Australia vs ICC World XI: match 1

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by flanflinger

you can see that his natural hand-eye co-ordination you don't always need great footwork.

Precisely FF. As they used to say about the great Majid Khan..who needs feet when you have eyes

Sehwag is not a one-day player,. his ODI stats and recent performances are atrocious, and only a fool would have selected him for this ODI series...no, make that 7 fools from 7 countries!

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by crabs

Vettori and Murali really helped out the World XI cause, would have been looking nearer 300 if not for them.

Agreed. Which is why it was rather silly to have Afridi as the 12th man; he would have been a much better bowling proposition in these circumstances than any of Akhtar, Kallis, Flintoff and even Pollock!

[flanflinger]

True Rachael, but I get the feeling that most Batsmen would struggle then, as it I feel that Jones would be less effective on a damp green pitch then he is on a hard abbrasive pitch.

Shewag does well beacuse he plays his shots and batters attacks, plus he tends to play in India opening the batting so the ball does a lot less in the air and off the seam.

[flanflinger]

How many have Australia dropped today? They have been even worse today than during the Ashes!!

After the latest fumble, by Lee, Watson looked like he was going to cry!!

[flanflinger]

Originally Posted by Rachael

McGrath, Pollock, Simon Jones and the like on an uncovered wicket in England in May :-)

How come Jones has become one of your favourites now - he has a mechanical power action and uses reverse swing?

I thought you hated that?

[Maranello]

102/6 from 28 overs. RRR now over 7, with not many wickets in hand. This is turning out to be a rout And we cannot attribute it to lack of motivation, as the World XI guys seemed very keen and up for it in the field. As it is a batting collapse, it also has very little to do with the World XI not having been a "team" for long - this is purely due to some poor batting and some very good Aussie bowling. Still a force to be reckoned with, in ODIs at least...

[Maranello]

Make that 104/7:

28.6 Symonds to Shahid Afridi, OUT: that's the end of that! off break, turning in from outside the off stump, Afridi swing across hard but misses the target by miles, ball hits the pad right in front of the stumps, loud appeal and umpire Aleem Dar's finger goes up

ICC World XI 104/7, Partnership of 3
Shahid Afridi lbw b Symonds 2 (5b 0x4 0x6)

LOL!

[flanflinger]

There are two key points here M

1. The Aussies are still a very good ODI team and half of this team woud get into a World ODI XI

2. it is often the case that when a team is so strong indepth the batsman seem content to play in away that suggests "it's ok to get out as there are plenty of people to get the runs" this is pure complacency and means it leaves a lot of work to do by the tail.

[Victor Frankenstein]

Originally Posted by flanflinger

How come Jones has become one of your favourites now - he has a mechanical power action and uses reverse swing?

I thought you hated that?

depends what derek pringle puts in his column for the week

as for the game, i'm not surprised to see australia dominating, they're still the best one day side in the world, although weaker than they were they'll still thrash most sides in the world.

i'm glad for vettori, so many people saying he shouldn't even be in the side, he deserved his slot and has done well so far.

Can't help feeling that the dropped catches and bad batting from both sides is due to them playing this under the roof, apparantly the lights are at poor angles and make catching hard.

[Victor Frankenstein]

by the way, incase anyone else doesn't have sky/at work and wants an online radio commentary:

http://johnniewalkersuperseries.indiatimes.com/

link down the right hand side.