This Era Is Awesome

[randycricfreak]

Samraweera's 102 and 43 at Durban 2012 Boxing Day test

2nd Test, Sri Lanka tour of South Africa at Durban, Dec 26-29 2011 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo

Same series new year test

Samraweera's 11 and 115* at Cape Town

3rd Test, Sri Lanka tour of South Africa at Cape Town, Jan 3-6 2012 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo


Second most runs(339) in the 3 match test series, after ABD(353)

Cricket Records | Records | Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 | | Most runs | ESPNcricinfo

 

[Flem274*]

it's cute to see the nostalgia for the early 00s finally arrive in akilanas post, i was posting on this forum when people were running around taking 10 runs off the averages of guys like mahela "i average ten million at home" jayawardene and mathew "whenever i see a road i walk at the bowler" hayden

this forum was obsessed with deciding who could cope with the 80s and 90s bowlers and who was secretly a 32 averaging batsman.

overratedmentalhealth has already dispatched of subshakerz far more generously than i was going to

dare i say it, had this forum existed in the 80s and the 90s i think we'd be seeing much of the same moaning about batsmen we do now. i certainly think people would be adding ten runs to the bowling averages of hadlee, imran etc for reasons like bowling on lawns and home umpires. moaning that touring was hard and teams found it a mission to win away from home, moaning that batting was so bad the likes of zimbabwe were becoming competitive. no south africa in the 80s meaning the west indies were also a secretly crap #1.

given the likes of england and australia were a bit weaker than the others and india were yet to really rise up like they did in the 2000s, then given the demographics of this forum now, if it existed back then then this place would be "test criket sux now bring bak the 60s and 70s".

we don't remember cricket for how it actually was at the time. we remember it by what we write about it 20 years later, and when you write about something long after the fact you're only going to be writing about the interesting stuff you remember and that's going to seriously pump the tyres of any decade you choose to write about.

 

[Burgey]

Ok

 

[the big bambino]

Flem finding *****’s length here.

 

[Burgey]

What Flem does in his private time is matter for him mate.

 

[akilana]

This is what happens when NZ win more than 1 test match a series. The era is cursed.

 

[Bahnz]

I don't think it's a particularly great era, but certainly an entertaining one. India the clear number 1, but still not capable of beating their closest rivals away from home. England, SA and NZ all highly competitive at home and away. Australia a total laughing stock. It's good times for a cricket watcher. I do worry about the decline of SL and Pakistan though (even if they both had their moments in 2018).

 

[silentstriker]

I think there’s a lot to say about not having a dominant team - where there’s a legitimate chance of most teams beating most other teams, especially at home. Of course people always like rooting against the dominant team, so you may miss that. But it’s easy to root against the BCCI always!

 

[subshakerz]

I don't think it's a particularly great era, but certainly an entertaining one. India the clear number 1, but still not capable of beating their closest rivals away from home. England, SA and NZ all highly competitive at home and away. Australia a total laughing stock. It's good times for a cricket watcher. I do worry about the decline of SL and Pakistan though (even if they both had their moments in 2018).

I think Sanjay Majrekar made this point a few years ago. Would you rather be entertained seeing more mediocre teams be competitive against each other, or see more great players across the world exhibiting their skills even if it means less some teams are more frequently dominated.

It is not nostalgia to appreciate high quality. I prefer strong teams facing strong teams, even if it leads to one-sided games more often.

And I don't see the fact that so many teams being able to win abroad as necessarily a good thing. It means teams like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and now Australia have been so significantly weakened around the same time that beating them in their own backyard is not the feat is used to be.

Having said all that, I still appreciate that bowling standards appear to be on the rise and look forward to these guys showing their class in the coming years.

 

[Prince EWS]

wtf i love this era now

 

[trundler]

I think Sanjay Majrekar made this point a few years ago.

.

 

[jimmy101]

Would it be fair to say this era began in 2005, the year of the first T20I?

Or perhaps 2011, from the CWC onwards?

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

How about when India got knocked out in the group stages of CWC 07?

 

[TheJediBrah]

I feel like this era is more competitive, but also slightly lower quality, at least where Test cricket is concerned. In limited-overs though, flat-wicket batting especially, the quality of the players has sky-rocketed

 

[StephenZA]

I feel like this era is more competitive, but also slightly lower quality, at least where Test cricket is concerned. In limited-overs though, flat-wicket batting especially, the quality of the players has sky-rocketed

I think this has been the most boring LO's cricket in a long time. And I see big hitting and skills understanding has improved, but not enjoyable. Maybe its just because I'm a SA supporter....

 

[jimmy101]

I think this has been the most boring LO's cricket in a long time. And I see big hitting and skills understanding has improved, but not enjoyable. Maybe its just because I'm a SA supporter....

Nah I feel that same way. An overabundance of 400+ ODI scores is nowhere near as entertaining than a low scoring thriller.

Thankfully though Tests are rather low scoring these days for the most part, seems like whites & pyjama cricket have swapped virtues.

 

[Prince EWS]

Nah I feel that same way. An overabundance of 400+ ODI scores is nowhere near as entertaining than a low scoring thriller.

Thankfully though Tests are rather low scoring these days for the most part, seems like whites & pyjama cricket have swapped virtues.

Low-scoring ODIs play out almost like mini Tests while high-scoring ones play out more like extended T20Is. It's no surprise CW members would prefer the former given our generally strong preference for Tests here.

 

[Daemon]

I hate mid-scoring ODIs which are almost like..ODIs

Means I just don't like ODIs I suppose

 

[_00_deathscar]

I hate mid-scoring ODIs which are almost like..ODIs

Means I just don't like ODIs I suppose

Would generally agree with that - exception being made for something like a team hitting something like 260/280 and struggling to get there, everyone thinks oh maybe this pitch will be a bit difficult. Then Kohli comes on to chase at 40/2 and India get there in like 30 overs.