2015 World Cricket Cup

[Zorch]

The host Australians are making fun of England.

[Josh]

[:D]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Zorch

The host Australians are making fun of England.

warspite1

Gotta love our colonial cousins [:)]

[Neilster]

We shall see. England are still 4th favourite at 10/1 and have a squad with plenty of potential. South Africa (2nd favourite at 3.75/1) imploded today in a warm-up game against New Zealand but it was in Un Zud and they are good at the moment (5.75/1).

Cheers, Neilster

[warspite1]

We should have won it in 1987 - and had a chance in the following tournament. Not come close since.

[Neilster]

1987 was an interesting tournament. Australia had been generally awful in 1985/6 after the retirement of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh; against strong opposition in the West Indies, England and New Zealand. The West Indies, who were still almost all powerful at the time, were favourites but the World Cup was played away from England for the first time (in India and Pakistan), which opened it up a bit.

The Australian team had been rebuilt under the steely leadership of Allan Border and included several young players like Steve Waugh and Craig McDermott who went on to have stellar careers. New coach Bob Simpson ruthlessly drilled them and they became the fittest and best fielding team in world cricket.

Australia's Group Stage performance included close wins by 1, 3 and 17 runs. This was crucial in seeing them finish second to India on run rate. They played Pakistan in a semi final in Pakistan (never easy) and won by 18 runs. Their opponents in the final were England, who had fairly comfortably beaten India in their semi by 35 runs.

In the final, played in front of 95,000 at Eden Gardens Kolkata, Australia batted first and posted a serviceable 5/253, aided by a quick-fire 45 from 31 balls by Mike Valetta. In reply, England seemed to be cruising at 2/135 when Mike Gatting was out playing an infamous reverse-sweep from Allan Border's bowling. After that, wickets fell regularly enough to drive the run-rate required higher and higher. Eventually England needed 17 from the last over and Australia won by 7 runs. It's still the closest World Cup final margin.

I was 16, a mad cricketer and cricket fan and after growing up with the successful Aussie team of the 70s and early 80s, two years with a bad national team seemed an interminable penance. I followed the tournament with growing hopes and growing trepidation but from memory only the final was televised in Australia. My best friend and I watched it on the edge of our seats. Good memories

Cheers, Neilster

[Fallschirmjager]

I bought a cricket game on Steam and I enjoy it but it assumes prior knowledge of the game. I understand European sports pretty well, I like football, rugby and handball. But cricket is so cryptic that I simply cannot figure out what is going on a majority of the time.

[Neilster]

Yes. It's definitely a cultural thing and it's a very complicated sport. That's one of the reasons it's great but it makes entry difficult. Here's a short explanation video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqtpNkMvj5Y

Cheers, Neilster

[Neilster]

Actually, I was going to be more triumphant, but long experience has taught me to be more humble. Best of luck to everyone.

Cheers, Neilster

[warspite1]

Now that's the England I know and love [:)]

The recent ashes victories were disturbingly uncomfortable watching for England fans - like some aliens had landed and drugged the real England players and, having bound and gagged them in the dressing room, the imposters - who knew how to actually play the game (and had balls) - had gone out and beaten the Aussies [X(][&:]

Phew. Glad to see normal service has resumed [:)]

[Neilster]

See my amended post above

Cheers, Neilster

[warspite1]

I didn't think there was anything wrong with your original one.

[Neilster]

I'm still erring on the side of humility.


Cheers, Neilster

[Neilster]

Having said that...thanks for coming England....you got beaten like a red-headed step-child [:'(]

Cheers, Neilster

[british exil]

Any links to follow the matches or a link for streaming the matches.

Germany is not really known for cricket and fails to show any matches.

Oh sometimes the champions league twenty20, but not really regularly either.

Mat

[Neilster]

You can follow the games on...

http://www.espncricinfo.com/

They have quite a good ball by ball coverage of games with lots of statistics. The site in general is excellent too.

Cheers, Neilster

[JamesM]

They will not be playing at the Gabba tomorrow night! It will most likely be a lake.

[Neilster]

Yep. Tropical cyclone Marcia is now looking like category 5, which means winds of 300 km/h plus, by the time it hits the coast Friday morning north of Yeppoon, and then it's probably going to track south-east towards Brisbane. There'll be a stupid amount of rain and I doubt there'll be any cricket.

Cheers, Neilster

[warspite1]

Why couldn't this happen on the day we embarrassed ourselves again last week....?[:(]

[Zorch]

Not quite category 5...
Images from http://www.tropicalstormrisk.com/