2019 Cricket All-Rounder Thread

MiracleOfO2704

not AWOL
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Jul 12, 2005
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This is shaping up to be a busy year for English Cricket.

The Red Sox will be playing the Yankees at London Stadium June 29 and 30. Part of me wondered why they wouldn't play at one of the hallowed cricket grounds in London, such as The Oval or Lord's. It turns out that one of those grounds will be busy during those two days, and generally well-used all summer.

First, the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup:

-This year, it's hosted by England, and will use the best known cricket grounds they have to offer, including the aforementioned Lord's and Oval in London, Old Trafford in Manchester (the football stadium doesn't convert, they just have two different stadia with the same name), Edgbaston in Birmingham, Trent Bridge in Nottingham, and other smaller grounds that get used from time to time. They'll also have some matches in Wales (Cardiff's Sophia Gardens), but the Welsh cricket team won't get the same automatic invite to the tournament both Australia and New Zealand did four years ago when they co-hosted because, well, no one in Wales seems to give a crap about cricket.

-The tournament will feature 10 teams in one group instead of 14 in 2 as in prior years, and the knockout stage will just be a semifinal-to-final bracket. This means we're less likely to get the big stories like Ireland 2011 this time around, since they're not coming, and also since the 10 teams represent the top 10 ranked ODI teams. In other words, no one's coming out of nowhere to surprise because the teams that are there are basically supposed to be there. Granted, Afghanistan may have been bumped up to make it look better, but considering the other qualifier is the West Indies, I'm pretty sure it didn't matter who the tenth team was going to be.

-As it gets closer, I'll try to learn and then teach the difference between Test cricket (the 5-day matches) and ODI (One Day International), but I can point out that there will be visual differences from Test cricket that has nothing to do with rules. The ball will be white instead of the traditional red to make it more visible for night matches, and the teams will wear coloured kits with names and numbers (remember that last part, we'll talk about it again a little later).

This year, we'll see:
-Australia (defending champion)
-England (host nation)
-Pakistan
-India
-Bangladesh
-Sri Lanka
-Afghanistan
-South Africa
-New Zealand
-West Indies

All squads

First match will be England v. South Africa at the Oval on 30 May, with the final on 14 July at Lord's. Like the ODI rules, I'll edit this post to include links to the teams when May starts.

After that, England and Australia will be engaging in the most well-known Test series in cricket: The Ashes.

We've had threads for prior Ashes, both in Australia and in England, so I'm sure the history is well-covered ground by now. Last time out, the Aussies retook the Ashes at home, winning the series 4-0 and missing out on a chance at a whitewash only because of rain on Day 4 at Melbourne (insert SydneySox comment slagging Victoria...here). Here's how it looks this year:

-1-5 August at Edgbaston, Birmingham
-14-18 August at Lord's
-22-26 August at Headingley, Leeds
-4-8 September at Old Trafford (the other one), Manchester
-12-16 September at The Oval

The two sides are right next to each other in the Test rankings, and if everything holds to form, England will win back the Ashes, something like 3-1. We'll see soon enough, though.

Oh, I almost forgot: England and Australia will have numbers and letters on their Test whites.
 
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DJnVa

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For those so inclined there's a cool behind the scenes doc on Netflix called Cricket Fever about the Mumbai Indians and the 2018 IPL season.
 

SydneySox

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The difference between Test and One Day cricket is akin to saying a MLB game is too long so they made it 4 innings, limited each pitcher to 1 inning each and put them on a pitch count, as well as tightening the strike zone and penalising every ball with a free base to force pitchers to throw the ball into the strike zone in an effort to increase the swings and home runs.

It would be exciting for the kids and the casuals watching each team crush dingers in games that would run into scores of 38-20, and many increasingly distanced old-timers would lament what was happening to the game as young players changed their approach just to load up and crush pitches in the zone and young pitchers were turned into batting practice.

Then someone would come up with a 2 inning version later and all hell would break loose.
 

SydneySox

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A couple of things worth mentioning in your post.

The Welsh don't have a national team because anyone good plays for England, which is typical of the Welsh. The English cricket team has always been a joke, full of international players from vaguely Commonwealth countries like South Africa and New Zealand. Nationality is a funny thing but if England actually played English players instead of sort-of-Great Britain then they'd be far less successful.

Secondly, the Australian team was announced yesterday and sadly as expected, Warner and Smith were included. Smith, I think was to be welcomed back, but Warner is a stain on Australian cricket and I'd hoped without expectation that he would never play in the green and gold ever again.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Jul 12, 2005
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The difference between Test and One Day cricket is akin to saying a MLB game is too long so they made it 4 innings, limited each pitcher to 1 inning each and put them on a pitch count, as well as tightening the strike zone and penalising every ball with a free base to force pitchers to throw the ball into the strike zone in an effort to increase the swings and home runs.
This isn't exactly that far off.

So Test cricket is five days, three sessions a day, and only weather can change that. Bowlers can work as many overs as the captain wants him to, and if that means a guy has thrown 100 overs in an innings, so be it.

ODI, on the other hand, kinda isn't the same game at all.

For starters, instead of the traditional red ball and white uniforms with only the country badge and your place in the all-time sequence, ODIs use a white ball and the kits are a little more soccer, with teams picking colours that represent their country, a kit sponsor (though I honestly can't remember if the kit sponsors stay for major tournaments like the World Cup), and names and numbers of the players' choosing on the back. So already, it doesn't look like cricket. Then we get into the gameplay.

ODIs are meant to last about 6 hours or so, so they're still all-day affairs, just not all-week. Each side bats for 50 overs barring weather (I'm not discussing DLS), and the team with more runs after the innings wins. In an effort to do...something...bowlers are limited to 10 overs in a match, so you can't just run your best bowler out there for 20-25 overs to keep runs down.

Then there are the powerplays. Even since I started following the game about 10 years ago, this has changed. Rather than go into the history, I'll explain what they are today. An additional marking on the field for ODIs is an oval, which is really a pair of circles with a 30y radius centred on each wicket, then the gaps between the circles filled in to form the oval. For the first 10 overs, all but two of the fielders have to be inside the circle. From Overs 11 to 40, there can be four outfielders. For the last 10 overs, five outfielders are permitted. The goal, as Syd implied, is to swing for the fences. It's why a normal ODI score can have more runs than a Test innings, and certainly with a higher strike rate.

And just because I know it'll give Syd chest pains, they've created T10 cricket.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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And since we're a few days in, I'll use this post to slip the scores in from each day's play.

May 30 - The Oval
England 311/8 (50)
South Africa 207 (39.5) - England win by 104 runs

May 31 - Trent Bridge
West Indies 108/3 (13.4)
Pakistan 105 (21.4) - Windies win by 7 wickets

June 1 - Cardiff Stadium
New Zealand 137/0 (16.1)
Sri Lanka 136 (29.2) - New Zealand win by 10 wickets

Bristol County Ground
Afghanistan 207 (38.2)
Australia 209/3 (34.5) - Australia win by 7 wickets

June 2 - The Oval
South Africa 309/8 (50)
Bangladesh 330/6 (50) - Bangladesh wins by 21 runs

June 3 - Trent Bridge
England 334/9 (50)
Pakistan 348/8 (50) - Pakistan wins by 14 runs

June 4 - Cardiff Stadium
Sri Lanka 201 (36.5)
Afghanistan 152 (32.4) - Sri Lanka wins by 34 runs (Duckworth-Lewis-Stern adjusted target: 187 in 41 overs)

June 5 - Hampshire Bowl
South Africa
India

The Oval
Bangladesh
New Zealand

June 6 - Trent Bridge
Australia
West Indies

June 7 - Bristol County Ground
Pakistan
Sri Lanka

June 8 - Cardiff Stadium
England
Bangladesh

County Ground Taunton
Afghanistan
New Zealand

June 9 - The Oval
India
Australia

June 10 - Hampshire Bowl
South Africa
West Indies

June 11 - Bristol County Ground
Bangladesh
Sri Lanka

June 12 - County Ground Taunton
Australia
Pakistan

June 13 - Trent Bridge
India
New Zealand

June 14 - Hampshire Bowl
England
West Indies

June 15 - The Oval
Sri Lanka
Australia

Cardiff Stadium
South Africa
Afghanistan

June 16 - Old Trafford
India
Pakistan

June 17 - County Ground Taunton
West Indies
Bangladesh

June 18 - Old Trafford
England
Afghanistan

June 19 - Edgbaston
New Zealand
South Africa

June 20 - Trent Bridge
Australia
Bangladesh

June 21 - Headingley
England
Sri Lanka

June 22 - Hampshire Bowl
India
Afghanistan

Old Trafford
West Indies
New Zealand

June 23 - Lord's
Pakistan
South Africa

June 24 - Hampshire Bowl
Bangladesh
Afghanistan

June 25 - Lord's
England
Australia

June 26 - Edgbaston
New Zealand
Pakistan

June 27 - Old Trafford
West Indies
India

June 28 - The Riverside
Sri Lanka
South Africa

June 29 - Headingley
Pakistan
Afghanistan

Lord's
New Zealand
Australia

June 30 - Edgbaston
England
India

July 1 - The Riverside
Sri Lanka
West Indies

July 2 - Edgbaston
Bangladesh
India

July 3 - The Riverside
England
New Zealand

July 4 - Headingley
Pakistan
West Indies

July 5 - Lord's
Pakistan
Bangladesh

July 6 - Headingley
Sri Lanka
India

Old Trafford
Australia
South Africal


July 9 - Old Trafford
Semifinal #1 - 1st vs. 4th

July 11- Edgbaston
Semifinal #2 - 2nd vs 3rd

July 14 - Lord's
Final
 
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So, nobody but me seems to have cared about by far the best World Cup Final (and quite possibly the best ODI ever), or Ireland almost winning a test match at Lord's before getting bowled out for 38 in their second innings. But the Ashes start on Thursday, which is nice. England is clearly on a post-World Cup downer and has no red-ball opening batsman fit to carry Alastair Cook's jock strap. Australia seems to have plenty of messes of their own, but I'm sure Syd can chronicle them better than me. How I miss 2005...but still, it's the Ashes.
 

SydneySox

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The ODI final was classic One day cricket - a complete mess.

The Ashes is amazing. Very excited. Australia's test team is a mess. Our bowling is still great but our top order is a joke. Warner is a horrible person but may provide stability. But we could be 5/40 quite easily. Still, the Ashes is the best.
 

Ramon AC

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Apr 19, 2002
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So, nobody but me seems to have cared about by far the best World Cup Final (and quite possibly the best ODI ever)
Recently I went on vacation with my wife to a place where cricket, and lots of it, was on tv. We watched some and I learned the basic rules again and taught myself a little how to read the numbers and stats on the screen during a match.

Then I saw your post from July 14 and I went and watched the highlights. I've been meaning to come back in here and mention how unlike any other cricket I have ever seen that last over was. The result came down to, for lack of a better word, base running and a play at the plate. I didn't know that stuff even happened in cricket, I thought the light jogging from station to station was all for show and tradition.

In a game based largely on aggregate performance, it was amazing to see one specific game-state event matter so much.
 

Joe D Reid

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Syd is apparently going to be too well-mannered to note that Australia won the first Ashes test today, coming from behind when England's second innings collapsed into a pool of Pimm's and regret.
 
England collapsed, but a collapse is what the pressure of Australia's second innings was always likely to encourage. Too many England players are out of form and/or out of the habits of red-ball cricket, and it showed...and one of ones who wasn't either of those things injured himself on the first morning after bowling only four overs. After one test, England seems to have traded an Ashes defeat for a World Cup victory; I'd have probably taken that trade if offered before the start of the summer, as would the entire ECB hierarchy, but unless the test side can regroup quickly, that's the only way this series is going to end.

And Steve Smith is one hell of a batsman.
 

SydneySox

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Syd is apparently going to be too well-mannered to note that Australia won the first Ashes test today, coming from behind when England's second innings collapsed into a pool of Pimm's and regret.
One test doesn't an Ashes make, especially when you take away Steve Smith invincibility.

But it was incredibly satisfying!
 

SydneySox

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Sep 19, 2005
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England collapsed, but a collapse is what the pressure of Australia's second innings was always likely to encourage. Too many England players are out of form and/or out of the habits of red-ball cricket, and it showed...and one of ones who wasn't either of those things injured himself on the first morning after bowling only four overs. After one test, England seems to have traded an Ashes defeat for a World Cup victory; I'd have probably taken that trade if offered before the start of the summer, as would the entire ECB hierarchy, but unless the test side can regroup quickly, that's the only way this series is going to end.
This is one sided. Australia minus Smith were also terrible.

Root can always pull a similar batting act and the kiwi is as annoying a batsman in world cricket as Dave Warner.

England also played the entire test with two pace bowlers. Plus Ali who is very very bad at cricket.

Our bowling is better than England but the batting is much worse - if Steve Smith doesn't pull off the impossible this is a different series and will be going forward.