Stupid moments on the cricket field.

[Hoggy]

Winning the toss and bowling against Australia on a batter's paradise like the WACA at this time of the season and ending up with 735 against the opposition's name and the world record score in a Test match to an individual player.

And people thought Nasser Hussain was silly last year in Brisbane!

Congratulations Heath Streak - you win this one hand's down.

 

[gibbsnsmith]

Gangulys decision to bowl in the WC final wasnt as bad as this but not that far off...

 

[Hoggy]

Gangulys decision to bowl in the WC final wasnt as bad as this but not that far off...

Yes but at least he had bowlers like Khan, Nehra, Srinath, Singh and Srinath to use.

Bit more of an attack than Streak himself, Blignaut, Ervine, Price and Gripper.

 

[Craig]

Tony Grieg telling the West Indies he will make them 'grovel' in 1975 when WI touredd England.

Not surprisingly, WI won the series, Viv Richards scored a shedload and Grieg was singled out 'for special treatment'.

 

[Langeveldt]

Allan Donald not running - World Cup 99
Duckworth + Lewis calculations - World Cup 2003

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Crowd trouble in India 2002.

 

[Richard]

Basically Streak had 2 options - commit suicide and bat in conditions Gillespie and possibly Bichel would have torn his side apart in, or bowl and hope his bowlers might manage to exploit what was there.
Exactly the same as last year; Stephen Waugh said he would have batted. That is all there is to it for me. Waugh knows the wickets inside out. In both cases, to field first was the right decision IMO. McGrath and Gillespie would have torn England apart at The 'Gabba in all likelihood, and Hussain hoped his bowlers might be able to do the same.
Ganguly's attack was good in the World Cup and he bowled first to try and restrict Australia. It was a logical enough decision; especially if you have a batting-line-up as good as India's, to chase is easier than to set. Unfortunately for Ganguly, his attack let him down.
As for Tony Greig's comments, stupid, and Donald and Pollock's respective miscalculations - heartbreaking. Even for an Englishman.

 

[Rich2001]

Basically Streak had 2 options - commit suicide and bat in conditions Gillespie and possibly Bichel would have torn his side apart in, or bowl and hope his bowlers might manage to exploit what was there.

Beat me to it!

I watched the some of the live coverage and 9 hours worth of highlights and throughout the commentary have been saying H Streak read this pitch perfectly... it's doing excatly what he said it would at the toss.

The only reason it looks a bad decision was he doesn't have good enough bolwers to do any damage... if it had been any other side in the world, there was the perfect conditions on Day 1 to get movement and get into the heart of the Aussie batting line up.

 

[Craig]

And Streak had the advantage of Geoff Marsh as coach and he would know how the WACA pitch plays out.

It was one of the those days where it would of happened to West Indies, South Africa, England or New Zealand.

Then again he and Blignaut could have had Australia 5/31 inside the first hour.

 

[Richard]

he and Blignaut could have had Australia 5/31 inside the first hour.

Hmm...
Blignaut?
I don't tink so somehow. Maybe if he had Henry Olonga with him, just maybe, but I'd still say a flying start for Australia was more likely.

 

[Eclipse]

Blignaut has had his moments in test cricket with the ball he has two 5 wicket halls.

He has been in poor form with the ball off late but he's not that bad.

 

[lord_of_darkness]

Lucky Australians declared after losing 5/6 wickets.. i thought McGrath..Gillespie and co would score their maiden centuries aswel....

 

[Top_Cat]

Basically Streak had 2 options - commit suicide and bat in conditions Gillespie and possibly Bichel would have torn his side apart in, or bowl and hope his bowlers might manage to exploit what was there.

See, I disagree that they would have been comitting suicide. All the movement was in the air, not off the deck. The deck was a perfect batting wicket. Even then, the movement was very little and I would have thought Streak could have seen that or at least been advised of that. Althought I don't think the Zimbabweans would have threatened anyway, they would have made things a little difficult for the Aussies had the batted first because most oftheir top-order can hang around.

I watched the some of the live coverage and 9 hours worth of highlights and throughout the commentary have been saying H Streak read this pitch perfectly... it's doing excatly what he said it would at the toss.

The only reason it looks a bad decision was he doesn't have good enough bolwers to do any damage... if it had been any other side in the world, there was the perfect conditions on Day 1 to get movement and get into the heart of the Aussie batting line up.

I don't know about that. There may have been a little movement around on day 1 but I can tell you it had nothing to do with the pitch. And even then, the movement was minimal. Even more skilled bowlers would have struggled to take wickets because that deck was a road.

Unless the pitch it wet and/or a seasming minefield, one should consider batting first I believe. You can then set the tone and in general, batting first allows you to do that better. Even if Heath Streak thought the pitch was going to do something, he surely should have thought that any movement would disappear quickly (as it did).

As for stupid moments, I would say Steve Waugh's decision to make India follow on in 2001 would rate highly. Considering the rather warm condition and that the next Test was to be played quite soon after that one, I would have batted again and batted India out of the match. Instead he sent them in again and Laxman made the rest history, really.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

For Zimbabwe their batting is IMO the stronger of their two attributes.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

It was one of the those days where it would of happened to West Indies, South Africa, England or New Zealand.

Hayden may have been in excellent form, but I don't think he would realistically have scored that many runs had the opposition been any other team bar Bangladesh.

 

[iamdavid]

Hmm...
Blignaut?
I don't tink so somehow. Maybe if he had Henry Olonga with him, just maybe, but I'd still say a flying start for Australia was more likely.

I dont think so Richard , I have the upmost respect for Olonga as a person , I think he made a very brave stand for a good cause & he has likely sacrificed his international carear just for that.

However as far as his bowling is concerned I think he was a little on the RUBBISH side of average , he bowled two good spells in his carear & I seem to remember him ripping through England in a ODI once but he was generally horribly wayward , more wayward in fact than Stephen Harmison , James Anderson , Andy Blignaut , Brett Lee & Mohammed Sami put together.

Still a good fella though

 

[Richard]

I dont think so Richard , I have the upmost respect for Olonga as a person , I think he made a very brave stand for a good cause & he has likely sacrificed his international carear just for that.

However as far as his bowling is concerned I think he was a little on the RUBBISH side of average , he bowled two good spells in his carear & I seem to remember him ripping through England in a ODI once but he was generally horribly wayward , more wayward in fact than Stephen Harmison , James Anderson , Andy Blignaut , Brett Lee & Mohammed Sami put together.

Still a good fella though

Olonga was regarded for a while as Zimbabwe's potentially best seamer.
Despite an ungainly action he had a good seam-position and had the occasional good spell in his international career. Especially towards what looks like being the end of it, he really showed signs of improving his accuracy, and cutting-out the no-balls (though in his last ODI he bowled something like 5 in 3.5 overs).
There were many spells in his one-day-career especially where he was indeed more wayward than the 5 bowlers you name put together. For much of his career both his List-A and ODI economy-rates were all but 6-an-over, a trough few reach.
But it was just beginning to go down when he sacrificed it all.

 

[Richard]

I still hold-out hope, indeed, that he'll regain the taste for top-level cricket, find a county and begin to do his talent justice.

 

[Craig]

Richard that is very unlikely because a) Mugabe will have to go (very unlikely) and b) he has had a operation on his knee.

 

[iamdavid]

By the way Richard what are you're opinions on Doug Hondo?

Things certainly seem to have dropped off on the English Cricket Forum since you joined up here Richard , 3 posts in 3 days , and whats this , you have clocked 96 posts , not 2 weeks from the day you joined , well it seems you have been busy