England's matches have been the most entertaining

[KiWiNiNjA]

Times zones and the amount of pommie scum on here might have something to do with that.

 

[xanderbiscuits]

sri lanka is suprisingly low imo

 

[Burgey]

yet more proof, if any were needed

Time zones FTL.

 

[BeeGee]

Cricinfo's "Win likelihood" graph for today is worth a look:

Those graphs look a little suspect to me. Why do the dips in win likelihood occur before the wicket dots?

 

[Howe_zat]

Those graphs look a little suspect to me. Why do the dips in win likelihood occur before the wicket dots?

Because it works by searching for and averaging bookies' odds, and takes relatively few specific data points (look closely and they are all polygons, i.e made up of straight lines). The wickets are added on afterwards by a different script, purely as reference points, and don't always match up perfectly.

 

[Furball]

Those graphs look a little suspect to me. Why do the dips in win likelihood occur before the wicket dots?

Match fixing. Every cricketer is in on it.

 

[GIMH]

Time zones FTL.

Do you want me to get my violin out ****?

Check out my average posts per match thread during the Ashes if you want to bitch about timezones

 

[angad]

Group A is boring, complains Ponting

COLOMBO: Australia have had a cake-walk to the World Cup quarterfinals and are hoping to enter the knockout stage of the tournament with an unblemished record by taming Pakistan in their Pool A game here on Saturday (today).

But Ricky Ponting, their captain, hasn’t been really enjoying the cricket he and his team have played in this 14-nation tournament so far.

“Our pool has all been pretty boring to be honest,” he told reporters here on Friday. “There’s not a lot happening in our pool compared to what’s happening in the other group. The other group has had some amazing games and we all know what can happen if a few results go the other way in the remaining games. We just do what we can to prepare well to win games of cricket and everything else should look after itself from there.”

Group B that is mostly based in India and Bangladesh has seen a number of cliffhangers while most of the results in Pool A weren’t surprising. England, for example, have played a series of nerve-wrecking encounters, falling against lower-rated Ireland and Bangladesh and winning against favourites South Africa.

When asked whether he would like to be in England captain Andrew Strauss’ shoes, Ponting said: I’m not sure how many fingernails Andrew Strauss has got left at the moment actually. They’ve had some really tight games over the last month — almost every one of their games has gone down to the wire.”

Ponting said that after a series of easy games and a washout against Sri Lanka, the World Cup will kick off for his team with Saturday’s match against Pakistan.

“I think as a team we do start to feel that the tournament’s kicking off now. We’ve had our games along the way and the other big game in our pool matches was the one here against Sri Lanka that was washed out unfortunately, so we’ve been excited about playing this game against Pakistan for quite a while.

“At this stage of the tournament we’re the only undefeated team, which is nice for us. But I think we’ll get a better feel by the end of the game tomorrow of just where we’re at and how well-placed we are in this World Cup. I think it will be a good challenge for us.

The seasoned batsman stressed that Australia are ready for any team in the quarterfinals.

“We’d like to finish at the top of our table because that means we would have won the game tomorrow, and that’s what we’re setting out to do. We’re setting out to play our best game of the tournament tomorrow.

“If that means we finish on top, great. If we don’t and we finish somewhere else I’m not that concerned about that either. To win a World Cup you’ve got to beat the best teams — it’s as simple as that. We’ll take on whoever we have to take on to give ourselves a chance to win a World Cup.”

Group A is boring, complains Ponting

--------------------------------------------

Sri Lankan drum/music noise, pitches, West Indies kinda weather is annoying. Plus huge batting first advantage.

 

[Spark]

How the hell does that count as "complaining"?

 

[BoyBrumby]

How the hell does that count as "complaining"?

"Pretty boring" & "Not a lot happening" fit the criteria to be considered complaints, surely?

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

I'd rather have it boring than minnows upsetting my team, tbh.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I'd rather have it boring than minnows upsetting my team, tbh.

With "English" hat on, absolutely, but with "cricket fan" titfer in place it has made the tournament so far.

With Bangladesh on 21/4 off 8 overs chasing 285 to win it looks like we'll get the 8 teams everyone thought through, but the mercurial nature of England has kept the interest in Group B right up.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Was speaking more from a captains point of view, rather than a fans.
I bet Ponting would settle for boring over exciting anyday.