Posted by Afghanistan have won their first World Cup match. It was only the fifth one wicket win in the history of the tournament. With Ireland beating the UAE by two wickets yesterday, it doesn’t need saying that the Associates have provided more than their fair share of entertainment. But we’ll say it anyway. The Associates have provided more than their fair share of entertainment.
Afghanistan were at one point 97-7 in reply to Scotland’s 210. That isn’t so much sniffing defeat as gnawing at it, covering it in spit. At this point, Samiullah Shenwari from our bizarre list of World Cup players to watch raised his hand and requested permission to attend the party. After making 96, he exited the party and left numbers 10 and 11, Hamid Hassan and Shapoor Zadran, to do all the clearing up.
This match alone would make a wonderful extra chapter to Out of The Ashes
Similar deliveries:
Just a reminder that Afghanistan are playing in this World T20
The Worth Watching Ratings: One player from each nation (except Sri Lanka) to keep an eye on during the 2023 Cricket World Cup
Having actually fought for it, Ireland seem to comprehend that Test cricket is worth fighting for
Are we watching peak Afghanistan?
I still can’t decide if he or Hassan is my favourite player right now.
Shenwari’s record at four and five is something to behold.
I know Tim Albone, who made Out Of The Ashes. Top man. Married a top bird too. Sadly he’s no longer in the journalism or Afghanistan business.
Also I’d like to direct some rude words at the ICC, as is customary after every Associates match at the World Cup, but I think they’re so far beneath my contempt I might not even bother. Actually, since they’ve brought their “brand” so far into disrepute, we can just use “ICC” as a rude word anyway.
Oi ICC! ICC off you ICCing ICCers.
That’ll do it.
ICC what you did there.
“Would have worked better if we didn’t normally speak in the plural.)
But would it be pronounced “Eye See See”, as in “The Eye See See are a bunch of tosspots”; or “Ick”, as in “Ick, look what I’ve just stepped in”?
Best part of this motherfruitcaking incident?
The ECB is changing its name to Cricket England and Wales (or something similarly moronic) because being the ECB is seen as “toxic”. That in and of itself is an achievement- being the worst organisation called the ECB when the other option is in charge of running the Greek economy into whatever is left of its ground.
As usual, another insightful (posing as glib) write up. Thank you. It’s outrageous that those ICCers think the Associates shouldn’t be part of future World Cups. Criminal. Ridiculous. Let’s shout as loud as we can. I’m so excited about seeing Afghanistan play Aus next week in Perth, sincerely hope it’s not the last opportunity I get to see them in a World Cup.
Yer maj, your final tweet over on Cricinfo isn’t showing up for me. Any chance of letting me know what highbrow entertainment I’m missing, please?
No, we can’t see it either. It was Jimmy Neesham saying:
“That snicko was very low and muffled, not high and spiky like a usual edge. I reckon the man in seat 32B might’ve let one slip.”
Cheers sire. Every bit as highbrow as expected.
Honestly, what’s the downside to giving Afghanistan and Ireland test status right now? That the game might become more popular in those countries? That fans in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe might watch more cricket if their teams had someone to play against? That adding more teams for India, England, and Australia to play will cut into the precious amount of time they have to play each other?
Never mind, it’s that last one.
I was furious that this game was not televised here. Pay TV instead chose to show replays of other games in the tournament before going to the Bangladesh V Sri Lanka game.
That Dunedin pitch is very special – every game there has come down to the wire.
If it helps KC we could lobby to have them called the WCC?
ICC.
Otherwise known as the Internet Comics Community. A group of people, who tend to criticize the favorable Comic product, and favor the minority Comics product such as DC, or Marvel comics. Mostly used by smug, ignorant, and elitist comics fans on the internet as a pejorative against the popular opinion they are dissenting from. However, they fail to realize that if you use the internet to talk about comics that, hey, you are a part of the same ICC that you tear down.
Not quite what you were all saying, but close.
SA v WI. My money is on a big SA win so bet on the Windies. Gayle is warming up, he is waving a bat to the crowd.
I saw the Cricinfo headline, and my first thought was “that’s an odd batting order”.
SA bat; Duminy, Philander and Parnell out
Has anyone seen Mark Nicholas’s article on cricinfo? It’s called “Will New Zealand’s momentum overpower Australia?”. It only gets worse from there. I particularly liked the phrase “Taylor withdrew into himself, a loss of cricket expression that New Zealand could ill afford”.
I’m enjoying Brian McMillan’s interview:
“If I couldn’t bat at six I wasn’t prepared to play”
“I got three Test centuries and missed out on about 11 or 12 others. Batting with the tailenders was a nightmare. I got out in the 80s and 90s a lot due to the pressure of potentially being stranded. There were a lot of times, had I been batting with the top order, I could have gone on and scored more centuries.”
Er….
AB De Villiers banned from 2019 World Cup
“Teams must be evenly matched” say ICC bosses
That’s why SA is playing behardien, evens it up.
What fiendish device with the Saffers use in order to be prematurely ejected from the World Cup this time around? That’s what I want to know.
The Saffers are the ICC World Cup equivalent of Spinal Tap’s spontaneously combusting drummers.