SA wins in extraordinary fashion

So, SA (not surprizingly) beats the Netherlands.

It was an extraordinary performance. Filled with records falling.

1. Gibbs hitting six sixes.
2. Boucher hitting faster ever fifty in a world cup match.
3. SA's biggest ODI winning margin (runs).
4. There's probably more.

There is a lot of positives for SA, like this being only a 40 over game, and they scored a score worthy of a 50 over game. And all the batsmen looking well, etc.

However, 1 very big questionmark for me is, SA's inability to take 10 wickets. Even against a minnows side like the Netherlands only 6 wickets (and 3 runouts) were recorded in 40 overs.

But I guess that taking wickets is not so important for ODI's. It's just a worry.

I heard some of the commentators say that the "quota" of players are 4 non-whites playing, and 7 in the squad. This time there wasn't 4 playing, but Ntini was late in coming to the West Indies so that's why he missed this one.

With that in mind then, it'll be AB de Villiers and Andre Nel and Andrew Hall competing for the white spot. With my guess being Loots Bosman playing the most, as SA's batting seems to be strong enough at the moment.

Labels: 2007 world cup, gibbs, holland, netherlands, south africa, world cup

Thus spake Reenen @ 8:10 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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6 Sixes - Jackpot!




Today Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa did what had never been done before - he hit 6 sixes in an over in the World Cup. Now, Sir Garry Sobers and Ravi Shastri had done this before in county/domestic cricket, but this was the first time that it had ever been done in an international match. So unlikely was the feat that liquor company Johnnie Walker had offered to donate US$1 million to Habitat for Humanity if any player hit six sixes in an over at the World Cup.

I bet it sounded like a great idea at the time. They probably thought that they would get free publicity as no one would accomplish the feat. Well for $1 million, we certainly hope that they get as much publicity as they can. According to Johnnie Walker, they "couldn't be more thrilled with donating US$1 million to Habitat for Humanity in our efforts to enrich the Caribbean community".

If they are so thrilled then why not just donate the money? Why make the money conditional on an event that had never taken place before? For all those Johnnie Walker whisky lovers out there, if the price of a bottle suddenly goes up, then you know why!

Labels: 2007 world cup, gibbs, holland, netherlands, sixes, sobers, south africa, world cup

Thus spake Sean @ 10:08 am | Sledge/Read 5 sledge(s)
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Minnow words

'Minnow' is a term used to refer to small fish. In sport, it also refers to small/underdog teams who're competing with established giants.

At this World Cup, although Geoff had England in his list of ODI 'minnows', the minnow teams are (in alphabetical order): Bangladesh (despite wins against Sri Lanka, Australia and India in the last 2.5 years), Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands, Scotland and Zimbabwe.

Ergo, half of the teams in this World Cup count as minnows. Australia's thrashing of Scotland and Sri Lanka doing the same to Bermuda will undoubtedly get people asking the ICC more questions about why these countries are playing at the World Cup. Like Stuart pointed out, a close game between the minnow was realistically the only way there could be some interest in a game, say between Ireland and Zimbabwe.

This discussion on minnow teams is interesting and it comes at a time when Tasmania, who topped the points table in this season's Pura Cup, find themselves in the Pura Cup final, against New South Wales, starting next week.

If Australia's cricket administrators had stuck to their stand and not included Tasmania in the domestic competition at all, or had included it say in the 1990s rather than in 1977/78, we may not have seen the emergence of the likes of David Boon or boring run-machine Ricky Ponting.

Ponting ought to realize that Tasmania was a minnow too. He spoke out against minnow teams for this World Cup and also during the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy. To be fair to him, he does have a point. The ICC gives these teams a series of big games once in a couple of years (at the ICC Champions Trophy and at the World Cup). There's no doubt that these minnow teams feel hopelessly out of depth in such events. The better way to get these teams to improve their standards are to first make them play more games with each other (which the ICC is doing) and to have them play against at least one major team on an annual basis, so that by the time they get to a major ICC tournament, they've played against at least some of the major teams at least once.

In other minnow news, there seems to be dissent in the English ranks. When England were 4-0 down against India last year, Hoggard commented that he'd rather take a 5-fer in an Ashes win than a 5-fer in a World Cup win. Of course, they were his views. Michael Vaughan though seemed to offer a different take now that the Ashes were lost 5-0. He said

I guess winning the tournament, with the relative inexperience of our bowling attack and where we've been in one-day cricket recently, would be a bigger achievement than winning the Ashes.

The general rule of thumb, by the way, is that England always have an inexperienced bowling attack. Find me one series in the last couple of years where England's captain/coach haven't been quoted as saying their bowling was inexperienced. I'm fairly sure they said it before the 2005 Ashes too.

Back to what Vaughan said though. He's obviously saying that he'd be happier with winning a World Cup (with this team) than the Ashes.

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, bangladesh, bermuda, canada, england, holland, kenya, minnows, netherlands, ponting, scotland, tasmania, vaughan, world cup, zimbabwe

Thus spake Jagadish @ 10:02 am | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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