ICC Champions Trophy 2025

@KiwiMurph said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@canefan said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

If I understand, India will not play in Pakistan. So every team that has to play them has to travel to play them while India can rest up. Seems a strange situation

It gets worse than that

Because it's unclear exactly who will be playing India until after tonight's game is finished and a late trip to Dubai would be too disruptive, both RSA and Aus are travelling to Dubai. One of them will fly back to Pakistan to prepare for the NZ semi.

Fuck. The hypocrisy

@nzzp said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

@1kiwi said in ICC Champions Trophy 2025:

NZ play India tonight. We are already in the semis so the only thing riding on the result of this game is who we play in the semi finals. Win we play South Africa, lose we play Australia.

I thin that's reversed now isn't it? Aus are behind SA - so winning gets you Australia?

Happy to be corrected - I'm assuming it's 1st in pool vs 2nd in other pool

That’s my understanding. Time to give the lower order batting practice higher up?

NZ bowling first and Henry has the first wicket.

India 15/1

Good wicket that one, kohli early would be nice

Good early spell from both opening bowlers

Jamieson has the ball swinging and gets his first wicket

2/22 in your best Benaud voice

Lots of chewing

What a catch!

Kohli gone!

Phillips takes one of those screamers that he is capable of, hopefully this doesn’t mean he drops the next six.
30/3

Come on boys, let's smash these oinks. So if India make the final of Champions Trophy Pakistan 2025, the game won't even be played in Pakistan?

Kane’s turn to pull off a stunner 223/7

India with a credible recovery but NZ should be in the box seat here, tail to clean up

Great final over from Henry India reach 249/9 after 50

Good catches continue but feel Rachin threw his wicket away 17/1

Pitch isn’t easy but NZ hanging in there at 144/4 after 35.
Loser of this match plays SA which coincidentally sounds better than winning and playing Australia

Phillips hits a glorious six then gets out next ball, looking shaky 151/5

89 from 72 needed 4 wickets remaining

Kane finally goes, NZ in deep poo, 81 from 54 required

Quick wickets fall and 1 wicket remains

Looks impossible now

Out for 205 we play SA next

@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