T20, List A, and ODIs, Oh My: The Cricket Thread (No, Not That Kind of Cricket)

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Oooo...I saw this yesterday and was going to post here. That's crazy; 31 runs in the final over to win.

Could anyone explain the deal with the yorkers? When watching/studying the BBL & PSL, it seemed to be the de facto effective bowling attack to aid the bowler and make life difficult for the batsman.

But in the IPL, I've seen virtually no discussion about effectively using yorkers.

To me, it makes more sense to vary between full toss, yorker, slot, length, etc. but I'm still brand new to the sport.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

Think of normal length deliveries as your standard four-seamer. For pace bowlers, this will keep the ball low enough to prevent sixes, while giving the ball time to move after the bounce to force a weak edge. Yorkers would be the change-up, an alteration of the eye level that can fool a batsman. However, misuse of a Yorker leads to…that. Those three Yorkers were the bowling equivalent of three change-ups right down the middle, only a handful of miles per hour off the fastball. He then followed up with two short deliveries (my analogy would be a curveball, as the ball’s speed after the bounce is going to be a bit lower) that sat up perfectly for the batsman.

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Perfect, @MiracleOfO2704, makes sense now, thanks!

Amazing ending about an hour ago between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants.

RCB had 212/2 and LSG were to try to chase it down.

It got to the point where LSG needed 1 run to win with 1 ball left. Then craziness ensued:

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/Cricketinout/status/1645489321447919616

A missed Mankad attempt: the bowler had the batsman dead to rights, & just missed hitting the wickets to end the game in regulation equal. Then on the next ball, the batsman misses but both batters sprint to their stumps anyway. RCB bobble the ball and LSG score the run they needed to win by 1 wicket, 213/9.

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Amazing ending in the Rajasthan Royals - Sunrisers Hyderabad a few hours ago in the IPL:

RR finished their innings with 214/2 and now it was SRH's turn to chase it down.

With 1 ball left, SRH had 210/6, and needed a 4-boundary to take it to super overs, and needed a 6 to win outright.

Abdul Samad, the batsman, goes for a 6 but comes up just short and lost his wicket. The game is over, and RR win by 4 runs.

But wait: the siren sounds; it is a NB! Sandeep Sharma bowls over the line and SRH get a second chance with the extra ball, inching 1 run closer to the goal.

Now needing a 4-boundary to win, Samad steps up to the stumps again. Sharma bowls the ball, and Samad hits it out for a 6!

SRH win by 4 wickets, 217/6 to 214/2.

IPL's table is really close; 5 teams are all within 1 points of each other to chase the 4-and-final playoff spot, yet still half of a season remains.

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Match 65 in the IPL just concluded, Royal Challengers Bangalore vs. Sunrisers Hyderabad.

RCB won the toss and elected to bowl first. SRH put up a decent fight after a sluggish start. Led by Heinrich Klaasen's (wk) 104(51), S/R 203.92, SRH put up 186/5.

RCB needed to chase in the 2nd innings to keep their playoff push upward; Virat Kohli & Faf du Plessis (c) set the tone early, with a partnership of 171(110). Neither lost their wicket until VK went out at 17.5 O. Faf fell at 18.2.

VK went 100(63), S/R 158.73, and Faf went 71(47), S/R 151.06.

With both VK and Heinrich Klaasen enjoying a century, it was the 1st time in IPL history both sides had a player to hit for a century. Neat stuff.

RCB made good work to see the game through, although there were a few moments of uncertainty.

All sides have played 13 matches, and all have 1 remaining.

The shape of the playoff picture (top 4 reach playoffs):

Team	Wins	Losses	Net Run Rate	Points
Gujarat Titans	9	4	+0.835	18
Chennai Super Kings	7	5	+0.381	15
Lucknow Super Giants	7	5	+0.304	15
Royal Challengers Bangalore	7	6	+0.180	14
Mumbai Indians	7	6	-0.128	14
Rajasthan Royals	6	7	+0.140	12
Kolkata Knight Riders	6	7	-0.256	12
Punjab Kings XI	6	7	-0.308	12

The remaining 2 teams: Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad are eliminated. GT have locked up their #1 Qualifier seed, while CSK, LSG, RCB, & MI are all feasibly fighting for 2-4. It would be a miracle/tall task for RR, KKR, and especially PBKS to make the playoffs, however they are not mathematically eliminated quite yet.

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Match 70 has ended, & thus, the regular season.

Since the last post, Rajasthan, Chennai, Lucknow, & Mumbai were all victors. LSG were able to *just* hang on against KKR, while CSK handily beat DC by 77 runs.

It all came down to today: MI won against SRH to put pressure on RCB, who needed to win also to claim the 4th-&-final spot. RCB finished with 197/5, with GT set to chase.

Behind Shubman Gill's century, 108/52*, GT won by 6 wickets, 198/2 to 197/5. VK's 101/61* was not enough for RCB. BTW, another duelling centuries for batsmen on both sides of a match!

Final standings:

Gujarat Titans	10	4	+0.809	20
Chennai Super Kings	8	5	+0.652	17
Lucknow Super Giants	8	5	+0.284	17
Mumbai Indians	8	6	-0.044	16
Rajasthan Royals	7	7	+0.148	14
Royal Challengers Bangalore	7	7	+0.135	14
Kolkata Knight Riders	6	8	-0.239	12
Punjab Kings	6	8	-0.304	12
Delhi Capitals	5	9	-0.808	10
Sunrisers Hyderabad	4	10	-0.590	8

Playoff picture set:

1st qualifier:
GT vs. CSK, 23 May, 07:30pm IST (10:00am ET)

Eliminator:
LSG vs. MI, 24 May, 07:30pm IST (10:00am ET)

2nd qualifier:
Loser of 1Q vs. Winner of Eliminator, 26 May, 07:30pm IST (10:00am ET)

Final:
Winner of 1Q vs. Winner of 2Q, 28 May, 07:30pm IST (10:00am ET)

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

This is a month old, but Stuart Broad’s an idiot.

'But in my mind I don't class that as a real Ashes. The definition of Ashes cricket is elite sport with lots of passion and players at the top of their game. Nothing about that series was high level performance because of the Covid restrictions. The training facilities, the travel, not being able to socialise. I've written it off as a void series.'

And Mitchell Starc has receipts:

“The Poms had the pool, the gym, they were in a resort on the Gold Coast, they trained at Metricon [now known as Heritage Bank Stadium], weren’t confined to their rooms and had their families there.

“Was that really quarantine? They were still allowed to play golf on tour. Is that an excuse for 4-0? Dunno. It was a pretty good series to be a part of.”

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

The IPL Final is in a current raindelay, so might as well update to how we got here.

1st qualifier:
GT vs. CSK, 23 May, 07:30pm IST (10:00am ET)

CSK went to bat first and put up 172/7, led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, an opening batsman. 60(44). With a partnership with Devon Conway's 40(34), they managed a century, but CSK had their work cut out for them. Next highest run getter was all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja ('Jaddu') at 22(16). After an OK innings, GT were set to chase and the Final berth certainly looked to be theirs.

With a captaincy masterclass of MS Dhoni (who seems to have annual retirement rumours), GT managed only 157 (all out). For CSK, Deepak Chahar, Maheesh Theekshana, Ravindra Jadeja, & Matheesha Pathirana all captured 2 wickets each. The most expensive economy rate of these 4 was the latter with 9.25. Truly a job well done from the bowlers & Thala.

On the GT side of the scorecard, Purple Cap candidates Mohammad Shami, Rashid Khan, & Mohit Sharma captured 2 wickets for 7.00 ER, 1 for 9.25, & 2 for 7.75, respectively.

Orange cap candidate (at this point in the season) Shubman Gill for GT batted 42(38) before being caught out from Devon Conway from Deepak Chahar's ball.

CSK won by 15 runs and advanced to the Final.

Eliminator:
LSG vs. MI, 24 May, 07:30pm IST (10:00am ET)

This was a blowout. MI won by 81 runs: 182/8 to 101 (all out). Player of the match was Akash Madhwal, who had a tremendous 5 wicket haul in 3.3 O, allowing only 5 runs for a ridiculous 1.42 economy.

Cameron Green chipped in with 41(23) for MI, and SKY (Suryakumar Yadav) helped himself to 33(20).

MI moved on to play against GT in the 2nd qualifier, while LSG were eliminated.

2nd qualifier:
MI won the toss but chose to chase, with long-time captain Rohit Sharma believing the weather conditions would allow the pitch to help yield more runs as the match went on. However, GT put up a convincing 234, led by the aforementioned Shubman Gill's 129(60). With his masterclass performance, he catapulted himself firmly into Orange Cap (most runs) territory for the season.

Needing to chase 234, MI had a tall task ahead of them. With Mohit Sharma's 5-wicket haul in just 2.2 O allowing only 10 runs, he saw to it that MI were not advancing and MI were limited to 171 (all out).

The Final is set to be a rematch of the 1st qualifier: GT/CSK in Ahmedabad.

The current rain delay means there might be a makeup day tomorrow (29 May, Monday).

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

A couple of finals to mention here:

The IPL final between Chennai Super Kings & Gujarat Titans finished on Monday, 29 May. CSK won by 5 wickets thanks to DLS method: 171/5 (15.0 O) to 214/4 (20.0 O). It came down to the last ball: needing 4, Jaddu delivered by hitting a boundary behind the ball stump & crowning CSK champions. Just before that, he hit a 6.

CSK won their 5th championship, joint-most in the league with their archrival Mumbai Indians. Immediately after, CSK captain MS Dhoni announced his retirement Mark Recchi-style.

The test cricket World Cup Final finished with Australia defeating India by 209 runs: 469 & 270/8 (205.6 O) to 296 & 234 (132.7).

Question for @MiracleOfO2704 &/or @swiftaw, it seems that the maximum amount of overs in test cricket is 650? But how is it determined how many will actually play out if a side doesn't get all out? Is this something determined at the start of an innings? I hardly got to watch any of the Final.

Take Australia's 2. Innings, they stopped at 270/8, even though they batted 1st. They could've kept going until that 650 limit or once they would've been all out? Then of course, India's turn to bat.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

There’s technically no limit to how many overs there are in Test cricket, outside of the time constraints of the three sessions a day over five days. In theory, if all four batting innings ended at stumps, lunch, or tea, a modern Test match should only have 450 overs (30 overs per session, 3 sessions per day), but lots of things can pull it from that number, and very few of them toward a figure higher than that.

As far as the strategy of declaring goes (because that’s what the Aussies did in their first innings), it’s a balancing act between scoring as many runs as possible in your batting innings and leaving enough time to take the oppositions’ 20 wickets. I posted the video of India’s comeback from the follow-on against Australia at Kolkata in 2001, and within it, the Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly, took a heap of criticism in the moment for keeping his batsmen in the crease so deep on Day 5, leaving his bowlers only two full sessions to take all 10 Australian wickets. It worked because of the stellar spin bowling of Harbhajan Singh, but that is why sides will declare well before the tail comes to the crease.

In the Test championship’s case, the Australian captain obviously believed that India couldn’t score the ~500 runs needed to win, so best give his bowling attack as much time to take the 10 wickets as he can. The marginal gain of another 30-40 runs from, by that time, mostly bowlers was outweighed by an extra session for said same bowlers to do what they do best.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

Also, that was the lead-in to the Ashes. They start Friday. That was quick.

Friday, June 16-Tuesday, June 20: Edgbaston, Birmingham

Wednesday, June 28-Sunday, July 2: Lord’s

Thursday, July 6-Monday, July 10: Headingley, Leeds

Wednesday, July 19-Sunday, July 23: Old Trafford (the cricket one)

Thursday, July 27-Monday, July 31: The Oval

As far as proper analysis of the series, I think it comes down to the usual factor that decides the Ashes for the last decade or more: how well the visitors’ bowling attack adapts to unfamiliar ground. When in Australia, the wickets are baked in the Australian summer sun, giving them a bit of extra firmness (It doesn’t help that most of the Australian grounds, in direct opposition to the English ones, are packed down all winter with AFL play). This gives the Australian wickets a bit more of a bounce, with drying cracks being the only real variable. However, the wetter English climate softens their wickets, something the Australian pace bowlers haven’t fully adapted to.

Another thing to watch is the English bowling attack’s age. Broad and Anderson have been at the tip of the spear for ages. They, along with Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood, are going to make up a rotation of seamers that are old (Anderson will turn 41 before the last over at the Oval, Broad 37), injured (Robinson wasn’t included in the warm-up Test vs. Ireland at Lord’s with an ankle injury), or both (neither was Anderson, recovering from a groin issue). According to this article from i, it’s not likely any of those four will take part in all five Test matches. So that puts Josh Tongue in position to spell the older lads for a couple of Tests. Add on the fact that, for what feels like the millionth Ashes in a row, their spin attack is pretty much Moeen Ali, and getting their seamers right is critical.

 

[swiftaw]

The thing with test cricket is you have to take 20 wickets to have a chance of winning regardless of how many runs you score. If your opponent still has wickets remaining at the end of the final day then the match is a draw no matter how many more runs you have scored than them.

Declaring is always a fine balance between making sure you have enough runs and making sure you have enough time to take all the opponents wickets.

Looking forward to the ashes. At least it is usually competitive when it is held on UK soil.

 

[swiftaw]

A good primer for the Ashes for those of you who may not be too familiar with it: https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/12889208/the-ashes-a-beginners-guide-all-you-need-to-know-about-bazball-nighthawks-and-the-famous-terracotta-urn

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

I found that useful if only to learn what, exactly, Bazball is. For the most part, it sounds like a limited-over approach: score runs rather than measure success by time in the crease, take wickets rather than wear down a batsman’s patience.

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Speaking of Bazball, honest question: with the Ashes starting this weekend, why is Bazball so controversial in some circles? I've seen it discussed negatively in places the likes of Reddit, etc. It just seems like a differing strategy to the game.

 

[Seven Costanza]

Very interesting declaration last night.

Stuart Broad starting my morning off right. Those two wickets back to back woke the crowd up.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

Imagine how good England would be going if Stokes hadn’t gone cheaply.

Just looking at the scorecard, the Australian pace bowlers were just okay. Lyon took most of the 8 wickets, and the economy ratings for Cummings and Hazelwood was around 4 per over. Boland’s was 6, and that won’t work. Root’s 118* will be wonderful to build on.

On the flip side, Khawaja’s the danger man for the Aussies, currently sitting 84* as an opener. A tough first session (Warner lost for 9, Labuschagne a golden duck, and Smith for 16) has been settled by Khawaja’s patience, and they only lost the one wicket (Head for 50). It should’ve been two, as Cameron Green was caught well out of his crease, but Johnny Bairstow couldn’t stump him.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

I can’t imagine where England would be without Ali. He just broke the 5th wicket partnership by bowling Green.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

I think England’s in trouble now. Khawaja looks very comfortable in the crease, there’s rain in the forecast tomorrow, and they seem to have trouble taking Australian wickets, mostly due to small, but critical, errors. Depending on the level of rain tomorrow, I suspect that a draw is the most likely outcome for now.

 

[swiftaw]

First Ashes Test heading for an exciting final day tomorrow, Australia need 174 runs to win, England need to take 7 wickets to win.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

I think it comes down to Khawaja. If he’s able to settle in and wear the England bowlers down, there’s plenty of time to chase down that score. If he’s gone early, though, Boland is already a classic nightwatchman, and 3 wickets taken can become 5 very quickly.

The other factor is going to be the weather, because losing a session could be the difference between a result and a draw.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

If you’re listening to radio coverage, this fielding guide from Wikipedia may help:

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

These last ~20 overs will be must-watch stuff. The tourists need 72 to win, but England are into the tail and will get a new ball soon.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

This was lost for England in a lot of places, but the point of no return may have been after the 8th wicket. They had access to the new ball and a rested Robinson and Broad ready to go, but Stokes sticks with the soft, old ball and himself and Root. Cummings his two sixes off Root straight and a 3 runs an over chase suddenly was halved.

 

[Joe D Reid]

One of my absolute favorite genres of writing is "England Cricket in Defeat" and I look forward to some real fun stuff tomorrow on how this match proves the futility of hope or the nobility. Nobody gets down and really wallows around in a failure like the English.

 

[thehitcat]

This was lost for England in a lot of places, but the point of no return may have been after the 8th wicket. They had access to the new ball and a rested Robinson and Broad ready to go, but Stokes sticks with the soft, old ball and himself and Root. Cummings his two sixes off Root straight and a 3 runs an over chase suddenly was halved.

Yes questions will need to be answered about not taking the new ball and not going to Broad. Robinson did come in to spell Root for a bit in the mid 70s.

 

[Verryfunny2]

‘We feel like they’ve got 3 no.11s’ – Robinson’s take ages terribly | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

Never give the other team motivation to prove you wrong. Great stuff by Cummings and Lyon.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

I really feel like they got the wrong message from Root’s catch of Carey for the 8th wicket. Stokes saw that and said, “right, we can get a few overs with the old ball and spin from Root.” Then a couple overs later, Cummings turned it on and belted two sixes in an over to get the chase going.

The other one that’ll have to be accounted for is going to Moeen Ali as long as he did, knowing he was bowling with a damaged finger. Putting down catches happen, it’s the consequence of not having gloves while fielding. But the tactical mistakes, against a ruthless Australia, will always come back to you.

 

[Bozo Texino]

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CtwjkkkAD3X/

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Just bought tickets for 3 games for the inaugural Major League Cricket games in Grand Prairie, TX, & Morristown, NC. All games I'm attending will be in Grand Prairie.

I was skeptical at first but tonnes of big names are coming. My personal cynical view is that these big names are being announced to drive tix sales, only for the big names to drop out of the tournament soon before it begins. We'll see.

I am still excited even if the above cynical take does happen; I've never been to any professional cricket match.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

We’re heading toward tea at Day 1 Lord’s, and the Aussie batting attack, aided a little by a high number of no-balls, seems to be handing England’s bowling attack well. 182-2 after 46 overs, tea coming at 11 am ET.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

So through Day 3, we’re into the Australian second innings, they lead by 221 runs, Khawaja looks super comfortable again, and cricket writers are already putting the England side in the grave. So @Joe D Reid will have lots of material to enjoy.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

So Australia won the Lord’s Test by 43 runs. Stokes essentially carried the England batting innings that far by himself with an impressive 155, but besides Ben Duckett’s 83, no one else could score, with Jeff Tongue putting in a 19 as the number 11.

But no one cares.

Jonny Bairstow was “stumped” at the end of an over. He ducked a short ball, tapped his toe behind the popping crease line, and, assuming the umpire had called over, walked toward Ben Stokes. However, once he caught the ball, Alex Carey immediately whipped the ball at the stumps. After a huge Australian shout and some talk, the umpires dismissed Bairstow. From there, the Lord’s crowd went ballistic, chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie, cheat cheat cheat” and, in a bizarre scene from perhaps the most traditional cricket club, sledging the Australian players as they came in to the clubhouse for lunch. Cricket Australia raised a stink to the Marylebone Cricket Club, the owners of Lord’s, and the MCC replied with an apology:

View: https://twitter.com/mccofficial/status/1675533672546484224?s=46&t=QgPlur015YjYmVsNzWFFfg

 

[streeter88]

Nice gesture by the MCC.

Less nice was Stuart Broad’s theatrics egging on the crowd by pantomiming being back in his crease after every ball.

Again Broad was in the middle of it yesterday, arguing and succeeding in overturning an obvious catch of Duckett by Starc yesterday.

And unfortunately Broad has form. https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/crickets-ethics-demanded-that-stuart-broad-walk-20130713-2pwe8.html

The spirit of the game has been trampled a little bit these last two days, and because the Ashes are in England this time Australia will wear the brunt of it, but let’s not pretend that England are innocent.

 

[Joe D Reid]

As a cricket-limited person, I am trying to find an analogy to explain all this to my entirely non-cricket friends. I'm pretty happy with that time the A's faked an IBB to Johnny Bench in the World Series and then threw a strike, but would love an advance on that.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

Less nice was Stuart Broad’s theatrics egging on the crowd by pantomiming being back in his crease after every ball.

Again Broad was in the middle of it yesterday, arguing and succeeding in overturning an obvious catch of Duckett by Starc yesterday.

Broad is cricket’s Nuke LaLoosh. He mouthed off about how the last Ashes in Australia wasn’t a real Ashes because of the quarantine restrictions, which Mitchell Starc called out for the BS it was. If these rules were so integral to the game as to warrant the English response, they should be written. Why Bairstow can’t just hold his hand up and say he took the over call for granted and move on, but so far it doesn’t seem like he has.

 

[streeter88]

Broad is cricket’s Nuke LaLoosh. He mouthed off about how the last Ashes in Australia wasn’t a real Ashes because of the quarantine restrictions, which Mitchell Starc called out for the BS it was. If these rules were so integral to the game as to warrant the English response, they should be written. Why Bairstow can’t just hold his hand up and say he took the over call for granted and move on, but so far it doesn’t seem like he has.

Yes, and even more hilarious is the hypocrisy... Bairstow tried to do the same thing to Marnus Labuschagne on Day 3, and Brendon McCullum (former Kiwi great and current England coach) tried the same thing in 2009. Common occurrence in cricket, and absolutely within the laws of the game - which were good enough to overturn a perfectly good catch by Starc yesterday, and which are administered by the same cricket club (MCC) that inhabits Lord's and got stuck into Khawaja yesterday at lunchtime. Lolololololol.

(edited)

 

[TenCentBeerNight]

So Australia won the Lord’s Test by 43 runs. Stokes essentially carried the England batting innings that far by himself with an impressive 155, but besides Ben Duckett’s 83, no one else could score, with Jeff Tongue putting in a 19 as the number 11.

But no one cares.

Jonny Bairstow was “stumped” at the end of an over. He ducked a short ball, tapped his toe behind the popping crease line, and, assuming the umpire had called over, walked toward Ben Stokes. However, once he caught the ball, Alex Carey immediately whipped the ball at the stumps. After a huge Australian shout and some talk, the umpires dismissed Bairstow. From there, the Lord’s crowd went ballistic, chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie, cheat cheat cheat” and, in a bizarre scene from perhaps the most traditional cricket club, sledging the Australian players as they came in to the clubhouse for lunch.

Here's a video. Honestly the most bizarre part might be that a woman appears in it.

View: https://twitter.com/FredBoycott/status/1675513019210559489

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

We’re at tea in Leeds.

Australia is 12 overs into their second innings.

If Stokes goes down at any point from here on out, it’s a 5-0 whitewash for the Aussies and MAYBE, we finally see cricket media treat the Poms they way they deserve to be: a tier below the best.

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Pardon the test cricket discussion, but I'm here at the inaugural T20 Major League Cricket in Grand Prairie, TX. Sell-out crowd!

I'd post pics but server stating files too big!

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Anyone following the ICC World Cup (ODI)? It is held in India this time around, & the standings setup are a little different this time.

10 teams qualified, but of note, West Indies did not.

There's Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, & Sri Lanka.

NZ have started off very strong winning all 3 of their fixtures thus far with a NRR of +1.604. They were victorious today against B'desh, with their superstar Kane Williamson back from injury to take the captaincy.

RSA look strong too, winning both of their games so far & have posted a NRR of +2.360. They blew AUS out of the water, winning by 134 runs on 11 Oct.

AUS have lost both of their fixtures, but they've had a tough schedule: opening against IND in Chennai, & losing to aforementioned RSA.

PAK beat SL in their last match, with a target of 345 that they successfully chased down. In any World Cup ever, this is the highest successful chase ever. And regarding ODIs in general, it is the 2nd ever highest successful chase for PAK.

Both IND & PAK round out the 3 & 4 spot of the Top 4. Big match coming up on Saturday against the 2 in Ahmedabad, scheduled for 04:30am ET.

The Top 4 nations that sit at the top of the table will advance to the next round. Until then, 34 matches left to go in the 'group stage'.

 

[Mr. Stinky Esq.]

I wanted to watch but it doesn’t come with Willow which was disappointing.

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

I wanted to watch but it doesn’t come with Willow which was disappointing.

That's strange. I get access on both my Hulu/ESPN+ & Willow subscription. Hmm.

 

[Mr. Stinky Esq.]

That's strange. I get access on both my Hulu/ESPN+ & Willow subscription. Hmm.

Says I need tv everywhere to watch on Willow, which requires an additional subscription (which I’m guessing you have).

 

[ernieshore]

India v Pakistan on ESPN+ for me. It seems. Not sure if I’ll stay awake though.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

I know the top tier countries with enough grounds to have this big a tournament are few and far between, but India co-hosted with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh just 3 CWCs ago. How’d their number get called again so soon?

Cricket coverage is extremely sparse in Canada, so we’ll see how I can follow along.

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

That...turned out not to be much of a contest. IND move to 8-0 against their rivals PAK in WC fixtures.

PAK 191 (42.5), IND 192/3 (30.3) & IND probably could've finished it a lot earlier but understandably played it conservatively toward the end when it was all in the bag for them.

IND now moves up to top of the table with a perfect 3-0, +1.821 NRR.

England/Afghanistan tomorrow.

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Couple of major upsets that has happened the past 3 matches.

AFG defeated ENG by 69 (nice) runs: 284 (49.5) to 215 (40.3) on Sunday. Major upset: was AFG's only 2nd win ever in any WC match. They began their day last on the table & climbed all the way to 6th, leaving AUS of all teams at the bottom of the table.

And just now: NED defeated RSA by 38 runs: 245/8 (43) to 207 (42.5). Game was shortened to 43O due to rain. While RSA remain 3rd in the table (having such a large NRR coming in really helped), NED move from 9th to 8th. SL now last with a 0-3 record, the only winless side remaining.

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

Well well well...we have our 2nd major upset from AFG. Defeated PAK by 8 wickets (!) with a successful chase of 286/2 (49.0 O).

AFG did a magnificent job of running between the wickets, & Rahmanullah Gurbaz & Ibrahim Zadran's partnership contributed with 130 (128). Zadran received PotM.

This is AFG's 1st ever win against PAK in ODI, now at 1-7, & AFG's 3rd ever WC win. They sit 6th on the table, while England is surprisingly dead last, with 2 points in 4 matches & a NRR of -1.25.

IND, NZ, RSA, & AUS make out the current Top 4.

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

Ok, just getting the hang here. Loosely following the World Cup. So, South Africa v. Bangladesh. RSA finished with 382 runs, but only 5 wickets. That is because you only get 50 overs regardless of wickets?

Then Bangladesh finishes their innings when RSA has taken all 10 wickets, which happens before the completion of 50 overs. So, the final score is expressed as runs, but if the second batting team wins it is expressed as wickets? As in how many they have left? That is confusing as heck.

Let’s say team A scores 300/5. Team B scores 301/9 with two deliveries left in the 50th over. Team B wins even though they took fewer wickets? Or no?

Also, in the RSA/Bangladesh game, it seemed like there came a point where Bangladesh could not mathematically win. They were behind by over 140 runs in the 47th over. Even with all 6s, they could not catch up. I assume this must be because there are ways to score that don’t count against the 300 allowed deliveries?

Sorry if these questions are too basic for the thread, but the barriers to entry on this sport are difficult for the unfamiliar.