World Cup 2007 - Preview thread

[BigCrickNan]

Well, I watched highlights, and Ntini did bowl a lot of half volleys in that last spell. There were poor balls.

Look at his figures over the last few games (India and Pakistan at home, Champions Trophy, also some of the home series against Australia) he has bowled well more often than not. He can afford to be more expensive looking for wickets with Pollock at the other end going at 3< most games.

 

[aussie_ben91]

They conceded 434 against us and 350 odd against Pakistan, you don't concede that if you are strong.

Reading the reports our squad will be
Gilly
Hayden
Ponting
Clarke
Symonds
Hussey
Watson
Hogg
Lee
Bracken
McGrath
Johnson
Tait
Haddin
Hodge

I'm hopeful that's the squad we select.

 

[Cricketman]

Indian Squad announced: 1 Rahul Dravid (capt), 2 Sourav Ganguly, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Virender Sehwag, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 8 Dinesh Karthik, 9 Irfan Pathan, 10 Ajit Agarkar, 11 Harbhajan Singh, 12 Anil Kumble, 13 Zaheer Khan, 14 Sreesanth, 15 Munaf Patel.

Sehwag again. Raina dropped :/, Kaif not even given a good chance to prove his worth before the cup.
They save at least 30 runs a match each, at least add that to their batting account?
Terrible, really. And now we have Sehwag's bad starts and "hopefuls".
Everything else looks alright. My team:
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Dhoni
Dravid
Yuvi
Sehwag
Karthick
Irfan/Kumble
Bhajji
Sree
Munna

 

[irottev]

New Zealand World Cup Squad:

Stephen Fleming (c)
Shane Bond
James Franklin
Peter Fulton *
Mark Gillespie
Michael Mason *
Brendon McCullum
Craig McMillan
Jacob Oram
Jeetan Patel
Scott Styris
Ross Taylor
Daryl Tuffey
Daniel Vettori
Lou Vincent

(The two with stars are not selected for the Chappel Hadlee Series.)


I cannot believe they picked Tuffey. Absolutly stupid. Chris Martin should have got that spot. Even Adams or Harry.

Tuffey averages 69.50 with 6 wickets in our Domestic competition. How could they select him? I hope they prove me wropng. Seems absolutly ridiculous to me. Strike rate of 91.83. They picked him apparantly for his 4.54 economy. :/

Now compare that to Chris Martin: 13 wickets at 24.53 at a 4.03 economy. 36 strike rate, so almost 2 per 10 over spell.

Martin is quicker and has more recent experiance. His batting is worse, but it's not like Tuffey is a blaster either.

Bloddy dumb.

 

[siddharth2002]

And I thought Tuffey retired or something, absolute dumb selection, Adams would have been a far better option with his batting abilities.

 

[obelisk]

Arrgh, why Tuffey?? I would of liked to see Martin (to bowl to lefthanders at the start of an innings) or Harry (low economy, esp on slow Windies pitches)
Heck i'd even have another spinner (McCullum) instead of Tuffey.

 

[marcon]

but Australia lost the match scoring 434 and SA also got 390 against Pakistan who are supposed to be one of the best one day teams. Australia couldn't even beat England who are one of the worst one day teams

 

[aussie1st]

But Ntini is on his best form at the moment and Pollock is... always good. I would say their bowling is better than Australias at the moment.

I'm not saying they are bad just pointing out that their bowling attack can be a weak point just like any other team but if it's on song it's probably the best going around. I agree their attack is better than ours, our bowlers hardly move the ball lately, it's got a very pedestrian feel about it.

Lol where did Tuffey come from, he hasn't played a game all summer for the Black Caps and suddnely hes in the team. Harris should have got it, his medium pacers should be handy in WI and his batting the same.

 

[symonds_sixes]

I can't believe these professional atheletes of today. Miss 3 weeks of the biggest cricket tournament in the world just for the birth of your child? Honestly, 3 weeks!? Sure, see the birth and get your arse on a plane to the WI. Harden up Gilly!

 

[aussie1st]

Yea 3 weeks does sound a bit too long, no problem with him being there for the birth of his baby but 3 weeks? 1 week should be more than enough.

 

[brad352]

Ricky Ponting (c) TAS 32
Adam Gilchrist (vc) WA 35
Nathan Bracken NSW 29
Michael Clarke NSW 25
Brad Haddin NSW 29
Matthew Hayden QLD 35
Brad Hodge VIC 32
Brad Hogg WA 36
Michael Hussey WA 31
Mitchell Johnson QLD 25
Brett Lee NSW 30
Glenn McGrath NSW 37
Andrew Symonds QLD 31
Shaun Tait SA 23
Shane Watson QLD 25

source

No surprises there

 

[symonds_sixes]

That's a good squad

 

[mattfb]

no dominic thornely! lol
its a good squad though.

 

[aussie1st]

White has now missed 2 WC squads and he is only 23!

No surprises after hearing Haddin would be taking White's spot this morning. Still don't get why they haven't given Tait a go in NZ.

 

[mehkar]

Pakistan. squad is going to announce, today
Sami and S.Nazir out Umar Gul, S.Akhtar in