2015 Cricket World Cup Discussion Thread

[GCSkiwi]

From a kiwi who's only a little bit salty, well done Aussies, no two ways about it we were comprehensively outplayed on the day. While I feel it's the right call, I'm sad to see Clarke leave ODIs as he's a fantastic player to watch, but Steve Smith does seem to have come somewhat into that mantle with style. Very exciting future ahead for him.

Starc thoroughly deserved player of the tournament, though there were some fantastic batting efforts and you'd have to think Sangakkara must have been up there in the running, a great tournament for him to bow out in.

I've gotta say it, I think the send-offs are over the top. I think it goes a level beyond sledging at that point, and to me it's unecessary. Contrast the reactions of the teams when Elliott went out and when Clarke went out, Elliott cops an earful from Haddin and Faulkner, Clarke cops a handshake for an innings and career well played. It's not that hard to do, is it? I mean I know it's just contrasting attitudes to sport but I really think once your man has gone you've won the battle - prior to that point I have no issues with banter and sledging at all, but particularly in Elliott's case I would have thought a team full of great players would be able to recognise that as a very well played innings all things considered. Flame away, I know I'm on an Aussie forum :P

I'm very proud of what our boys did, but your lads were the favourites going in, stumbling only when you played us at home, and I called it then that whoever lost that game was going to win the world cup. I'd love to claim that as a catalyst but let's be honest, Australia are a long standing dominant cricket force. I don't think it was complacency and a wake up call, I think it was just a brief fall out of and then return to excellent form. To the victor go the spoils, and now we can both look forward to giving England a pummeling in the near future!

[GoLions]

Yeah I don't think anyone was too pleased with Haddin in particular, apparently that was his last ODI match though? But yeah, a bit more respect would've been good, hate it when players give send-offs to batsmen.

[JBs-Hawks]

Its a grand final, emotions are high. Always going to be send offs, whether local cricket or international. NZ didnt give clarke one as the game was over and emotion drained.

[The_Captain]

Its a grand final, emotions are high. Always going to be send offs, whether local cricket or international. NZ didnt give clarke one as the game was over and emotion drained.

this....

Can't send off a legend of the game on his last game when he has  made a decent total and we need 8 runs to win... would be an embarrassing send off!

To me the kiwis wernt in the best 3 sides of the world cup.. So they did well to make the gf. They pumped there own tyres throughout the tournament and when it came to rolling with the best of the best they crumbled. They talked the talk and couldnt walk the walk, now my social media is painted with sore losing kiwis having a cry about sledging, sad really!

[Nige]

To me the kiwis wernt in the best 3 sides of the world cup.. So they did well to make the gf.

Interesting.

They were undefeated the whole tournament up until the final and were certainly more dominant than India, who were also undefeated up until the semi vs Australia.

Their form leading in to the tournament was arguably the best of any team as well, so they also had that going for them.

Not to mention they had the top run scorer for the tournament (Guptill) and equal best wicket taker with Starc who won man of the series (Boult).

Give them a bit more credit champ.  :P

[Jay]

I kinda agree with Captain. Australia and South Africa are the two best ODI sides by a decent way imo.

But yeah, NZ did well.

[PowerBug]

Ooooook, fun is over now.

[The_Captain]

To me the kiwis wernt in the best 3 sides of the world cup.. So they did well to make the gf.

Interesting.

They were undefeated the whole tournament up until the final and were certainly more dominant than India, who were also undefeated up until the semi vs Australia.

Their form leading in to the tournament was arguably the best of any team as well, so they also had that going for them.

Not to mention they had the top run scorer for the tournament (Guptill) and equal best wicket taker with Starc who won man of the series (Boult).

Give them a bit more credit champ.  :P

Cmon Nige, Guptil smashed some runs against average sides..... he got bowled by maxwell of all bowlers!

Id have South africa ahead of nz on ability. India too. India also undefeated until they played Australia.

Form team... okay... who were they beating over in Nz? No one special. Id consider them form side if they were beating India in India or South Africa in South africa.

Good on them for making gf. They did well to get there. But they over achieved.

[GCSkiwi]

Its a grand final, emotions are high. Always going to be send offs, whether local cricket or international. NZ didnt give clarke one as the game was over and emotion drained.

this....

Can't send off a legend of the game on his last game when he has  made a decent total and we need 8 runs to win... would be an embarrassing send off!

The point I was more getting at is that your guys have a reputation for doing this on a regular basis, not just in an emotionally charged world cup final. Don't get me wrong, others do it too, Southee mouths off a bit and there's definitely others, but people expect it of Australia, is that really something to be proud of? I wouldn't be, but as I said that's just my attitude towards the game, not saying it's a right or wrong issue.

To me the kiwis wernt in the best 3 sides of the world cup.. So they did well to make the gf. They pumped there own tyres throughout the tournament and when it came to rolling with the best of the best they crumbled. They talked the talk and couldnt walk the walk, now my social media is painted with sore losing kiwis having a cry about sledging, sad really!

Partly agree and partly disagree. I think we deserved our spot in the final, and I thinkit's a bit much to say that when it came to playing the best of the best we crumbled. You can say what you like about ground sizes etc but at the end of the day two teams play on the same field and one comes out the winner, you guys travelled to Eden Park and we beat you. We made hard work of doing it, but we did. We've never made a world cup final before so again you can say we didn't walk the walk but I don't agree. I will say that I thought South Africa were very hard done by in the semi, DL did them no justice and I think we had to hit a low target. But you can't really judge the fact that again we made it tough and say that we couldn't have got more because that just changes how you play the game. We had a target, we got there, we beat them. I was at the game and I was amazed given the conditions that De Villiers chose to bat first, I absolutely would have bowled and gone to chase a target. So while I believe they did get screwed by DL, they risked that by choosing to bat first. I think we were comfortably top 3 over India but I concede that South Africa given a full 50 over game could well have gotten past us. But that's the way the game is played. I wouldn't have said that anything I've seen on social media is kiwis being sore losers, as basically everyone I know is quite happy to say we didn't deserve to win yesterday, but maybe I'm not seeing what you're seeing. I think it's perfectly possible to suggest that Australia could have won more gracefully without being a sore loser, but hey, opinions right?

[Torpedo10]

You deserved your spot in the final, but your effort in the final was undeserving....if that makes sense?

The thing is our match in Eden Park was an absolute down to the wire game. So that's us in a foreign country against a vocal crowd. You had the same thing against us yesterday and really did crumble under the pressure. Several of your dismissals were because of indecision and silly shots. Starc did bowl an absolute beauty to McCullum but McCullum didn't do himself many favours by charging down the pitch.

Send offs are send offs, I don't think there's a major issue with that, it does show a bit about the person though. It's the nature of competitive sport to let go a little and only the most humble of sportspeople can hold that back.

[AFEV]

Those saying NZ aren't in the top 3 teams must only watch Australian matches.
Jesus.

[JBs-Hawks]

NZ were easily the 3rd best team.

Aus and SA are close the gap back to NZ is fairly bigger, the gap to India is also fairly big and then the gap to the rest is even bigger.

[Jay]

NZ were easily the 3rd best team.

Aus and SA are close the gap back to NZ is fairly bigger, the gap to India is also fairly big and then the gap to the rest is even bigger.

This.

[My Chumps]

Those saying NZ aren't in the top 3 teams must only watch Australian matches.
Jesus.

[The_Captain]

NZ away from home are no where near as good. India played all tournament away from home and showed a fair bit.

I stand by what i said. Aus> SA>India>Nz>Sri Lanka>Pakistan> West Indies... And I'll leave it at that.