30 Minutes Break !!!!

It was cruel to see a drawn game between England and the New-Zeland in the 2nd ODI because of bad whether and 30 minutes break in between the innings. NZ were chasing 162 of 24 overs and the revised target was 134 of 20 overs and the game stopped after 19 overs with NZ needing only 7 runs to win.

Why on earth the game needed a 30 minutes break when the players have already finished their lunch and the game was already shortened by rain and bad light. Umpires say that the rules does not allow a break lesser than 30 minutes, i just ridicule the rule and feel that the umpires should act according to match situations and apply some common sense as Vettori has mentioned. It was also some dirty tactics by Collingwood to slow the over rate to such a dismal 13 overs in the first hour and showed the umpires were not at all in control of the match. Sad that the patient 15000 + crowd had to wait so long and go back with such a result.

Somehow these Englishmen make news of even very ordinary things, if it gives their side some cheap publicity, i am referring to Peterson switch-hit short. So many players in the past have innovated shorts which brought them quick runs like reverse sweep,paddle sweep,hitting the ball behind the wicket-keeper etc etc but these English media and board did not care to probe but sensationalize the short played by Peterson, the media and the board got together to probe and come out with a clean chit on the short, even when NZ did not care to raise this as an issue as an opponent side. The English Cricket Media has surprised the world with such funny things in the past and continue to do the same in this information age too :-)


Euro-2008 - Its going to be a great night with rivals Ballack and Ronaldino fight in the quarterfinals (need to somehow make myself awake, as the match starts at midnight in this part of the world). Another great contest in the quarterfinals will be the match between Spain and Italy. I think it should be easy for Croatia and Netherlands facing Turkey and Russia respectively.