I doubt it's ever been done intentionally before. Certainly not often at all if it has. Sportsmanship and playing within the spirit of the game is something that's very important to almost everyone involved in cricket above almost anything else so if he is found to have done this intentionally I would think he'll get a very harsh penalty.

afaik the rules these runs should count. Had it been, say 4 wides the sehwag was judged not to have hit then thats different. Correct me if im wrong....

Yeh I was thinking exactly the same tbh. I was surprised when I read it earlier. All I can think of is that because the extra from the no-ball was the run that won the game the delivery became effectively dead and match over instantly, as opposed to the runs counting because the game continues like what would happen in the middle of the innings. It obviously must be considered different to if he'd hit a 6 off a legit ball and they would have all counted.

Did anyone watch the T20 finals?

Sounded epic.

Yeh the final especially was quality. Somerset did soooo well to make it that close at the end cos Hants were cruising. I think the way they decide the winner is bs though. If it's a tie they should have just had a bowl off or a super over or something. Least wickets lost has been scrapped in every other limited overs format so I don't know why not this one cos it makes it a bit of anti climax. Would have been a great way to finish an amazing game.

Ah, that really sucks.

**** the super over, a bowl off is awesome

I mean it was no doubt intentional but the guy did bowl two normal deliveries when he was on 99 before that. Maybe he was pissed because Sehwag was just going for a single to get his hundred and decided to end the game right there.

This is the first time I've seen it. I didn't even know this rule existed and it's a really douchy move. There must've been some words exchanged between the two. It's also a stupid rule that doesn't make alot of sense to me.

lolpontingaments

http://www.cricinfo.com/the-ashes-20...ry/472628.html

nice to see pigeon's catchphrase isnt dead yet

lol england

This.

94/7, wtf?

Weather could force a draw here anyway. Batting conditions don't look great for fri/ sat/ sun either.

weather forecast doesnt look that bad, i doubt they lose more than a couple of sessions from the match if that. If england can somehow get close to 200 they'll still win imo but anything less and it'll b a massive struggle

Broad's batting better than I've seen him play for a long time and Prior looks well set so there's a decent chance of England getting to 200 now which is something. I can see Cook getting dropped for the last test regardless of the result here unless he gets a big score in the 2nd innings. Not sure who could replace him though.

Its a bit of an awkward problem really because with only one test before australia they won't want to change much and with bell to come back they basically have their 7 batsmen they are planning to take to aus. If you are going to drop cook from the last test you have to drop him from the ashes squad in favour of whoever plays at lords imo and thats a big decision to take against a bloke who averages 43 after 58 tests.

I'd assume carberry was first in line given he was first reserve in bangladesh and averages 60 in the current county season. seemed to get tied down by the spinners in bangla but looking forward to aus shouldn;t be much of a problem given the scarcity of their spin bowlers.

others who have had good seasons are ashley lyth from yorkshire and hildreth from somerset. i doubt either of these are particularly close to the team as hildreth has the advantage of batting at taunton and before this season had had a number of average seassons and lyth is in the first year of consistent cricket. james taylor from leics has had a decent season but nothing spectacular and is still v. young. oh and ravi bopara but i really don't like him and i can;t see england recalling him for anything other than one dayers

im glad there have been none of the bring back Ramps pieces in the newspapers this year

of course for the ashes i assume going on current form bell comes in for cook with trott going up to opener.

if they wanted to be really adventurous they could pick a fifth bowler or second spinner such as rashid but i assume they;ve decided hes not good enough for international cricket so this isn;t likely to happen

lol wtf is this ****. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/conte...ry/473065.html

how swann isn't nominated for cricketer of the year is beyond me. During the time constraints he took the second most test wickets(49 at an average of 27.55), took 28 wickets at an average of 23.28 in odi cricket, 16 wickets at 14.37 with economy of 6.57 in 20:20, won the 20:20 world cup with england, was a leading player in drawing 1-1 in south africa, and made useful contributions with the bat. lol fu icc

16 nominees for cricketer of the year and no england mention, lol, wot a load of ****. broad also had a very impressive year and isn't nominated in any category

Yeh it also doesn't include Mohammed Asif who's the leading wicket taker in cricket over this period. So that's the top two wicket takers not on the list. It's the long list as well to make it worse. Angus Fraser was on the panel as well. You'd think he'd have been pushing for an England player or two. Doug Bollinger and Ryan Harris being on there is LOL considering they've both missed matches due to injury and haven't been any better than any of Englands or Pakistans bowlers.

I'm pretty sure they're going to give it to Sachin. He averaged 84.25 in 10 test innings and 63 in like 20 something odis for "season 09/10" - not sure if that's the exact period. He also had the 200. Any year in which he is close to deserving he's going to win it and it's pretty hard to argue with a run like that. He also scored a bunch in the IPL although I don't think they're counting that.

It'd be hard to be disappointed with Sachin winning it. Any good year could potentially be his last and he's such a legend that he's pretty deserving of any award.

lolbacktrackaments

still think sachin deserves to win it tho

think england are going to stuggle today with the overcast skys, and 1/2 the batsmen are really out of form

Very good innings from Cook today. Great to see him responding in such a positive way to the pressure, especially with Strauss going cheap last night. Rode his luck early on, but has been looking pretty secure from then on.

Nothing in pitch / conditions for the pakistan bowlers so fingers crossed should get a decent total to put pressure right back onto their batsmen

+1...and you know his long career which is drawing to an end will work in his favor. This might be the last time he gets nominated.

I've spent three days at the current Test. Very compelling cricket, but the evening session today was very disappointing, all Cook's hard work undone in 45 minutes or so of total madness. I'll be back for the denouement tomorrow, but I guess now I can make plans for getting back to grinding on Sunday.

fwiw, Shane Watson would get my vote for Cricketer of the Year. Still amazed how they overlooked Swann for a nomination and yet still managed to include Ryan Wotsizface, who nobody's ever even heard of.

Tomorrow should be pretty exciting, after all, it's pakistan.