Blast to the Past - 1st ODI Australia v England, celebrating 40 years

[McLOVIN]

I'd take this with 6 overs to go over what Eng had when they were batting.

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fuzz! White is going through a Clarke

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Last ball four runs will do White need to get into his smacking boots

 

[aussie1st]

That is why White isn't the best to come into a powerplay with no balls faced. Luckily Watson is still finding the boundary or we could be in trouble.

 

[McLOVIN]

well played boy!


oh no! 150

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It's Aus's from here on.

 

[aussie1st]

Haha Watto well and truly smashing the doubts of not going on today. Awesome knock easily his best and one of the best you will see.

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Geez shocking over by Bresnan so far, I now see why the English fans don't rate him.

 

[McLOVIN]

I thought it'd be somewhere along "10 off last over to win", but damn.

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Cyaaaa!

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Watson !! Watson !! What a WIN for us

 

[aussie1st]

What an innings, geez that was just brilliant. And what a way to end it, just amazing. Just hope he hasn't peaked too early.

 

[Aussie Team]

Watto! what an outstanding innings for him. He's got such a heavy runs in this game.

 

[ferg512]

Great innings from Watto, completely deserved that. It wasn't going to be long until he converted one of those 50s and this turned into a huge one. I think England could really have done with Collingwoods mediums there. I'm starting to think Yardy should be dropped, his batting was pretty awful. His ODI career SR is around 60. But his bowling could be extremely useful on the sub continent so I guess they'll stick with him.

 

[cricketmad09]

Not really a surprise to me that England get off to a flier, then get pegged back by 2-3 wickets around the 100 mark. The England tail looks long and thin, Yardy only averages 16.27 in ODIs now and that's with the aid of SIX not outs in 17 innings. He's like Wright, but in for his bowling more than batting. But to bat at seven he needs to produce more innings of note, not the one fifty and nothing else higher than 20 that he's returned so far.

He has bowled in every ODI so far, but despite bowling at least four overs in every ODI to date, he still doesn't bowl out that often or indeed nine overs for that matter

0-3 overs (0 ODIs) : n/a
4-7 overs (9 ODIs) : 49 overs, 3 wkts @ 78.67 (SR 98.00, ER 4.82)
8-10 overs (10 ODIs) : 93 overs, 11 wkts @ 34.45 (SR 53.45, ER 3.87)

Those figures against 8-10 overs do include 3/41 off 10 overs against Scotland and 3/24 off 10 overs against Pakistan. Against the aussies before this ODI he has taken 2/203 off 52 overs @ 101.50 with a good ER (3.90) but awful SR (156.00) If we're going to include a second spinner then perhaps it should be a more wicket taking spinner.

Bullseye. The England selectors are hurting the team by having him playing. Having said that as an Australian I hope like hell he stays in the team.

 

[Brook]

Great innings by Watson, but I can hardly believe this series is 7 matches long

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

this is a total knee jerk reaction, but Watson looks way more of a leader than michael clarke. and I mean looks not because of numbers or stats, he grimaces, motivates, gets riled up, contributes to every discipline.

watson for captain, even if he eventually does drop down the order in tests, hell that gives him less batting responsibility to focus on captaincy.

 

[MUFC1987]

White makes a much better number 3 than Clarke does. Looks like we missed Collingwood's bowling today, with the batting of Trott and Bell not making up for it. Good to see KP in good ODI form though. He'll be key if we have any chance at the WC.

 

[War]

Just a few comments on the game that disturbed me on both sides:

ENGLAND:

Firstly England need to stop comparing Davies to Gilchrist. He is totally nothing like the great man. In his international career to date, when Davies get going its not even quicker than when Strauss gets going.

The real dasher like Gilchrist is Kieswetter & i still prefer to have him opening instead of Davies.

Secondly Yardy's batting @ 7 continues to be questionable. He really is totally unusited to that role. Can easily get tied down & has no hitting ability.

Even with Anderson & Braod back, ENGs ODI pace attack looks very one-paced & pedestrian with a 90 mph bowler. Which on the flat pitches in the SC, could be a problem i fear.

Also given that issue with the bowling. I dont think we can leave Colly out of the main XI. His bowling is very important in case one of 5 main bowlers has a bad day.


AUSTRALIA:

Very worrying innings from Clarke. People where already complaining about his ODI slowish batting in 2010 although he was making runs. But i hope his ashes form is not rubbing off to his ODI batting now, since to be frank if he where to keep this up throughout the 7 match ODI series, he really cant go to the WC.

Which is what makes this horrendous decision by the ICC that sides have to name their WC sides so irritating. Since Clarke has now become a potential problem for AUS, who need this full ODI to really see if he can fix it before the WC. Now he will be named in the WC squad anyway & if he fails AUS will take a dud ODI batsman to the WC.

A bit worried about Dougie also. Second game he has played for AUS this season & he really hasn't looked himself with that ball. He also needs this full ODI series to get his mojo of 2009 & 2010 back or esle he could certainly miss out for Nannes instead.