Same Result, Different Day

The Australian players make like it but it makes for pretty boring cricket. When they win all the time, it seems anti-climatic. This first happened with the Pakistanis who just about gave up and now the West Indies seem to be afflicted by the same thing.

Against Australia in Melbourne, they restricted Australia to a chaseable 256 but the West Indian batting was woeful. At 3/12 the game was basically over and then the last six wickets fell for 35 handing Australia a 114 run win.

The crowds are down and the public don’t seem to be into the 50 over game. You can’t really blame them when it’s so boring and predictable.

The Australians are playing good cricket – they can’t be questioned. They are batting, bowling and fielding well which is what you have to do in this level of the game. They are taking their catches and run-outs and that is just making the victory even more of a sure thing. Cricket betting is paying next to nothing for an Australian win.

Ryan Harris has come into the side and bowled fantastically well. Shane Watson is batting well as is Cameron White. Basically, everything Australia is trying is working well while the opposition can’t take a trick.
If Chris Gayle is going to make statements, that’s fine but he need to be able to back them up with the bat. Making a quick-fire 20 or 30 is neither here nor there. He needs to make a big hundred because it’s pretty clear that if he doesn’t fire the rest of the team is going to score runs.

There are four more of these matches followed by two Twenty20 games. Expect these to be sellouts, that is just the way things seem to be headed. This is especially the case if the last two games of the five 50 over games are dead rubbers.

For the West Indies, Kumar Roach and Kieron Pollard both bowled well in the opening game but honestly that would be the only positive to come out of the match.

What is the point of winning the toss and sending the opposition in if you restrict them to an ok score but then chase it down so pathetically? You would be far better off trying to post a score and then defend it.

Some things for Chris Gayle to think about ahead of the next game in Adelaide.

David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about AFL betting.

Final Countdown

England meet South Africa in the final test of their Test series while Australia meet Pakistan in the final one of theirs. The Australia-Pakistan one could have been an exciting finale had Pakistan closed it out in Sydney, but as we all know they collapsed, crashed and fell in a heap.

It is sad especially as they haven’t had much success in recent years and to win a Test in Australia would have been a big deal, instead they suffered the ultimate humiliation. Who knows how long they will need to recover from this – it could be a while.

So now the third Test in Hobart will be a team, insipid affair. Pakistan are in a no-win situation. If they do well, one will only wonder what could have happened if they held it together in Sydney. Now cricket betting doesn’t want to have anything to do with them and you can understand why.

South Africa will be wondering what-if after twice failing to take the 20th English wicket. So instead of being 2-1 up they head to the Wanderers 1-0 down. They have been the better more consistent side, but they haven’t been able to seal the deal. Graham Onions has thwarted them on two occasions and has turned into some sort of a batting hero.

Much in Johannesburg will come down to the toss. Just like at the Oval in the final Ashes test, both sides will desperately want to win the toss and bat first. Even more so England who only need to draw to win the series. If they can bat first and post 500, the Test is as good as over. It will be incredibly difficult for South Africa to bat last on that pitch trying to chase down a score. The draw won’t be any good for them so they will only be focused on having to score those runs.

For England things seem to be going quite well with Alastair Cook and Ian Bell now starting to score runs. Now only if Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen can come to the party and also do so. For the hosts, they will be looking for Ashwell Prince and JP Duminy to find some batting form. Either way it should be a fascinating test. If anything is like how the series be to date, it will be riveting drama.

David Wiseman writes for this blog and the Australian Open.

Interesting Times In World Cricket

Those people who say Test cricket is dead don’t know what they are talking about. Some fantastic cricket is being played and cricket at that which is far more entertaining than the cricket which was being played 20 or 30 years ago. Crowds may be not but millions are watching online and on TV.

There is no doubt that Australia isn’t the same dominant side it once was. This makes for a much more even contest and in turn more entertaining viewing. They don’t have it their own way, especially without Shane Warne. They are finding it significantly harder to bowl out sides without Warne and their best replacement in Nathan Hauritz isn’t actually that good.

Likewise their batting isn’t at the same level when the likes of David Boon and the Waugh brothers were playing. Michael Clarke is playing well but Michael Hussey is shaky. Marcus North looks so-so and then just when you think he is finished, he scores a century. Cricket betting has no idea what to make of him.

Pakistan are really going to test them and it should be a fascinating series. First of all they will feel much happier about playing at the big grounds such as Sydney and Melbourne. They have played twice there in the last 20 years. This was after playing there four times between 1977 and 1983. Only Ricky Ponting and Clarke remain from that side.

England will be thankful for a draw against South Africa but it should have never been that close in the first place. They didn’t play good cricket and were made to pay for it with that scare at the end. The fact of the matter is they should have been more aggressive on the fifth day and tried to go for the win. That would have put South Africa on the back foot.

What were the other problems? Winning the toss and then not batting and making first use of the wicket. What about the selection of Ian Bell? Additionally Alistair Cook is clearly in a form slump. With Andrew Strauss not scoring runs either it puts enormous pressure on the trio of Pietersen, Trott and Collingwood.

The bowlers were ok but nothing special, but then again this is what they did against Australia in the Ashes. Be average one game and then take eight wickets in a session the next. All in all it sets it up for an exciting second Test in Durban.

David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about the Australian Open.

Murphy’s Law

It seems pretty hard to do but the ICC is making a hash of the video technology. You wouldn’t have though it impossible but that’s what happening. Umpires with the full use of hot-spot, hawkeye and all of the other gadgets and gizmos are making a complete mess of it.

Really it isn’t that hard. If a decision is referred to you, you have a look at it and if there is overwhelmingly evidence that the decision on the field is wrong you overturn it. If not, you allow the decision on the field to stand. The players don’t know what to make of it. Cricket betting is confused and so are others.

Regardless of where the umpire is located – whether it is in the middle or in the video booth, the same principles have to be applied and that is common sense. Sadly this seems to have been lost when it comes to the decision making process by the men in the middle.

It isn’t cricket but take the recent Ireland – France World Cup qualifier. The Irish players instantly protested the French goal. They all went up as one and it was a violent, aggrieved protest. It was arrogance by Swedish referee Martin Hansson not to think something was amiss. Players don’t react like this simply when a goal is scored or when things don’t go their way. They only act like this when they genuinely feel they have been aggrieved. That something horribly wrong has happened.

So Hansson should have spoken to his linesmen and then to Thierry Henry. That would have sorted out a lot of problems and Hansson would have universally been lauded as a referee who used and applied common sense. Instead he is a pariah and a laughing stock.

It isn’t easy to be a cricket umpire. Players go up for everything and believe its always out and by the same taken batsman don’t walk. If it was a gentleman’s game it would be far easier on the umpires.
One possible solution is to do away with appealing altogether. Why is it necessary?  The umpire should be able to adjudicate it is out regardless of someone from the feeling side asking the question. The elimination of all of the incessant appeals would make their job a lot easier.

The video-technology should assist umpires in moments they have made lapses but you would hope that this results in the correct decision being reached. For some reason, the video umpire often gets it wrong and most of the time it seems to be when Australia is playing.

David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about harness betting.

India’s Future tour Programme

India got to play only two test series in the whole of 2009. There are rumours doing the rounds that India might not get to play a test match before the 2011 World Cup and that will make it difficult for them to retain their recently acquired #1 test ranking.

However, a peek into the ICC FTP website and the Cricinfo website provides the following information:

India will play two test matches against Bangladesh in December 09-January 10. This tournament has been confirmed by the Bangladesh Cricket Board. The tigers have been playing well under Shakib-al-Hasan and this series should test India more than ever before. This will be the right time to test Rohit Sharma/Virat Kohli and co in the middle order and give Sachin and Laxman some rest. But it is highly unlikely to happen.

South Africa are slated to play 3 test matches in India in February 2010. However, there has been no official confirmation from the ICC and the test series is yet to be scheduled. The 5 match ODI series is, however, certain to happen.

India are scheduled to tour Zimbabwe to play a two test match series in May 2010. This series in in doubt as no major international teams barring Sri Lanka have toured Zimbabwe in the recent past. Considering the lack of commercial interest for this series, there is a chance that this series might as well be scrapped.

India will host New Zealand in a 3 test series in November 2010, a series that is yet to be confirmed.

So at this moment, we can safely say that India’s tour to Bangladesh is the only test series that India will get to play in the near future.