What? No ODI World Cup Thread?

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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2023/nov/19/india-vs-australia-live-cricket-world-cup-final-2023-score-ind-v-aus-icc-match-news-updates-

India owned the tournament, but the Aussies peaked at the right time. Good bowling, tenacious fielding, and explosive early batting followed by cerebral batting.

 

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Meanwhile in the world of Cricket, an absolute bonkers of a match in Pakistan between the home nation and England. Pakistan hit 556 in their first innings (that is a lot!). Three players with a century (100+ runs), think of it like a basketball player scoring 50 points. England goes up to bat, hits 823, and they declared because... well there are only 5 days in a test match at it was in the middle of the fourth! Root hit for 262 runs, Brook hit for 317!!! 823 runs is the 4th highest ever. Only 32 batters have hit more than 300 runs in the 2553 national test matches that have been played.

So the bowlers aren't accomplishing anything out there. England need 10 wickets... and to hold Pakistan to 266 runs... and do it in the 4 sessions remaining (1.3 days). And by the end of today, they managed to give up only 152 runs and take 6 wickets. Meaning England has an amazing chance of winning this game which seemed due for a draw.

 

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Meanwhile in the T20 World Cup, Zimbabwe pulled off a stunning upset over Australia. In 2024, the US beat Pakistan, but Pakistan almost pulled off the chase. And Pakistan was in a seriously rough rut at the time.

In this go around's massive upset, Zimbabwe simply was the better team. The T20 World Cup has been diluted the last two go arounds (to near empty stadiums, so not certain why). However in each year, we've had one big upset. Australia is one of the Tier One teams on the planet and their loss is nothing short of staggering. Think of it as a random Div III College football team beating an AP top five school in the playoffs. IE, it was much bigger than Boise State's upset Bowl victory that was... apparently too long ago for me to want to remember it being.

The top 2 teams move out of the Round Robin. This means Australia, in third, could potentially not advance out (which is unthinkable). It will likely come down to NRR (margin of victory), of which Australia is third as well. They have a jobber in Oman to finish up the Round Robin and they need to thoroughly dispatch Sri Lanka. If Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka play tight against each other, that could ruin the Aussie's summer.