Cricket anecdotes: historical, apocryphal and local

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

Cricket anecdotes: historical, apocryphal and local

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Golcar CC wrote:

Plus the story of the famous Slavic Cricketing Legend with his own Wikipedia entry!

-- Edited by Golcar CC at 23:16, 2007-01-11

Yeah, but the sad thing is that this is the main sentence in it - He first played for Slovenia at the ECC Representative Festival of 2000, where in four matches he had an average of less than one run per innings.

El Presidente · Disco Brad

I guess this may fall intp the apocryphal category. I have heard two great stories about former Australian Cricketer Greg "smokin Mo" Mathews.

Both of these happened while he was playing club cicket for Randwick in the Sydney First Grade competition.

Upon arriving an hour before a game Mr Matthews sat on the boundary reading a newspaper. His teammates began their warm-up drills while he continued to read his paper.Someone suggested that maybe he would like to do some warming up before the match to which he calmly replied "I don't warm-up, I'm Greg Matthews."

He also allegedly came in to bat in another match and instead of practising a forward defensive or cut shot, he practised a premeditated charge down the wicket before facing his first ball, and then played that exact shot for four with the first ball. Such arrogance.
Incidentally he is still playing in the same competition.

El Presidente · Disco Brad

On the BBC over by over commentary of the England vs Australia one day match today.

I guess this could be related to the "anecdote" part of this thread.

This is so one-sided it's crazy at the moment. Hayden caresses Flintoff for a four behind square leg and Gilchrist responds by bludgeoning the all-rounder 10 rows back for a six. The huge hit is pouched - one handed - by a gentleman on a mobile phone much to the delight of the MCG crowd. Someone check his nationality, he could come in handy if he's English.

I just love the mobile phone part.

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

probably apocryphal but I heard Flintoff once bowled 11 wides in his first over in an international cricket match....

hardly likely but if anyone can come with any details on that

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Golcar CC wrote:

probably apocryphal but I heard Flintoff once bowled 11 wides in his first over in an international cricket match....

hardly likely but if anyone can come with any details on that

Nothing to be ashamed of. Just ask Mr Fish, Furness, Alidžanovič, Oman or Ibbotson - They all know a thing or two about marathon overs.

joel · Findin' Fundin

Yeah, I heard that on Today, here it is ...

0.1 Flintoff to Gilchrist, 1 wide, wide of the off stump, very wide in fact. Two bounces to the keeper
0.1 Flintoff to Gilchrist, 5 wides, oops, that's awful. Leg-side and swinging and all the way to the boundary
0.1 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run, almost another one, taken in front of first slip by a tumbling Nixon
0.2 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run, short of a length, pushed into the covers.
0.3 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run, more of the same, better line
0.4 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run, wide and slashed, and a big ooh from the keeper
0.5 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run
0.6 Flintoff to Gilchrist, 5 wides, that's poor, poor bowling. Wide and loose, and deflected past first slip by the keeper
0.6 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run, and a dot to finish a frenetic first over

El Presidente · Disco Brad

joel wrote:

Yeah, I heard that on Today, here it is ...

0.1 Flintoff to Gilchrist, 1 wide, wide of the off stump, very wide in fact. Two bounces to the keeper
0.1 Flintoff to Gilchrist, 5 wides, oops, that's awful. Leg-side and swinging and all the way to the boundary
0.1 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run, almost another one, taken in front of first slip by a tumbling Nixon
0.2 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run, short of a length, pushed into the covers.
0.3 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run, more of the same, better line
0.4 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run, wide and slashed, and a big ooh from the keeper
0.5 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run
0.6 Flintoff to Gilchrist, 5 wides, that's poor, poor bowling. Wide and loose, and deflected past first slip by the keeper
0.6 Flintoff to Gilchrist, no run, and a dot to finish a frenetic first over

At least it only took 9 balls. 20 ball overs have featured in Ljubljana Cricket Club matches!

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

At least it only took 9 balls. 20 ball overs have featured in Ljubljana Cricket Club matches!

17 surely

my first over ever was at least 10 balls

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Golcar CC wrote:

At least it only took 9 balls. 20 ball overs have featured in Ljubljana Cricket Club matches!

17 surely

my first over ever was at least 10 balls

No a person who shall remain nameless ("a person who featured recently in a murderous dream of a LJCC wicketkeeper") holds the record with a 20 ball over at Valburga. No cunningly disguised slower balls were attempted - Thank Goodness)

-- Edited by El Presidente at 09:37, 2007-01-12

El Presidente · Disco Brad

El Presidente wrote:

On the BBC over by over commentary of the England vs Australia one day match today.

I guess this could be related to the "anecdote" part of this thread.

This is so one-sided it's crazy at the moment. Hayden caresses Flintoff for a four behind square leg and Gilchrist responds by bludgeoning the all-rounder 10 rows back for a six. The huge hit is pouched - one handed - by a gentleman on a mobile phone much to the delight of the MCG crowd. Someone check his nationality, he could come in handy if he's English.

I just love the mobile phone part.

i have just seen this catch. Incredible. He caught it wih his right hand while talking on the mobile phone he was holding in his left hand to his right ear.

I'm sure we'll find this one in the Cricket YouTube thread soon.

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

17 surely

the 17 referred to Flintoff taking 17 balls not 9 to bowl his over with 11 wides.

here's the formula i used:

http://enriques.mathematik.uni-mainz.de/docs/endrassoctica_formula.gif

followed by:

xW+6=y

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Golcar CC wrote:

17 surely

the 17 referred to Flintoff taking 17 balls not 9 to bowl his over with 11 wides.

here's the formula i used:

http://enriques.mathematik.uni-mainz.de/docs/endrassoctica_formula.gif

followed by:

xW+6=y

ah, but 2 went for 4 - mathematical formula = (wide +4) x 2 + 1 = 11 from 3 balls + over of 6 = 9

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

well now i look at the actual report... that's put me in place. Still i thought my cleverness was quite clever. l'have to use that another time.

give my slow bowling I always forget you can actually bowl one over the boundary!

El Presidente · Disco Brad

In light of his recent century vs Sri Lanka and today's 84 versus Australia I choose to tell a local story about kiwi up and comer Ross Taylor
arrived in Ljubljana as part of the MCC touring squad in 2002. Anyway to cut a long story short the scorebook says.

Ross L Taylor bowled Brad J Eve 0 (to be fair he may have got a little better by now)

Guess that means I'm infinitely better than the Sri Lankan and Australian bowling attacks he's been thrashing 6's off lately, doesn't it? (He says unconvincingly).

All jokes aside our bowling attack vs the MCC that day remains one of the cricketing highpoints in the club history.

joel · Findin' Fundin

El Presidente wrote:

In light of his recent century vs Sri Lanka and today's 84 versus Australia I choose to tell a local story about kiwi up and comer Ross Taylor
arrived in Ljubljana as part of the MCC touring squad in 2002. Anyway to cut a long story short the scorebook says.

Ross L Taylor bowled Brad J Eve 0 (to be fair he may have got a little better by now)

Guess that means I'm infinitely better than the Sri Lankan and Australian bowling attacks he's been thrashing 6's off lately, doesn't it? (He says unconvincingly).

All jokes aside our bowling attack vs the MCC that day remains one of the cricketing highpoints in the club history.

Scorecard of that match on cricinfo

MCC vs Slovenia

El Presidente · Disco Brad

joel wrote:

Scorecard of that match on cricinfo

MCC vs Slovenia

Nice find. Pity we couldn't do the job with the bat that day.

joel · Findin' Fundin

Looks like you got a bit bogged down.

Incidentally, has anyone found any other Ljubljana or Slovenia scores on cricinfo?

El Presidente · Disco Brad

joel wrote:

Incidentally, has anyone found any other Ljubljana or Slovenia scores on cricinfo?

Not cricinfo as such, but all tournament Slovenia scorecards can be found here

You'll need to type in Slovenia and submit and you'll get the scorecards

-- Edited by El Presidente at 15:38, 2007-01-14

joel · Findin' Fundin

Ta.

Did find this on cricinfo though. Particularly liked the last paragraph Greg's report on Slo v Czechs, 2001

-- Edited by joel at 15:52, 2007-01-14

El Presidente · Disco Brad

joel wrote:

Ta.

Did find this on cricinfo though. Particularly liked the last paragraph Greg's report on Slo v Czechs, 2001

-- Edited by joel at 15:52, 2007-01-14

I rather liked this paragraph.

"In the second innings a combination of some highly effective fast bowling and poor application at the wicket had the visitors reeling at 40 for five by lunch. Highlights included Eve taking a chunk out of the middle stump with a quick delivery, and Daniel Herakovič holding his first ever catch having previously dropped everything that had come his way since his debut in 1999."

But then again, I would wouldn't I?
mmmmm, chunks

Also a fine turn of phrase from Monsieur Luxury here

"...and included copious refreshments as well as goings-on too lurid to mention here."

Words you don't often see in a match report on an international test match!

-- Edited by El Presidente at 06:34, 2007-01-16

El Presidente · Disco Brad

A nice short one. Michael Clarke batted at 3 the other day instead of the usual choice Ricky Ponting.

Here's why.

"It was a quick toilet break and he couldn't get his gear back on quickly enough."
Michael Hussey explains why Ricky Ponting promoted Michael Clarke to No. 3 against New Zealand at Sydney

Interesting postscript. Clarke scored 75 and man of the match and Ponting only 5

Luxury · Heading for toffee

Re. Flintoff to Gilchrist above

Not bad, but doesn't beat Sreesanth's fantastic first over in today's ODI against the Windies. 14 runs off the first ball! Tekaboo son!

1.6   Sreesanth to Smith, FOUR, that's a rank half-volley and Smith thumps it thorugh cover for four more, Sreesanth finishes a nightmare over

1.5   Sreesanth to Smith, FOUR, superb placement, that was a rather good ball but Smith gets forward and punches between cover and mid-off, he picks the gap and times it sweetly enough to reach the fence

1.4   Sreesanth to Smith, no run, good length loutside the off stump, that swung back into the left-hander as well, Smith watched it closely and let it go

1.3   Sreesanth to Smith, no run, fullish length with a lot of swing back into the left hander, Smith was beaten by the swing and got hit on the pad

1.2   Sreesanth to Smith, no run, good length ball on off stump, he bowled that with a scrambled seam, defended on the back foot on the off side

1.2   Sreesanth to Smith, 5 wides, what's going on here, this one's sprayed down leg side, and so wide that Karthik didn't even attempt to collect that, five more wides, 14 runs off one ball so far

1.2   Sreesanth to Smith, 5 wides, oh that's terrible from Sreesanth, the seam's perfectly upright as usual but it's very wide outside off stump and it's too wide for Karthik to collect it, five wides down to the third man fence

1.1 Sreesanth to Smith, FOUR, short and wide outside the off stump, a real loosner from Sreesanth, Smith rocks back and cuts hard through point for four

-- Edited by Luxury at 13:56, 2007-01-27

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

It's the World Cup. It's in England. There's people on the pitch ... they think it's all over... it isn't. They're back on the pitch, thinking this time it's over. It isn't, it was a no ball ...
Relive the drama of the 1975 World Cup. The first World Cup.