*Official* Semi Final 1 - Sri Lanka vs New Zealand

[Hurricane]

Need another rousing rant by KiwiNinja

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Because the Mohali SF was scheduled after the Colombo SF, and India have to play at home.

The schedule would have been decided upon with the assumption of India topping group B, with the winners of QF3 and QF4 playing SF2, not SF1.

 

[GGG]

Haha I understand why this **** annoys NZ fans. So many cliches.

Surely the worst is "working class heroes" and "scrappers"

Taylor, Ryder and Southee aren't working class cricketers. They are immensely talented just like McCullum. And they're all better cricketers as well.

Punching above their weight makes me rage the most.

 

[smash84]

Punching above their weight makes me rage the most.

I don't know but hearing this for so many years about the NZ team it always comes to mind when NZ play at least in my mind

 

[wellAlbidarned]

"They make the most of their limited ability" is the worst IMO. No contest. Frequently used by those who've obviously never watched any of the current bunch in action.

 

[Bun]

Well, it's not just the media. Cricket has always been a sport ridden to a sickening degree with stereotyped cliches, and we fans are equally guilty. To convince ourselves of that, we don't have to do anything more than peruse the posts on this site.

As cricket venues, Mohali and Chepauk are so so different from each other, in the character of the pitches, in the nature of the crowds and the general atmosphere in the ground - so much more far apart than say the Oval and the MCG. Premadasa might as well be on another planet. Yet we club them together 'subcontinental pitches', 'subcontinental crowds', 'subcontinental whatever'. And depending on where we are from, pick out the worst/best attributes and blandly ascribe it to all of them.

When South Africa lose a close match which they probably shouldn't have, they are 'chokers'. When England do the same, it is because they play 'exciting cricket' - no matter that Jonathan Trott was the one who put them into a winning position in the first place.And when Newzealand win, their 'working class hero scrappers' have managed to 'punch above their weight' yet one more time.

I could go on, but I suppose you get the drift.

quality. then there are the subcontinental flat tracks, apparently in a tournament where 222 has been comfortably defended

 

[Migara]

Is Murali definitely out?
Can you keep us in the loop about local weather conditions?
What is the SL media saying about this game?

Murali will be unfit if he plays. I'll back my medical knowledge to say that hamstring injuries do not heal in three days time. The bigger problem is if he breaks down midst of the match, SL won't be allowed a substitute. Best is to rest him and get Randiv in the team. If SL win the SF and Murali is fit, he can play the final.

Local weather is inter monsoonal pattern, which brings searingly hot and humid day times (at Colombo temperature gets up to 35 C with humidity of 90%) with thunderstorms in the evening. Since it's the start of the inter-monsoonal period, the thunderstorms appear quite late, some times in early hours of the morning. The threat of rain is there, but would not anticipate a washout.

SL media are quite guarded in the response. But they are usually stupid.

 

[Migara]

sri lanka ruined their middle order by not picking chandimal or kapu tbh.

lmao.

 

[Athlai]

lmao.

Hes honestly more likely to score a few runs at close to a run a ball than Silva (passed it) Samaraweera (Test specialist).

Though if Sri Lanka just manned up and picked Kashual already you wouldn't even need to think about having middle order journeyman.

 

[Flem274*]

"They make the most of their limited ability" is the worst IMO. No contest. Frequently used by those who've obviously never watched any of the current bunch in action.

Haha, this one just makes me laugh.

If the batsmen made the most of their ability consistently, 2011 would have been a lot different. And we wouldn't be using the word "potential".

The only batsmen who made the most of their ability consistently in 2011 are Daniel Vettori, Nathan McCullum and Reece Young. The rest have ranged from heroes to Kenya.

Though the "loss, loss, loss, loss, annihilation of opposition, loss, loss, loss" is growing on me a little, though mainly because the wins are getting more consistent lately.

 

[Flem274*]

Well, it's not just the media. Cricket has always been a sport ridden to a sickening degree with stereotyped cliches, and we fans are equally guilty. To convince ourselves of that, we don't have to do anything more than peruse the posts on this site.

As cricket venues, Mohali and Chepauk are so so different from each other, in the character of the pitches, in the nature of the crowds and the general atmosphere in the ground - so much more far apart than say the Oval and the MCG. Premadasa might as well be on another planet. Yet we club them together 'subcontinental pitches', 'subcontinental crowds', 'subcontinental whatever'. And depending on where we are from, pick out the worst/best attributes and blandly ascribe it to all of them.

When South Africa lose a close match which they probably shouldn't have, they are 'chokers'. When England do the same, it is because they play 'exciting cricket' - no matter that Jonathan Trott was the one who put them into a winning position in the first place.And when Newzealand win, their 'working class hero scrappers' have managed to 'punch above their weight' yet one more time.

I could go on, but I suppose you get the drift.

I like this post. Quite right that there is a huge difference between say, Ahmenabad and several other grounds played on in this world cup (whose names escape me just now).

 

[Migara]

Hes honestly more likely to score a few runs at close to a run a ball than Silva (passed it) Samaraweera (Test specialist).

Though if Sri Lanka just manned up and picked Kashual already you wouldn't even need to think about having middle order journeyman.

Well, look at this way. Crapoo don't belong there. Sam won't give us blistering innings. He rather saves our asses when we are like 15/3. (Ex. Washed out Australia game, where he played spin with so much of ease when Kumar was struggling to lay the bat on the ball). Crapoo cannot play those backs to the wall innings. Then we have Perera, with bit of more coaching will bludgeon it when we are like 240/4. Crapoo cannot bludgeon a 25 off 15 balls either. He has an average of a big hitter and a SR of a anchor role batsman. Basically, Crapoo has no place in the team.

Let me pick a 15 post WC, I'll pick following. Dilshan, Tharanga, Sanga, MJ, Chandimal, Sam, Mathews, Perera, Randiv, Kulasekara, Malinga as first XI, and J. Mendis, Senanayake, Thilan Thushara and Dammika Prasad as reserves.

I'll ask Mendis to develop a stock ball (which that fool disagrees), and Crapoo to average 35 in two successive premier leagues to be selected to that 15.

 

[Flem274*]

Haha I understand why this **** annoys NZ fans. So many cliches.

Surely the worst is "working class heroes" and "scrappers"

Taylor, Ryder and Southee aren't working class cricketers. They are immensely talented just like McCullum. And they're all better cricketers as well.

I'm going to go into some journalism theory here*

I reckon the sports media stereotyping Borges refers to is an extension of the "infotainment" concept found in the hard news media.

The reasoning for infotainment goes thus; consumers don't want the facts or in depth analysis, they want to be entertained by a storyline with conflict and emotion, with a clearly defined good guy and bad guy.

Infotainment is not bad; when used properly I think it can have quite an impact, but bad infotainment sucks donkey dick.

The Iraq and Afghanistan wars are prime examples. The early media coverage across most mainstream networks was blatant piss poor infotainment. We had them evil ragheads being defeated by the Holy American Empire of Much Freedomness. You look back at the stories, especially the Afghanistan ones, and the angle and bias is very clear. Any conflicting facts to the angle were ignored and never reported.

I have never studied the sports media in detail, so I concede I might be incorrect, but I can see how easy bad infotainment could cross into sport if someone tried to apply it, and imo it has been applied for a while now. A national sporting team comprised of varied individuals isn't what the consumers want. Some media use umbrella terms to make sports teams, which can be rather complex, into a nice and streamlined buzzphrase. Hence New Zealanders are hard workers with limited ability, and all South Africans are chokers until the end of time.

Bad use of infotainment would also make writing sports stories easier imo. It's lazy journalism. Why compare strengths and weaknesses between teams and players, or explore who is talented in what area, or who stands up when the pressure is on, when you can slam a few cliches in and have an article ready to go?

And the piece I posted was lazy journalism. it's apparent in the writing. Okay yes, I am not a qualified journalist and probably never will be because I moved into the sciences, but if I turned some articles I've seen on cricinfo in for marking I'd be lucky to pass. Stereotypes abound and rubbish writing. Firdose Moonda likes commas, a lot, so much so that he has to use them constantly, like this, every cliche riddled sentence, to make his point using his cliche angle, that everyone else uses, so why will anyone care about his story?

*Voltman to exclaim "what the **** are they teaching you young hacks these days? Just write the damn story!"

 

[Tendulkar_200*]

Go NZ! I honestly think you can do it, you have the talent to do it. SL are a good team but highly dependent on Sangakara, Jayawardene for batting. Bowling wise Malinga is the onl real danger. The spinners mainly bowl tight but don't take many wickets, struggled versus England.

 

[_Ed_]

Murali takes a few wickets, to be fair.

 

[Migara]

Last time I checked Kulasekara was in the top 10 in ODI bowler ranking.

 

[Tendulkar_200*]

Last time I checked Kulasekara was in the top 10 in ODI bowler ranking.

Yeah but SL will probably play 3 spinners which shows how much they value Kula's rating.
I back the NZ batsmen against Kula. Malinga is more of a threat.

 

[Migara]

Yeah but SL will probably play 3 spinners which shows how much they value Kula's rating.
I back the NZ batsmen against Kula. Malinga is more of a threat.

May be you have a point, but may be not. On a belter I'd back Malinga over Kulasekara to bowl at orthadox batsman. On a pitch with bit of seam, or stopping Kula is difficult to play. 7-0-19-1 and 5-0-38-1 proves my point.

But I'd be happy to leave him out against a side like India on a belter of a pitch and play more pacy, bouncy and wild Fernando instead of.

 

[centurymaker]

COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!
It's time that McCullum did something in a crucial game.

 

[Smudge]

I'm going to go into some journalism theory here*

I reckon the sports media stereotyping Borges refers to is an extension of the "infotainment" concept found in the hard news media.

The reasoning for infotainment goes thus; consumers don't want the facts or in depth analysis, they want to be entertained by a storyline with conflict and emotion, with a clearly defined good guy and bad guy.

Infotainment is not bad; when used properly I think it can have quite an impact, but bad infotainment sucks donkey dick.

The Iraq and Afghanistan wars are prime examples. The early media coverage across most mainstream networks was blatant piss poor infotainment. We had them evil ragheads being defeated by the Holy American Empire of Much Freedomness. You look back at the stories, especially the Afghanistan ones, and the angle and bias is very clear. Any conflicting facts to the angle were ignored and never reported.

I have never studied the sports media in detail, so I concede I might be incorrect, but I can see how easy bad infotainment could cross into sport if someone tried to apply it, and imo it has been applied for a while now. A national sporting team comprised of varied individuals isn't what the consumers want. Some media use umbrella terms to make sports teams, which can be rather complex, into a nice and streamlined buzzphrase. Hence New Zealanders are hard workers with limited ability, and all South Africans are chokers until the end of time.

Bad use of infotainment would also make writing sports stories easier imo. It's lazy journalism. Why compare strengths and weaknesses between teams and players, or explore who is talented in what area, or who stands up when the pressure is on, when you can slam a few cliches in and have an article ready to go?

And the piece I posted was lazy journalism. it's apparent in the writing. Okay yes, I am not a qualified journalist and probably never will be because I moved into the sciences, but if I turned some articles I've seen on cricinfo in for marking I'd be lucky to pass. Stereotypes abound and rubbish writing. Firdose Moonda likes commas, a lot, so much so that he has to use them constantly, like this, every cliche riddled sentence, to make his point using his cliche angle, that everyone else uses, so why will anyone care about his story?

*Voltman to exclaim "what the **** are they teaching you young hacks these days? Just write the damn story!"

tl;dr