Rage Online

How on earth did England win that? They struggle on for now.

Incredible. We can't play an easy match. We'll probably go and win it now.

Ha ha,

That's the conclusion of what must be the biggest curate's egg of a group from England ever - Madness!!

All eyes on SA and India now!!

&quotJohn Byrne's Underpants&quot wrote:How on earth did England win that? They struggle on for now.

Indeed, but inspiring nevertheless.

Maybe Oxford United can ‘do an England’ and just sneak in there in the next few weeks.

&quotSnake&quot wrote:

&quotJohn Byrne's Underpants&quot wrote:How on earth did England win that? They struggle on for now.

Indeed, but inspiring nevertheless.

Maybe Oxford United can ‘do an England’ and just sneak in there in the next few weeks.

If that's to be the case then we'll need candidates to fill our own KP role...who do we have that's outrageously talented yet daft as a tree and without even the first idea about application and how to make use of hog God-given gifts (and unavailable to us at the moment anyway).

LSD, anyone?

And the first semi finalists are Pakistan. Absolutely slaughtered the West Indies.

As much as I am enjoying the tournament, the powers that be should really get a proper Test World Cup sorted out. Top 8 teams in the world, free draw and straight knock-out format. Play all the quarter-finals concurrently, week break, then the 2 semi's, week break, then the final. All done and dusted in 5 weeks.

&quotSteMerritt&quot wrote:As much as I am enjoying the tournament, the powers that be should really get a proper Test World Cup sorted out. Top 8 teams in the world, free draw and straight knock-out format. Play all the quarter-finals concurrently, week break, then the 2 semi's, week break, then the final. All done and dusted in 5 weeks.

The powers that be won't countenance games being played concurrently though, as it drastically reduces TV income. That's why even the one-day version of the tournament is interminably long.

I feel I would have enjoyed this tournament more if I had Sky (obviously). But the BBC highlights are on too late, and are so short that you don't get a feel for what's going on in the game at all. It's just bish, bash, bosh. TMS (or whatever it's called for one day games) is doing a good job of conveying the excitement though. Listening to the England-West Indies game was incredibly tense.

&quotSteMerritt&quot wrote:As much as I am enjoying the tournament, the powers that be should really get a proper Test World Cup sorted out. Top 8 teams in the world, free draw and straight knock-out format. Play all the quarter-finals concurrently, week break, then the 2 semi's, week break, then the final. All done and dusted in 5 weeks.

Whilst I love the idea of a tournament that plays Test Cricket, how would you deal with the obvious draws? I haven't got the stats but would imagine that approx 40% of all test played are draws. Your format I presume is a best of one test match per round. In a one test shoot out each teams desire not to lose could increase the probability of the draw. There's a possibility that in a 7 match tournament about 4 games could be drawn.

I would have the tournament take much longer over a 3 test series in the Quarters and Semi's and a 5 test series in the Final

Draws, and the weather are the main problems. Add a standby 'sixth day'? Have an amended 'Duckworth Lewis' equation for test cricket?

I think that your guess at 40% ending in draws is probably high, I would put it closer to 20%, so it is more than likely that one would happen in the tournament, and this is something that would definitely have to be looked at. there was 1 draw in the recent Ashes series out of 5 (20%), and last summer in England the 6 tests against Bangladesh and Pakistan all played to a finish. Sub-continent, however, I expect the percentage is much higher.

The reason I selected a series of one-off test matches was because of the need to get the tournament done in a short time. If you had 3 and 5 match series as you progressed, it would mean 9 tests to win the tournament, which would take a whole summer.

Probably not workable is it

&quotSteMerritt&quot wrote:Draws, and the weather are the main problems. Add a standby 'sixth day'? Have an amended 'Duckworth Lewis' equation for test cricket?

I think that your guess at 40% ending in draws is probably high, I would put it closer to 20%, so it is more than likely that one would happen in the tournament, and this is something that would definitely have to be looked at. there was 1 draw in the recent Ashes series out of 5 (20%), and last summer in England the 6 tests against Bangladesh and Pakistan all played to a finish. Sub-continent, however, I expect the percentage is much higher.

The reason I selected a series of one-off test matches was because of the need to get the tournament done in a short time. If you had 3 and 5 match series as you progressed, it would mean 9 tests to win the tournament, which would take a whole summer.

Probably not workable is it

That concept is something that has moved on in the last decade or so along the lines of increasing the playing time in the next or current day to compensate for time lost due to our often crap UK climate. What is more interesting is the use of floodlights in twenty twenty competitions - so they can get around the problem so long as people turn up on the gate. However, cricket is about half a century behind football in this matter.

Anyway, such a shame about Australia’s defeat today (not) but given that the Sri Lanka QF game kicks off at 9 in the morning on Saturday it will help to pass the time during the pre-match build up in the pubs in Cardiff for people who follow both sports...

&quotSnake&quot wrote:

&quotSteMerritt&quot wrote:Draws, and the weather are the main problems. Add a standby 'sixth day'? Have an amended 'Duckworth Lewis' equation for test cricket?

I think that your guess at 40% ending in draws is probably high, I would put it closer to 20%, so it is more than likely that one would happen in the tournament, and this is something that would definitely have to be looked at. there was 1 draw in the recent Ashes series out of 5 (20%), and last summer in England the 6 tests against Bangladesh and Pakistan all played to a finish. Sub-continent, however, I expect the percentage is much higher.

The reason I selected a series of one-off test matches was because of the need to get the tournament done in a short time. If you had 3 and 5 match series as you progressed, it would mean 9 tests to win the tournament, which would take a whole summer.

Probably not workable is it

That concept is something that has moved on in the last decade or so along the lines of increasing the playing time in the next or current day to compensate for time lost due to our often crap UK climate. What is more interesting is the use of floodlights in twenty twenty competitions - so they can get around the problem so long as people turn up on the gate. However, cricket is about half a century behind football in this matter.

Anyway, such a shame about Australia’s defeat today (not) but given that the Sri Lanka QF game kicks off at 9 in the morning on Saturday it will help to pass the time during the pre-match build up in the pubs in Cardiff for people who follow both sports...

Do you have a particular pub in mind?

Err no - waiting for a txt on Saturday morning.

Ah, that well known South African song &quotLet's do the choke&quot.

Looks like England are already thinking that the 50 over game is on borrowed time!

In the end England got what they deserved. At least with such a defeat, it might make the 'powers that be' take a good long look at the set up of our one day (50 overs) team. Bowlers not good enough and, as much as his innings helped us to more 'respectable' scorelines, Trott isn't a one day player. Prior should be dropped (he won't be though), he has been abysmal with both bat and gloves.

I know they will probably use the excuse of the long Ashes tour and various injuries, and they may be valid points, but we've been a poor one day side for a while. More effort has gone into the 20/20 set up and I guess that's where they see the future, but for the time being the 50 over game remains and England need to deal with it.

Anyway, good luck to New Zealand