UAE bowler reported in same vein as Botha

There seem to be a lot of suspect doosras going around these days. Fayyaz Ahmed of UAE has been reported for a suspect bowling action in their match against Canada on Wednesday.

An umpire has said

"Ahmed bowls with a suspect action which is accentuated when bowling the doosra".

Bad news.

The UAE cricket board has been told to assess his bowling action. Ahmed will still play against Scotland.

Bollinger's evil plan

My evil 6 month plan - by Doug:
1. Celebrate a full head of hair.
2. Get onto South African side and break Binga's foot.
3. Thank Advanced Hair Studios for non-surgical skin grafts and hair.
4. Celebrate 9 month anniversary of new nickname "Hairy Eagle".
5. Sneak into operating theatre to operate on Binga's foot.
6. Program ankle to not pass medical tests close to Pak series.
7. Drink Bollinger champagne and wait for phone call from selectors.
8. Get phone call from selectors telling me I'm off to UAE.
9. Call Binga and sympathise for a bit, then call everyone else and gloat.
10. Admire hair in mirror.

Ireland, you bloody beauty

Apparently I'm backing Ireland, just because they're Ireland. It's a good reason. Who wouldn't want Ireland to win something? Maybe a long time ago, my family came from Ireland. That would be interesting. Potato Famine to England to Convict Land. So really, I'm just being loyal to my country here.

Ireland have beaten UAE in the World Cup Qualifiers, bowling them out for 133 and then reaching that target in under 30 overs. Winning this match has meant their points have tallied up and now Ireland are almost definitely one of the four teams to go to the 2011 World Cup. They're one of the only teams that stands a chance against the giants.

Anyway, there's an Irish bowler who's a little interesting. In the match against UAE, he took 2 wickets, which, if I exaggerate a little, won them the match. In that his wickets were what started the UAE collapse. Boyd Rankin is his name. He took the wickets of both openers, Amjad Javed and Arshad Ali, before Peter Connell finished up Khurram Khan. That had UAE at 3/3. Brilliant, if I may say so myself. Regan West, another Irish bowler, picked up 3 wickets, including the one of Fayaaz Ahmed, who put up a stand of 63 from 65 balls later in the innings.

But Boyd. Interesting guy. He's 6'8" and pretty good looking. I'm only pointing that out because it's obvious. Can't blame me for noticing.

He's also got a number of great wickets on his list, including Michael Vaughan, Herschelle Gibbs, and most importantly, AB de Villiers. Anyone who gets the censorship king out is a friend of mine.

It's Vaughan. And he's out.

Oman & UAE in a little trouble

Those matches I commented on a few days ago have turned out to have an even greater significance than I thought. In fact, the Oman vs. Scotland match has come under close scrunity, as the Omani bowler Syed Amir Ali faces the prospect of testing, after it is believed he used an illegal bowling action in the game. He can continue playing in the final qualifying tournament for the World Cup while the Oman Cricket Board investigates this matter.

That same day, the UAE's match against the Netherlands has caused a tad bit of controversy. UAE player Arshad Ali has been reprimanded for breaching the ICC code of conduct during the match. An umpire has stated that Ali pointed to his shoulder in an attempt to be declared not out when the Dutch unsuccessfully appealed for a caught behind decision.

So there you go. The latest on the super exciting World Cup Tournament.

The midgets of cricket

Less significant than the giants, some of these teams don't even get counted as minnows. Who said I don't care about them? See this? This is me. Caring. At the moment, there are several interesting international cricket matches going on for the 2011 World Cup Qualifier:

Oman vs. Scotland - Scotland have set an imposing score of 273, with a KJ Coetzer scoring 127 of those runs. I picked out a random name from the Oman side, and he's who I'm pegging to save the match, if anyone: Sultan Ahmed.

Netherlands vs. United Arab Emirates - Netherlands are 259/9. ES Szwarczynski scored the highest at 56, before being caught by Naeemuddin Aslam off Fayyaz Ahmed. If UAE win, it will have been Khurram Khan who wins it for them.

Bermuda vs. Denmark - Absolutely shoddy performance by Denmark, getting all out for 157. Maybe they're depressed from the thought of paying 60% of their income in taxes. I know this stuff. Nobody did well enough in this team to deserve a mention, and Bermuda doesn't need a star player to win them this match. They should do it easily against a team like Denmark.

Afghanistan vs. Kenya - Kenya is world class. What brilliance, 282 from 50 overs, and only 5 wickets falling in this time. KO Otieno scored 109, A Obanda hit 60, and a few more worthy scores to round up their total. Afghanistan has no hope of winning this match, even with Asghar Stanikzai, who, in my mind, is capable of doing amazing things. Not that I'd know about Afghani cricket.

Canada vs. Namibia - "I am Canada, hear me roar in numbers too big to ignore," sings Helen Reddy. And she's right. You simply can't ignore the massive total of 319 that Canada have posted in their innings. Their opener JM Davison flew down from heaven to hit 131 runs, and IS Bilcliff complemented this with 61 more. A few other players have good performances too. Namibia gave away 15 wides though. How on earth is that even possible? 15 wides in an ODI? LP van der Westhuizen is not going to save their sorry asses.

And that is the report during the innings break. I do care about these teams.
...Seriously, I do.