ICC Champions Trophy 2025

@bayimports said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

Loser of this match plays SA which coincidentally sounds better than winning and playing Australia

Disappointing to lose, but I'm not disappointed to get SA rather than Oz.

SA look pretty tough, but if things go well for Oz their batting line-up can chase down anything. Maybe not vs the Indian spinners on their home pitch though!

Anyway, we can have a David semifinal and let the Goliath's slug it out - don't want to have to kill two Goliaths no matter how good our slingshot is!

@Chris-B said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@bayimports said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

Loser of this match plays SA which coincidentally sounds better than winning and playing Australia

Disappointing to lose, but I'm not disappointed to get SA rather than Oz.

SA look pretty tough, but if things go well for Oz their batting line-up can chase down anything. Maybe not vs the Indian spinners on their home pitch though!

Anyway, we can have a David semifinal and let the Goliath's slug it out - don't want to have to kill two Goliaths no matter how good our slingshot is!

Oz are always our bogey team

Even though this South African team looks stronger than this Australian team, I still think that Indian game was a good game to lose.

Still undefeated in Pakistan.

Some of our boys will be a little disappointed with their dismissals by pushing at the ball in the way they did.

But not a bad result in my eyes going into the semis. I definitely didn’t want to play this Aussie side. They are full of confidence and their batting has hitters for all types of bowling.

@ACT-Crusader said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

But not a bad result in my eyes going into the semis. I definitely didn’t want to play this Aussie side. They are full of confidence and their batting has hitters for all types of bowling.

and we seem to have a mental block playing them. We don't usually play to our potential.

Yep I am fine to lose that one, especially as we got the bonus of Kane spending some time in the middle regardless of the loss. Most (all?) of our batsmen have runs under their belt in recent times now. SA will be a different kettle of fish to the tri-series, but smacking them in that certainly won't hurt our confidence going into this one.

Viv agrees that the CT is a bit of a shambles

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

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Viv agrees that the CT is a bit of a shambles

Off topic but crikey it would be amazing seeing prime Viv Richards playing today’s game with today’s bats.

Have seen a few clips on FB lately and he was the absolute gun of all guns. What a unit he was at the crease.

@MN5 said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

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Viv agrees that the CT is a bit of a shambles

Off topic but crikey it would be amazing seeing prime Viv Richards playing today’s game with today’s bats.

Have seen a few clips on FB lately and he was the absolute gun of all guns. What a unit he was at the crease.

He was a huge hotter back in the day. With a modern bat there aren't too many grounds that could contain him

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

He was a huge hotter back in the day.

Straying into mn5 and Gayle territory there.

@Bones said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

He was a huge hotter back in the day.

Straying into mn5 and Gayle territory there.

Hitter. Fat fungers

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@Bones said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

He was a huge hotter back in the day.

Straying into mn5 and Gayle territory there.

Hitter. Fat fungers

Yeah it’s scary to think what he’d do today.

Never wore a helmet either !

Head dropped on first legitimate ball of the match and now making India pay..one of the last guys I would want to give a second chance too

31/1 after 5

I would normally support Aus over India, but it's fair to say we'd prefer India in the final if we make it that far, they're a team we've had the wood over lately.

@No-Quarter said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

I would normally support Aus over India, but it's fair to say we'd prefer India in the final if we make it that far, they're a team we've had the wood over lately.

They are at "home" though

The final now will be played in the Pakistani capital of Dubai

@bayimports said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

The final now will be played in the Pakistani capital of Dubai

The flight from Lahore to Dubai is just under 4 hours. Not only that, the Indians have gotten very used to the same pitch and ground. I hope whoever wins our SF smashes them, anything else is farcical and an Indian win will be close to meaningless to me

@canefan

It’s ridiculous to have scheduled it in Pakistan anyway.

@gt12 said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@canefan

It’s ridiculous to have scheduled it in Pakistan anyway.

Totally agree. If the host country isn't secure and safe enough for all participant countries to attend, why have it there? Just ill conceived from the jump

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@gt12 said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@canefan

It’s ridiculous to have scheduled it in Pakistan anyway.

Totally agree. If the host country isn't secure and safe enough for all participant countries to attend, why have it there? Just ill conceived from the jump

Nah, I don’t mind it.

Pakistan Cricket and fans make a significant contribution to the game so they get a go. There are real geo-political issues between the nations and so this is the price paid of balancing those issues and modern day sports.

Maybe India could have played games in India, perhaps on a rotating basis so they still had to travel, a wider at ground audience could have been reached than in Dubai, and other teams would have been spared the alomst 8 hour round trip? Seems to load the deck in India's favour to me

Rohit has said India are not advantaged by playing all their games in Dubai, because

• they're not playing at home either.

• even though they play all their games in the same city, at the same ground, with no travel to speak of; they have no advantage because they don't know what wicket they will be playing on.

• all the wickets that are being used play dramatically differently to one another, so there's no real advantage at all.

@dogmeat said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

Rohit has said India are not advantaged by playing all their games in Dubai, because

• they're not playing at home either.

• even though they play all their games in the same city, at the same ground, with no travel to speak of; they have no advantage because they don't know what wicket they will be playing on.

• all the wickets that are being used play dramatically differently to one another, so there's no real advantage at all.

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Yeah, ignoring the fact that

1. Familiarity of conditions
2. Might as well be a home game considering the number of Indian ex-pats in Dubai
3. Zero travel

What a piston wristed gibbon

Surveyed* local pub last night (in a tech hub) but most locals didn't agree with the BCI influence on location. They obviously continue to support their team, but I was largely surprised that even they would also prefer it to be a common location for all.

*sample size not statistically relevant but its the fern

We won the toss and will bat. Same team.

Hopefully one of our top three score big today to anchor the innings.

A couple of lovely shots by both Young and Ravindra so far.

16/0 off 3.1 overs.

29/0 off 5 overs. NZ putting the bad balls away so far. Smart batting.

@Canes4life said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

29/0 off 5 overs. NZ putting the bad balls away so far. Smart batting.

Stop building us up mate, Young almost holed out then

Ravindra on fire. Three very good boundaries in that last over.

44/0 off 7 overs.
Ravindra 25 off 23
Young 18 off 20

Young gone. Silly shot really, didn’t need to do that.

Tighten up your jinx game C4L. Young holes out to a soft dismissal.

Change of pace is gonna be key

Saffas to go on and win it from here.

@KiwiMurph said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

Change of pace is gonna be key

I feel like this pitch will suit the likes of Henry.

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

Tighten up your jinx game C4L. Young holes out to a soft dismissal.

Don’t worry ‘Steady the ship’ is in.

@Canes4life said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

Tighten up your jinx game C4L. Young holes out to a soft dismissal.

Don’t worry ‘Steady the ship’ is in.

One more comment like that and you're off

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@Canes4life said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

Tighten up your jinx game C4L. Young holes out to a soft dismissal.

Don’t worry ‘Steady the ship’ is in.

One more comment like that and you're off

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We’ve got this.

Kane feel free to try and find a gap