Posted by If in January we decide to rank the months of 2021 according to how hard it was for us to pay attention to the wider world, it would be a very big surprise if October didn’t come out top. Illnesses have seemingly been queueing patiently for two years and are now entering our home sequentially, monstering the smallest family member in particular. What we’re saying here is that the men’s T20 World Cup has so far been passing us by a little.
We’ve really only noticed five things.
Thing 1: Papua New Guinea are playing
We’re tempted to upload all image files as .png instead of .jpg in their honour. We actually saw a bit of PNG’s first match. We believe they have a reputation for being good fielders, but having hardly played for a couple of years, dropping chances had become as infectious as this God-damned mega-cold. Looks like they’ve picked up a bit since then though.
Thing 2: Scotland’s Chris Greaves almost doubled his career tally of runs in one knock
31-year-old Chris Greaves had made 50 runs in his entire professional career when he walked out to bat against Bangladesh with the score reading 52-5. He hit 45 off 28 balls, took a couple of wickets and Scotland won. It’s one of the great unremarkable names, isn’t it, Chris Greaves? You definitely went to school with a Chris Greaves. He probably wasn’t in your year but you probably wouldn’t remember him even if he was.
Thing 3: The Netherlands lost four wickets in four balls
The more generous way of putting it is to say that Ireland’s Curtis Campher took four wickets in four balls, but while a hat-trick is a cool and amazing thing, four-in-four always seems a bit more, ‘Oh, okay, we’re doing nonsense now, are we?’ Quite brilliantly, the first wicket was initially given as a wide, resulting in the magnificent appeal/celebration above. This is probably our favourite moment of the tournament so far. Highlights of this timeless event must now forever commence with a guy with his hand half-raised, turning his head from side to side in confusion.
Thing 4: Glenn Maxwell’s body in the T20 World Cup anthem video
What species is he meant to be?
Thing 5: We’ve actually forgotten Thing 5
Maybe it was kits. There are some pretty cool kits at this World Cup. PNG’s is cool. The Netherlands’ is classic. Scotland’s is lovely. England’s is probably the worst.
What’s next?
Probably a bunch of teams all on four points and a lot of talk about net run rate. This may actually prove the most exciting part of the tournament, so we’re going to try and pay attention.
Get well soon to the entire Bowden “royal family”, especially Tich.
Does it make you feel any better that the Lavender/Escamillo Escapillo branch of our family are similarly afflicted with little-uns and sniffles, which they seem successfully to have passed on to the Ged and Daisy branch following our first visit in goodness-knows-how-long this last weekend?
Thought not.
T20 World Cup is it? I’ll make a diary note to start following it properly once I have finished work on Friday.
You’ll (most likely) have missed the Papua New Guinea bit!
Scotland’s kit was designed by a 12 year old girl too. Lovely stuff.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/icc-mens-t20-world-cup/scotlands-t20-world-cup-jersey-designed-by-12-year-old-girl-rebecca/articleshow/87158130.cms
I vaguely remember having to do this kind of thing back when I was cool. Suffice to say, there were never any tweets lauding my efforts. Or indeed, tweets.
Oh my God!! Not “when I was cool” (that’s never happened. I read this site for a start?!)
WHEN I WAS AT SCHOOL.
Apologies.
Not “too cool for school”, then, eh Gareth? Too school to be cool, were you? Of course, I was at school so long ago I’m not even sure that cool had been invented. It certainly hadn’t found its way to London SE22.
Absolutely Gedd. Whatever “cool” is, it I am not.
Thing 5: We wan … We wan … We wan … the ground announcer’s clap-trap to be slightly lower in volume than that of the television commentators. At least. Or, if not possible, switched off.
That’ll do.
Regarding Thing 4, Kohli looks suitably angry about his avatar – or certainly building up to anger – or maybe just a Kenneth William’s impression. Hard to say.
Or a Kenneth Williams’ impression, even.
He’s actually quite smiley after taking a catch on the video. It rings not in the least bit true.
Thing 5 could well come from one of today’s warm-ups in which Nabi took 4-2-2-3, and the West Indies seemingly elected not to attempt the target of 190. Roston Chase was, ironically, there at the end to record a stoic unbeaten half-century in a 56-run shellacking. Lost Non-Chase, more like.
I call that Thing 3 picture “Curtis Campher answers the question ‘who all here in associate cricket is South African?’ while the umpire offers him a hug.” I accept it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but having missed the game seems a perfectly legitimate interpretation of events. Mind you, I went to something called “skool.” Kool, however, is cabbage.
Thing 6 is that it is incredibly bad form to have warm-up matches after the tournament has already started. I don’t know which out of this and the 10 team round-robin format is more hateable.
That’s true. Particularly when media pay attention to those warm ups.
I found a highlights clip of the Camphor four-for on a Rajasthani news website…the commentary appeared to be legit though. After the fourth wicket, the chap said “are you bowling cricket balls or canon balls?!”
I’ve heard of bowling a heavy ball, but that would be taking it a step far
Given willow.tv’s decision to not include the world cup in its streaming service I’ll restrict my attention units to this post.