The Cricket Thread 2014

[PaulWinch again]

Brilliant from Moeen, but it's going to be another gallant defeat. The opening partnership should be Moeen and Hales but we have Cook getting in the way. You should pick the team then the captain not the other way round.

[PaulWinch again]

Excellent from Moeen and very good from Ravi. It's a pity no one else helped much. Moeen really is a quality player.

[taylorsworkrate]

I feel more confident about our batting now. There is talent and explosiveness there. If only Cook was droppable.

Bowling will improve with Anderson and Broad. We aren't going to win the WC, but I think we could surprise a side or two.

[olaftab]

Brilliant from Moeen, but it's going to be another gallant defeat. The opening partnership should be Moeen and Hales but we have Cook getting in the way. You should pick the team then the captain not the other way round.

Absolutely.
Moeen is adding the necessary resolve to his batting and i believe has now achieved international standard next step is move to world class level.

[PaulWinch again]

Moeen's raised an interesting question as well, he has the class to open the batting in Test cricket as well.

[taylorsworkrate]

Phil Hughes has passed away at the age of 25. Utterly devastating news.

[Comrade Blitz]

Too young. You shouldn't die doing what you love at 25.

That's fucked up.

[OzVilla]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/phillip-hughes-dies-after-being-knocked-unconscious-during-sheffield-shield-match-at-scg/story-fnia3gmj-1227134415326

Stunned.

[taylorsworkrate]

I really hope Sean Abbott has the right people and support around him at the moment. God only knows what he is going through.

[manic-road]

That’s terribly sad news, RIP to Phil Hughes who passed away three days short of his 26th birthday. Sympathies go out to his family.

[taylorsworkrate]

I never thought this would be the eventual outcome.

25 years old with everything in front of him.

[OzVilla]

The writing was on the wall from yesterday afternoon when NSW Cricket gave a very short press conference and the Doctor who gave it just looked devastated.

First thing this morning all the news coverage was of team mates leaving the hospital last night.  They showed Michael Clarke and his wife, Shane Watson and his wife all looking absolutely shattered.  Mrs OzVilla asked me if he'd died, their faces really told you all you needed to know.

Lots of Cricket fans had a soft spot for Phil Hughes in Australia, scored a heap of Sheffield Shield runs year after year for NSW and his new state South Australia. Youngest player to score a century in each innings of a Test Match (his second away in South Africa) he was then dropped from the Australian team 3 times.  But everyone knew he was a very talented player and we all expected it was just a matter of when, not if, he became a main stay in the Aussie batting order. He had started the season with South Australia well and many suspected he'd have been the man called up to replace Michael Clarke in next weeks opening test against India in Brisbane, a game I now can't see going ahead.

Everyone here, cricket fan or not, is unbelievably sad.

[pooligan]

Really tragic news to wake up to.
RIP Phil Hughes

[Ad@m]

Horrendous news.

Something has to be done about the bouncer in cricket. When Stuart Broad got struck in the face he had been facing ball after ball aimed at his head and it was inevitable one was going to hit him.

I don't know the context around the ball that hit Hughes but to have such a dangerous tactic completely unregulated can't be right.

[OzVilla]

Horrendous news.

Something has to be done about the bouncer in cricket. When Stuart Broad got struck in the face he had been facing ball after ball aimed at his head and it was inevitable one was going to hit him.

I don't know the context around the ball that hit Hughes but to have such a dangerous tactic completely unregulated can't be right.

Short pitched bowling is regulated within the laws of the game.

Re this incident, when he got hit he was on 63, he was inform.  It wasn't that quick a delivery supported by the fact that he actually got on to it so quickly that he'd got through the shot before it hit him - that's how he got hit on that back, unprotected part of the head.

These things, tragic as they are, happen in sports.  Look at Boxing, Motor Racing, Skiing, Rugby, etc all have suffered these sort of things. 

Short pitched bowling is part of the game, shocking as this is, and this is just a tragic event for everyone.