The Cricket, and maybe some other sports as well

[kyle]

Seasoned US men's national team were made to look like a bunch of children by a relatively very young Brazilian side tonight.

Sucked, but is exciting for Brazil's 2014 prospects.

[coldforge]

Fantastic cricket going on right now. Fourth test of the series; England won the first two and Pakistan won the third. On this fourth match, England had an absolutely disastrous start, losing 5 wickets with less than 10 points apiece (and three ducks)—until a fantastic, world-record-setting 300+ run partnership at eighth wicket between Stuart Broad (who, being the 9th player in the batting order, set some records for his position as well) and Jonathan Trott. Now Pakistan's up and they're 39-3. They lost three wickets by about 14 runs, I think. I wonder if they'll be able to build any momentum, or just crumble.

[Good Intentions]

Well, we got the answer to that question, didn't we?

[coldforge]

Well, you know... There have been a couple times in history when a team has recovered from the follow-on. It's not, like, a COMPLETELY foregone conclusion.

Sure it is. But England had their early and middle order torn out completely so they've earned it. And to whatever degree Pakistan is basically shit and young—they shut Yousuf down too. So they've made good cricket out of it.

[coldforge]

They're not shit, really. But Pakistan is the New York Mets of cricket.

[Good Intentions]

I don't know anything about the New York Mets, but I'll take your word for it. They're pace attack is still really bloody good, one of the best in the business. Which is astounding, given that its spearhead is a 19-year-old. I'm glad Pakistan got a win out of the series.

[clare]

But hey, allegations of match fixing!

[reebty]

I'm sure he just got the bowling and batting creases confused.

[coldforge]

Holy nuts. That's crazy. Also: a really weird thing to bet on.

[Good Intentions]

And damn-near impossible to pin down fixing on.

[coldforge]

It's just against the nature of betting on sport. When you bet on sport you generally bet on an outcome that both teams are presumably striving against each other to alter. Accepting a bet on whether a particular player will step over the line at a given point—an action that necessarily has no input from anyone else on the field—is as arbitrary as betting that Joe Calzaghi will wink at the camera in a certain minute of his next fight.

[donblood]

It's just against the nature of betting on sport. When you bet on sport you generally bet on an outcome that both teams are presumably striving against each other to alter. Accepting a bet on whether a particular player will step over the line at a given point—an action that necessarily has no input from anyone else on the field—is as arbitrary as betting that Joe Calzaghi will wink at the camera in a certain minute of his next fight.

You arrived at this conclusion without talking to any actual gamblers.  Proposition bets are arbitrary.  Gamblers bet on sports to bet on stuff, and in many cases, the more ridiculous the bet, the more fun for the gambler.  This is very much in line with "the nature of betting on sport."

[Nick Ink]

Yeah. I remember a mini-scandal a couple of years back here when footballers were alleged to have put the ball out for a throw, straight from the kick-off, with the result that in-the-know punters came up on their bets on the timing of the first throw-in!

[El_Josharino]

I don't know if this will mean anything to anybody (except I suppose diesel_powered), but I just watched the last baseball game to ever be played at Rosenblatt Stadium.

[coldforge]

So, cricket has swung around to the antipodes as the fall has come in in this hemisphere, which means, sadly, that all the upcoming games are going to be starting around midnight my time. It might be a little while till I can watch another one live. I'm ok with that for right now, I kind of got burned out by the end of that long painful slog in England. It started off so exciting, too.

[Good Intentions]

The England-Pakistan ODI series, despite the terrible off-field problems, turned out to have been amazing, though. One of the best series in a long time.

[Good Intentions]

So, New Zealand lost every game in a series of ODI cricket games against Bangladesh (Bangladesh are without a doubt the lowest-ranked team in the top tier of the game, with many people complaining that they aren't up to standard -- previously NZ had lost one 1 game in 17 to them, and have lost 4 in a row in the past two weeks). As can be expected, this has been met with wailing and gnashing of teeth here in Aotearoa.

[reebty]

The three years in which Dav Whatmore was their coach definitely didn't hurt. He did much the same for Sri Lanka.

[Good Intentions]

Maybe NZ should hire him.

The inside baseball line on Bangladesh's success has been that it's the product of the very intensive 6-week training programme and extra coaching staff that they've brought to bear very recently, during the normally off-season monsoon season in that country.

[El_Josharino]

Hey gang, how about them Giants, eh? Even though they knocked out my Braves, I was rooting for them. If you're going to lose, might as well lose to the champ, right?
Aside from that, I've become a big fan of Lincecum and Wilson and Posey.
Posey because he's awesome and has one of the best baseball names in the history of baseball. Buster Posey. Might as well just put him in the hall now where his name can be properly displayed alongside names like Satchel Paige, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Honus Wagner, and all the other well-named baseball players. Also, probably good to just get that inevitable first ring out of the way.
Let's look at Lincecum's career so far. First 2 full years, he wins the Cy Young award. His third year, beats Derek Lowe, Roy Halladay, and Cliff Lee x2 to win the Series. Holy crap. Apparently he lost one of the Cy Young awards, and the other is in the trunk of his car. When they handed him the series trophy, the interviewer asked "How does that look?" "Shiny." This is a superstar I can relate to.
Brian Wilson, downright hilarious dude. Opened a twitter account and mostly used it to make fun of Barry Zito. Describes things as "epic" and "delicious". Has a huge beard. Once gave an interview from home, and in the background some dude walked by in a leather mask and thong. Interviewer freaks out and goes "What was that?!" "Oh, that's The Machine. He lives next door. We don't talk much because he doesn't have much to say. But he comes over to borrow sugar sometimes."

[Thermofusion]

Man, I was so pleased to see two dark horse teams make it to the Series that I didn't really care which of them won. I guess I was the most happy for the Giants' rookie catcher (seriously, rookie year in a key position like that and you win the World Series? Awesome).

Also, I liked Lincecum's leap over the dugout fence, that kid is hella likable.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

So, New Zealand lost every game in a series of ODI cricket games against Bangladesh.

 What the fuck? That's fucking humiliating even by NZ cricket standards. I'm lost for words.

On the upside I think I'll be at the MCG boxing day for the ashes.

[Good Intentions]

That could be a very good test to watch.

Sri Lanka just pulled of a staggering win over Aus in an ODI in Oz. They had a 9th wicket partnership of 132 (132!) to pull away and win after looking stranded on 107/8. Just amazing stuff.

[coldforge]

SL has been a steamroller lately. Which is definitely good news for this WI fan. Two weeks from now is going to be a fucking bloodbath.

[coldforge]

Sehwag is a scary dude.