Sunday, June 14, 2009
Maybe this blog should really be called...
Brian Lara Needs Some Time Away From England. Because goodness gracious, we're gonna do it again people! England beats India today 153-150, knocking them out of contention (they still have a match against South Africa, but it's meaningless at 0-2), leaving the match between the West Indies and England (the 19th meeting of any type between the two since February) as a elimination match. Do the West Indies have what it takes to get show that the upset over the defending champs wasn't a fluke? Can England recover from their own thrilling victory over India? Will Chris Gayle take off his funneral shroud and play some cricket? Will anyone watch the irrelivent Sri Lanka-Ireland undercard (as Ireland is also eliminated from competition)? All these answers and more will be revealed by the end of the day tomorrow, if you can find it, enjoy it, it's gonna be a great match.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Number One Stunnas
Image via AP
(#11) West Indies 156/3 (#1) India 153/7
That with Chris Gayle being held to 22 runs off of 28 balls (a terrible rate for one of the world's best players).
That being mostly the same West Indies team that is coming off an embarassing performace against England, in both Test and ODI's.
That team being ranked next to last for the 12 teams in the tournament, and have come flying out of the gates ever since.
I won't lie, I don't know when the new ICC rankings come out again, but I can tell you one thing, they won't see the West Indies in 11th place, even if they did lose to South Africa just before I started to write this.
Dwayne Bravo was the star of the show going for 66 runs (anything above 50 is a pretty good effort for 20 overs) as well as bowling four of India's seven wickets.
That's right Fidel Edwards, Number One Stunners
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Alright I'll say it, I'm a bad blogger, it's been exactly three weeks since my last post, and here we are in the middle of the international tournament of the year (since we're in a down year for the ODI tournaments) the ICC World Twenty20 Championship (..of the World). I want to mix things up a little, so lets try this in FAQ form.
Q: Who qualified for the tournament?
A: The top ten teams in the ICC's world rankings, plus the top two finishers from the Qualifying Tournament. However, because it is a corrupt political entity, Zimbabwae was forced out of the tournament. and was replaced by the third place finisher in the Qualifying Tournament. This is how they're ranked.
1) India
2) Pakistan
3) Austrailia
4) New Zealand
5) South Africa
6) Sri Lanka
7) England
8) Bangladesh
9) Ireland
10) Netherlands
11) West Indies
12) Scotland
Q: Wait, 12 teams, how do you set up a single elimination tournament that way?
A: You don't. Instead, they have four pool groups each consisting of one first tier, one second tier, and one third tier team. You go by ranking. So you get four groups that look like this:
1-8-9
2-7-10
3-6-11
4-5-12
Q: What have we missed so far?
A: So far you've missed the pool play I just mentioned.
Q: Any Suprises?
A: Austrailia went quietly into the night losing to the West Indies 172-169 (in a match where WI only sent 5 batsmen to the stumps), and losing to Sri Lanka 160-159 (this time only 6 Batsmen for SL). The Netherlands were elimnated in heartbreaking fashion when they were only able to put up 93 runs against Pakistan to allow England to move on to the Super Eight.
(and let it be stated here that I am glad for Bloggers autosave feature that allowed this to still be here when my computer shut down on me)
Q: Super Eight? What's that?
A: The Super Eight is the second round of the competition and it started today (South Africa 114-England 111, and New Zealand 198-Ireland 115 for those keeping track at home) It is two groups of four (the first and second place finishers from the four opening round pools. Each plays the other three in the pool, and the top two from each pool move onto the semi-finals.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: If you want to learn about cricket, 20/20 is probably the best way to do it, it's the shortest game, has the fasting pacing, and is the only version of the sport played at night. If you've gotten into the sport at all through this, first off that's nice, cause hey, I've accomplished something. Second, you might want to take the next step up, and learn about Net Run Rate, which is the first tie-breaking tool, and will save you a lot of confusion (if you're good at math). Finally, enjoy the games! They're in England, so you can have cricket with your breakfast (Game one Tomorrow starts at 6:30 EDT, and Game two starts at 7:30 PDT, so there are options for everyone.)
Q: Who qualified for the tournament?
A: The top ten teams in the ICC's world rankings, plus the top two finishers from the Qualifying Tournament. However, because it is a corrupt political entity, Zimbabwae was forced out of the tournament. and was replaced by the third place finisher in the Qualifying Tournament. This is how they're ranked.
1) India
2) Pakistan
3) Austrailia
4) New Zealand
5) South Africa
6) Sri Lanka
7) England
8) Bangladesh
9) Ireland
10) Netherlands
11) West Indies
12) Scotland
Q: Wait, 12 teams, how do you set up a single elimination tournament that way?
A: You don't. Instead, they have four pool groups each consisting of one first tier, one second tier, and one third tier team. You go by ranking. So you get four groups that look like this:
1-8-9
2-7-10
3-6-11
4-5-12
Q: What have we missed so far?
A: So far you've missed the pool play I just mentioned.
Q: Any Suprises?
A: Austrailia went quietly into the night losing to the West Indies 172-169 (in a match where WI only sent 5 batsmen to the stumps), and losing to Sri Lanka 160-159 (this time only 6 Batsmen for SL). The Netherlands were elimnated in heartbreaking fashion when they were only able to put up 93 runs against Pakistan to allow England to move on to the Super Eight.
(and let it be stated here that I am glad for Bloggers autosave feature that allowed this to still be here when my computer shut down on me)
Q: Super Eight? What's that?
A: The Super Eight is the second round of the competition and it started today (South Africa 114-England 111, and New Zealand 198-Ireland 115 for those keeping track at home) It is two groups of four (the first and second place finishers from the four opening round pools. Each plays the other three in the pool, and the top two from each pool move onto the semi-finals.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: If you want to learn about cricket, 20/20 is probably the best way to do it, it's the shortest game, has the fasting pacing, and is the only version of the sport played at night. If you've gotten into the sport at all through this, first off that's nice, cause hey, I've accomplished something. Second, you might want to take the next step up, and learn about Net Run Rate, which is the first tie-breaking tool, and will save you a lot of confusion (if you're good at math). Finally, enjoy the games! They're in England, so you can have cricket with your breakfast (Game one Tomorrow starts at 6:30 EDT, and Game two starts at 7:30 PDT, so there are options for everyone.)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
You Can't Be Me I'm A Guest Star..
...however I am not riding on the top of a cop car. Anyways "Dave Schultz" (quotes are part of the copywrite they tell me) has a new post up, most of which was written by yours truly. No I was not the one who erased question 25, yes I was on the one who forgot to close my parenthesis, and Sara Decosta is a story you had to be there to understand (although they are up for the hockey hall of fame as I was taught by Facebook, and I encourge you to fan them) so here you go, learn something about me, and nothing about cricket.
http://hammerrules.blogspot.com/2009/05/readers-challenge-next-episode.html
http://hammerrules.blogspot.com/2009/05/readers-challenge-next-episode.html
Monday, May 18, 2009
A Small Rant and a Big Surprise.
There isn't much to talk about in terms of cricket for the past weekend, England Obliterated the West Indies to finish a 2-0 test series sweep, and play goes on in the Indian Premier League, so I have a small rant for you instead:
With about 2:30 minutes to go in last nights game seven between Boston and Orlando, it was really nice to see all those "die hard" fans check out on a team that had been pouring out heart and soul all season, and making do with a lot of missing pieces. I'm not making excuses for them by any stretch, and I won't say I personally expected them to win the title, but this team was 2 games removed from a 14-2 that put them up 3-2, and 3 games removed from a thrilling buzzer beater that tied the series at 2. Why are you walking out? Why are you quiting on them? That was a disgusting display on your part, and I hope to hell you burned your contract for season tickets cause you don't deserve them, get the fuck off my bandwagon.
Anyways, now that I got that off my chest, it's time for the surprise, which is to keep your eyes peeled around here between June 23rd and July 1st for something exciting and new!
With about 2:30 minutes to go in last nights game seven between Boston and Orlando, it was really nice to see all those "die hard" fans check out on a team that had been pouring out heart and soul all season, and making do with a lot of missing pieces. I'm not making excuses for them by any stretch, and I won't say I personally expected them to win the title, but this team was 2 games removed from a 14-2 that put them up 3-2, and 3 games removed from a thrilling buzzer beater that tied the series at 2. Why are you walking out? Why are you quiting on them? That was a disgusting display on your part, and I hope to hell you burned your contract for season tickets cause you don't deserve them, get the fuck off my bandwagon.
Anyways, now that I got that off my chest, it's time for the surprise, which is to keep your eyes peeled around here between June 23rd and July 1st for something exciting and new!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
I'm Still Alive, and the happy Afghan story no one is telling.
*blows the dust off*
Sorry about that, school and work have gotten the better of me lately, I often come home, eat dinner and go to sleep, so a month has flown by since I wrote anything (and I left an embittered taste in all of your mouths anyways) I'm back, and just in time, because The Qualifying tournament for the 2011 ICC World Cup just finished (yeah, that's how it is in the cricket world, we get shit done two years in advance) It's a good thing too, since 2015 qualifying starts up this month!
Here's the basic lowdown:
*Ireland won the tournament (I would like to do a serach for a "Bowl Me: I'm Irish" pin, but I don't think I'd get what I want)
*Canada came in second, and qualified for the World Cup (which is an ODI tournament held every four years) along with Ireland, Kenya, and the Netherlands.
*Along with the four Qualifiers Soctland and Afghanistan were granted ODI status for four years (which means they can play ODI's against test nations, which is two steps below full test status)
That brings me to the other half of the title. For a nation that has been suffering through so much strife and turmoil, the media has been jumping at the chance to say "Look at this, they're getting on the right track." They tried their hardest to do so in Beijing, only to have a very unlucky Afghan contingent in the games. Here we are six months later, and everyone has decided to completely ignore that the cricket team has turned it around so much, they've been told they're one of the 25 best teams on the planet, and get to play with the big boys, and get extra funding from the ICC, and NO ONE SAYS A DAMN THING. It's a crying shame, I congratulate you Afghanistan, that was an impressive accomplishment, I know you can do great things, and now you have four years to prove it!
Sorry about that, school and work have gotten the better of me lately, I often come home, eat dinner and go to sleep, so a month has flown by since I wrote anything (and I left an embittered taste in all of your mouths anyways) I'm back, and just in time, because The Qualifying tournament for the 2011 ICC World Cup just finished (yeah, that's how it is in the cricket world, we get shit done two years in advance) It's a good thing too, since 2015 qualifying starts up this month!
Here's the basic lowdown:
*Ireland won the tournament (I would like to do a serach for a "Bowl Me: I'm Irish" pin, but I don't think I'd get what I want)
*Canada came in second, and qualified for the World Cup (which is an ODI tournament held every four years) along with Ireland, Kenya, and the Netherlands.
*Along with the four Qualifiers Soctland and Afghanistan were granted ODI status for four years (which means they can play ODI's against test nations, which is two steps below full test status)
That brings me to the other half of the title. For a nation that has been suffering through so much strife and turmoil, the media has been jumping at the chance to say "Look at this, they're getting on the right track." They tried their hardest to do so in Beijing, only to have a very unlucky Afghan contingent in the games. Here we are six months later, and everyone has decided to completely ignore that the cricket team has turned it around so much, they've been told they're one of the 25 best teams on the planet, and get to play with the big boys, and get extra funding from the ICC, and NO ONE SAYS A DAMN THING. It's a crying shame, I congratulate you Afghanistan, that was an impressive accomplishment, I know you can do great things, and now you have four years to prove it!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
The Fundamentals of Blogging are strong...no they're not...
Before I start, let's go to the video footage:
I have a gold standard when I talk about hockey, it's when I'm talking to my friend Marylou. Do you dear readers know what that gold standard includes, we talk about the games, we talk about the players, we talk about upcoming games, we talk about coaches decisions. We occsionally talk about funny stories that happened while at the game (cause those are inevitable, like that guy who fell into the safety netting at a Yankees game, it was a major distraction, of course you're gonna talk about it even though it has nothing to do with the game). Do you know what we don't talk about? We don't talk about who was seen at the game, we don't talk about how she likes to look at the players at the game, and how "cute" they are, and for goodness sakes we don't talk about how we might have effected the game! (jinxes aside, but come on, everyone is supersitious) Oh yeah, we sure as fuck don't talk about fingernails. (see http://hammerrules.blogspot.com/2009/04/facedesk.html for details, because I refuse to give that story any more legs than I already gave it)
Do we really know why people read our blogs? sometimes I'm not so sure, hell I'm not even sure if anyone reads this blog at all anymore, but just look at that video above again. How would people take it if that was all I wrote about? How would you like it if I talked about how hot the women the camera guys panned to are? Because that's how it works, Cricket is a slow sport, and there has to be some way to fill the time, so they often just go to the crowd, and what do know you? You get a bunch of hot women dancing to the music (espcially in the West Indies) Now I don't know about you, but I have no intention of making my blog about anything other than cricket and the news that effects cricket. But sometimes I wonder if we take a look in the mirror and see if we're writing about what we really want to be writing about. I know as a reader, I turn to blogs because they're often the best source of information for either an obscure team (from my perspective) or the best general info source, and really I would hope that that's what people strive for, because, I think it's the best service we can offer to our readership. It probably won't make a difference, but it's what I've got to say.
I have a gold standard when I talk about hockey, it's when I'm talking to my friend Marylou. Do you dear readers know what that gold standard includes, we talk about the games, we talk about the players, we talk about upcoming games, we talk about coaches decisions. We occsionally talk about funny stories that happened while at the game (cause those are inevitable, like that guy who fell into the safety netting at a Yankees game, it was a major distraction, of course you're gonna talk about it even though it has nothing to do with the game). Do you know what we don't talk about? We don't talk about who was seen at the game, we don't talk about how she likes to look at the players at the game, and how "cute" they are, and for goodness sakes we don't talk about how we might have effected the game! (jinxes aside, but come on, everyone is supersitious) Oh yeah, we sure as fuck don't talk about fingernails. (see http://hammerrules.blogspot.com/2009/04/facedesk.html for details, because I refuse to give that story any more legs than I already gave it)
Do we really know why people read our blogs? sometimes I'm not so sure, hell I'm not even sure if anyone reads this blog at all anymore, but just look at that video above again. How would people take it if that was all I wrote about? How would you like it if I talked about how hot the women the camera guys panned to are? Because that's how it works, Cricket is a slow sport, and there has to be some way to fill the time, so they often just go to the crowd, and what do know you? You get a bunch of hot women dancing to the music (espcially in the West Indies) Now I don't know about you, but I have no intention of making my blog about anything other than cricket and the news that effects cricket. But sometimes I wonder if we take a look in the mirror and see if we're writing about what we really want to be writing about. I know as a reader, I turn to blogs because they're often the best source of information for either an obscure team (from my perspective) or the best general info source, and really I would hope that that's what people strive for, because, I think it's the best service we can offer to our readership. It probably won't make a difference, but it's what I've got to say.
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