England in Sri Lanka

[manee]

Vaas and Murali are the only bowlers I fear in the Sri Lankan line up. If we watch the ball and don't try anything stupid, they aren't lethal either.

Malinga also bowled well today, dismissing KP will a snorter. Weledegara bowled brilliantly too. He hit the spot time after time at good pace.

 

[lancashire666]

Well I'm surprised we got to the end of the day without losing a wicket.

I tell you, the way we are playing at the moment we would be beaten by the West Indies or New Zealand.

new zealand?!?!?! come on, were not playing well at the moment but lets not start getting silly lol

 

[Skater]

A good point has been made, England are built towards home conditions. Hoggard, Sidebottom and Harmison would rack up the wickets here, but on the dead pitches of the sub continent they have no hope.

We need a squad that are capable of playing in these places.

 

[aussie_ben91]

To be honest, I think Sri Lanka are the better team. Simple as that, England have not performed to their potential but either way, I think Sri Lanka have better batting, bowling and fielding.

I dunno. You have to take allot of things into account. If Jayawardene and Sangakkara had've failed in this series then Sri Lanka's batting would've been screwed and Kevin Pietersen, England's class batsman was unfornately unlucky in the 1st 2 Tests whereas you think the entire team would've been on a massive high had he made a score and generally the flow of the match probably would've been different aswell. To add onto that Cook's dismissal in the 2nd Test which led to England getting a much lower score then they deserved to get. Andrew Flintoff wasn't playing either and you would've expected him to pull out a jaffer of a delievery to get Sangakkara or Jayawardene out aswell.

Sri Lanka outplayed England, although the way things occurred. Things tended to go Sri Lanka's way in this series.

Maybe they should've played The Cornel?

"What's wrong with you Cornel Sanders? CHICKEN?!"

 

[Leicester Fox]

Embarassing. I'm fed up of us being shite and trying to look out for when we won't be. Chuck the lot of them out, even if we lose every game at least we'll have players who give a toss.

 

[Sureshot]

A good point has been made, England are built towards home conditions. Hoggard, Sidebottom and Harmison would rack up the wickets here, but on the dead pitches of the sub continent they have no hope.

We need a squad that are capable of playing in these places.

Hoggard is our best bowler, and has proven to be on sub continent pitches. Harmison has proved in the first innings that he can bowl on these kinds of pitches, despite not being match fit, and Sidebottom has been unlucky, all the catches dropped seem to come off ofhis bowling.

To say we need to replace our 3 best seamers is laughable and about as practical as a chocolate fireguard. Monty has been awful in this series, as has our fielding. I think the main 3 seamers mentioned have bowled well, the rest of the team has been poor though, especially the batting. Could Monty's place be under threat?

I can't see Bopara keeping his place for New Zealand, we can turn to Colly for some bowling, although I think Bopara is more threatening, bowling at the same speed as Hoggard.

Don't underestimate Sri Lanka though, we were awful today, but they were brilliant. I wasn't expecting a victory in this series, they have 3 world class players (Mahela, Sanga and Murali) we have one in KP, but KP hasn't performed in this series, infact it seems ages since a KP special.

I also think that the organisation of this series was poor, 3 tests in 3 weeks in the sub continent is possible, but not in the slightest bit practical.

 

[wolf]

they have 3 world class players (Mahela, Sanga and Murali)

Vaas and Malinga are up there as there.

One of the problems is our batters never consistently get hundreds. They get one and then they don't carry on that form. The last player I can remember doing that is Bell against Pakistan in summer 06. Compare that with Jayawardne and Sanga who get ton after ton.

And I hate to use injuries as an excuse but we do miss players like Flintoff, Tresco and S.Jones.

 

[manee]

Hoggard is our best bowler, and has proven to be on sub continent pitches. Harmison has proved in the first innings that he can bowl on these kinds of pitches, despite not being match fit, and Sidebottom has been unlucky, all the catches dropped seem to come off ofhis bowling.

It is true that Hoggard is the best English bowler in the subcontinent for quite a while, since Darren Gough. This filter takes out Bangladesh as well as filters out games not played in Asia.

Hoggard in bold black
Harmison in red
Giles in green
Monty in blue
Goughy in bold silver
Caddick in sandy brown

(6 ball overs)       Mat    O       R   W   BBI    BBM     Ave  Econ    SR  5 10

filtered              [B]11  379.4  1086  40  6/57   7/86   27.15  2.86  56.9  1  0[/B]
                       [COLOR="Red"]6  241     693  20  3/37   6/89   34.65  2.87  72.3  0  0[/COLOR]
                      [COLOR="SeaGreen"]13  684.1  1703  51  5/67   8/132  33.39  2.48  80.4  3  0[/COLOR]
                       [COLOR="RoyalBlue"]5  227     641  13  3/46   6/178  49.30  2.82 104.7  0  0[/COLOR]
                       [B][COLOR="silver"]6  173.1   542  24  4/50   8/123  22.58  3.12  43.2  0  0[/COLOR][/B]
                       [COLOR="SandyBrown"]6  182.1   507  12  4/55   5/110  42.25  2.78  91.0  0  0[/COLOR]

 

[dikon]

A good point has been made, England are built towards home conditions. Hoggard, Sidebottom and Harmison would rack up the wickets here, but on the dead pitches of the sub continent they have no hope.

We need a squad that are capable of playing in these places.

Our bowlers created chances to bowl them out, our fielders just didn't step up to the plate.

 

[Leicester Fox]

I don't see why Sidebottoms automatically regarded as one of our best bowlers, he averaged 40 against the Indians and 55 against the Sri Lankans, if that was the case for someone like Anderson he would have been dropped, he should earn his place off his last game not how he did against a poor West Indies side. I don't give us a hope against the Kiwis.

 

[Skater]

I didn't suggest that, it was Dominic Cork on BSkyB.

 

[dikon]

I don't see why Sidebottoms automatically regarded as one of our best bowlers, he averaged 40 against the Indians and 55 against the Sri Lankans, if that was the case for someone like Anderson he would have been dropped, he should earn his place off his last game not how he did against a poor West Indies side. I don't give us a hope against the Kiwis.

He is one of the best bowlers though he could have had plenty of wickets if the fielding had have supported him.He gives his all everytime he wears that shirt you can't knock him.He had Tendulkar in knots most of the Summer but was again unlucky.I hope you meant that last sentence as a joke, yes we have been embarrassed by a quality side in their back yard but NZ have played three tests all year hardly good for them is it?England players will be more suited the conditions too with it been similar to England.

 

[Leicester Fox]

A lot of sport is about confidence and we can't have any left after this, we've been well and truly outclassed and shown up for the bunch of average cricketers that we've got. Their nothing better than a number 5 in the world side and apart from Bell, KP and Hoggard none of them would even be considered for someone like Australia. Maybe Monty because Macgills past it now too. England fans need to get real and accept the fact we're just rubbish and we're never going to be a good side.

 

[King Pietersen]

Vaughan is good enough to get in any team
Cook is the best young batsman in the world
Bell is in fantastic form, and a really classy player
Pietersen is one of the best batsmen in the world, in best forms
Collingwood is a real worker, and a talented batsman
Hoggard is an awesome and consistent bowler
Harmison, when on form is deadly

We have brilliant players, you're over-reacting to 1 bad performance, we've not been that bad in the series.

 

[manee]

Vaughan is good enough to get in any team

Not true. He would not get into India's middle order, nor Australia's, possibly not Pakistan's.

Cook is the best young batsman in the world

Disputable, but he is very talented.

Bell is in fantastic form, and a really classy player

Good form, not fantastic though...

                     Mat    I  NO  Runs HS1  HS2  HS3     Ave 100  50   0
2007 (24y 265d)       10   18   1   742 109*  97   83   43.64   1   7   1

Pietersen is one of the best batsmen in the world, in best forms

True.

Collingwood is a real worker, and a talented batsman

Agreed

Hoggard is an awesome and consistent bowler
Harmison, when on form is deadly

Hoggard is back from injury and Harmison has not been 'on form' for a few years now.

You seem to overate the middle order England have. It is good, but all Test middle orders are good. Furthermore, England's pace bowling is not Test class. Sidebottom's 12 wickets which did not come against West Indies came at a cost of 49.16 runs per wicket, Hoggard is just back from injury and Harmison is still a shadow of himself albeit a slightly more accurate shadow.

I have a belief that pace attacks must contain at least one bowler who hits 135kph or over, over half the time and England do not have that. Harmison operates in the high 120s kph range (with the odd spells at 130-140kph) with the other two in the low 120s kph range. You will find partnerships developing with ease if you have a 125kph attack.