midgetwars
Club Captain
England are getting sus...
High possibility of that happening.
What really bothered me was the England team's body language. I mean sometimes they looked panic on the field so is the captain. When Strauss dropped the catch of Kevin O Brain, I said instantly that Struass hasnt dropped a catch, Infact he has dropped the Match or possibly the World Trophy.
Strauss should resign, he is a poor captain and this loss might have been unexpected, but when England suck, Strauss sucks with them.
While O'Brien did well, England rather let Ireland off the hook. 111/5 to 329/7 would be bad enough against a Test nation, but this is the same Ireland that couldn't chase down around 200 against Bangladesh!
Where did it go wrong? Well Strauss and Pietersen tossed their wickets away, England fannied around from a very strong position batting and then showed their usual lack of substance in bowling by not taking a further Ireland wicket for 162 runs
ENG 278/2 (41.5 overs, rpo 6.65)
ENG 327/8 (50.0 overs, rpo 6.54)
Last eight overs producing 49/5 at 6.13 rpo. Instead of accelerating with wickets in hands, England went backwards and actually decreased their rpo rather than increased it. England should have been looking at 8-10 an over for the last eight overs, they fell at least 15-20 runs short of the total they should have posted.
IRE 111/5 (24.2 overs, rpo 4.56)
IRE 329/7 (49.1 overs, rpo 6.69)
So Ireland, from/at five down, scored 218 runs off 24.5 overs at 8.78 runs per over. Broad had a real mare, Yardy might as well not have been in the side and having someone who can take wickets and score runs is all very good if they do, but he doesn't that often. He's a waste of (a) space (in the side), 27 ODIs and failed to take a wicket in 14 of them. His average is now over 50, even in five ODIs against Bangladesh, Ireland and Scotland (combined) he's only taken five wickets at a fairly ordinary 34.20 apiece.
Yardy does average 44 in ODIs with the bat, sadly it is a contrived average from 44 runs scored batting at eight and only once out. England have no chance of winning the World Cup, while they have some class batsmen they are also too lacking and slack at times. The bowling lacks a genuine World Class bowler, there is a serious lacking from the 5th bowler and England simply don't bat, bowl and field well enough CONSISTENTLY to pose a serious threat. That's Holland who made England work hard and now Ireland having sneaked past England, just as England should have sneaked past India.
Why do England struggle to be a top ODI side? Is it a lack of talent? Not playing as many ODIs as other teams? On paper England are as good as anyone, except that there is papering over the cracks and some of the inclusions in the squad are not good enough while others were not exposed to ODIs enough before the World Cup eg Shahzad. The one batsman who could take the game away from the opponents like Sehwag, Tendulkar etc does not apply himself.
Makes me laugh that Trott got so much stick and yet he's now reached 1000 ODI runs as quickly as Richards! Pietersen on the other hand finds ways to get himself out and could quite possibly average 50 in ODIs and 70+ in Tests if he used his brain a bit and batted like a World Class batsman rather than just treat bowlers with disdain and fail to live up to his billing
Strauss should resign, he is a poor captain and this loss might have been unexpected, but when England suck, Strauss sucks with them.
Just sad that he'll leave Ireland.
He'll leave Ireland to play Test cricket for England. Every good Irish player has done that.Huh?