India v West Indies, 2nd Test, Mumbai, 14-18 November, 2013

Perfectly set up for a fairy tale finish for the Little Master at his home ground.

200 Tests. 24 years.


Amazing.

Aye, unlikely to be ever matched. I guess we can say we saw the whole careers of record holders whose records won't be beaten:

SRT's Tests & runs
Warnie wickets (fark the pinger)

got my ticket!!

My prediction . . .

Bannies 650 - 7 decl (Red Dwarf 23 . . . out lbw)
Oz 286 and 483 - 5

Match drawn.

I'm just off to call a chap in Delhi to discuss a few of the "prices" on offer!

Merlin wrote:My prediction . . .

Bannies 650 - 7 decl (Red Dwarf 23 . . . out lbw)
Oz  286 and 483 - 5

Match drawn.

I'm just off to call a chap in Delhi to discuss a few of the "prices" on offer!

Oz?

taipan wrote:

Merlin wrote:My prediction . . .

Bannies 650 - 7 decl (Red Dwarf 23 . . . out lbw)
Oz  286 and 483 - 5

Match drawn.

I'm just off to call a chap in Delhi to discuss a few of the "prices" on offer!

Oz?

You see what I mean . . . that bugger in Delhi will sell you a bent farthing if you haven't got your wits about you !
Thanks for the wink taips. . . .

I'll switch that to WIndies, but will have to recalculate the scores.

Bannies 650 - 7 (Red Dwarf 38 run out)
WIndies 138 and following on 207.

The Bannies win by an Innings and a lot of runs in 4 days . . . the Dwarf will be chaired off (he won't take much carrying - he's been carried by the team for the past 2 years) . . .and he'll ride off into the sunset on Juhu beach . . . returning to his pad in Malabar Hill where he'll open a small shop selling his old kit . . . bats, pads, gloves, etc., from which he'll make a pile of dosh. He'll then try to make a return to the Bannie team in 2015, but Dhoni will then tell him to fark off back to Mumbai . . . . and so the saga will continue endlessly . . . .

I think the Delhi bookies have called off all bets about Merlin mentioning Delhi bookies in his next post, it's a certainty. Gets old after a couple of times, banal after a week or so.

  . . . got good odds though !

tricycle wrote:I think the Delhi bookies have called off all bets about Merlin mentioning Delhi bookies in his next post, it's a certainty. Gets old after a couple of times, banal after a week or so.

your dickhead tolerance levels are set way too high

Ah!
My mentor speaks . . . .

Mentor? Is Jeremy Clarkson here?

skully wrote:Aye, unlikely to be ever matched. I guess we can say we saw the whole careers of record holders whose records won't be beaten:

SRT's Tests & runs
Warnie wickets (fark the pinger)

I suppose it depends on whether the amount of Test cricket declines substantially in the coming years. Certainly nobody on the horizon in terms of bowling. Kallis might still have something to say about 200 Tests and the runs aggregate though, and Cook is set to play his 100th Test before turning 29 - first signs of a dodgy back and the vagaries of English selection in terms of older players in particular probably mean he will do well to make 150 though.

Brass Monkey wrote:Mentor? Is Jeremy Clarkson here?

Fark, I made proper coffee and then read this post

Poor old Shiv Chanderpaul, becomes only the 7th player ever to play 150 Tests and it's barely a footnote!

beamer wrote:Poor old Shiv Chanderpaul, becomes only the 7th player ever to play 150 Tests and it's barely a footnote!

You can't really expect anyone to get 150 tests in the first few years of their career, but Shiv would've had to have been the least expected on that list.

Poor prod from Samuels.

Ahh. Capitulation, I've missed you. It's been a whole few days ago since I last saw you.

Same old . . . same old.

Second tier cricket for the WIndies is my solution.

S-A-W-F-T!

Merlin wrote:Same old . . . same old.

Second tier cricket for the WIndies is my solution.

Well, that would just kill off the game there for good... might as well play as separate island nations if it came to that.

Thought they would prepare an absolute road for this, as it is it won't go 3 days and Tendulkar will probably only get to bat once.

Sammy must go. He did a manful job, but let's face it - he can't bowl and he certainly can't bat. That shot was a f*cking disgrace. Abhorrent. Something you'd expect from a genuine number 11. In the second innings. Staring a big defeat in the face.

beamer wrote:

Merlin wrote:Same old . . . same old.

Second tier cricket for the WIndies is my solution.

Well, that would just kill off the game there for good... might as well play as separate island nations if it came to that.

Thought they would prepare an absolute road for this, as it is it won't go 3 days and Tendulkar will probably only get to bat once.

And what of "killing off" the cricket played in the current crop of second tier nations?

As such, I'm inclined to disagree.
The WIndies have been in serious terminal decline now for almost a decade.
Regardless, they reap all the benefis of playing top tier cricket (and the financial rewards that go with it) whilst developing cricketing nations like Ireland, Kenya, Holland and even Afganistan survive on scraps handed down from the ICC.
These nations get no opportunity to play the top tier, other than an occasional match or in the WC ODI's . . . and then only by lottery - and as such are stemmed in growth. . . . (examples of recently developed cricketers who've been "adopted" : Joyce, Morgan, Rankin from Ireland and a couple from Holland. )

So, will the second tier teams ever be allowed to get going to challenge top tier cricket?
I'd venture NOT.
Why?
Because teams like the WIndies and Bangladesh corner the market and hold things down with their own brand of demoralising cricket and under the oft trumpeted banner that "it would kll off the game in their country".

Time for a re-shuffle of the deck.
Promotion and demotion.

West Indies opening bowlers - Holding, Roberts, Marshall, Garner, Ambrose, Walsh... Sammy!

Shows how far they've fallen now. Is this just a desperate attempt to show he's not in the side as a specialist captain?

Merlin wrote:

beamer wrote:

Merlin wrote:Same old . . . same old.

Second tier cricket for the WIndies is my solution.

Well, that would just kill off the game there for good... might as well play as separate island nations if it came to that.

Thought they would prepare an absolute road for this, as it is it won't go 3 days and Tendulkar will probably only get to bat once.

And what of "killing off" the cricket played in the current crop of second tier nations?

As such, I'm inclined to disagree.
The WIndies have been in serious terminal decline now for almost a decade.
Regardless, they reap all the benefis of playing top tier cricket (and the financial rewards that go with it) whilst developing cricketing nations like Ireland, Kenya, Holland and even Afganistan survive on scraps handed down from the ICC.
These nations get no opportunity to play the top tier, other than an occasional match or in the WC ODI's . . . and then only by lottery - and as such are stemmed in growth. . . . (examples of recently developed cricketers who've been "adopted" : Joyce, Morgan, Rankin from Ireland and a couple from Holland. )

So, will the second tier teams ever be allowed to get going to challenge top tier cricket?
I'd venture NOT.
Why?
Because teams like the WIndies and Bangladesh corner the market and hold things down with their own brand of demoralising cricket and under the oft trumpeted banner that "it would kll off the game in their country".

Time for a re-shuffle of the deck.
Promotion and demotion.

Countries seemingly on the way down need treating carefully though, who's going to be inspired in the Caribbean by watching them play Holland and Afghanistan instead of England and Australia? They'll be even more likely to watch basketball, baseball or American football instead.

In any case I think it will only be Eng, Aus, India and SA playing Test cricket to any serious level in 20 years or so. Not sure what can be done to reverse that trend, but the shorter game can afford to be more inclusive.