England in Australia limited overs series

[sifter132]

Finch's 121 was a great knock.

Well after he almost got out 4 times it was On most days he's out early and England get a sniff. But from 50 onwards, I will agree..Finch was very controlled and smart by that point - lots of 2s.

Did anyone else find this match really boring, didn't watch much but I guess ODIs just aren't doing it for me these days.

Definitely agree! Having been watching lots of Big Bash, I wonder aloud what skills are on show in ODIs that aren't in T20s?? The only one I can really think of is patience by batsmen in the middle overs, and if you want to watch patience, there is a vastly superior product out there called Test cricket. 50 over cricket is all about not doing anything stupid in the middle vs the other team's lame 5th bowler (Maxwell, Root, Bopara). Who wants to watch those guys bowl 10 plus overs between them?? No one, except if they are being mercilessly attacked. And that's what happens to a 5th bowler in T20s...

It's a cynical view...but to me all 50 overs does is fill up more time for between over advertisements, it doesn't offer anything else over the other forms.

You can go in with four bowlers in Tests, you can get away with it in some ODIs, but it is a massive gamble and the problem is England don't realise when they win using it it is in spite of it not because of it.

Agree! Although last night I definitely think England should have bowled Root more. He's just the sort of guy you want to attack, and that's the way England needed to go. Stroke the Aussie ego into giving wickets away. We saw as soon as he came on Finch looked restless, moving around in the crease. A couple more random short bursts from Root, inviting a stupid shot would have been the way to go in my eyes. Oh yeah and England's overrate was awful too - I get sick of mentioning it haha, but I notice, even if the ICC doesn't!

 

[Owzat]

Agree! Although last night I definitely think England should have bowled Root more. He's just the sort of guy you want to attack, and that's the way England needed to go. Stroke the Aussie ego into giving wickets away. We saw as soon as he came on Finch looked restless, moving around in the crease. A couple more random short bursts from Root, inviting a stupid shot would have been the way to go in my eyes.

I agree, but it further highlights the problem with only playing four bowlers, if you need to take wickets and/or keep it tight, the captain will not be happy turning to his fifth bowling option.

I can't believe a decent captain would want to only have four bowling options he can trust, in some cases not the case with England and Cook is one in a long line that will leave a bowler out in the deep if he has been expensive. Might be why Finn and others haven't been given a chance in the Tests, Cook happier with his regulars in Anderson, Broad, Swann and latterly Bresnan.

Ultimately you need to include five bowlers who can and will/do bowl 10 overs regularly, Bopara and Root simply don't fit that model. It's handy to have one, t'other, or both in the side, but I fear every time you get someone who "can bowl" then England lean towards four bowlers.

England won't win the World Cup the way they're going about ODIs, as far off cracking the modern ODI as they were back in 1993 ie after they last competed fully in a World Cup.

Oh yeah and England's overrate was awful too - I get sick of mentioning it haha, but I notice, even if the ICC doesn't!

I've said many a time, if the side gets behind in their overs give the batsmen their pick of the bowlers and you'd be surprised how quickly the bowling side would get through their overs!

It is the perfect deterrent, a tactical disadvantage rather than spoiling the game with arbitrary run penalties. Or you could go with cutting the overs off and letting worthless-duck method decide it, although that might go in the favour of the bowling side which is hardly a punishment

 

[GlitchInTheMatrix]

Disappointed as my fav batter Watto went for a duck

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Still we won it comprehensively!

 

[IceAgeComing]

If they play three actual bowlers again; I will off myself.

Actually; its probably a good thing - at least if Flower goes, we might not be stuck with Giles!

Additionally, would it be possible to edit the times in GMT into the OP? I know that they are probably like 3am or something, but it would make it easier for those of us in the far north to see when the game starts!

 

[T.J.Hooker]

Yeah the prospect of England being led by the King of Spain just doesn't bear thinking about.

 

[IceAgeComing]

I expect every patriotic Aussie to be supporting England in this game, just because Tony Abbott may have influenced team selection, and he's a total idiot.

I must clarify that this post was about tonights game against the Prime Minsters XI which I thought was last week for some reason... Anyway, Engand needs your support!

 

[sifter132]

I can't believe a decent captain would want to only have four bowling options he can trust,

Prepare the soapbox ...but the sad thing is that you can often get away 4 decent bowlers and 10 overs of part time dross these days, especially if you bowl first. Reason is that batting tactics are rigid and boring. Teams these days want to 'bat deep' and have wickets in hand for the end, but they often do so at the expense of being conservative in the middle overs. So often teams leave batting resources in the sheds, and it's the big hitting batsmen that are being saved for the end, when those batsmen would be perfect to come in mid innings and try and belt the 5th bowler. But no one ever changes their batting order and the 10 overs of crap in the middle overs are often treated with surprising respect.

It's a little bit tricky for England though, because to me Root/Bopara is almost good enough to be a 5th bowler, so you can see where they've come from. But given that Root is playing like rubbish, it would be easier just to drop Root, move everyone up one so Stokes is 6 and Buttler 7, then play an actual spinner. Bresnan (or Broad on return) is a good enough batter at 8 that you don't need to cripple your bowling.

Side note: has Stokes ever batted top 3 in domestic stuff? He seems like a guy who might be worth a promotion to give some impetus to the innings. ie. not phased by pace, willing to attack. If he batted at 3 to replace Root, for example??

I've said many a time, if the side gets behind in their overs give the batsmen their pick of the bowlers and you'd be surprised how quickly the bowling side would get through their overs!

It is the perfect deterrent, a tactical disadvantage rather than spoiling the game with arbitrary run penalties. Or you could go with cutting the overs off and letting worthless-duck method decide it, although that might go in the favour of the bowling side which is hardly a punishment

Yep I'm with ya, a practical fix It was just so bleeding obvious the other night. Australia were amazingly getting their overs through fast and had bowled 49 by 3hrs 20. England would have been lucky to have bowled 40 by their 3hr20mark, and given you are supposed to have 3hrs 30, I'm not sure why there hasn't been any fines discussed.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Live streaming of the match against Prime Minister XI is available on Cricket Australia's website for those that are interested.

 

[Haarithan]

Joe Root is hopeless against the new ball.

 

[dancingmongoose]

PM's XI probably has the longest tail ever.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

We've actually won a game of cricket!

 

[blockerdave]

literally shocking that they didn't even trust Finn to bowl/play in this game.

what are they keeping him in Aus for? Send him home, or to the Lions or whatever. get him out of an environment that is clearly breaking him, and more importantly away from Saker and the utter bilge he his filling Finn's head with. This guy has the potential to be our main strike bowler, especially with the rise of Stokes as a 4th seam option allowing us to keep a fast short spell "shock" bowler.

our best bowling prospect for a long time and we have a third rate never-was who's sole achievement in the whole time he's been in the job seems to have been suggesting Bresnan for the MCG back in 2010, utterly ruining him, and nobody is batting an eyelid.

Saker and Flower have to go, and they have to go soon.

 

[IceAgeComing]

Finn needs a lot of time this year at County Level, and if he improves there, then they need to give Middlesex a lot of influence in keeping him in form in the future rather than messing around with him at the national level.

Also, England won a game of cricket! Sure, it was against the Tony Abbott XI led by a bowler who's been out of international cricket for 4 years, but still!

 

[MUFC1987]

This is what annoys me about all this stuff about 18 Counties being too many because they're not doing well enough for the England Team. The Counties are producing good players who are then not being picked or just being destroyed by the England setup.

Finn has one of the best records at the start of his career for an England bowler EVER, yet we're told that he's not bowling well in the Nets and he's just been turned into a drinks carrier. We're not pulling up any trees without him in the team, at least let him play and be hopeless and try to prove a point. They're ruining the bloke.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

But didn't Finn start off against Bangladesh?