ICC Champions Trophy

[Ian J]

The Australians are on their way and we've had the Last Night of the Proms so summer must now be over

It's been a long hard summer for both Australia and England and after last night's match in Durham both teams have to hare down to Heathrow to catch a plane to South Africa where neither of us will have time to acclimatize or play any warm up games as we are straight into a competitive fixture against Sri Lanka on Thursday.

The scheduling of international cricket matches seems to be getting more and more ridiculous as everything is done to chase the last pound of income with no thought for the quality of cricket on display.

Really and truly who cares about the ICC Champions Trophy as in my opinion all it does is cheapens the World Cup as well as risk injury to players who will be unable to play in more important games. Would Flintoff and Pietersen be on the sick list now if they hadn't been chasing the dollar in the IPL ?

[mrtbag]

Here's the schedule (and my predictions, our guys fly home on the 30th!!).

22rd September South Africa V Sri Lanka
23rd September Pakistan v West Indies
24th September South Africa V New Zealand
25th September Sri Lanka v England
26th September West Indies v Australia
26th September India V Pakistan
27th September New Zealand v Sri Lanka
27th September South Africa v England
28th September Australia v India
29th September England v New Zealand
30th September Australia v Pakistan
30th September India v West Indies

[wiser1]

India vs Pakistan 26th
India Will win

England and Austrailia will find it hard especially having played throughout the summer
and yeah i agree the Cricket calender is getting out of control, i thought cricket was just a summer game oh well

[leej]

It is just another one day knock up, meaning not a great deal in the scheme of things but I don't mind it being on just for the chance of watching some great players play like Afridi and Singh. Trouble comes when they don't produce and the games just plod along.

Anything can happen in these type of matches and now we are on a roll it could just be our tournament. Probably need to bowl the opposition out for under 200 in every game though.

[hemanthjava]

Well Tom is the day for the CT 2009 to begin.. Pretty eagerly waiting for it....

Personally for me,, I want Mera desh mahan - India to win the Trophy. But their performance in the warm up match was terrible. I mean everyone has so much hopes on them... Well its a bit of luck you know...

Now I think, Pakistan is one team which might be on everyone's mind as they are on a winning spree. They have already won 2 CT 2009 Warm Up Matches and all geared up for Champions 2009 Tournament...

[Miyazaki]

Originally Posted by wiser1

India vs Pakistan 26th
India Will win

England and Austrailia will find it hard especially having played throughout the summer
and yeah i agree the Cricket calender is getting out of control, i thought cricket was just a summer game oh well

Trouble is its winter here when its summer down under! Its always summer somewhere and in some hot places its always summer!

[leej]

Shots get copied by other players all the time. For example, Pietersons left handed shot is now copied by many. I haven't however seen anyone try that amazing shot that Dilshan plays. He is pure quality.

We are going to have to bowl really really really well on Friday to avoid a hammering.

[cheekyboy_123]

Looks like Pakistan are giving the West Indian's a spanking..
At this point its 51/7 (after 16 overs)......
And this is without Mohammed Asif playing!

This group is going to be tight, and i think the teams need to think about net run rates - Pakistan off to a flyer!

Saying that, they are the most unpredictable team in the tournament and i would be surprised if the collapse during their batting stint!

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by cheekyboy_123

Looks like Pakistan are giving the West Indian's a spanking..

Let's not forget that the West Indian team comprises kids and reserves as the big boys are in a contract dispute with their board and I would expect every country playing to soundly thrash them

[leej]

Glad you mentioned that Ian, saves me googling why the West Indies played a team I'd mostly never heard of.

Originally Posted by cheekyboy_123

Saying that, they are the most unpredictable team in the tournament and i would be surprised if the collapse during their batting stint!

I bet you was twitching there for a while.

[Speedoguy]

Sri Lanka 7-2 with Onions & in particular Anderson bowling a great openeing spell. Seems a great toss for us to have won and so far making the most of it.

Pretty poor crowd from what I can see.

Was surprised that England were at best 2/1 with some bookies earlier but maybe they knew something I didn't.

[cheekyboy_123]

woah...England off to a flyer also - Sri Lanka now 43/4 (11 overs)...
Looks like the favourites are going to lose this one..unless there is some dramatic recovery..

[JohnG]

Looks like we've not lost the knack of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

[Ian J]

I haven't watched any of this game but reading the commentary on Cricinfo they are slating Strauss for poor captaincy as he took Anderson off when he was on fire. Just imagine what could have happened if he took another quick wicket or two

[leej]

Originally Posted by Ian J

.... slating Strauss for poor captaincy as he took Anderson off when he was on fire.

We've made the same error that Afridi did the other day, the only difference being the Sri Lankan lower order are better than the West Indies and our bowling was very poor.

Scared to go and watch our innings but here we go....