The cricket thread

iseverynamegone

crunchman said:

England are very dependent on the openers getting a decent start and on Buttler.

England didn't take wickets early on in the Pakistan innings either.  That always makes things difficult.

Not sure that stacks up. Stokes / Morgan / Root.  

Lets leave Ali to one side in his current form. 

The problem today wasn’t the batting so your second point stands mind. 

crunchman

iseverynamegone said:

crunchman said:

England are very dependent on the openers getting a decent start and on Buttler.

England didn't take wickets early on in the Pakistan innings either.  That always makes things difficult.

Not sure that stacks up. Stokes / Morgan / Root.  

Lets leave Ali to one side in his current form. 

The problem today wasn’t the batting so your second point stands mind. 

The openers failed today.  If they had got to 75 for 0 off the first 12 overs, England would almost certainly have won.  When they have chased down the big totals, they have normally had significant contributions from Roy and Bairstow.

iseverynamegone

Today’s score was like the 30th highest ever second innings score in 50 over cricket win or lose . Not really a bad effort at all without the openers firing.  

RandallFlagg

iseverynamegone said:

Today’s score was like the 30th highest ever second innings score in 50 over cricket win or lose . Not really a bad effort at all without the openers firing.  

I agree, a slightly off colour England team, some fielding errors, some ineffective bowling and a few sillies with the bat and we still were only 14 runs short. Not bad and hopefully a blip, plenty more games to come and chance to put this in the rear view mirror.

Most if not all the top 4 teams will lose at least 1 match, it will be remarkable if a team goes through all of their group matches without a loss. I'm fearing that Australia might though, they look pretty solid. Haven't seen India yet.

guitars4you

You could just say it was one of those days and give credit to the Pakistan team - Their 2 'part time' spinners, who we were meant to tank around the ground, did a good job

I think Roy went out to bat with the fielding issues on his mind, so a point to prove and it went wrong - What Bairstow was doing waffling his bat about I don't know - But they won't get big scores every day

Sure not many teams loose when 2 players get a 100 each - goes without saying both needed to go onto 130/140 

Long way to go

guitars4you

So pick your 4 semi finalists

I'm going England - Australia, India + NZ

sixstringsupplies

guitars4you said:

So pick your 4 semi finalists

I'm going England - Australia, India + NZ

West Indies for me ahead of India/NZ. England will be fine. Moeen Ali bowled well but his batting has been dismal for some time. 

RandallFlagg

guitars4you said:

So pick your 4 semi finalists

I'm going England - Australia, India + NZ

Need to see India play first but I reckon Aus will be in with a shot for the final.

guitars4you

Rain may well have an impact over the next 5-8 days with a few potential no results, as well as a few potential Duckworth Lewis results 

earwighoney

RandallFlagg said:

 I agree, a slightly off colour England team, some fielding errors, some ineffective bowling and a few sillies with the bat and we still were only 14 runs short. Not bad and hopefully a blip, plenty more games to come and chance to put this in the rear view mirror.

The batting masked a fairly complacent fielding performance, which IMO was where the match was lost but the margins were fine.  IMO, best to get out of the way earlier on. 

I think it's tough to pick the 4 teams that will finish on top, I'm fairly England and Australia will be there and two of India, West Indies and NZ.  Rain here and there could potentially lead to a few draws that might distort the table. 

IMO, Pakistan might be the joker in the pack.  They might not have enough consistency to make it to the top 4, but they could once again take points off another 'big side' which might make qualification for one of the more favourite teams tricky. 

Heartfeltdawn

crunchman said:

Foakes will probably make more runs than Ballance (or any other top order option you could pick) anyway.  That's why it's stupid it to leave him out.  If there were good top order options, then it might make sense to play Bairstow as keeper, but there aren't.

I picked Vince as opener because he's been opening for Hampshire.  It's not ideal, but he has ability if he can stop flirting with balls outside off stump.  I'm not sure he can tighten up his game, but the cupboard is bare when it comes to openers.  After all, you picked Curran there.  Vince has the potential to do a better job than Curran or Ali.

I picked Curran as opener because I think he's more likely to score runs than Vince and his bowling could win us a Test in the right conditions. With such a dearth of other options, it's a punt I'm happy to take. Few Tests are won by people with a beautifully made 30 followed by nicking off. 

I agree on Foakes and his runs but he's not a top order player yet and moving the two JB's isn't something I'd like to do. Root is set at 4 and we need a number three. 

SouthpawMark

South Africa seem to want to get back to South Africa as quickly as possible. 

guitars4you

Goes against my religion to praise the Aussies, but they battled well today - 79 for 5

I think no one side will run away with the league sector - Think all sides will loose a game or two - Even NZ struggled against Bangladesh - Plus with a few bad days of weather around we could see a few No Results or D/Worth Lewis that might make the final table interesting

guitars4you

The English bowling attack worries me a bit - All to predictable - Especially when you look at the bowling attack of the other teams - We are almost 'to easy to read' - Not enough flair, mystery or guile at times

iseverynamegone

Really disappointed to see the Aussies looking so good. 

RandallFlagg

iseverynamegone said:

Really disappointed to see the Aussies looking so good. 

They really are looking annoyingly solid. Mitchell Starc is a terrific bowler and their batting recovery against the WIs yesterday was impressive.

Need to see England rebound from the last match with a sharp performance to restore any belief that they can justify being favourites to win.

NorthernGooner

guitars4you said:

The English bowling attack worries me a bit - All to predictable - Especially when you look at the bowling attack of the other teams - We are almost 'to easy to read' - Not enough flair, mystery or guile at times

Quite agree. We seem happy to give up 300 or so when the opposition bat first thinking we can chase them down.
Then if we don't bat well the games gone. 

guitars4you

NorthernGooner said:

guitars4you said:

The English bowling attack worries me a bit - All to predictable - Especially when you look at the bowling attack of the other teams - We are almost 'to easy to read' - Not enough flair, mystery or guile at times

Quite agree. We seem happy to give up 300 or so when the opposition bat first thinking we can chase them down.
Then if we don't bat well the games gone. 

Let's see how today goes - I think Willey would have been a better + different option to Woods in the squad

Looking at today's conditions I'd have thought Curran was worth a game instead of Woakes or Wood

SouthpawMark

This is more like it. 450 minimum today. 

Heartfeltdawn

RandallFlagg said:

iseverynamegone said:

Really disappointed to see the Aussies looking so good. 

They really are looking annoyingly solid. Mitchell Starc is a terrific bowler and their batting recovery against the WIs yesterday was impressive.

Need to see England rebound from the last match with a sharp performance to restore any belief that they can justify being favourites to win.

The bowling is the Aussie trump card, no question, and it revolves around the opening attack. Decent spin options, some alright first change seamers. 

The batting is not solid though. They were 38 for 4, 79 for 5, and 147 for 6, and then got bailed out by a guy hitting his highest score in any form of cricket. Warner and Smith are the big guns, everyone else is a bit erratic. Glenn Maxwell may or may not fire, and you're just waiting for Shaun Marsh to come back into the side yet again... 

Of that Aussie top six, who would get into the current England side and replacing whom? Roy and JYB beat the Aussie openers, Root beats Khawaja, Buttler versus Smith at 4 is surely a draw, Morgan beats Maxwell at 5, Stokes over Stoinis... 

The Aussies might just hold the edge over us with the ball but with the bat we're ahead.