1st Quarter-Final: South Africa v Sri Lanka at Sydney Mar 18, 2015

[undertaker]

If Fox outbid them for the rights it's a bit harsh to blame 9

Not true.

Ch9 only wanted the bare minimal to satisfy the anti-siphoning laws, and that bare minimal was that all tests and ODIs Australia plays in either Australia or England must be broadcast on FTA. Such a shame, as this World Cup really could've gained a larger profile in the community at large and media here (and maybe larger crowd attendances) had it received more adequate FTA coverage like it did last time it was here in 1992. There have been many great games in this tournament which unfortunately have barely received any mention in the evening news bulletins

Even if Ch9 had craploads of money in the bank, they still wouldn't have taken the punt to bid for other marquee games such as India vs Pakistan/India vs South Africa etc. Their apathy towards matches involving neutral teams (which led to the subsequent demise of the ODI tri-series format) began during the 2007/08 summer when they didn't want to broadcast the India vs Sri Lanka game in Canberra, and Fox Sports had to come to the rescue at the eleventh hour to televise the match.

 

[shiznit]

The scheduling is interesting.... SA get 5 rest days in between the QF and the SF and the winner of the NZ v WI games gets 2 rest days.

I know it's hard to book venues in advance but you would think they could have put NZ vs WI on 2moro to even up the gap...

Not a big deal in the scheme of things I guess.. Especially considering NZ are playing at home.

But if the WI's win... you have a situation where the Windies have played 3 games in 9 days and SA have played 3 games in 14 days.

 

[Pete Cash]

Just got home wasn't really much of a game. It wasn't as if the Saffies were bowling great either. Some really soft dismissals. Sri Lanka just played...weird.

 

[Red Bear]

Jayawardene and Matthews dismissals were pretty terrible and they collapsed from there.

Didn't watch their bowling, but that also sounded horrible

 

[Pete Cash]

Hahah it was comedy gold. I was literally laughing at some of it. So many extras and just criminally poor bowling.

 

[Jimmy-o]

Gee whiz, the Lankans are going to miss Mahela and Kumar big time.

 

[Meth]

I really don't understand Sangakarra's approach to his innings last night. It must have been planned but it certainly didn't work.

 

[Red Bear]

I really don't understand Sangakarra's approach to his innings last night. It must have been planned but it certainly didn't work.

Maybe he just wasn't at his best? Still, the way ODI's are played at present you would rather be 2/100 than 6/200 at the 30 over mark I suspect. Having wickets in hand once you have the second powerplay and accelarate towards the end allows you to take risks. They were sort of on track for that with Thirimane at the crease. Once he went, then Jayawardene threw his wicket away they were in a bit of strife and Sangakkara couldnt really accelarate.

I don't think he anticipated losing 4 wickets in 9 balls though, from there they were stuffed and his approach looked far far worse than it probably was.

 

[vvvrulz]

I really don't understand Sangakarra's approach to his innings last night. It must have been planned but it certainly didn't work.

Thirimanne looked comfortable so his role was to anchor it and be there for the final launch
Fell to bits really quickly of course once the spinners took over

Let's not forget South Africa bowled beautifully, only Mathews and Jayawardene had really terrible shots during that collapse

 

[JJ]

No problem with the way Kumar played, he would have had a plan - the carnage around him wasn't part of it

The strange thing for me was the change in opener, Sri Lanka were going well enough with Thirimanne and Dilshan, the change made no sense to me, same with the debut of Kaushal - all smacked of unneeded panic imo