Sports Ball- and other Athletic Stuff

[dabbler]

Australia v Afghanistan today in the cricket, pray for Australia because fuck the Afghan team. Wankers the lot of them

[Haighus]

Nov 7, 2023 2:17:17 GMT -5 dabbler said:

Australia v Afghanistan today in the cricket, pray for Australia because fuck the Afghan team. Wankers the lot of them

Well... what a game.

I don't normally give two farts about cricket but that was something else.

[dabbler]

Nov 10, 2023 3:09:19 GMT -5 Haighus said:

Nov 7, 2023 2:17:17 GMT -5 dabbler said:

Australia v Afghanistan today in the cricket, pray for Australia because fuck the Afghan team. Wankers the lot of them

Well... what a game.

I don't normally give two farts about cricket but that was something else.

Was a wild finish, I've knocked Maxwell a lot for throwing away his wicket when he shouldn't, so it was good to see him stand up and play a ridiculous innings like that.

And it saved us from the Afghan players using their lack of human rights for women at home as a punch line to jokes about their victory, which was a weird approach for them in the lead up to the game

[Haighus]

Maxwell should probably just retire now, finish on that high. He was playing like it was Twenty20!

Incidentally, the last cricket game I paid attention to was England vs New Zealand in the Twenty20 finals where they nearly exhausted the list of tie breakers in the rulebook...

[easye]

Bill Belichek and Nick Saban are both stepping down from their respective dynasty teams!

Wow!

[pacific]

So, what are people's predictions for the weekend?

I see not even Sportsball is immune from this sort of nonsense, with the hilarious conspiracy theory around the Chiefs

edition.cnn.com/2024/01/30/media/taylor-swift-super-bowl-right-wing-conspiracy/index.html

I just find the concept of Taylor Swift as some sort of undercover Pentagon asset so damned funny. 

[easye]

www.npr.org/2024/03/27/1241203861/nfl-new-kickoff-rule

Kickoffs will look radically different in the NFL next year. Here's how and why

Under the new rules, the kicking team's kicker will continue to kick from the 35-yard line. But rather than be flanked by his teammates, the rest of the kicking team will line up at their opponent's 40-yard line, eliminating the traditional running head start. The returning team will field up to two returners in the backfield, and the rest of the team will line up in a new "set up zone" between the 30- and 35-yard line.

Besides the kicker and returners, no players from either side will be allowed to move until a returner touches the ball or the ball hits the ground. Fair catches, in which a returner could signal that they would catch the ball but not attempt a return, will no longer be allowed.

Another major aspect of the change is the elimination of a team's ability to call a surprise onside kick, a special form of kickoff in which a team attempts to kick the ball to one of their own players. Because onside kicks are typically unsuccessful, they are usually relegated to desperation scenarios at the end of a game. But teams had occasionally opted to take their opponents by surprise by attempting an onside kick earlier in the game. That option is now gone, as teams must announce an onside kick attempt in advance.

[dabbler]

Onside kicks are such a good part of the 2 rugbys (well, putting up a contested bomb or something, but thats about the same) that it's a shame to see them get dropped off in use like that, they were already inefficient in the nfl, they didn't need that.

[nfe]

Why are these changes being made? Are there problems they're trying to address or is it just constant needless fiddling like rugby*

Where a dozen tiny tweaks are made annually but none that ever attempt to fix the total farce that is scrummaging.

[easye]

Yes, they are trying to reduce injury from high-speed collision in a play where most kickers could just boot it out of the end zone. It was a relatively boring and high-injury play.

[pacific]

Mar 29, 2024 9:24:30 GMT -5 easye said:

Yes, they are trying to reduce injury from high-speed collision in a play where most kickers could just boot it out of the end zone. It was a relatively boring and high-injury play.

Yup this is it really isn't it. A 'dead' part of the game, in effect, following the kick-off position being changed before so many of the kicks now just sail through the end zone or otherwise are just a fair catch. And the on-side kicks had become a ridiculously low percentage and even less worked (were there any at all last season?) A long change from the days of Deion Sanders and the like (going back a bit here!) getting the crowd worked up before running through the entire other team's special teams and returning it for a TD - but that setup was creating so many injuries at the same time, and had to change.

[easye]

Sweet!

www.npr.org/2024/05/30/g-s1-1728/professional-womens-hockey-league-championship-minnesota

Minnesota becomes the inaugural champion of the Professional Women's Hockey League

Minnesota has won the inaugural championship of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

The team defeated Boston 3-0 Wednesday in game five of the series to take home the Walter Cup. The goals were scored by Liz Schepers, Michela Cava and team captain Kendall Coyne Schofield. Taylor Heise was named the playoff MVP after scoring five goals throughout.

“It took every single player and every single person you see on this ice right now to make it happen,” Schofield said. “There’s a lot of people that counted us out when we had that [five]-game slide coming into the playoffs. But we got in and we never looked back.”

[easye]

This headline caused me to do a double-take this morning!

The U.S. defeats Pakistan in a dramatic upset at the cricket World Cup

www.npr.org/2024/06/07/g-s1-3363/u-s-pakistan-cricket-world-cup

In a dramatic upset, the U.S. cricket team defeated Pakistan Thursday in this year’s men's T20 championship tournament.

The game went to super over, or the equivalent of extra innings in baseball. Pakistan has reached the finals of the men’s T20 World Cup three times, while this was only the U.S. team’s second World Cup match.

Next, the U.S. plays India, another dominant team in the sport, and then Ireland. They move on to the next round of the tournament if they finish in the top two of their group.

[dabbler]

Jun 7, 2024 10:36:38 GMT -5 easye said:

This headline caused me to do a double-take this morning!

The U.S. defeats Pakistan in a dramatic upset at the cricket World Cup

www.npr.org/2024/06/07/g-s1-3363/u-s-pakistan-cricket-world-cup

In a dramatic upset, the U.S. cricket team defeated Pakistan Thursday in this year’s men's T20 championship tournament.

The game went to super over, or the equivalent of extra innings in baseball. Pakistan has reached the finals of the men’s T20 World Cup three times, while this was only the U.S. team’s second World Cup match.

Next, the U.S. plays India, another dominant team in the sport, and then Ireland. They move on to the next round of the tournament if they finish in the top two of their group.

Problem is there's always a big asterisk on an upset win/weird outcome when the game is against Pakistan given their history. So while it's cool, it's really hard to take it as a sign of too much because, again, it's the Pakistan team.

[nfe]

I like how the half of the USA squad are naturalised Indians. Makes me reminisce for the days when Scottish Rugby would grab anyone from the Southern hemisphere that had a Scottish gran or head been in the country five minutes and half the squad's first language was Afrikaans.