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Starts tomorrow (Thursday) at Lords. 11 am (UK time) I have a ticket for Saturday so lets hope there is no disasterous scores from either side...
hmmm....
Now who will I go for....
I don't care. I will be supporting England.
Well, Hoggard is out, and Flinty might still have issues with his ankle....
Maybe I'll go for NZ, just to keep things here interesting
This is a tough one, I'm not sure who to go for either.
C'mon Morgan, us two can support NZ....
I so rarely have anyone on my side....
I so rarely have anyone on my side....
That's because you always choose to oppose whoever I go for.
Car'n the Poms....
HAHAHAHAHA
Fine.... Morgan and I vs you and Mr Dent.
Ruski will provide the commentary
I notice that you've declared Morgans allegience without her actually saying so Dek. Maybe she wants to shout for the Poms...
Freddy is definitely out and so is Hoggy. England team listed here along with the great news that start of play is delayed because of...(anyone want to guess???)
ummm... flinty's injury? the queen's birthday?
Could it be... no, it couldn't be. Rain?!
Old news... NZ all out in their first innings for 277. It rained all day yesterday and there was only just over half hour play. England, at the end of day 3, first innings 89-0. Today will be a nice day but two days for England to put on 550 and then bowl NZ out... It's a draw...
Bugggerrrrr.
I could never lower myself so far as to side with New Zealand.
Well, you only really need to be beside yourself Ruski....
I saw a headline somewhere that Harmison broke Hoggard's thumb or something?
And is Flinty playing?
LOL
One days play left in the first Test.
England have a miniscule chance of sqeaking a win if there is no interruptions, the England bowlers come out on top form, the NZ batsmen play like shit-heads and the England batting order is changed to:-
Bell, Pietersen, Collingwood, Ambrose, Broad, Sidebottom, Panesar, Anderson, Cook, Vaughan and Strauss.
The rational for that is that if they can get NZ out before tea for around 200, they have a great chance of whacking the required 158 with their best "one dayers" who can be sent out to slog the ball as best they can for the required 160 ish. If the strategy doesn't work then at least the tail would be the steady test openers who would then simply revert to type and hold on for the draw.
There again, if Engalnd are too gung-ho then NZ might end up stealing a win. Or they might just dig in and last the whole day for a boring finish. Who knows...
Pietersen at number 2?!
And... ummm... who's the captain?
Oh wait... I should have read the 4th paragraph before I responded
oops
Boring boring boring... NZ have taken the light at 17:05 and the first Test has been declared to be a draw.
Oops....
Taking the light.... cop out!
@Dek Oh wait... I should have read the 4th paragraph before I responded oops
So its true, she really does ignore all of us! 
Hey!! I don't ignore nobody!!
If you must know, I start typing as I read, so I sometimes respond to the beginning of someone's post before I have read the end
wow that's talent!
Some would call it 'jumping the gun'
Tut tut tut. If you are not drunk you are jumping guns... As I have previously said, Dek is a disgrace.
Mind you, the Englang team are not exactly on top of their game. Stumps on day two of the second test and it's all going to rat-shit...
I'll tell you who's a disgrace... the English team!
Well let me tell you that the "disgrace" of an England team bowled out NZ for 117 ish in their second innings. Then with 290 is to get in their last innings England beat NZ by six wickets. Saturday and Sunday were two really good days for Test cricket. Englands first innings was destroyed by Vettori who took 5 wickets. NZ's second innings was ripped apart by Monty who took SIX wickets for 35 runs.
Johan Sebastian put on a ton plus to "orchestrate" the England win.
WOW....
Well done!
Terrific stuff AD...
And now England have beaten the Kiwis by an innings and 9 runs to win the test series 2-0
grrrrr
wrong choice yet again...
Go the Pom's!
Down with the Kiwi's!
A really good test match. At last Peitersen managed a good knock along with some good stuff from the England middle order. The bowling from Anderson and Sidebottom was awesome. keep this up and Englands pace attack will be more than a match for the Aussies come next summer (or winter for you down under)
I was thinking along the same lines. Their team is really shaping up.
Not likely.
If Rick were to lose them a second time he would be banished to Tasmania for life.
I hear he's already bought a place in Hobart...
Think he'll still be playing/captain in a year's time?
OOOOOO.... I wonder if SBS has the broadcast rights, and if they'll have a forum for it, and if we'll bump into some old mates there!
Do you really think that SBS would make that same mistake again ??!!?
I wonder if me, andro and JR are banned for life...
Andro's ghost is still alive and well on the SBS forums.
Can't speak for you other hooligan's
OK, forgot about The Breaker...even though he's a very watered-down version of his fine predecessor
Well he's not very active now, with only one post every two or three months.
That place is a spammers wasteland, but I still see Flashmans name in lights there, and still doing nothing about cleaning it up.
Nevermore
Only this, and nothing more.
I'm glad the prick showed me the door.
Nice to see the rhyming duo at it again
It feels all 'Ashes'y in here
you just had to go and spoil it 
I'm glad the prick showed me the door.
Other friends have flown before -
Your mate tasha is one, for sure
'twas of the saintly days of yore.
when forum jousts were guts and gore
on the Night's Plutonian shore!
I think we've hijacked England's score
'Tis the wind and nothing more!
truly it dost howl and roar
entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
shame on you sir, I am no whore
that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
One tequila two tequila three tequila floor.
unhand my thigh, I thee implore
Looks like you lot are becoming a bore
By posting your poetry
Like shit on the floor...
Ha
We've already had 'floor'
You lose AD...and owe everyone 5 dollars
What? everyone as in the whole population of the world?
And that's not fair. Ruskie has mentioned tequila three times in the same post...
LOL!
I'll take my $5 in coins fanks!
Easy Dek, we haven't established if it the whole world or just the participants in the Shakespear event. If it's the latter, hard luck. Come to that, if it's the whole world hard luck as well. I'm not paying out on the say-so of some bitter and twisted (ok just twisted then) Queenslander who is half from old South Wales.
I don't care how you rationalise it.
I want my 5 bucks! 
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And another bleak day in June for New Zealand in the frozen wastes of the North of England. The first ODI against England at The Riverside Stadium in Chester-le-Street (Durham) was a resounding win for England. England batted first. Peitersen knocked 100 plus not out, even Collingwood got 60 odd for a total of 305 ish... Beating NZ by 140 ish runs. Brilliant batting by Pietersen, a damn good example of exhibition play.
New Zealand by the way, were dreadful and it was a bit irksome that England didn't put up another 70 runs or so, they were downright lazy, taking one run when other ODI teams would be looking for 2 or 3 off similar balls.
Luuuurverly
.
Yes, Pietersen claims he invented a new shot during that game!
England one-day captain Paul Collingwood, who was standing at the non-striker's end as Scott Styris bowled, admitted: "I covered my eyes as soon as he turned his body around.
"He did actually come up the wicket and said 'I was thinking about doing that in bed last night'."
I'd say they're both thrilled.
hahahahahah
I was not that good at cricket, but could genuinely bat both RH and LH, and can throw balls (and darts) with either hand equally. Why can't a batsman just declare himself ambidextrous if they stupidly ban the shot?
From what I've seen so far, the reverse shot for the majoriy of players is the quickest way to get out. There is no need to enact laws against it...
There are laws against it?!!?
"We hammered them in the Test matches, we hammered them in the Twenty20, we hammered them again tonight, and we want to keep hammering them and send them home with absolutely nothing.
"5-0 would be great. They beat us in the one-dayers in New Zealand so we want to get it back."
Sounds like a good plan to me..
They like to hammer a lot....
Yeah, but the only thing that Kiwi's seem to understand, is a good hammering.
I underst....
errr.....
carry on.
Are you accusing me of carrying on, Morgan???
The second ODI was abandoned due to rain. The start was delayed 'till mid afternoon. The number of overs was reduced to 23. England played theirs and got a lowish score (160 odd can't remember)... NZ then reached 19 overs and due to rain Duckworth/Lewis reduced their chase total to 137 off 20 (they have to have 20 overs for a match). They were on 130 off 19 overs and the umpires pulled the plug due to rain and abandoned the match. NZ were totally pissed off as were the crowd because 7 runs in one over is no big shakes. It was however raining really hard and the ground was squelchy and the light was non existant. Bit of a shame if you ask me...
Bloody hell!!
Grrrr...now England have gone and chucked away an easily winnable match, going down to the Kiwis by 22 runs...
It was awful, just awful. Awful is the only word I can think of. Awful.
Sure...They just lay down and died....a very miserable death indeed...Although you can't be upset, I mean it is England, after all
Morgan, if you think that you can make some comments about the dire performance of the England Cricket Team that will cause me to be wound up then you are quite mistaken. There is nothing you can say that makes the situation worse and even if you could, I have already thought of it! So put your tongue away before it gets stung by an insect of some kind...
No no....I was merely pointing it out to the other participants so they could just ignore your pointless, pithy, awful message.
oooooooo.... slagging match going on!
May I be the second person to point this out. Slogging match dek...
Actually, I think Dek's right in this instance.....
I feel as though I've just been ganged up on. Not that I really care. Fill yer boots Morgan, just remember that the Ashes are next year....
Oh, I remember it all right! Thats one week off work for me!
(hmm...lately I seem to be scheduling my time off around all major sporting events....Wonder how much time I have left, and what's coming up this year..)
Arthur - remember that feeling.... it's how I feel most of the time
Aww...*hugs*
touchingly sapphic
On a slightly different subject. I went to watch Essex vs Sussex in the Twenty20 Cup last night. One of the best cricket matches I've seen in years. Check the Scorecard out... Wow is a good word here.
I was going to say "Good old Sussex by the sea", until I saw the scorecard! 
One of the best cricket matches I've seen in years.
You must be an Essex fan, Arthur?
I live in Essex so they are my local team. I must admit I enjoyed the fact that Essex won but I would have enjoyed the match more if Sussex had managed to overtake 242 runs...
16 sixes and 10 fours for 152 not out is an amazing performance from anyone.
Ah Colchester, of course..
I didn't see any of my rellies names on the Sussex scorecard, so it's ok then..
It's always entertaining to watch batsmen belting out sixes and fours. (unless you are a bowler of course).
That'll make him get his finger out!
LOL!
You'd hope so any way
It's even worse than that. NZ beat England by one wicket on the last ball of the match. And there was a bust-up as well...
OOOooooo
I can't imagine the Kiwi's apologising, if the boot were on the other foot..
I have just seen it on the news. It was a pretty low and disgusting decision for Collingwood to make. The umpire gave him a chance to withdraw it, but he refused. Very bad cricket and not what i expect from England...now the Aussies, perhaps...
I'm confused.... how come the umps didn't have the final decision?
Because it was within the laws of the game. They had to give the batsman out if asked by the fielding captain.
oh!
So they have a rule that says that, and yet, when he asks for it, there's an uproar and he has to apologise for it?
Very confused
'It is not cricket'
but then as a supporter of India, NZ and Australia, I wouldn't expect you to understand the idea of fairness in sport
*rolling eyes*
Bloody Kiwi whingers....
Oops.... Collingwood got banned.
good
Poor old Collingwood, first he is in the shit for following the laws of the game, and then he gets a ban for a slow over rate. I wonder who he has upset in the heirachy, who after all are responsible for the laws of the game and if anyone should be blamed for the Kiwi run out it should be them.
Have the laws been changed to prevent a future captain being placed in the same situation as Collingwood ?(in regards to the run out) I'll bet they havent!
Same as that underarm ball from Trevor Chappell, they were only playing to the Rules/laws of the game and if the laws are wrong, then blame those responsible for making/altering those laws, not the players or umpires.
And why is it always the sooky Kiwi's who are always bitching about everything??
I don't think the Kiwis have been bitching at all. I think it's more of the media having a go.
But I completely agree with you on the stupid laws. The whole thing Collingwood faced was uncalled for. You can't be called unsporting for following the rules. Either change the rule, or shut the **** up.
yes, you can be called unsporting. His decision to ask for the batsman to be given out was unsporting. It was unsporting cricket and not in the true spirit of the game. It was totally un-British
...but I don't expect you Hindibugs and Horstralians to understand...
You can't say it wasn't in the spirit of the game if the laws of the game allow it
yes I can
...and it wasn't
There is a song about all this. It goes something like ...
"Good old Collingwood forever, we know how to play the game ... "
Yes Ruski, but it's an 'aerial ping pong song', and the last person that I heard sing it was Bill Lawry and I think it scarred me for life.
Is there a style of ping that is played along the ground?
If there's not, then there bloody well should be!
It's called 'tennis' I think
I once saw ping pong in Patpong
...actually it was twice...
