The more I see Australia play and less I hear them talk I have to admit that they deserve to take this cup ..... until I switch back to watching Murali. Then the intellect is quietly packed away and pure emotion taketh over..... GO SRI LANKA... do the unthinkable (and probably undoable).
More realistically speaking, if there is a team that can at least pose a few questions it is them. SL has to play first, score 250+ and then quickly dismiss Ponting (it doesn't matter who gets out first Gilchrist or Hayden). Then at least they build pressure. Obviously, the game would not be over still but with Murali tightening the screws and Malinga providing the variety there is a good chance for Sri Lanka.
It is not my bias, I don't think Australia bowled exceptionally well during the semis. It was more a case of self-destruction from SA. Definitely it is not easy to score 300 with Australia, but teams other than SL have such a mediocre bowling attack that they had no option but to try and perish in that effort. The most underrated bowler in this tournament is Brad Hogg and during the Sri Lankan innings it would be crucial that their batsmen give him the due respect. I have a feeling that if the SL batting collapses it would be more due to Hogg than the other bowlers. Tait has been improving each game, it is amazing how the Australians are always improving.
The umpiring standard in the first semi-final was atrocious. The two decisions, one thick inside edge and the second leaving the leg stump by miles were really bad. Thank god the umpires were not Asian, otherwise there would have been snide comments from the chatteratti about Asain capabilities.
Peter Roebuck had written an atrocious article in which he says "Pakistan must be banned from international cricket for five years. If Bob Woolmer was indeed murdered by corrupt players, then they should be ousted for a decade. What has been their contribution since Imran Khan left the scene? Ball tampering, match fixing, zealotry, chucking, steroid taking and tantrum throwing."
If you look at the list of litanies probably every one of these accusations (what does he mean zealotry? growing beards?) applies to one or another Australian player in some point of time. Warne was suspended for drug abuse, Warne again for match fixing along with Mark Waugh, Lee's and Tait's fast balls are as close as Akhtar's in terms of action. Ball tampering charges were not proved, does he read the papers at all. In the recent debacle in England, Pakistan had come clean! Such unabashed racism! In a world where winning is all that matters, if Australia behaved the same way in the pitch as they do now and were losing, people would have come down heavily on them for their on field behavior.
May be they should have a coaching session from Roger Federer on behavior, on and off the field. Good behavior doesn't mean that you are loser. I guess if they stop aping the US and start getting an identity of their own they might improve in that department.
(Is all this griping a question of sour grapes? :) )
3 comments:
ah. finally i'm that one annoying guy who supports the team everyone loves to hate, and wins.
PODOLSKIIIII
[ludwig]
Unlike Podolski fans you don't have to try hard being annoying....
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I did not see much of the world cup. But the impression I get from reading about the matches is that it was pretty stale; only a few matches were closely fought and most (except India and Pakistan's perfromance) had predictable outcome. It is probably a good time to ponder and conclude that cricket is losing its luster and a handful of quality players are entering the game. We need a global academy that will need to be created to raise the overall quality of the game, where players of Ranji or even college level would be given a chance to train at a global forum. I think seggregating the teams by country is too outdated; even in football a large number of players mingle with others via club teams.
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