'ICC Super Series 05' - Aus VS The World

[Qwerty]

So whose amped for this?

For those of you who don't know, the International Cricket Council has selected two squads (test and one dayer) made up of what they call the best cricketers in the world, to play australia.

Whilst this would have been much cooler about 2 or 3 years ago when Aus was at its cricket peak, we are still the best (Yeah england, when you can beat us consistinly and at *our* home, you can have that title! ) so i am glad the ICC have finally done this.

The Squads

World XI
One-Dayers
* Shaun Pollock
* Virender Sehwag
* Rahul Dravid
* Jacques Kallis
* Chris Gayle
* Brian Lara
* Kevin Pietersen
* Andrew Flintoff
* Kumar Sangakkara
* Shahid Afridi
* Shoaib Akhtar
* Makhaya Ntini
* Muttiah Muralitharan
* Daniel Vettori

Test
* Graeme Smith
* Virender Sehwag
* Rahul Dravid
* Brian Lara
* Inzamam-ul-Haq
* Jacques Kallis
* Andrew Flintoff
* Shaun Pollock
* +Mark Boucher
* Steve Harmison
* Shoaib Akhtar
* Muttiah Muralitharan
* Daniel Vettori

Australia
One Dayers
* Adam Gilchrist
* Michael Clarke
* Ricky Ponting
* Damien Martyn
* Simon Katich
* Mike Hussey
* Andrew Symonds
* Shane Watson
* James Hopes
* Brett Lee
* Glenn McGrath
* Nathan Bracken
* Cameron White
* Stuart Clark

Test
* Matthew Hayden
* Justin Langer
* Ricky Ponting
* Brad Hodge
* Michael Clarke
* Simon Katich
* Adam Gilchrist
* Shane Watson
* Brett Lee
* Shane Warne
* Glenn McGrath
* Stuart MacGill


Anyway, it kicked off with a one dayer last night and Australia won by 93 runs. Yay!

But I think next game will be much closer. There is too much talent in the World Squad to play another shocker. All Ausralia need to do atm is learn how to catch. I think we dropped about 4 absolute SITTERS last night.

Anyway, discuss away kiddies.

[__m3nt4l__]

Bah, the Australians are gonna take this one away. Sure, there is talent in the World XI team, but most of them are out of form (Virender Sehwag 8-|).

I think the best opening combination in the World XI will be Sahid Afridi and Virender Sehwag (or) Kevin Pieterson. Once they get going, woo... you cant stop them. More dangerous than Adam Gilchrist and Matty Hayden .

[MartinBradley]

The Aussies will win it. You can't stick all the "best" players in the world together and expect them to perform as a team. It just won't work.

Still, on paper it does make for some interesting viewing.

[Qwerty]

That's exactly right. And we saw evidence of this in the 2nd one dayer. We had 2 run outs in succesion and i bet any money it was based a great deak on the fact these guys just don't play together as a team.

From the outset, we saw the World XI batters playing their style they play in their own team. Aggressive. It doesn't work having 6 or 7 aggressive batters in a team.

But still, I don't think they can use that as a huge excuse. Australia really did perform these two games we have seenso far and good on them. The test will be very interesting.

It's just too bad we couldnt do this when it was needed. During the Ashes.

edit: Good on Gayle btw, that was great opening cricket.

[Qwerty]

Australia - 3

World - nil




Seriously though, I think the Test will be much closer as its much less of a team sytle in respect to time. The big name batters should get at least double figures... Like Lara and Kallis.

[__m3nt4l__]

Now that was embarassing. Atleast you would have expected a close finish with all the "greats" in the World XI.

Oh well, the Aussies are gonna win the Test too. Not a difficult thing to predict.