Cover Points : Jacques Kallis

Semi Final brings Pakistan a full circle

gchakravarthy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:08:00 GMT

A tale of the PowerPak v. the Safferers:

Albie in the Finals!!! Steyn alive, charging like a Jacques ... for one Morkel, made it to Botha Finals" - Younus Khan 23 minutes ago
Will this be Pakistan's Doom(iny)? 29 minutes ago
Wasim bowling to Wessels ... in the commentary box!! Oh! It's a *** comment followed by a *** comment. It's all crappening here ... 31 minutes ago
Akram WAZ a great bowler, but 'IM a crappy commentator. "Suppperb bowling ... supperb bowling ... suppperb bowling ..." 35 minutes ago
Full-of-crap Wessels is silent now!! 40 minutes ago
Says one green to another ... you're blue! ABD falls to AfriD and in comes JPD about 1 hour ago
Said one charger to another ... you're out of juice! But Gibbs checks the ball from Afridi after it has bowled him. Is this a sign of more hapless allegations to come? about 1 hour ago
Pakistan take a catch ... AMIRacle! Graemey innings ends. Maybe just as well for the Saffers! about 1 hour ago
Umer Goal! about 2 hours ago
Empty Wessels is making too much noise. about 2 hours ago
JP TooMany about 3 hours ago
Roll off van Der Nerve !! about 3 hours ago
Can Y. Khan do an I. Khan in the cricket World Cup? about 3 hours ago

Looking back and pressing forward

dcsiva — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:31:00 GMT

Will has put together an excellent collection of Michael Vaughan's best and worst moments as captain of England, including the obvious high:

England regain the Ashes

The 2005 Ashes was hyped like no other. Here was a team mentally ready to take on Australia, equipped with a brace of quality fast bowlers and led with ferocious determination by Vaughan. It began predictably enough with a hammering at Lord’s, but the early signs in the first Test were that England wouldn’t die wondering. Harmison rattled Justin Langer and cut Ricky Ponting’s face during his 5 for 43, and England immediately bounced back at Edgbaston in a spectacle that lit up the summer. Sneaking home by two runs, England were led by a man unafraid of taking Australia on head-to-head, with seemingly the entire country roaring them on. Vaughan’s 166 at Old Trafford nearly gave England a series lead, but that would have to wait until Trent Bridge where Ashley Giles and Hoggard nudged England over the line. England held off Australia at The Oval, and Vaughan found cricketing nirvana to become the first captain to win an Ashes series since Mike Gatting in 1986-87.

Mark has a report card on the English players. And Duckingbeamers has the over, Flintoff to Kallis. It's a real shame about Mark Nicholas' commentary though.

Following the India/Sri Lanka series, Kartikeya has a great history of the ground the next match is being played at, P Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo:

This ground hosted Sri Lanka's inaugural Test Match in 1982. Test Cricket returned to this ground in 2002, when Australia played Pakistan.

Since 2002, the P Saravanmuttu ground has hosted a number of notable Test Matches. The Australia - Pakistan Test match was played on a true wicket, and the rampaging Australians predictably won the first innings against a young, inexperienced Pakistan side, taking a first innings lead of 188. The Australians were working their way towards an insurmountable lead, when Shoaib Akhtar ran through them like a hot knife through butter with a blindingly fast spell of bowling. Left with 316 for a win, Pakistan fell 42 runs short, being all out for 274 after having been 4/230 at one stage. Shane Warne took 11 wickets in the match.

Stephen Fleming made 274 at this ground when New Zealand toured last. South Africa have lost a Test match here despite setting Sri Lanka 350 to win in the 4th innings. Mahela Jayawardene made 123 and Sri Lanka sneaked home by one wicket.

And Ottayan makes an untimely intervention: should Harbhajan be in the team?