Excellent banner at the cricket last night: "Lose, or the sheep gets it!"
Most banners are rubbish, but the occasional one has been top shelf. Personal favourites include "No fat chicks". Oops. I meant its follow up "Eat more chooks". Then there was "This used to be my mum's best sheet" and one from the wrestling "The guy behind me can't see".
Not much else excellent at D'Arbeau Park, Grenada, rhymes with Canada. Yes, we slogged them then rolled them for rock all. Flatty had another day out. Paper Cut looked B.I.T. Who knew Mr Fragile hit the ball so hard. And Michael Clarke gave us one of the more interesting dismissals. I pride myself on being able to pick precisely what happens technique-wise when batsmen play shots, but I had absolutely no idea what Clarke was up to, leaving a slow ball on middle stump.
But you can't deem any win excellent when the other team, yet again, rests two of its best players. Stupid tournament. Asad Rauf made a couple of bizarre no ball calls, one off McGrath, one off Larry Tait. Gilly fell to a textbook S.G.W. And the Styris 'beard' is a disgrace to facial hair everywhere.
So that leaves two of SA, SL and NZ. We beat all three comfortably, but needed two slices of luck to get us going against Sorth Efrica, while the Shrees and UnZud treated the matches as trials. In fact, we've cruised through all nine matches so far, never much challenged, rarely put under sustained pressure, which leaves me more than a little uncomfortable pondering this reply from Stephen Fleming when asked if SA could beat Straya:
"I do and that's because it's a one-off game. It could be the toss, Australia have a bad day or Herschelle Gibbs plays extremely well. There are so many factors in one day cricket."
how about this one: "Bill Lawry's Hanky"
Posted by: tim | 21 April 2007 at 21:40
Good banner last summer: 'My Girlfriend's in Favour of the Rotation Policy' here in Rannsylvania when they rested Punter.
Clarke genuinely looked to have just gone completely mentally blank. That's the only reason I can suggest.
And how on Earth can we gauge our strength when no-one we've played (who mattered) has bothered to take the tournament at all seriously so far? It'll be a bloody lottery. Yesterday was sort of like a reverse Chadlee - but this time, they refused to field a team. Mind you, the Kiwi's would have to be hurting a bit.
Posted by: 13th Man | 22 April 2007 at 03:15
Bucknor and Aleem Dar, from Pakistan, will be officiating in the second semi-final between South Africa and Australia in St Lucia on Wednesday. The corresponding list for the second semi-final reads: Billy Bowden (New Zealand) as TV umpire, Mark Benson (England) the fourth umpire, and Jeff Crowe (New Zealand) as the match referee.
Bucknor, Dar, Bowden, South Africa, unbeaten run, we're fucked.
Posted by: nick | 24 April 2007 at 00:56
Looks like Tony T was correct (Posted by Tony.T on April 12, 2007 at 11:55) as the malingerer is back on the track for the semi
Posted by: Martin | 24 April 2007 at 19:46
What do you think of the "Sorry Mum, we lost Dad" series during the final? Made me chuckle
Posted by: Summer | 29 April 2007 at 06:16