Australia vs ICC World XI: match 1

[Big Merv]

It was a night match.

[Maranello]

It was a day/night match though, wasn't it? Started mid-afternoon or something. Not sure any full ODIs do start any later than that, since a (say) 6pm start would mean the match finished at 2am the next morning!!

[Big Merv]

That is correct Maranello. It was a day/night match. I have never heard of any later than that either. A 2am finish would be silly.

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Why is it despite the big names, a resurgent aus, i just cant motivate myself to be interested in this whatsoever. Was it any good ?

[Henners]

it was very good when it world XI bowled there 50 overs, then when the sri lankan opener (i forget his name sankurra or something) got 50, then when freddy got to the crease, but as soon as he went out we knew world XI lost.

swhy dont they simply select 11 england players, it will work better

[Crunchy]

I must say the world XI pace attack was very lacklustre indeed and I'v been told by an Aussie mate that Flintoff was averaging between 75 and about 82mph most of the time can anyone confirm this.

[Colourful Chaddi]

The result was not at all suprising. I predited that the Australians will be the best team out of the two because they have the luxury of working together. The bowling by the world XI was medicore until Daniel Vettori and Muralithran did some damage. The batting was very poor considering thier reputations, only Kumar Sankagrrah and Andrew Flintoff showed some resistance. Rahul Dravid did not perform as well as i thought he would and it was a game to forget for Brain Lara who was dismissed for a duck!

I am predicting another victory for the Austtralians because the world XI players are not playing to their full potential. The problem is motivation for them. becaue they are playing more games they don't want to risk themselves for injury because it won't help they home nations. I don;t think they are all to worried about their reputation unlike what some former players have said, i think reputations can be made easily in cricket with a couple of good performnaces.

[TPL288]

Is Damien Martyn a cousin of Ian Bell? They must be training together. Damien Martyn - word of advice: give up before you career average is around 20 and under, which is what he is currently on based on his recent performances.

[Rachael]

Akhtar was apparently beating the bat a bit in his opening spell... but must have been bowling some dross in with the good stuff.. and got caned a little at the end. Pollock's bowling figures speak for themselves (he was apparently getting movement in the air and off the seam and beating the bat regularly). Murali and Vettori were, by all accounts, exemplary.

On the down side.. Flintoff's figures were little short of appalling... but that's just one bowler of the main five.

I reckon the RoW bowlers did enough... but I'm going to be interested in tomorrow's newspaper reports on that batting display: some pretty crummy dismissals in there.

[Collyisamackem]

Anybody else think Afridi should open instead of Sehwag? I'm not too worried for the World XI as I think the World XI will pull their batting together for the next game. Their bowling was fine today, especially Vettori (who I must admit I have never seen bowl before), and even though Kallis and Flintoff went for a few - that won't happen often in any format. It's great fun to see all those guys playing together.