England in Sri Lanka

[Leicester Fox]

Vaughan is good enough to get in any team
Cook is the best young batsman in the world

Doesn't mean he would get anywhere near Australia. They wait for players to be in their prime.

Bell is in fantastic form, and a really classy player
Pietersen is one of the best batsmen in the world, in best forms
Hoggard is an awesome and consistent bowler

I mentioned them

Collingwood is a real worker, and a talented batsman

Not anything special and wouldn't get anywhere near Australia.

Harmison, when on form is deadly

Yep that weeks always a fun one

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

Not really I'm just one of the England fans who can admit we're crap, if we can't be honest with ourselves we'll never do anything. We need to realise this. We shouldn't be anything better than 5th in the world based on the talent we've got compared with other teams.

 

[Sureshot]

.

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.

Do you mean Hoggard, Manee?

Harmison's average spell is 83-85 mph. That's 135kph.

I honestly think the world of cricket places too much emphasis on speed, yes having a 90mph bowler is good, but don't force it, Saj, anyone? I certainly don't think that with Harmison, Hoggard and Sidebottom our attack is in the slightest bit one dimensional. Our fielding has made our bowlers seem worse than they are, add to that the workload is increased because Vaughan can't throw Monty the ball due to his awful form.

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.

Vaas and Malinga are good, world class they are not.

Other points are all valid and agreed with.

 

[irottev]

At least NZ isn't the only side to be embarrassed recently in tests.

I hope it rains. I think England probably lack a world class bowler most of all. Flintoff being injured doesn't help. He is in my books world class, though my definition is a lot boarder then most peoples.

 

[Sureshot]

*broader, even (grammar police).

I'm not so sure this series loss will be on the same level as the Kiwis defeat in SA. It's only here where we've been embarrased.

Despite losing the series 2-0 (probably) I still don't think it'll be a wasted trip, a team can be judged on how they learn from their mistakes, moreso even than their victories. Sides in the past have won many matches, but when they make mistakes just don't learn from them. All is not lost, though Moores has a big job on his hands.

 

[manee]

Do you mean Hoggard, Manee?

Harmison's average spell is 83-85 mph. That's 135kph.

I saw quite a few overs, but missed the bulk of it, must have seen Harmy's slowest overs. From what I saw, he bowled from 125-130kph for the most part with a 135kph short ball.

I honestly think the world of cricket places too much emphasis on speed, yes having a 90mph bowler is good, but don't force it, Saj, anyone? I certainly don't think that with Harmison, Hoggard and Sidebottom our attack is in the slightest bit one dimensional.

I know you cannot force a 90mph bowler onto a team if he is not ready but an attack without someone who bowls near 90mph is an attack lacking a component. It is no coincidence that England's Ashes winning attack had Harmison who was pushing 90mph, Flintoff who was doing the same and Simon Jones operating just 2-3mph below the two.

I think Sajid Mahmood's Test potential is underrated too. He has a Test strike rate of 56.5 which is by no means bad. Obviously the economy of 4.04 is not ideal, but I rate him as a good prospect who needs a lot of tweaking to his action. He needs to have months in the off season perfecting an exact action and follow through; currently, he jumps and lets his body fall where it may, this creates massively inconsistent line and length.

 

[wolf]

If Sajid Mahmood is our savior we really are doomed!

We can complain about our bowlers all we want, but do we really have anyone better waiting in the wings?

 

[evertonfan]

Yeah, me obviously. (Y)

I can honestly hold my hand up and say that I had an inkling we'd put a performance like this in soon enough. I'm still very confident that we'll beat New Zealand. If we don't then something is desperately wrong.

 

[.Mob]

We can complain about our bowlers all we want, but do we really have anyone better waiting in the wings?

Graham Onions, Liam Plunkett (good potential), Jordan.

 

[irottev]

*broader, even (grammar police).

I'm not so sure this series loss will be on the same level as the Kiwis defeat in SA. It's only here where we've been embarrased.

We didn't even get bowled out for 81. And besides, 1 bowler got us all out, you guys couldn't play any of them well.

And I know broader was the right word, the firefox spell checker failed me. I probably make a lot of errors lately since i've got this keyboard, some of the keys are a bit unresponsive. Right back at you, embarrased is spelt embarrassed.

 

[RoboRocks]

Yeah we should beat New Zealand but that was shocking to be reduced for 61/5 and 81 all out on a a good batting pitch but all credit to Sri Lanka since they were able to put the ball in the right areas early on and and make the most of the new ball, unlike England on the first morning who wasted the new ball and gave Sri Lanka the chance to bat them out of the game.

We should of played Swann instead of Bopara for me since we need 5 bowlers since this pitch really doesn't offer much apart from the gentle swing from the new ball. There is no point in Bopara being in for his bowling instead of Shah when he's only going to bowl with an old ball on a flat pitch and England have all ready messed up Collingwood's stats by doing that and Bopara is a decent bowler who England are really messing up.

Matt Prior has proven what a bad keeper he is really. I know he's made a few fifties but you can't drop batsmen such as Jayawardene on this pitch from absolute sitters like the one today. Certainly it could be time to give the gloves to perhaps Foster, Ambrose or Davies who perhaps may not make as many runs as Prior but will hold on to 90% of chances they are given.

England performed like a team that was 5 or 6 in the rankings, not 2nd and now will be put into that position. They will have to fight back against New Zealand and they would need a good victory to get them back up the rankings and prove that they are worthy to be number 2 in the world since they fought so hard under Fletcher to get there.

 

[charith]

Doesn't matter if you have world class players its when they perform that counts. I think most people are forgetting that at the end of the first day SL were 147/4. Was a monumental fight back. Mahela seems to turn it on when we need it I still remember the 100 he made at Lords last year to draw that game for us. I think Eng bowled about 120 odd overs at us and still couldnt get us out in THEIR CONDITIONS.

Seen alot of articles in the media and people complaining about this and that oh the umpiring, 3 tests in 3 weeks, the ground not being ready. Fiddlesticks. The umpiring was favorable to ENG both Vandort and Tharanga got dodgy ones and allowed the bowlers exposure to the middle order with the new ball. Then dilshan wasn't given out when he was so it was 2 to one for england. Then they dropped catches of course and your not going to win with that fielding. This is modern day cricket thats how programmes are set. SL just got back from a tough series in AUS and went straight into this. Its the same for both teams so you got to adjust and play accordingly. I don't think any team in the current setup has as many support staff as the England to help them through preparation and keeping energy levels up

When you play in the sub continent you have to adjust your game. You can't really play through the line and if you stay at the crease then runs will come. I remember the last time the aussies toured how Damien Martyn and Darren Lehman occupied the crease for yonks and made centuries. Its about occupation of the crease and grinding the opposition in the heat and humidity. Its been done before and will be done again. Visiting sides need to get out of the mentality that pitches are not suitable for them blah blah. The home side will make wickets to suit their conditions no matter where you go. You wouldn't want to go around the world and play cricket on the same types of tracks day in day out. Whats the point of that? If any this Galle pitch was tailor made for the ENG quicks especially with the early bounce and seam and once again they let a position of dominance slip.

They will find things in NZ more to their liking. If Bond isn't fit in time then they really won't have much of a challenge imo. The quicks will like the tracks and Harmison Hoggard sidebottom could be keys.

I think the schedule is a bit weird. Playing NZ here and then straightaway playing them again in England. Might get a bit mono.

 

[0601731]

when will flintoff be back in action???

 

[Gilly Fan]

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.

To think that England can't even take 10 wickets and make a decent amount of runs, when we were hitting 500/4 and we only went down to Gilly.

 

[SciD]

England got done on these points
1) Series should have been played after ODI series was over. England lacked any momentum coming in to the test series that thay had gained after ODI series win.
2) Sri Lanka comes after playing Australia. Any team that comes from Australia really perform well in coming series because they have to play out of skin against Australia and same attitude is carried over in next series.
3) KP did not performed. He is the main batter in middle order and he failed miserably. He should be dropped and asked to get mentally fit to play long innings. Sweet stroking 40-60 runs will not do England any favours.
4) Pace bowlers did not adjusted length for sub continent conditions hence less effective. Sri lanka is one place in sub continent where fast bowlers can get wickets if they are disciplined.

 

[ZexyZahid]

Tomorrow's weather is about the same prediction as today: Thunderstorms: http://weather.cnn.com/weather/forecast.jsp?locCode=SB0004&zipCode=336621725848

So England might escape with a draw this Test match, but they will most likely lose the Test series.