The Cricket, and maybe some other sports as well

[coldforge]

Meanwhile Australia are doing curiously well—not spectacularly, but Pakistan just aren't getting anywhere with their bowling. I find it hard to see how they could recover such a deficit—they're still 44 runs down, and Pakistan have an entire other innings to play. So it's hard to tell what's going on right now. The play and momentum seems to suggest that Australia is rallying but the numbers are so dire.

[Nick Ink]

That's amazing that they've stopped for the light - I reckon they could play til about 9pm down here on the south coast!

[Johnp]

Muralitharan has become the first player ever to take 800 Test Match wickets, and he did it on the last day of his career!

Last ball of the last day of his last match! Amazing.

[Good Intentions]

Well, it was the last ball  because he took the wicket... but yeah, a storybook ending. A comprehensive win on his home ground against the top-ranked team in the world. Good on him.

[reebty]

When I was a kid, when Australia batted first in a one dayer and scored 300, it was a toss-up between watching the other innings in its entirety or hiring a video and then watching the remainder and seeing how much of a fight the opposition was able to put up. Fast forward a decade or so and Australia breaks the record by a considerable margin with 434 and loses. If the 50
over format is to survive, it has to be closer to a condensed Test than a protracted 20/20. Otherwise people who want nothing more than a slogfest will turn to 20/20 where there's no pretense of it being anything other than a batsman's game.

[Johnp]

Well, it was the last ball because he took the wicket.

Sure, I get that (less romantic had he done it for the 9th wicket, though), but I was worried that he might have suffered a Bradman and finished on 799.

Also, I forgot to mention that Ireland recently beat Bangladesh who beat England, making Ireland Champions Of The WORLD... well, worthy of full status, at the very least, no?

[coldforge]

I believe that much of Ireland's not being Test status yet has to do with its lack of infrastructure and funding, that sort of thing.

[coldforge]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKlucE-5nIM

[Thermofusion]

TWC just added a channel called "Fox Soccer Plus" to my cable TV package (which already includes the ol' Fox Soccer Channel). Whereas the latter airs a nice mix of premiere league and various Euro matches, Fox Soccer Plus apparently only exists to show international rugby 24 hours a day, no hint of soccer anywhere. Right now it's 'Currie Cup' action, Lions v. Blue Bulls. Whatever that means/whoever they are. Anyway, I'm now tele-connected to two of the major postcolonial sports, can cricket be far behind?

[Ignatius]

They probably don't have enough soccer programming for the second channel since the European club leagues haven't started their seasons up yet.

[Good Intentions]

The Currie Cup is the top domestic competition in South African rugby union, and the Blue Bulls / Lions game is a derby of sort: the Lions are the team representing Johannesburg and its environs, and the Blue Bulls represent Pretoria (only 80km north of Jo'burg) and northwards. The Bulls, being the defending champions, probably trounced the Lions.

[Thermofusion]

What I saw (I was mostly listening to it and raising my head whenever the commentators' voices rose) was fairly one-sided in the Blue Bulls' favor, and they ended up winning.

They're showing Wellington vs. Tasman in a bit. Rugby union is more or less the most popular sport in NZ, yes?

[Good Intentions]

Far and away. And the second most popular is rugby league.

[Thermofusion]

I'm gonna watch it if I'm still up. The utter futility this season of my two favorite baseball teams is helping to unearth some kind of latent interest in international sporting culture, I think. I'd certainly rather watch a random rugby match from halfway around the world than see the Pittsburgh Pirates get slapped around again.

[Good Intentions]

Well, you'll get to see Tasman get slapped around again.

[coldforge]

ha, blue balls

thermo, you giant pain in the ass, any time you want to get into cricket you let me know

[Thermofusion]

I'm ready, I got a hard-on for esoteric sport right now

[coldforge]

If you want to go really eso you should get into pesäpallo, also known as crazy Finnish zig-zag baseball.

[davy]

Braves still holding off the Phillies-- just took 3 of 4 games from the Giants, who are wrapped up in a pennant race of their own.

Almost makes me wish that college football would hold off 'til October. Once the Vols take the field for the first time, baseball is history.

Then again, the Braves might actually make a go at it this year. Can't say the same thing for the Vols.

[dumbfish]

The weird thing is the Phils have made this run with 2+ critical players hurt.Tempting to say, "Just wait 'til they're all back," but they scuffled in mediocrity early on, as I recall. In short, baseball's a weird game with a strong dose of random/ unpredictability. Your taste for the game depends on how you feel about that.

[davy]

It's like Chipper says, "As long as you're in first place and you're winning, they can't catch you."

[Thermofusion]

Man, I got nothing against the Braves, I like Bobby Cox and really liked John Smoltz, but Chipper Jones is a big ol' redneck goober.

[davy]

He's a redneck all right, but he's a future hall-of-fame redneck. A redneck with a lifetime BA over .300 who won a batting title in his 15th season as a major leaguer and ranks third on the all-time homerun list for switch hitters (behind Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray).

An all-star of the steroid era who achieved greatness without steroids, and who has been with the same franchise for over 20 years.

He was a 19 year-old third baseman for the Macon Braves when I first saw him play. I can remember sitting on the wooden bench outside the locker room at Luther Williams Field, hoping he would sign my ball, my glove, whatever I had with me. He always did. I wish I knew where that stuff was.

[Thermofusion]

He also knocked up a Hooters waitress behind his wife's back

[Maaik]

Oh come on, who hasn't done that?