rsj
2nd XI player
Posts: 42
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Post by rsj on Dec 6, 2014 2:15:24 GMT
Well we're all enjoying the trip here in SL, some good cricket, great company, cheap beer and apart from the odd storm which lasts 10 minutes and seem to dry up quickly having a ball. Could be worst we could be at home in wet and freezing temperatures being nagged about xmas presents along with green and black days.
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Post by hhsussex on Dec 7, 2014 7:31:20 GMT
Having just woken up, England at 191-5 from 39 overs, with Morgan and Buttler at the crease should be in a position to make 300 or more. I'm aware that is goatmouth, but its what a class international side should be capable of achieving, particularly when those batsmen have such high reputations at this sort of cricket. A pity Taylor fell short of 100, but it will be interesting to see some highlights and to see whether this is a breakthrough image or just another false dawn. Hales exemplifies the goatmouth tendency: crack him up as a wonder, get Pietersen and his chums to shout for him - as a useful way of having another go at Cook - and then watch as he self-combusts, with two ignoble innings, including running out Ali when the latter was supremely in form and command. Perhaps Hales is a useful basher of medium pacers; he certainly looked so in first class games in England last summer when he found a patch of form.
On edit: No, they couldn't do anything very different to what the team achieved under Cook. 265 all out and the only plus points the using up of all available deliveries, the innings of Taylor, and Morgan's too little, too late. Given the damage done by Sri Lanka's spinners holding the ball up and making it hard to slog we may,and should, regret not including Tredwell, especially as Stokes had another wretched, forgettable innings. He will be a very good player in all classes of cricket, but something is amiss with him at the moment and persevering with him may not be the best way to help him.
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maxh
2nd XI player
Posts: 96 
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Post by maxh on Dec 8, 2014 9:09:16 GMT
Tredwell should play in that in side in very game, spinning pitch or not.
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Post by hhsussex on Dec 8, 2014 9:17:33 GMT
Tredwell should play in that in side in very game, spinning pitch or not. I quite agree, he gives control and that is crucial in these games. Poor Stokes is so far out of luck and form that every time he appears he makes it worse, and that will damage his career in the long term. Much better for him to sit the rest of this series out, do some work in the nets and just rest and forget it all until after Christmas. I'd like to see him play a part in the World Cup games, but at the moment he's playing himself out of a place. Meanwhile England have some prestige to recover and Tredwell may help with that. What can't be mended is the captaincy-by-numbers approach that appears to extend to Morgan. How to explain the dismal over-rate, the bizarre rotation of bowlers regardless of their success or the conditions? |
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maxh
2nd XI player
Posts: 96
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Post by maxh on Dec 8, 2014 11:32:01 GMT
Tredwell is a good all round cricketer with more guile in his little finger than the rest of the bowling attack put together. Incredible that he isn't player, it really is.
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Post by flashblade on Dec 8, 2014 13:00:38 GMT
I think Moores is using this series to try out and test certain players (eg Stokes) in advance of the World Cup. He knows Tredwell is class, so doesn't need to put him to the test.
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maxh
2nd XI player
Posts: 96
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Post by maxh on Dec 8, 2014 16:15:50 GMT
I can kind of see that but was else is there to find out about Stokes? Get the team winning first.
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Post by flashblade on Dec 8, 2014 16:22:31 GMT
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2014 17:42:30 GMT
The idea that England have got any sort of a world cup plan is given the lie by the fact that Taylor is now favourite to bat at number three come next February, having only got a game at all because Cook was suspended.
This is going to sound a little like a Dodgy Dobell diatribe, but since Trott last played an ODI in Sept 2013, number three has been the biggest problem for England. In the 15 months since Trott's last appearance they have tried eight batsmen at number three with the following averages:
Eoin Morgan: 31
Alex Hales: 27
Gary Ballance: 25.6
Ben Stokes: 21.25
Ian Bell: 18.75
Moeen Ali: 9
Joe Root: 2.5
Luke Wright: 0.5
In fact, just about every England batsman has been asked to bat there, with the exception of Captain Calamity Cook , who - like Tony Blair maintaining that if they keep on looking hard enough one day they will find Iraq's hidden stockpile of WMDs - gamely continues to insist against all logic that England cannot do without his leading by example at the top of the order (and in any case is immovable as part of his Faustian pact with Downton and company in return for defacating all over the man his paymasters regard as the Saddam Hussein of English cricket, Kevin Pietersen).
If it turns out that the solution to the number three question was Taylor all along, Cook and England will no doubt pat themselves on the back and indulge in an orgy of self-congratulation for getting it right with their ninth answer.
Good luck to Taylor. He hasn't been treated well by England and instead of complaining he has just gone on scoring runs and making it impossible for his claims to be ignored. He reminds me a little of an Eddie Paynter de nos jours.
But it is also just possible that England's best potential number three will be playing in the World Cup for another country.
Chap by the name of Joyce.
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Post by coverpoint on Dec 13, 2014 10:54:11 GMT
3 hours wasted by the host broadcasters getting a split screens VT when they could have got the pitch match up in seconds which would have proved Root was conclusively not out because it pitched outside leg. Did the Sri Lankan broadcasters leave their common sense at home?
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Post by flashblade on Dec 13, 2014 11:52:19 GMT
At least Alistair Cook's performances are consistent!
Seriously, though, how long can England continue to waste one of the opening batting slots? Naming him as captain of the World Cup squad may only serve to prolong the agony. Or will he suddenly come good?
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Post by flashblade on Dec 13, 2014 16:58:42 GMT
I had my view of Cook's position reinforced by Moores' post match interview and the opinions of the Sky pundits. As Bumble so succinctly put it - "you've got to pick your best eleven, and Cook isn't one of them"
Cook's stubborn and selfish attempt to preserve his own status is going to force England's hand. At that point, he may wish he'd stood down gracefully, and spared himself the humiliation.
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Post by leedsgull on Dec 14, 2014 11:10:38 GMT
It is not Cook's decision to drop himself, that is what the selectors are paid to do. They are the ones who have let this farce drag on.
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Post by coverpoint on Dec 14, 2014 12:46:16 GMT
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2014 20:23:57 GMT
I think Cook has to fall on his sword or face the sack. But I'm surprised Dobell has gone into such attack dog mode with a series of vicious tweets after yesterday's defeat:
< Seems Cook drops everything but himself.>
< This has to end.>
< If the England management can't see the need for change, they should go too.>
Respect to Dodgy for his outspoken comments, because they mean he sure as hell won't be getting any exclusive interviews out of Downton, Moores or anyone else in the England dressing room any time soon.Perhaps the exclusion of Trott and Rikki Clarke from England's world cup 30 proved just too much for Warwickshire's pom-pom waving cheer leader to take!
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