Cricket – Final word from Alfie of YFM
Pheww, THE CRICKET WORLD CUP finally came to an end on Saturday – for me the highs & lows of this World cup were most definitely the death of The Pakistan Coach, South African Bob Woolmer, who was found murdered in his Hotel Room, GIBBS six 6’s, The South African Team’s drinking Spree, The fat wobbly comical player from Bermuda who was the oldest player at the World Cup, Australia’s unbeatan run since the 1999 World Cup, India & Pakistan’s First Round Exit & Bangladesh’s victory over South Africa.
By far Australia showed that they were the best from the rest of the Cricket World when they ended the tournament unbeaten & making history by having a hat-trick of World Cup wins.
The Australian Captain RICKY PONTING was right when he said that out of all the matches they played not even one of them was looked at as a close game & he was right. I think they dominated from their first game & for me the heavy rain that came down meant the end of one of the most rememorable World Cups in the History of the game – from The Unfinished Stadiums, Heavy Ticket Prices to the Death of Bob Woolmer.
The World Cup Curtain has closed & we hope to catch you again in four years time…
*************************
So it’s over. We urged, supported, believed and enjoyed every moment of the Cricket World Cup. We were astounded by the incredible power and strength of Australia last night as they gave us a pounding that the team will need a lot of Caribbean rum to even begin recovering from. Congrats to the Ozzies on their win. We’d like to thank the equally optimistic Alfie Phokobye for his generous and entertaining commentary throughout the series… We wish him luck as his sporting star continues to rise. Represent!
Alfie:
I’m normally very talkative & very chirpy. well today I dont know where to start. I mean the australians dominated in all department & if u remember properly, I said on my column yesterday that they’ve got a psychological adverntage & boy did it work. The only thing that South Africa won yesterday was the toss & it was really sad to see the likes of Smith & Kallis go out the way they did, It really showed that their game plan wasn’t working & attacking the Aussie bowlers was out of the question but they kept on using the same game plan & were rolled over by a team that I think its the best Cricket Team I’ve ever seen in my life.
We must all remember that this is the same Aussie team that the ICC combine a WORLD XI to go and beat them in their own backyard & all those selected players went back home with nothing to show that their playing equipment that were given to them to play with.
I think Australia is going to dominate this game for years to come as long as long as they keep the mentality
they have and the approach.
LONG LIVE THE AUSSIES!
**********************
Well, It took Manchester United’s WAYNE ROONEY at THE THEATRE OF DREAMS in OLD TRAFFORD 30 seconds before the game ended to win THE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GAME against AC MILAN last night & It took the captain of Sri Lanka Mahela Jayawardene more than 2hrs to score a very vital century & Four DOOSRAS from Muralitharan to send the New Zealanders packing.
Last night for me was a night of passion,pride & balls & no this is not a column from Dear: Sis Dolly on one of your favourite Magazines. We saw a helpless New Zealand who their captain was talking about how he will be playing Australia in the Finals on Saturday but I guess the only final he will be playing is the one at the backyard of his house with his kids back in New Zealand.
Sri Lanka outclassed them in all Departments, NEW ZEALAND bowled badly in their last 10overs with their experienced
bowler Shane Bond going for close to 20 runs in one over. CONGRATULATIONS TO SRI LANKA! The biggest game of them all is today & I’m sure that Graeme Smith & his troops will approach this as if it was their final game cause I believe that the PROTEAS do match the AUSSIES in all departments whether is Fielding, Batting or Bowling
but I believe that Mentally Australia run slightly ahead & its going to be interesting how the game is approached today,I think the best thing for The PROTEAS will be to chase, reason being that u need to bowl at them first and put them under pressure & them when you hold them in the corner,never let go until you knock them down.
AUSTRALIAN DANGERMAN:
* Matthew Hayden
* Ricky Ponting
SOUTH AFRICAN DANGERMAN:
* JACQUES KALLIS
* HERSCHELLE GIBBS
MAY THE BEST TEAM WIN!!!
This is your Cricket Analyst signing off, till next time & lets all support OUR BOYS!!
*****************************************
Well, all eyes from today will be glued on the TV regardless of which ever channel you will be watching from,whether its SS2 or SABC Sports on SABC 3 with Kass Naidoo.
After all the drama, world records & death of a legend BOB WOOLMER the World Cup is coming to an end in a dramatic fashion. Sri Lanka takes on New Zealand on Tuesday in what promises to be a thriller of a match, Sri Lankan Captain up against the best Captain in the world Stephen Fleming.
Wednesday sees the best two teams in the world take on each other & I believe whoever who wants it more will be the one who takes it at the end of the day, There are no 438 records, No unbeaten records that the aussies bring to the game,all of those count for nothing as Wednesday’s game everyone will be starting from zero.
It’s really hard to make any predictions about any of these games but all I can say is that I believe that The BOYS will bring it home & we all need to believe that.
This is ALFIE your Cricket Analyst signing off till next time..
*********************************************
Well, where do I start? We did it, we are in the semi-finals against who? Yeap you got it right. The overly confident Australians & guess what? We are going to beat them. I think it’s about time that South Africa take risks like they did against England of dropping Makhaya Ntini but I think credit must go to Andrew Hall, Wow. By the way this is the guy who was shot with close to thirteen bullets by some fool who wanted to hijack him in our rough streeets of Joburg but I guess as they say if its not your time, it’s just not your time or maybe he is just an angel, here to take care of us. He certainly did that on Tuesday getting through those England Batters like a knife through a chocolate cake.
We play Australia in the First Semi-Finals & we are going to give them the respect they deserve but let me warn
you that our batsmen are not scared of them & we have made them change their game plan cause they used to like
attacking Makhaya Ntini upfront by using his pace, now we are going to play on a low, slow, flat wicket & if Langeveld &
Pollock can hold it tight together in their first 15 overs I see Hall, Nel & Kallis doing well in the middle of the innings.
I think there are still a couple of areas where South Africa still need to work on like bowling from over no.40 till the 50th Over but I think that our fielding doesn’t get given the Credit it deserve cause our fielding coach the legendary JONTY RHODES has really worked very hard with the boys.
Lets all support our BOYS they need us & personally I’d rather lose to BANGLADESH than The AUSSIES so yeah lets make sure that they get out of The Carribean Islands before us with nothing to smile about.
This is ALFIE your Cricket Analyst signing off till next time.
Cheers!!!!
For more on my Cricket Reports you can catch me on (YFM’s Karmakazi Breakfast Show) with Rudeboy Paul & Sanza or The Essencial Rush with Chilli M, Dineo & O.G
God Bless!!
***************************************
Hello once again,
Well what can I say, we lost again & this time to New Zealand, we dropped catches & they proved costly, again our game plan of playing a spinner did not work ’cause they attacked him – this shows that South Africa still needs to work very hard in terms of creating a World Class Spin Bowler.
Well, we play England on Tuesday (today) & again we might need to use a spinner cause we will be playing at a ground where the wicket is very slow & flat and that means we might need to keep the same team that lost to “The Black Caps” (New Zealand)
I think the Selectors have a lot of work to do in this do or die match, de Villiers have been the most inconsistent player at the World Cup scoring a lot of runs & nothing at all at times. He has played in eight innings where in four of them he was out for a DUCK. You be the judge!!!!
Well this is Alfie your Cricket Analyst signing off till next time.
Cheers!!!!!
For all the Cricket Reports you can catch me on Yfm’s Karmakazi Breakfast with Rudeboy & Sanza at 7:30am or on The Essencial Rush with Chilli M, Dineo & O.G at 17:20
*******************
This is Alfie your Cricket Analyst from Yfm speaking. Here are a couple of reasons why I think that the South African Cricket Team (The Proteas) will win the Cricket World Cup.
* The Team knows how to handle pressure when the opportunity comes. (THEY ARE NO CHOKERS)
* When the two opening Batsmen (Smith & de Villiers) start well for the team & build a good foundation
everyone who follows normally bats well.
* Our bowlers & Pollock especially has found his form back & thats a big boost for us.
* Our bowlers are improving at bowling at the end of the Innings (Over 40 to 50th Over) Langeveld & Hall.
* We dont need to mention our superb fielding with Gibbs & de Villiers leading from the front.
* Kallis has won the last three games or laid the platform for us & his strike rate that came under criticism has improved.
* Smith is back on form and is playing as he calls it BRAVE CRICKET.
* Lastly, I want the PROTEAS to meet the Australians in the FINAL cause South Africa has showed that they are not scared of them.
Teams that can be a big threat to South Africa are New Zealand, Australia & Sri Lanka & those are the Teams that I think that are going to be going through to the Semi Final Of the World Cup as well.
This is your Cricket Analyst Signing Off till next time.
Don’t you think we need a little Madiba magic in our lives to bring us all back together again for a short-lived but wonderfully bonding celebration? We do. And we’re hoping the World Cup Cricket might be just the thing we need. Now the sceptics will tell us that we’re dreaming, that there’s little to no hope, but in a local online pole, 64% of respondents believe that we’ll at least make the semi-finals.
If we understand correctly, we’re sitting in a strong position with Sri Lanka, West Indies, and New Zealand as our rivals and Australia holding the whip. Wouldn’t it be great (with the greatest of respect) to beat the Ozzies? So all we’re asking you is to start getting involved if you haven’t already and start channelling that positive energy and vibes towards our boys. They need to know that we’re 100% behind them. What do you think? Wishful thinking? Imagine the jol!
