Posted by Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes were the actual heroes for England, but this is Twenty20, so like everyone else, let’s instead turn our attention to Jason Roy – a batsman.
Roy used both edges of his bat and quite often the middle. Crucially, he also abandoned the moronic belief that it is somehow beneficial for the side that he play himself in and started hitting from what some people call ‘the get-go’ but which we, as a Briton, call ‘the outset’.
Turns out Roy doesn’t need to give himself time. Maybe he is a robot – a roybot, if you will.
Roy’s approach achieves two things. It means England score a bunch of runs and it also means the batsmen who come after him can play with a modicum of control. Not that they necessarily do. When the adrenaline’s pumping, it can be hard to deliberately take singles.
They got enough of them though (plus a few boundaries). They’re into the World T20 final.
HAVE IT.
I may be slightly overexcited.
Indeed, let it be had.
Get Roy in the Test side, now.
Steady on, old chap.
It’s not like he could be worse than Hales, though, is it?
You mean Halebots?
What, and keep the Binary Bellbot out of the side? And Ravibops?
No hope for a return for Rob(ot)son?
He’s not computers, Sebastian, he’s physical.
Roy at the interview:
“I just felt it was a chance to go out and get us off to great start. It was one of those totals that can be dangerous, I gave it a crack and it came off.”
Cosiderately not using the word ‘tinder’ here, because he understands that many of us aren’t used to that describing something other than hookup apps.
No.
Betteridge’s law of headlines?
No.
Whee, university matches! Cambridge have a bowler called “Alistair Allchin”. There is sadly no picture from which nominative determinism (or otherwise) can be assessed.
I’d also dearly love to know if he looks like an elevated step.
http://burnhamsportscc.hitscricket.com/memberprofile/memberID_73181/Alastair–Allchin.aspx
Also, creatively and hilariously, known as ‘Massive Chin’.
Looks like he’s from the right sort of family. FEC material.
Top Cambridge banter there. (groan)
Even Cricinfo can’t decide how to spell his first name. Maybe it’s a distraction tactic.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/559132.html
And he’s just got a wicket! Bringing his FC average down to 113.
What an twerp.
And a fifty not out. Would make me proud to be a Cantabrigian, were he not also a twat.
I’ve just watched the end of the women’s semi-final while eating my lunch.
One of the Kiwi players is named Erin Bermingham.
It occurred to me that there is something a little ironic about a Kiwi spelling that surname the way a person from Birmingham would pronounce it, whereas a Kiwi would not actually pronounce the word Birmingham that way.
I also pondered on how a Kiwi might pronounce the name Erin and decided that the Kiwi way might rhyme with, for example, (Helen) Mirren.
I then felt an irresistible desire to share the above thoughts with you all, before sloping off from my fascinating loafing towards the City to do some bloody dull work. Hopeless planning on my part.
Alistair, Adam, Avish, Adil and Alexander are the Cambridge attack today.
Meanwhile Loughborough have Akram. Basil Akram.
They’ve brought their A game. Real A-listers there for this A-list match (first class?)
Is there a gentlemen’s agreement that the county side will always bat first in such fixtures?
Some suspicious fielding in this India WI game.
By which I mean the WI have been told to throw this by their IPL overlords.
If they can twice deliberately miss the stumps by a millimetre in the space of one ball, they’re the best fielders ever.
That comment wouldn’t have been made a similar incident was to happen in favour of Eng (and the English league was dominant). I’ve never seen similar comments about say Big Bash and Australia or EPL and Eng football team.
The comments on this site are usually considerate compared to the rest of the internet and I tend to associate this site with a knowledgeable fans than the average keyboard warriors. But I’ve seen similar comments even here since the beginning of the tournament.
I’m just trying to understand, is there so much resentment towards the IPL outside India than any success by the national team is seen as tainted? How much of this is because of the I in the IPL, would the league be so vilified if its origins were in England or Australia?
My view, for what it is worth, AKS, is that the users of this site would make very similar jokes/inferences/innuendoes were the disproportionately rich and powerful body/bodies in England or Australia.
With such money and power comes the risk of undue influence or corruption; hence the tendency for people here, myself included, to allude to such. Some of us tongue in cheek, as in my case, but I’m sure all hoping against hope that there is no such actual corruption, which would be hugely harmful to cricket as a whole.
The fault for the disproportionate money/power thing is not simply down to the IPL and the BCCI. The so-called “Big Three” cricket boards (therefore add the ECB and Cricket Australia) have a lot to answer for regarding the power grab in the aftermath of the Lord Woolf Governance Review. The sooner this “Big Three” era passes the better, in my view. Giles Clarke, one of the architects of the power confusion in world cricket these last few years, is (understandably) vilified on this site more than any other individual.
I also think the broadcasters in all major cricket territories have a lot to answer for. There is a dangerous push here in England for City-based franchises for the domestic T20 – mostly through the questionable believe that it will add money to the pot through bigger gates and especially bigger television rights deals worldwide. This push for wholesale change ignores the fact that, in my view and in the view of many others involved in domestic cricket here, such a move would be potentially damaging to root and branch cricket in the UK. Indeed adding to damage already inflicted by the complete absence of live cricket on free-to-air television.
There is of course room for improvement in our English domestic structure, but we could easily throw the baby out with the bathwater in the hunt for illusory betterment.
It’s a little ironic that England have done so well in this current tournament, given that we are repeatedly being told that our comparatively rustic T20 domestic tournament cannot possibly produce players able to compete on the world stage against seasoned IPL/Big Bash-nics. Crumbs – perhaps there are other ways to produce international quality players and succeed in T20 cricket…
Of course these ills are not all the fault of the IPL and the BCCI, but they are by far the biggest/most powerful boards and it has been the emergence of the former which has triggered many of these worrying changes/proposals in the last 10 years or so.
I am a natural optimist and think that, in the end, world cricket (and indeed English domestic cricket) will find a good way through this period of flux and that the end result will be stronger, better and more appropriately governed cricket. We’ve got a long way to go, though, so I don’t blame anyone for letting off a bit of steam in the direction of the largest targets for vilification.
The only reason you don’t see my loathing towards the Premier League is because I don’t care for football.
Johnson Charles!!
Oh he’s out.
Kohli! Is there anything he can’t do!!! The Scenes must be absolutely absolute out there right now.
The most worrying thing among all this is that we now seem potentially destined to run into a due Chris Gayle, rather than an undue Virat Kohli, in Sunday’s final. Bizarre scenes.