West Indies 2-0. I know it's a sub-standard West Indies side because of the strike, but Shakib Al Hasan's performance is nonetheless well worth a mention; captaining Bangladesh for the first time at the age of 22, he took three wickets in the first innings, five in the second, came in to bat at 67/4 chasing 215 and lashed an unbeaten 96 from 97 balls to win it.

Good to see Bangladesh triumph.But the internal politics of West Indian cricket must be sorted out.It has gone on and on,and must be damaging to the fabric of the game there.I guess money is at the Heart of the issue,it usually is. How much cash was washing around from Stanford?

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Listening to Jack Bannister on Talk Sport on the way in to work this morning and he was saying that there should be a big story breaking about the IPL in the next few months. Apparently his source (a Wisden contributor) has found proof that the police are reviewing last year's IPL because of match fixing and Mafia involvement!

Old Jack better mind his mouth or he'll be wearing concrete shoes very shortly.

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Listening to Jack Bannister on Talk Sport on the way in to work this morning and he was saying that there should be a big story breaking about the IPL in the next few months. Apparently his source (a Wisden contributor) has found proof that the police are reviewing last year's IPL because of match fixing and Mafia involvement!

Old Jack better mind his mouth or he'll be wearing concrete shoes very shortly.

Thats'd be great news, the sooner people get fed up with that nonsense the better. It's meaningless and boring and the money is obviously attracting players attention.

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Thats'd be great news, the sooner people get fed up with that nonsense the better. It's meaningless and boring and the money is obviously attracting players attention.

Agree. I enjoy the Domestic 20/20 and to a degree the Internatioanl stuff.But i have no interest in this. And im sorry that the Pro 40 is going in England next season. No doubt to be replaced my more 20/20..The EPL if i remeber.

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This kind of relates to the Ashes, but better in here- there was another scary high 4th innings score, Sri Lanka (who were chasing 492) racked up 391/4 against Pakistan when they ran out of time, shortly after the Aussies scoring 406 at Lord's.

In the last 3 years, there have been the following scores in the 4th innings of a test:

NZ 431 (2008) vs England L

SA 414/4 (2008) vs Australia W

Bangladesh 413 (2008) vs SA L

SL 410 (2007) vs Australia L

Australia 406 (2009) vs England L

WI 394 (2007) vs England L

SL 391/4 (2009) vs Pakistan D

India 387/4 (2008) vs England W

WI 387 (2008) vs Australia L

WI 370/9 (2009) vs England D

SA 370 (2009) vs Australia L

just goes to show that setting a team 350 to win is no guarantee of success due to modern "chief exec" pitches, even in the sub-continent.

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This kind of relates to the Ashes, but better in here- there was another scary high 4th innings score, Sri Lanka (who were chasing 492) racked up 391/4 against Pakistan when they ran out of time, shortly after the Aussies scoring 406 at Lord's.

In the last 3 years, there have been the following scores in the 4th innings of a test:

NZ 431 (2008) vs England L

SA 414/4 (2008) vs Australia W

Bangladesh 413 (2008) vs SA L

SL 410 (2007) vs Australia L

Australia 406 (2009) vs England L

WI 394 (2007) vs England L

SL 391/4 (2009) vs Pakistan D

India 387/4 (2008) vs England W

WI 387 (2008) vs Australia L

WI 370/9 (2009) vs England D

SA 370 (2009) vs Australia L

just goes to show that setting a team 350 to win is no guarantee of success due to modern "chief exec" pitches, even in the sub-continent.

It seems to be altering the nature of test cricket a bit.

I actually think it's quite good to have exciting ending to test, but if it's being forced to an extent by uniform pitches then it's bad. The wicket and conditions in different parts of the world are part of the beauty of the game. I wouldnt like to think that the individuaL quirks of particular countries will be ironed out so that its better for TV.

Imagine the handwringing that would be going on if some of the old Headingley wickets were on the go just now. The tests could be over in three days! :lol: SKY would be doing their nuts at the prospect.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Central contracts time again, and some clues to the probable squad for South Africa. Bell and Sidebottom keep theirs but Harmison and Panesar don't, plus Flintoff is downgraded to the incremental contract. Prior, Swann and Onions step up to full contracts.

England central contracts: James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Graham Onions, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Ryan Sidebottom, Andrew Strauss, Graeme Swann.

Increment contracts: Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Flintoff, Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Jonathan Trott, Luke Wright.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/8250676.stm

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Increment contracts: Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Flintoff, Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Jonathan Trott, Luke Wright.

Is there a more overrated pie chucker ever to get contracted by England. Wright is an extremely average cricketer who is nowhere near good enough to be classified as an all rounder. Seems to have become a fixture in the England One day team thanks to a couple of slogs for Sussex many moons ago. As long as county plodders like him get in the team England will continue to struggle. Another thing about Wright, watch him bowl and due to the way he drags his back foot he's about 3 yards down the pitch when he let's the ball go. Wouldn't surprise me if umps started no balling the bloke.

As a White Rose fan I'm glad to see Bresnan and Rashid in the team. That said Bres is nowhere near as good as some people seem to think he is. A couple of years ago he looked the real deal with wickets and runs. Nowadays he doesn't score as many runs and is partial to being smacked around the park with too many four balls. Rashid is the real deal though and I expect him to star in Sud Afrique.

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Wright will never be anywhere near the test team, but he is one of England's better ODI players, a good hitter at 6/7, and a pretty useful death bowler too.

I'd go along with that. Unfortunately for him though he's not even the best all rounder at his county which kind of explains why England are struggling in ODIs. Dwayne Smith shites all over him from a great height.

If you look at those lists then you have to say that England have a pretty ordinary bunch of players. Surely they should be getting rid of guys like Bell and Sidebottom and finding good young talent that they can fine tune into world class Test players.

Edited by Shengus Khan
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Wright will never be anywhere near the test team, but he is one of England's better ODI players, a good hitter at 6/7, and a pretty useful death bowler too.

Wright is worth his place in the ODI squad, but he's never test class.

Rashid, on the other hand, has the potential to be very special indeed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The 365-day cricket year goes on with the Champions Trophy starting today in South Africa, England haven't even arrived yet and could probably be home by this time next week. I think the ODI series dampened all my enthusiasm for 50-over cricket but at least with more than 2 teams involved it might be a contest- still don't think I'll get interested until the semi-final stages.

In the 1st match, Sri Lanka have all but beaten the hosts, Dilshan (presumably) hitting the ball over his own head lots on the way to a ton.

Edited by Fuctifano
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The 365-day cricket year goes on with the Champions Trophy starting today in South Africa, England haven't even arrived yet and could probably be home by this time next week. I think the ODI series dampened all my enthusiasm for 50-over cricket but at least with more than 2 teams involved it might be a contest- still don't think I'll get interested until the semi-final stages.

In the 1st match, Sri Lanka have all but beaten the hosts, Dilshan (presumably) hitting the ball over his own head lots on the way to a ton.

Sri Lanka look very good. Mendis doing a lot of damage. I think they will take England to the cleaners on Fri.

I was thinking last night as i watched Sri Lanka bowl how spinners have developed over the years.When i first starting watching the game, spinners where on the whole fairly slow. Now they fire the ball down and still exert great control. And in the limited over game,where you thought they would be targeted,they play a pivotal role..

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