The batting lineup of both Sri Lanka and South Africa is weak. Weak because their batsmen are less experienced and there is no continuity of their performance. So the team that gets a chance to bat first will get some extra chances. Because, if the bowlers can bowl with some control, they will easily win. Yet the South African team seems to be stronger than my Sri Lanka. Because they have some good bowlers like Rabada.
South Africa has some of the best batsmen in top order (Janneman Malan, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Heinrich Klaasen.etc). Their lower order is very weak though. In order to strengthen their middle order, they need to kick out useless guys such as Andile Phehlukwayo and promote Wiaan Mulder and George Linde higher up the order. The same can't be said about Sri Lanka. Apart from a few individual performances every now and then, the Lankan batsmen doesn't seems to be in good form. |
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He's already being blamed for pulling out the troops there. But the Afghanistan government have 20 years long to stand on their own with the help of the US.
But the reason why the pulling off happened is due to that they've not even helping themselves for that long.
He is not being blamed for "pulling out". He is getting blamed because he pulled out without any concrete plan. He was sleeping until the last minute and when Taliban conquered Kabul, hundreds of thousands of people who had to be evacuated (including US citizens) were stuck there. Once Kabul came under their control, the Taliban conducted house-to-house raids and executed many of these people. And the US armed forces left all of their valuable equipment such as military helicopters and humvees at the hands of the terrorists. |
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Everyone talking about French problems now but actually, if you remember, this is an old problem. I'm still backing the Spanish as I did in EURO but the bookies are still looking at France and Brazil to be the top 2 favorites, so they also remember French problems are always at the beginning. Tough to win early games in Group stages and then they improve towards the end of tournament. They will probably feel the same way.
France may be having the best football players, but it is of no use if there is no bonding between the players. Everyone wants to score on their own, and don't want to pass the ball. Sometimes it work, and sometimes it doesn't. Spain and Italy on the other hand are teams with perfect coordination between the players. The same can be said about Belgium as well. Lukaku may be the best player in Europe, but it is of no use when he fails to pass the ball. Even in the Euro Cup, he wasted some good chances because he wouldn't pass the ball. |
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New Zealand scored 128 runs in the first innings. They gave Bangladesh a target of 129 runs. Not a very bad collection for New Zealand. But if they could have scored more than 140 runs, they could have been in the safe zone to win. 128 runs does not seem to be enough to win against Bangladesh. Because, New Zealand does not have an experienced bowler. I think Bangladesh will win the series 3-0 today.
The pitch is very supportive to bowling (especially spin) and in case New Zealand bowlers perform up to the mark, then they will be able to win. That said, I am not sure whether they will be able to do that. I was watching the previous matches live on FanCode, and the New Zealand players looked like a demoralized lot. They have started well, though. Two of the Bangladeshi batsmen are back in the pavillion (Mahedi Hasan & Liton Das), with Ajaz Patel and Cole McConchie picking up the wickets. The NZ spinners seems to be performing this time. |
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Kohli is gone, but the Indian lead has crossed the 200 mark. If Pant and Shardul can add another 30-40 runs, then it will be almost impossible for the Poms to chase (given the fact that the Indian pacers are in excellent form). Advantage with India now, and even if the remaining 4 wickets fell quickly, it will be extremely difficult for England to chase. The point here is not to make any mistake while bowling. Indian pacers don't need to try anything extra. Just bowling in their normal line and length would be enough to dismiss England for sub-200 total.
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US will have to compete with China as to who should Pakistan be friendlier with. The offer of China to Pakistan and Afghanistan to be part of their silkroad plans will probably be materialized now that there will be an authority (Talibans) there in Afghanistan. China legitimizing Taliban as the authority in Afghanistan will likely be accepted by many as well.
But they have to fight other forces again. Odd as it may seem, Talibans and US army are already joining forces to fight ISIS. Now they only have one enemy. It looks like a scene from a movie right? China doesn't really care about terrorism or human rights and they can afford to enter into an alliance with the Taliban. And Russia seems to be following the same footsteps. The US government doesn't have this freedom. However, in retaliation the United States can strengthen their relationship with India. But the current Democrat administration is not seen as very friendly towards India (unlike the previous one headed by Trump). But in order to take a stance, the US first of all need to have a president who can make decisions on his own. Biden is simply not fit for the job. |
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Winning against Bangladesh on their home has always been difficult, yet New Zealand sent their second-tier team here. New Zealand will play a five-match T20 series. My prediction is that Bangladesh will win this series 4-1 like their previous series. Already Bangladesh is lead by 2-0.
New Zealand probably doesn't care even if they lose by 5-0. This was just practise ahead of the T20 World Cup, which will be starting next month. And New Zealand always prioritize test cricket over other formats. How can they compete against Bangladesh, without any of their regular bowlers? Boult, Jamieson, Ferguson, Milne, Southee and Santner all unavailable for this tour. On top of that, they are missing their best batsmen like Williamson and Taylor. Does it really surprise you that they are performing poorly? |
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It was a great win for Sri Lanka. We have seen the dominance of South African batsmen in the entire match. As the first 4 batsmen of South Africa have performed, this match should have been easily won by South Africa. They have failed to perform well and have been defeated. They should be more focused on batting.
With 4 overs to go, South Africa had around 90% chance of winning. But then the Sri Lankan bowlers did a magnificent job, and tightened the screws. The required run rate was climbing up, and that resulted in South African batsmen falling like a pack of cards. Anyway, it was not all negative for South Africa, and there were a lot of positives that they could take away from the first match. But win by Sri Lanka upset my calculation for the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Super League. All of a sudden, they have now moved up to the 8th position. |
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Lead is 99 freaking runs.. Once again England in very strong position they needed a sizable lead because batting last will not be cakewalk so this lead is very handy. India need to put at least 350 runs on the board now otherwise their chances are slim. 350 runs -- Wishful thinking--  Given the lack of form from the middle and lower order, that is almost impossible. BTW, there has been a lot of controversy over the omission of Ravichandran Ashwin from the team. Michael Vaughan has stated that it is just "madness" to leave out Ashwin from the playing XI. In the social media a lot of the users have been urging Ashwin to retire in protest. We are talking about an individual who is currently no.2 in the ICC test bowler ranking, and having 413 test wickets and 2,685 test runs to his name (including five centuries). |
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I still believe the stage cryptocurrency adoption is in is at early adoption stage. The fact that the number of people who are still not aware of what cryptocurrencies are and what they do still outnumbers those who do know and had at least cryptocurrency assets within their portfolios serves as enough reason for me to believe so. We needed more people to know more about the wonders crypto could offer the people, level the playing field and make it everyone's game for us to be considered into a new stage of cryptocurrency adoption, plus there are still untapped potential within cryptocurrencies that we are still yet to uncover, enough for me to personally consider that cryptocurrencies are still at its infancy. Absolutely agreed with this. Look at the transaction volume, and don't just go by the claimed userbase. Compared to the volumes for fiat currencies, the proportion for cryptocurrency is very minute. And although it is claimed that there are tens of millions of cryptocurrency users, how many of them are active in this sector? Even tens of millions is nothing when compared to billions of fiat currency users. The trend is moving in the right direction, and we have userbase increasing at a steady pace. I would say that this is a good sign. |
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@Sithara007 I wonder if the South African selectors will take bold calls post this debacle, or will they continue to pick a team that has no good finisher and continue losing matches like this.
Also which player’s do you’ll feel should be included in their team, and keeping aside the politics if only merit counted then whom would you’ll consider ready to play in the playing 11.
There is no point in talking about their race based selection policy.. because it is just going to get worse. From 2022 onward, 7 out of the 11 players need to be non-white. I just hope that the black payers are able to effectively replace those white guys getting kicked out next year. Bowling should not be an issue. Already they have a bunch of good players, such as Rabada, Ngidi and Shamsi. But the batting department is just going to collapse. I couldn't find a single non-white batsman of international quality in South Africa. Hopefully they will be able to find someone within the next 3-4 months. |
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South Africa needs 65 runs from 42 balls. However, South Africa lost only 3 wickets. Sri Lanka still has a chance to win. If they are able to bowl planned then they can win. It will not be easy to collect 65 runs from 42 balls. Van der Dussen is batting well, if he stays at the crease maybe South Africa will win. There is a reason why South Africa is known as eternal chokers of world cricket. From 260/3 (46 overs), they somehow managed to end up at 286/6 (50 overs). After Kyle Verreynne got out, their batting simply collapsed. Andile Phehlukwayo wasted a lot of balls at crucial stages (trust me, this is not the first time he is doing this), and it put a lot of pressure on Heinrich Klaasen at the other end. The biggest weakness for South Africa now is their lower order batting. They need to kick out unproductive guys like Phehlukwayo. |
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Root's wicket was very important. Because Root alone could have ruined the Indian team. England lost 3 wickets for only 53 runs. If the Indian bowlers can bowl well in the first session of the next day, then we can enjoy an interesting match. Otherwise, England will win this test as usual.
LOL.. for me it looks as if India is having an upper hand. The surface is very supportive of seam bowling (which hints why Ashwin wasn't included in the playing XI), and if the Indian pacers can get England all out for 150-160, then there is a good chance of India going up 2-1 in this series. Morale matters a lot. Right now the Indian morale is high, and England is in a spot of bother. This match can swing either way from this point, and tomorrow's first session is going to be extremely important. |
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I think Tamim Iqbal has made this decision cause he is angry. BCB has a lot of talented players. But they are not as experienced as opening batting on a platform like the World Cup. Maybe Tamim Iqbal will change his mind. That is what I hope.
LOL.. not surprised with any of this. The Bangladesh Cricket Board seems to be having regular issues with some of the senior players. Tamim has contributed greatly to the team over the years. The BCB should have shown him a little more respect. And all this comes at the worst time. The T20 World Cup is being hosted by the UAE/Oman and Bangladesh has been in really good form recently. This tournament represents an opportunity for them to make it big in an ICC event. If they try hard, then a semi-final spot won't be impossible to achieve. |
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This is just a practice tournament. Do not get over excited with this win. The main match will happen when the T20 world cup will commence. If Bangladesh can perform the same way that they have with Australia and New Zealand then they will be a team to reckon in this Worldcup. Btw, amazing performance by the Bangladesh team.
Obviously sub-continent teams will be at an advantage, since the pitches in UAE/Oman are similar to those in India and Bangladesh. And Pakistan and Afghanistan will be having an added advantage, since they have played a lot in these grounds. Also, a lot of Pakistani and Afghan players regularly take part in the T20/T10 leagues organized by the ECB and the Oman cricket board. The real challenge will be for teams like New Zealand. If they can't adjust with the conditions, then they will be in a very bad state. |
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OK.. two hours to go for the start of the 4th match, fingers crossed. The last thing I want at this point is a rain interruption. And fortunately, the weather prediction looks good with less than 10% chance of precipitation. Just a few hours ago, Bharat Arun came up with a controversial statement that the selectors erred by not picking Ashwin. I guess his time as the bowling coach is up, and now he feels more liberated to make such comments. But the fact is that Ashiwn, at this moment is the no.2 ranked test bowler as per the ICC.
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Formalities i suppose?
I believe i saw on my twitter feed that Sir Jadeja is 100% fit. I would be very surprise if SKY making his debut in English condition because you never throw your newborn in front of the hungry wolves, Vihari may be... chances are slim tho. Yeah.. chances of Rahane getting dropped is low. His position is shaky, but the selectors may include him for the remainder of the series. But if he fails to perform, then he may be kicked out (after the series) and in all probability will never be able to make a comeback. It is tragic.. as he was one of the best performers in 2019. Scored two centuries - one each against West Indies and South Africa. He is not that old, but Rahane has been out of form for too long, and I believe that his time with the Indian national team is up. |
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@bryant.coleman the possible theory is that they didn’t consider Bangladesh strong enough, and that’s why in their overconfidence they decided to not have any practice matches. Also this failure will serve them well, as it’ll help them understand where they need to be better and hopefully they’ll perform better in their upcoming matches.
If that is the actual reason, then I have to say that they made a grave mistake. Bangladesh is not considered as anywhere near the big-3, but still they can upset the best teams on their day. The only negative is that they are a bit over-dependent on some of their senior players. But the current Bangladesh is perhaps the strongest they ever had, since they received the test status from ICC in 2000. Hopefully, now they will be able to improvise further and reduce the dependence on players like Shakib al Hasan. |
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Of course you are right that only a few members of the New Zealand main team are in the team, all the rest are new faces. However, this is everyone's expectation that New Zealand will play well.
The national boards have almost completely stopped international tours by 'A 'teams and the U-19 teams. As a result, apart from the main 4-5 batsmen, the others don't have sufficient experience of playing in hostile conditions. On top of that, the Bangladeshi spinners have been in terrific form recently. New Zealand board should have at least played a couple of warm-up matches before the outings against the national team. They could have at least got used to the conditions and avoided this humiliation. |
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LOL.. pathetic performance by New Zealand. They are at 52/7 and I really doubt whether they will be able to make a total in excess of 60. And remember that the conditions in UAE will be very similar to those in Bangladesh. NZ is missing some of the big names such as Williamson and Taylor, but I wasn't expecting such a debacle. As expected, it is the spin bowlers who did the damage - Shakib al Hasan, Mahedi Hasan and Nasum Ahmed. Tough times await New Zealand during the T20 world cup, and if their performance is like this then I would be surprised if they could qualify for the knockout stage.
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