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Yesterday's win by Netherlands was more like a slap for the ICC. They reduced the number of participants to 10, to weed out associate teams from the main tournament. Netherlands still managed to qualify despite this, by defeating three test nations during the qualifier tournament (Scotland also deserved a chance to be here). It was a team effort from them. Each and every member contributed to the win. There were crucial contributions from lower order batsmen such as Roelof van der Merwe and Aryan Dutt, while their bowlers chipped in with crucial wickets at the right time.
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WTF! 4 down for only 62, South African might just got thrashed by the Netherlands. The bowling has been great but the batting has been below average. This game can be the next big upset after England's loss against Afgani team.
Another upset can happen if Klaasen gets out against the Dutch bowling. Dharamshala pitch has become unpredictable as many big teams in this tournament.
It was 44/4, and now they have crawled to 80/4, thanks to a 5th wicket partnership between Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller. But they should be careful here. One more wicket and then they are down to the bowling allrounders (Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj). Both Aryan Dutt and Roelof van der Merwe are bowling beautifully at this point. The required run rate is still around 6.3 per over, and that is a big relief for South Africa. If both Klaasen and Miller can stay there for another 15 overs, then they can win this match with ease. Edit: Logan van Beek does it again. picks up the 5th wicket. Heinrich Klaasen goes back to pavilion and Proteas at 89/5. |
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Portugal won away to Bosnia and Herzegovina with 5 goals in the first half and guaranteed to finish as leaders. Portugal are doing very well this year and they have had no problems scoring goals in their matches so far. Their most difficult match was against Slovakia last week. We should say that they have not even conceded a goal in the matches other than that. Portugal, who managed to score a total of 32 goals in 8 matches, has managed to score 4 goals per match so far. It should be noted that Ronaldo contributed with 2 goals and 1 assist.
Without Edin Deko, Bosnia is not much better than teams like Liechtenstein or Andorra. Right now they are like a one-man army led by Deko. But the problem is that he is getting old. Younger players like Amar Rahmanović and Ermedin Demirović are not able to rise up to the level of Deko. Euro qualifiers this time has been disastrous for Bosnia. Currently they are at 5th position, only marginally ahead of Liechtenstein. It is surprising, given the fact that they started well with a hard fought 3-0 win against Iceland (in which Rade Krunić scored two goals). |
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Netherlands is doing really well. From the current situation of the game, it can be said that South Africa is performing very badly. Video South Africa's first five batting very well. But already South Africa lost 4 wickets with 44 runs in 11 overs. This is indeed good news for the Netherlands. Netherlands can really win this match. According to the predictor, the Netherlands is 66% and South Africa is 34%. In the face of this situation, South Africa has to play without losing a wicket. Although now it is understood that mistrust like England vs Afghanistan can win. Good luck to the Netherlands today.
This is a golden chance for the Dutch to get an upset win in the world cup against one of the strongest teams. But they need to stay focused. One problem that I have observed with smaller teams like Netherlands is that they lose matches from a winning situation, as not many players have international experience. My suggestion would be to continue with the spinners at this point (Roelof van der Merwe, Aryan Dutt and Colin Ackermann), and try to get 1-2 more wickets. And out of these three spinners, Roelof has been most effective so far. |
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LOL.. this is just crazy. South Africa are struggling at 44/4 after 11.4 overs. Netherlands set up a target of 246 BTW (from 43 overs). South Africa had started well and they were 36/0. For 8 runs they managed to lose 4 wickets, with Paul van Meekeren and Roelof van der Merwe picking up the wickets. BTW, the required run rate has crept up to 6.5 runs per over. There is still a lot of depth in South African batting order, with Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller out there, and Marco Jansen yet to come. But if they lose one more wicket, then they will be in trouble.
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Netherlands got a good start, but once Vikram Singh and Max O'Dowd got out, they went downhill. Their star player Bas de Leede is also out now. Currently they are at 43/3 after 12.1 overs, with Colin Ackermann and Sybrand Engelbrecht at the crease. Kagiso Rabada has so far picked up two wickets. Netherlands put up a decent performance in their first two matches. But if they go down heavily today, all the hard work will be undone. Hopefully they will be able to get to a good total. At least somewhere around 200 can be considered as decent.
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Today is the 3rd day of this test match, which is played in Perth and the teams who play this match are Tasminia and Western Australia. I think that this match cannot end with a result because three days were passed and the second innings was on play. I hope that the match ends with a result because I want to see the result of this test match, but the biggest chance is that the match will end without a result. If we look at the score so Western Australia trails by 120 scores. At this time, Tasminia can win the match because they play very well.
LOL.. this first-class match is taking place at the Western Australia Cricket Association Ground (WACA) at Perth. WACA, along with Kingsmead in Durban used to be nightmares for the batsmen. These two grounds offered so much support for the pace bowlers that even an innings total of 200 was considered as above average. But times have changed. Batting first, Tassies made 439, with Jordan Silk hitting 181. And it was the West Australian spinner Corey Rocchiccioli who picked up most wickets. And in return, West Australia has made 437/6. |
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In the match between South Africa and the Netherlands, SA won the toss and decided to bowl first. SA is going with an extra pacer. There will be help for fast bowlers early on. The conditions are still overcast, and the chances of rain interruption are there. SA is the hot favourite to win this contest until and unless rain plays its part. This would be a big blow for SA if the match washed out. Hopefully, we will see a result in the end.
Update: The rain has returned and the covers are back on. ( ESPN Cricinfo)
I am quite surprised that South Africa dropped Tabraiz Shamsi. He did a very decent job during last match (7.5-0-38-2 against Australia, picking up the wickets of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood). The combination of Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj troubled the Australian batsmen, and they were bowled out for just 177 runs. Therefore it was surprising that they included Gerald Coetzee instead of Shamsi for today's match. BTW, Netherlands has started confidently. They are at 21/0 after 5 overs, with Max O'Dowd hitting the seamers for a few boundaries. |
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England and Italy will play today probably one of the most interesting matches of today's games... Both teams need to pick up points to keep their place in the group... Italy need only a win, because their place can be taken by Ukraine...
There is no immediate danger as such. Both Italy and Ukraine are having 10 points each, and Italy has played one match less when compared to Ukraine. Also, they have a very healthy goal difference. In order to get Ukraine to the second place, England should defeat Italy by a margin of 6 goals. Anyway, next month there is a match between Italy and Ukraine (to take place at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome). The winner of this match will be almost assured of a place in the main tournament. But first let's focus on the England vs Italy match for today. Even a draw would be acceptable for Italy. |
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Indeed Group J contains quite weak teams comparing to the other groups at a point that Portugal not only won all their matches but received only 2 goals in 8 games while scoring 32! Almost third of these goals were scored by Cristiano Ronaldo. Their next two games aren't that hard too and regardless of its results, they will end in the top of the group anyway. Slovakia should follow them soon in EURO 2024. Either the other teams are very weak, or out of form. Teams like Liechtenstein are completely hopeless. I don't even remember when was the last time that they won a match in the Euro qualifiers. Iceland, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina are completely out of form. And this has actually enabled Luxembourg to rise to the 3rd position. For Portugal, the margin of victory has been as follows: 1. vs Liechtenstein: 4-0 2. vs Luxembourg: 6-0 3. vs Bosnia and Herzegovina: 3-0 4. vs Iceland: 1-0 5. vs Slovakia: 1-0 6. vs Luxembourg: 9-0 7. vs Slovakia: 3-2 8. vs Bosnia and Herzegovina: 5-0 As you can see, almost half of their goals came from the matches against Luxembourg. |
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Had anyone came across the record breaking match between Argentina Women and Chile Women. The toss has been won by Chile Women and they had opted to bowl first. Argentina women had started thrashing from the beginning. In the powerplay they've reached 100 runs without losing wickets. At the end of 20 overs Argentina Women have scored 427/1, Lucia Taylor 169 runs(84 balls), Albertina Galan 145* runs(84 balls) and Maria Castiñeiras 40* runs(16 balls). The best part they've got 73 runs as extras. One of the bowler Florencia Martinez bowled only one over and the economy was 52rpo. Chile started to chase the target and ended the innings scoring 68 runs. Among that 7 players walked to the pavilion without scoring a run. One is retired hurt and the other one is not out. 27runs from Miranda, 5 runs from Moya and 1 run from Camila were the scored runs. 29 runs have come from extras.
The tour of Chile to Argentina on a 3 T20 matches have been already won by Argentina Women. In the second T20 Argentina women had scored 300 runs and Chile Women scored just 19 runs and it is a win by 281 runs for Argentina Women.
It was not actually a 20-over match. The Chilean women bowled a total of 64 no-balls, so essentially it was more like a 31-over match. Florencia Martinez set up the new record by bowling 17 no-balls in a single over. So her sole over consisted of 23 balls, instead of 6. A total of 52 runs were scored from this over. Emilia Toro also conceded 21 no-balls, but then she bowled 3 overs in total. Esperanza Rubio was the most economical bowler for Chile and she had figures of 4-0-57-0 (economy rate of 14.25 per over). |
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The way people used to think a decade ago, people have changed their thinking in this era. Where earlier a cricketer decided to retire between the ages of 30 and 35, some players are making their debuts between the ages of 30 and 32. I don't think age is a big factor in cricket, cricket is totally a game of your skill and talent. Age will never hold you back if you have enough cricketing talent and cricketing skills. All of them are above 30 years of age and are performing well in the current cricket world. It takes 30 to 32 years for many to find their consistency and bring out their best performance. I will never underestimate age. Age is a big factor for fast bowlers but age is not a factor for batsmen and spin bowlers.
Sachin Tendulkar made his test debut for India, when he was just 16 years old. Nowadays we don't find any teenagers getting inducted into the national teams directly. They usually play 5-6 years of first class cricket, before they are considered for the national team selection. Sometimes a player makes his debut while he is in his 20s. But usually, nowadays when a player is considered for national team selection, he will be most probably in his early 30s. And that means that he has only 7-8 years left in his career. |
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Ronaldo takes such good care of his physique that he can still score goals in matches like he used to. He shows up whenever his country needs him and does what he has to do. He scored 2 goals in the match that ended 5-0 and ranked first on the list of top scorers in 2023. Really, Ronaldo deserves applause.
The Netherlands got 3 points in extra time. If they had not received this score, they would have been in a very difficult situation. In the 28th minute, the Netherlands missed a penalty. I thought the match would end 0-0, but van Dijk scored in the 90+3 minute and saved the Netherlands from a difficult situation. The fight in this group is very interesting. Post-match events made the match even more interesting.
Ronaldo has so far scored 9 goals in the qualifiers. And Portugal has won all 8 of their matches in EURO qualifiers till now. This is some sort of superhuman effort from them. BTW, they should consider themselves lucky, as they were included in a weak group where the other teams are Slovakia, Luxembourg, Iceland and Bosnia and Herzegovina. And their next match is against the weakest team in the group - Liechtenstein. Last time when these two teams played against each other, Portugal won the match by a margin of 4-0. |
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Appearing five times in the world cup is just insane if you think about it.
That's 20 years at the peak of your career. Some other people just barely made it to one appearance and treasure it. These guys have been there for two decades.
In a similar way, this reminded me of Brazil, the only country in the world that has qualified to every single world cup in the history of the sport. That's almost a century at the top level.
In case of Ronaldo, he has been bearing the entire burden for close to two decades. His case is different from that of Neymar or Messi. Portugal is more like a one-man army, unlike the case with Brazil or Argentina. But at the same time, I am not very pleased with the way in which Portuguese management treated him during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He has dropped for some of the matches in favor of younger players and was introduced as a substitute in the second half only when Portugal was trailing. |
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It is official now! Cricket has been officially included in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. It happened because of Virat Kohli's popularity. This a big news for every cricket fan accross the globe. It will help cricket to get more recognition across the globe. SourceWell.. I had posted this a few days back. A lot of questions are still not answered. It is good news that T20 cricket has been finally included in the Olympics. But at the same time, there is a lot of confusion related to number of participants and qualification. The ICC wants a 5 or 6 team event, which may not be acceptable for the IOC. Also, the ICC doesn't want any qualification system and they just want teams to be picked based on the flawed ranking system. In the end, some sort of compromise will be worked out between ICC and IOC. But until then, there will be a lot of uncertainty. |
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Today the number of support towards South Africa match is more because South Africa team is much stronger than Netherlands. South Africa perform well in both batting line and bowling line which is why they are far ahead in the current position. Because the South African team has played two matches so far and won both of them due to which they are third in the points table. And Netherlands team is at the bottom of the points table because they lost both the matches but in today's match also I think Netherlands team will lose. Due to the fact that only the bowling line of the Netherlands team is strong, the batting line cannot perform well. Well.. I would say this. If the South Africans are not complacent, then there is no chance that the Dutch would win this match. These two teams are diametrically on the opposite sides when it comes to momentum. Netherlands is widely believed to be the weakest team in this tournament. But at the same time, they have avoided heavy defeats so far. And Bas de Leede has performed exceptionally against top opposition. Anyway, fingers crossed for today's match. I am hoping for a decent performance from Netherlands. |
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Group A, Spain and Scotland are both tip ranking and having two games to play, nevertheless everything will play out normal for the team. Norway international manager, Stale Solbakken is an average coach, failing to qualify for the Euro 2024 after having in possession some brilliant players, that's a direct bad news for the players, they will be excluded from the Euro simply because they failed to utilized their opportunities to reach significant positions. I wouldn't tender blames, other than for the coach and the players to be able to bounce to good games. Martin Odegaard and Erling Haaland was my favorite pair in Norway and I was very upset when I will get to see the absence of these excellent players.
Well.. Norway do have Erling Håland and Martin Ødegaard. But what can they do, when the other players are not of very good quality? First of all, they were unfortunate enough to be placed in the same group as Spain and Scotland. And then they lost a few close matches, which they should have won otherwise. Anyway, for now the focus should shift towards qualifying for the FIFA World Cup in 2026. The expansion in number of participants haven't benefitted UEFA teams in a big way, but there is a chance that Norway could still qualify for the main event. |
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Netherlands @11.5 This odds shows the probability of Netherlands winning in today's match. If Netherlands can bat/bowl well in today's match then they can win if there is any chance of impossibility. However, I cannot give any definite guarantee about the possibility of the Netherlands winning with the favorites South Africa.
Netherlands actually played decent cricket against both Pakistan and New Zealand. They avoided very heavy defeats on both the instances. But then, South Africa is in exceptional form right now and they made a record total of 428 against Sri Lanka. Injury is also a concern for Netherlands. Their premium allrounder Logan van Beek missed last match as a result of injury. And this means that most of the burden falls on Bas de Leede. He scored 67 runs and then returned figures of 9-0-62-4 during the match against Pakistan. |
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Aussie registered their 1st win but they are still not out of jail and need to win at least 5 more matches if they want to book a seat for the semis.
AUS Vs Netherlands AUS Vs Afghanistan AUS Vs Bangladesh Australia is not likely to win every one of the above matches but the matches with England, Pakistan and New Zealand will be very competitive but it is not possible to say for sure which team will win. However, because Pakistan is not able to take advantage of the Indian pitch, it is quite difficult to predict the match between Australia and Pakistan. I guess they should be able to win their next three matches (against NED, AFG and BAN), as these matches are against weak opponents. Also, let's not forget the fact that Australia is one of those teams who improve their performance as the tournament goes on. I am a little bit concerned about their batting at this point. Yesterday also there was a wobble and they lost their entire top and middle order by the time they reached the small target that was set by Sri Lanka. Bowlers (both seamers, as well as the spinners) are doing pretty well at this point. |
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Norway lost 1-0 against Spain and are now out of the group. Even though they have one more match, they will not be able to continue here as the point difference is 5. Spain won with a pressing game. Norway didn't show much in the match and deserved to lose. They won with Gavi's goal at the beginning of the second half and now they will try to get out of the group as leaders. At the moment they have 15 points with Scotland and most probably Spain will be the leader. OK.. so this time also we are going to miss Erling Håland and Martin Ødegaard in the Euro Cup. Norway has just one match remaining and they have just 10 points. Spain and Scotland both have 15 points each. So there is no chance that they can overtake any of the other two teams. Group B looks quite interesting BTW. There is still a chance that Greece may qualify ahead of the Netherlands. But Netherlands has two more matches remaining and their goal difference is also quite good. The big surprise is in Group D. Wales (without Gareth Bale) is now at the 2nd position, ahead of Croatia. |
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