A Year of Thinking Positively.

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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Durhamfootman » Wed May 06, 2015 9:06 pm

I've got tickets for day 2 of the Bangladesh test at the Riverside. I'm looking forward to it, although I'm not sure how the BDs will cope with Hoggard, Harmison and co on a bowler friendly pitch.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Wed May 06, 2015 11:56 pm

I think this is part of the warm up.

Hope you have a good day.

Even so, I'm glad England have given a low ranked side a short series, and hope this sort of thing continues. The Ashes is great, but you wouldn't want them to play every year. The absence heightens the anticipation.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Alviro Patterson » Thu May 07, 2015 12:41 am

This Ashes series is no doubt the most anticipated yet, the tri-series featuring Australia, Bangladesh and England is a perfect curtain raiser to what is going to be a brilliant summer of cricket.

I've been searching high and low for tickets. Managed to get some for the Aus-Eng tri-series game at Edgbaston. Match ticket £50, return train ticket from Bradford Interchange to Birmingham New Street £37.50, money well spent.

In fact this Ashes lark has got me so excited that I went to Headingley for the first time ever the other Sunday to see Yorkshire play Somerset in a 45 Over Sunday League game. Got myself autographs of Andy Caddick, Ian Blackwell, Suresh Jayasuriya, Nixon McLean and Anthony McGrath.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Jun 23, 2015 5:29 pm

The ODIs are upon us Al, five days to that game at Edgbaston. Hope the weather holds.

So what can we learn from the two Tests against Bangladesh? A mismatch. Of course. Two comfortable innings wins. But... I was most impressed by the pace attack. Hoggy, Harmi, Freddie and Jones looked in great shape. And you know, I was blown away by Simon Jones. He was swinging the ball, late, at pace. He's really come on. Keep Simon Jones fit. That's my message.

I'm not so bothered about the runs. Big ton for Tres at Lord's, and a small version for MPV. A ton and a half for Tres and Bell at the Riverside. There was a bit of merriment on the balcony as Ian Bell muscled a straight drive over the boundary. But he's a kid. Will he have the stubble and spit to give it back to the Aussies? Should KP come in?

BD held on for a few runs in the second innings, as England gave Gareth Batty a bowl. But it was a very powerful performance overall. Durhamfootman got to see Bell and Thorpey score most of their 187 run partnership, and Hoggy and Freddie knock over a few wickets, so a good day. Apart from Habibul and Aftab scoring at over a run a ball at 5&7, like a premonition of Martyn and Gilchrist.

Anyway, we can jump off that bridge when we get to it.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Jun 23, 2015 5:45 pm

One of the best moments of the summer so far last week, when Bangladesh won their first ODI against Australia (after England hammered the BDs at the Oval. An incredible ton for Ashraful. The ball was bouncing off his bat like a superball. The Aussies looked really rattled. It's almost unbelievable. This just doesn't happen to Australia. It's like frogs or golf balls falling out of the sky.

And news that Andrew Symonds has been disciplined for turning up to a game drunk.

And what to say about Pietersen's 91* off 65 (!) balls to win the game at Bristol. The game was completely lost. Without KPs innings, this was a thrashing. It's like he doesn't feel pressure. He doesn't register the struggles at the other end. They say the great players lack insight into the struggles of lesser players. Maybe it's that. Whatever it is, don't mess with it. He destroyed Dizzy and Kaspa. This kind of defeat turned into victory could turn around the narrative of the summer.

First baller for Punta too off Harmi, who dispatched Martyn (Marto, apparently) two balls later. Harmi just looked really threatening. 5-33.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Jun 23, 2015 5:54 pm

My first taste of live cricket this summer came at Trent Bridge a couple of nights ago, when England hammered BD by 168 runs. Tres, Strauss and Colly scored a lot of runs quickly. Their 391 off fifty overs surely will never be beaten in this country? That's 7.8 runs an over! It's unbelievable.

Then Colly took a 5-fer. Chris Tremlett took 4-32 (I feel this complicates the plot unnecessarily. Do we need Chris Tremlett to take a scary 4-fer?).

An overwhelming win. As I was walking back along the canal, I was thinking, this was like the omen, the comet arcing across the sky in the first act of a Shakespeare play, a harbinger of the drama to come. A spectacular incident of limited consequence, which might acquire meaning in the light of future events.

But then I spilt the entrails of a cockerel, and it said the Aussie would win at Lord's, so who knows.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Jun 23, 2015 6:00 pm

Anyway, I hope the north east gets a good game for the day nighter today against the Aussies. Symonds is back for the Aussies.

Is it me, or is this supersub b******* a load of b*******?

DON'TPICKHUSSEYORCLARKDON'TPICKHUSSEYORCLARKDON'TPICKHUSSEYORCLARKETC...
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:16 am

We bloody lost...
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Sun Jul 05, 2015 4:06 pm

Shame about the rain in Birmingham in the ODI. Australia managed to make it to the final, and what a final! The visitors looked like defending a paltry 196 (well done Freddie and Harmi) with England 33-5 in reply. And a loss of momentum looked inevitable. But Geraint and Colly scored fifties, and Ashley Giles ran two leg byes off the last ball to square things up. A tie!

Aussie won't have liked that. England are supposed to quietly concede the game when under pressure.

This three way competition has really set the summer up. I think everyone prefers the ODIs before the Tests. The games have been good. I'm ready for the Tests now.

Oh, except there's another three game ODI series before we start the Ashes. Is that strictly necessary? Got a feeling these aren't going to be the games that people remember from this summer. There's another game at Lord's, after the final tied game, and the first Test is played there. This stuff is great, but there's a danger the ECB are trying to squeeze too much out of the old rivalry.

I'm not complaining. I'm just saying that this is a possibility. You can only milk a cow so many times.

I imagine.

I've never milked a cow.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Sun Jul 05, 2015 4:15 pm

We're going to miss Colly's fielding in the Tests. He elevates the side in the field.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Sun Jul 05, 2015 4:19 pm

What have we learned? Pietersen has to play. Someone's going to be unlucky, and will probably resent it for the rest of their life. But it's got to happen.

Harmison and Flintoff will have shaken up the Aussie batting. They were superb.

And...

Duncan Knows.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Sun Jul 05, 2015 4:22 pm

For the Aussies, their best batter, Mike Hussey isn't in the Test squad. Hopefully they won't notice.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Fri Jul 17, 2015 7:56 pm

The extra ODI series isn't the one that we'll remember the summer for I expect.

You can have too much foreplay, fellas.

Time we got this summer where we know it was heading all along. It's the Ashes, and it starts in four days time. We'll be locked in a passionate embrace for real. As Marvin said, Let's Get it On.

Do I sound a bit forced? Losing the extra ODI series was a bit of a downer. We didn't bat well, apart from Trescos ton. Colly was out best bowler and he won't be playing. But then Hussey (Mr Cricket!) was their best batter, and he won't be playing either. I think we've had enough fifty over cricket. Powerplays. Subersubs. Death overs. Ephemera.

Sadly England have dropped one of their great bats of recent times, in Graham Thorpe. KP is in. It's the right thing to do, but it's a bit ruthless. Thorpey was a main reason behind England's resurgence under Fletcher. Thanks and goodbye. I won't forget Colombo, Bridgetown, Christchurch. Averages 46 against Australia, against great bowlers.

A good warm up for the visitors against Leicestershire. Top scorer for Leics was an Aussie, Chris Rogers. Fifty in the first innings, and a double ton in the second! Everyone took wickets for the Aussies, Stuart MacGill a little pointlessly. Like we're going prepare pitches for their spinners. Weird attack for Leics. Ottis Gison, ex West Indies. Charl Willoughby who played for South Africa against England in 2003. Jason Krejza, from New South Wales. England under 19 bowlers John Maunders and Stuart Broad (son of Chris). And David Masters. Australia 582-7.

Umpires for the first Test: Aleem Dar and Rudy Koertzen. Hope they don't get pushed around by Ricky Ponting. Shut it, Ricky.
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Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby braveneutral » Fri Jul 17, 2015 7:59 pm

Players whose parent were pros and then go to officiate always tend to have an easier ride.
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I suppose.

At times.

Re: A Year of Thinking Positively.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Fri Jul 17, 2015 8:03 pm

Dunno. Can't see people holding Chris Broad's unpopularity in some parts of the world against his son. Who is a bowler, by the way, not an opening bat. Whether the arrogant entitlement got passed down in the genes, who knows.
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