11 thoughts on “Luck of the Irish?”

  3. To be fair, the Irish were good, but they were assisted by some appalling English bowling and fielding!

  4. It was all rather mundane where I was, England 300+ , Ireland 111/5 nobody was watching and then suddenly somebody noticed O’Brien on 92 off only 40 odd balls!

    I think it was at about 120 to get off 80something that we started paying attention, everyone cheering for the underdog, our table switched to drinking Guinness, a fun afternoon to be sure to be sure 😉

  5. Since the World Cup TV coverage is not free-to-air in Australia, web audio is my only choice. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort for a Paddy-Pom match – how wrong can a Bear be?

    Bloody fantastic!

    I believe Strauss dropped O’Brien at 91 – The ICC will obviously have to probe the clear match-rigging by the English team (or so every Paki and Indian newspaper will be claiming). 😀

  6. The tournament is ‘free-to-air’ here, and on our subscription satellite service, as well as ball by ball on one of our national radio stations.

    That above statement could be a blog in it’s own right, I’ll try and explain.

    Since the start of satellite TV here, (a public company) they have used their financial muscle to secure broadcast rights for perhaps every major sporting event of interest here. They had the most money, outbid our national broadcaster (who are typically inept, cash-strapped and of course have expensive public service commitments.)

    A couple of years ago our government said ‘hang on, this is not fair!’, and insisted that in a country with high unemployment and a lot of people living near or in poverty this couldn’t go on.

    So, part of their licence now includes a bit where although the satellite provider bids and obtains certain rights they have to make the broadcasts available to the general public. This includes all Football, Rugby and Cricket games where our national team is involved.

    I’m quite happy with that, (even though I have the satellite service.) Socialism at work? Probably, but huge companies should have a ‘social responsibility’ and I happy with this agreement.

    Our Radio coverage is either abysmal or excellent, depending on the game, it consists of half a dozen ‘commentators’ watching a TV in Johannesburg and relaying us the game or the wonderful BBC and ABC (the Ozzie one) commentaries if they are doing the game. Either way it’s fine with me, I just want to stay in touch whilst driving.

    (Oops, I see we just lost Smith and Kallis to the Dutch! 😦 )

  7. Interesting, Soutie, thanks for the explanation.

    We have a set of rules that ensure that national matches in any of the main codes (including tennis) have to be free-to-air, but only when they take place in Australia (and possibly in Kiwiland, I think). Overseas – no chance; it’s Fox or Fox.

    The ABC provides audio feeds for most interesting overseas events, occasionally sourced from the BBC.

    You look as though you’re safely headed for 280 or 300.

  8. That’ll do, 351 🙂

    Great knocks from Amla, De Villiers and Duminy, pleased to see they they didn’t let up at the end, over a hundred from the last 7 overs.

    Now to increase our net run-rate and skittle them out, 150 perhaps?

  9. The English bowled like an Australian Ashes attack!

    Strauss looked like a rabbit int he headlights.

    Whatever happened to a yorker?

    Oh the joys of being an English supporter.

    Mind you, Bearsy has a point. The highest ever tie last game, loosing to a bunch of ijuts yesterday, dropped catches – all in the sub-continent where gambling is a religion? If Pakistan had done the same questions would be raised.

    Another absurd side of cricket – the Irish centurian has had to come out and say he doesn’t want to play for england! Nor would I if I were him. Unlike Eoin Morgan, Kev the ego Pieterson, Allan Lamb, Graham Hick, Geraint Jones,Ed Joyce, Gavin Hamilton, Keplar Wessels, Tony Grieg, Irthan Patel and everyone else! Actually, cricket is only similar to other sports, especially rugby – look at the english rugby team. Bunch of immigrants the lot of them! All Black rejects, including the manager!

    Well done Ireland. Now go get thrashed by everyone else!

  10. Holland 120 all out, that’ll do 🙂

    Can Canada spring a surprise on the Pakkis? It’s close.

  11. Good rant C426

    We have a Pakki born player in our squad (Imran Tahir, he married a S.A. girl, plays for Natal), he’s been held back as a sort of secret weapon, there’s a couple of others who the cricket world haven’t seen much of, Faff Du Plessis and Morne van Wyk, tactically we may have stolen a march, we’ll see.

Add your Comment