March 11 - Bangladesh vs England

[MUFC1987]

Bit of both for me, and naivety with persisting with failed players and tactics :

- Prior opening, never really works
- Collingwood does nothing again, and while he bowls tightly it is still 24 runs without losing a wicket in a situation we needed wickets
- Throwing away a good position, from 162/3 to 225 all out isn't good enough
- Picking Anderson, another nothing performance
- Lack of a second spinner, I said Tredwell should play

I think Prior had to open, simply because there wasn't another option. But obviously, he shouldn't be in the squad and the specialist opener (Davies) should have been. It's bad decision making before today, forcing that. On Collingwood, I'd say that he's never going to have an impact batting at 7, it's not his game. It seems that England are refusing to try him higher up the order, depsite Bell being inconsistent and Morgan used to batting at 6. Seems strange to me. Everyone will yell out of form at Collingwood, but since he had some time in the Warmup game, he's hardly batted before the 40th over, if at all.

The throwing away bit is down to the upper order for me. You look at other teams, they base their innings around batsmen. Like we showed against India, a big score makes any score getable, we lack that. There's only 2 batsman in the top 4 capable of scoring Centuries, that's the problem for me. The death bowling is just bad planning for me too. We've had just Broad since Flintoff got injured, yet we haven't worked on Anderson or really Bresnan in that role, or brought someone else in. It seems the standards we set in Test cricket with the bowling attack just doesn't happen in ODIs.

Seems Bob Willis is bemoaning the fielding again, I wish Sky would put him in a retirement home.

Opening with Prior was always going to be a mistake. Bell is just annoying me, take some responsibility.

The bowling was pretty abject in places, most notably Anderson and I don't think Bresnan was very good at the death either.

I suppose what annoys people that most is that this isn't likely to see new players come through. I don't think Prior has done himself any favours for ODI cricket, Tests are a different kettle of fish, though it doesn't seem England treat the two disciplines differently.

The balance of the side is still all wrong along with senior players not stepping up to the mark.

We need a break from cricket, going home early from the WC might give us a bit more of a break that we so obviously need.

Agreed on the Bob Willis thing incidently.

The problem for me is simple, we go around in circles. You see guys like Morgan come in and hit the ground running, yet we don't follow that lead. There are plenty of people in County Cricket who could offer something, yet we go back to Prior, we go back to guys like Bell and even Collingwood as the 5th bowler. Just seems to be no desire to give these County players a chance. You're not going to improve the team, if you give no one else a chance.

 

[Papa_Smurf]

Another thriller England game I have missed Why oh why do they happen the same time I'm busy at Uni.

Don't know much about what happened - will read the Cricinfo commentary in a bit. But England have been the best source of entertainment in this tournament. That WI game would be a cracker.

 

[jkartik]

India vs Pakistan is not as important to us that we dont care about any other defeats. We care about being World champions and being the best in the world. And with Pakistan not being the same team as they used to be before, India vs Pakistan rivalry is not up there anymore.

thats mostly because of the recent controversies.

we havent played a series against them in a really long time.
all it needs is one tight match and we're back again!

 

[Near]

Hell yeah! That's the way we do it. Still don't get why England picked Anderson they should pick Tremlett instead in my opinion or Tredwell.

 

[AngryPixel]

Phew another snatch defeat from the jaws of victory effort from England... Kudos to them, producing thriller after thriller.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I thought swann was behaving like a prick out there. he wanted the ball changed every over.

has kept this group alive until the end, though bangladesh still in the weakest position. they really need the windies to beat england, else they have to beat south africa (and the netherlands obviously) to qualify.

 

[Sureshot]

Agreed on the Bob Willis thing incidently.

The problem for me is simple, we go around in circles. You see guys like Morgan come in and hit the ground running, yet we don't follow that lead. There are plenty of people in County Cricket who could offer something, yet we go back to Prior, we go back to guys like Bell and even Collingwood as the 5th bowler. Just seems to be no desire to give these County players a chance. You're not going to improve the team, if you give no one else a chance.

Yeah, we need to make changes for the better. I sort of understood why they dropped Davies, they were trying to capture the Ashes feeling, but Prior, as much as I think he still is the man for the Test Match position, just isn't doing enough in ODIs and Davies should never have been dropped.

We really do need to move on from Collingwood, he's not a finisher, he never will be a number 7, his bowling is useful as a 6th bowler option. Unless we can bring in a proper all-rounder, he doesn't fit in the side any more.

I have no idea what we do with Bell, he's got the talent, all the skills, but he isn't producing results. Patel is perfect for the 2nd spinner role, but he's eating the pies too often.

We need to move away from the Wrights, Yardys and Tredwell's and move on those who show strong performances in one discipline, anything else they offer is a bonus. Like Rashid, good bowler, can take wickets, the bonus is he can bat.

If we change the captain, who takes the role? Do we try and get Cook going in ODI's?

There aren't many other candidates jumping out.

 

[Haarithan]

"Well begun is half done" - this is possible only if Trott opens with Strauss .
And any idea on what Swann might face ?? A ban possibly ?

 

[AngryPixel]

That would be a Shame... He's a nice bloke.

 

[Haarithan]

And one more thing i would like to point out is the stupid travelling business England have been forced to . Chennai-Chittagong and back to Chennai . Wtf

 

[Near]

Changes England should make imo:

Rashid in for Tredwell/Yardy
Kieswetter in for Prior(Davies a possible candidate)
Cook should get a chance too
Collingwood out. A good county all-rounder will be a good replacement
A few more county players like Jimmy Adams should be given a chance

 

[AngryPixel]

Its a WC, not some bilateral tourney where you can swap players at will. To do as you wish, we need above mentioned players injured..

 

[Near]

I was talking about the England team not the WC team that's why I didn't mention Anderson and his superb bowling.

In WC:

Bopara opens
Tremlett comes in place of Anderson

 

[Owzat]

STRAUSS

WC 2011 : 298 runs in 5 inns @ 59.60 (SR 99.67)

Could have done with more from him against Bangladesh and Ireland, didn't matter in the end when he went for a duck against South Africa. Seems a clueless captain in ODIs where captaincy truly is tested more than in Tests where his predictable routine "style" of captaincy is not really an issue

PRIOR

WC 2011 : 35 runs @ 8.75 (SR 67.31)
Opening ODIs : 741 runs @ 23.90

Most ridiculous amount of poncing about done with keepers/"pinch hitters", and we're going round in circles. If they wish to open with a keeper pick Davies, if they don't want to open with Davies then play a PROPER OPENER or someone who is going to average more than 20-25 and last longer than the powerplay!

TROTT

WC 2011 : 289 runs @ 57.80 (SR 78.32)

Mr consistency, FOUR fifties and only one relative failure of 16. Makes up for lack of speed with volume of runs, sadly others are not doing their bit.

BELL

WC 2011 : 193 runs @ 38.60 (SR 85.02)

Once he gets going he scores at near enough a run a ball, problem is he scratches around and gets out like today (5 off 23 balls)

MORGAN

WC 2011 : 63 off 72 balls, can't ask much more than that really

COLLINGWOOD

WC 2011 : 61 runs @ 20.33 (SR 117.31) & 1 wkt @ 116 (ER 5.04)

Tidy enough bowling, but not picking up wickets enough so it is often free runs and in tighter games that isn't much use unless it is like 10 runs off 10 overs. Scoring quick runs, but too low a volume and 30no off 23 balls against Holland makes up best part of that

BOPARA

WC 2011 : 106 runs @ 53.00 (SR 75.71) & 0/19 off 3 overs (ER 6.33)

Not as quick as it could be, but the runs are there. Could have done with some against Bangladesh.

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Hard to see, Prior and Collingwood apart, where anyone is not contributing at all with the bat. Just seems to be collective inability to bat and bowl well enough when it matters, as usual the overall stats show no problems that we all know are there.

ANDERSON

WC 2011 : 4 wkts @ 70.50 (ER 6.56)

Apart from his 2/16, he's been poor this World Cup and I said I would have dropped him before his 0/54 at 6.00 rpo in trying to defend 225 (4.50 rpo). 0/72 vs Holland, 1/91 vs India, 1/49 vs Ireland and now 0/54 vs Bangladesh is poor from one of our regulars. I've said in the past he is inconsistent, he's been pretty dire this World Cup.

SHAHZAD

WC 2011 : 3 wkts @ 32.00 (ER 5.33)

Did nothing in his first game, bowled well enough against Bangladesh and picked up 3/43. Sadly England didn't go on to win once his third wicket left Bangladesh 166/7

BRESNAN

WC 2011 : 21 runs @ 5.25 & 9 wkts @ 24.78 (ER 4.65)

Not really fired with bat, done enough with ball to justify his place.

SWANN

WC 2011 : 52 runs @ 26.00 & 9 wkts @ 23.56 (ER 4.33)

Nearly two wickets a match, can't ask much more than that

YARDY

WC 2011 : 19 runs @ 6.33 & 2 wkts @ 79.50 (ER 6.12)

Truly awful, for a second spinner on not unhelpful pitches that just shows what happens when you pick a journeyman county batsman and play him as a spinner/all-rounder on the basis of domestic T20.

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I've left out Broad and Pietersen, Broad having taken 6 wkts @ 25.50 was doing ok while Pietersen was doing ok with 131 runs @ 32.75. The problem looks very much to be the bowling, while Swann, Broad and Bresnan have done fine, the other two bowlers (slots) have done nothing and allowed Ireland to chase a target with little problem, and Bangladesh to do likewise from a similarly losing position. Could have lost to South Africa but for Broad's last ditch efforts and that saw him out of the World Cup.

The bowlers nearly threw it away against Holland, the batsmen chased down a big total. While the batsmen might take blame for throwing away a good position in chasing India only to draw, it was a good effort chasing more runs than you might hope to have to. So you might argue, South Africa aside, England bowlers haven't really shone as a unit.

 

[khalek]

Imagine Ashraful playing in this game instead of Mahmudullah