Sri Lanka in England 2011

[Themer]

T20 has a world cup now as we all know, and we cant keep talking & treating it like its exhibition cricket.

Can and will. It is hit and giggle cricket and always will be.

 

[War]

But so far, it has been a hit-and giggle format. So far, no team's managed to be a consistent a force. Pak and SA had a golden run in '09 (about 5-6 wins, before they started to fall again), and same goes for England in '10.

While it is definitley exciting, it's hard to say it requires deep tactics, or responsible batting. There's not enough time in a 20 over game. And that's why no-one is going to give 2 cents about exhibition T20 games. They only matter at the WT20. And fair enough.

I'm not arguing that it should be scrapped. Oh no - it's a great way to introduce the game to new comers and new nations. It reduces the skill gap bewteen the teams, which will enhance the reputation of the sport in Associate nations, as their team would do relatively well in global tournaments, as opposed to the 50 over WC.

Can and will. It is hit and giggle cricket and always will be.

Yes fellas i 1000% agree T20 is nothing more than hit & giggle cricket & only batsmen who are power hitters (95% of the time) and bowlers who can bowl yorkers well (pacers) and have much spin variety (spinners) can do well in the format in general. It certainly isn't a format for your Amla's, Chanderpaul's & line-and-length/swing bowlers or spinners that bowl darts.

One of the reasons why no team has leap out in front as the dominant T20 team is because how the little T20 is played on a tour. Realistically every tour should have at least 3 T20s & 3 ODIs.

The fact that T20 has a world-cup means you have to play more T20 on a tour.

 

[Themer]

The fact that T20 has a world-cup means you have to play more T20 on a tour.

Not necessarily. International T20 has no prestige, the World Cup is the only time anyone is bothered.

I'd rather be resting my main players for your ODIs and Tests.

 

[Ollie_H]

i have to wonder how much of him you have seen over the years that would make you come to the assertion.

Enough of him to know he shouldn't be near the England setup considering there is a long list of better younger players ahead of him with a brighter future.

 

[Sureshot]

Bresnan has been introduced in to the squad after his recovery from injury. I'm guessing that was a planned thing and he comes straight in to the team?

In for Dernbach on Owzat's team from last page, though I'd like to see Dernbach given a chance at some point. Oval tomorrow, weather is going to be good, not as hot as the 33C or so today in London, but not much chance of rain..

 

[Slowcoach]

England continue their ODI tradition of naming a slow scoring opening batsman who is not worth his place in the team as captain.
If he finishes his career with an average of 30.00 and a strike rate of 66.67 it will be judged a "success".
If he finishes his career with an average of 29.99 and a strike rate of 66.65 he will join Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton (and probably Mike Brearley and even Chris Tavare) as a long list of failures who have given their team almost no chance of ever winning a World Cup (not they ever had one anyway).
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
The best thing he can do to improve his team's chances of winning is to get out once he has reached 40 and the powerplay overs are finished and hitting boundaries becomes beyond feeble batsmen with no hitting power.

 

[riz7khan12]

captain cook lol.

btw it'll be interesting to see the partnership of dilshan and jayasuriya both are in good form and one has nothing to lose, hope jayasuriya still has it in him to score a century for one last time.

 

[Sureshot]

Well, I think the weather is passing... Can't really say much on the first 7 overs, just one of those things fro Cook's dismissal.

Weather for Friday's game at Headingley looks ok atm.

 

[MUFC1987]

Good to see Kieswetter getting some runs. He deserves a decent crack in the side and getting a 50 on his first day back will help that.

 

[Haarithan]

Just the type of bowling England and most importantly Anderson needed to restore their/his confidence back in the limited overs format. I'm liking Cook as a captain out there, seems calm and composed. Something that's troubling is the manner in which Pietersen gifted his wicket away. He knew that was a ball to be hit which was evident from what Morgan did a couple of balls later dispatching it to the fence. Kieswetter looked brilliant throughout his innings with some safe but sweet strokes. This is one really strong looking England ODI lineup, hope they don't alter this balanced side often. Though I sort of fear the batting depth especially when you have Bresnan at #7.

Sigh, I thought DRS was available for this ODI series, oh well!

 

[Sureshot]

Pietersen's dismissal is hardly troubling, his form this season is improving massively and it's just one of those things, it happens.

Complete domination by England. Difficult to fault them since the restart.

 

[Auwais]

Thanks for the memories, Sanath...

 

[sifter132]

England continue their ODI tradition of naming a slow scoring opening batsman who is not worth his place in the team as captain.
If he finishes his career with an average of 30.00 and a strike rate of 66.67 it will be judged a "success".
If he finishes his career with an average of 29.99 and a strike rate of 66.65 he will join Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton (and probably Mike Brearley and even Chris Tavare) as a long list of failures who have given their team almost no chance of ever winning a World Cup (not they ever had one anyway).
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
The best thing he can do to improve his team's chances of winning is to get out once he has reached 40 and the powerplay overs are finished and hitting boundaries becomes beyond feeble batsmen with no hitting power.

Haha - yes that's true. As an Aussie it goes against everything we are taught: you pick your captain AFTER you pick your XI. Giving Cook a free pass into the ODI team just because he's the captain seems dumb. And particularly since he's not a proven ODI player. He might turn into a solid one like Strauss, but it just sends a bad message.

This is one really strong looking England ODI lineup, hope they don't alter this balanced side often. Though I sort of fear the batting depth especially when you have Bresnan at #7.

I like the balance too. 5 good bowling options is always good. If Bresnan is their best all-rounder then there's not much more that can be done with the selection. You pick your best all-rounder and balance your team around it. Who's the competition? Bopara? Patel? Wright? I think I like Bresnan.

 

[War]

Haha - yes that's true. As an Aussie it goes against everything we are taught: you pick your captain AFTER you pick your XI. Giving Cook a free pass into the ODI team just because he's the captain seems dumb. And particularly since he's not a proven ODI player. He might turn into a solid one like Strauss, but it just sends a bad message.

I think you would find that most English fans & erudite sports reporters didn't support Cook becomign ODI captain. Most like myself reckon it should be young Alex Hales opening with Kieswetter currently with Swann the ODI captain.

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Not necessarily. International T20 has no prestige, the World Cup is the only time anyone is bothered.

I'd rather be resting my main players for your ODIs and Tests.

The prestige will build overtime. After we still very much in the infant stages of T20 cricket international, just as the case was with ODIs in the late 70s & early 80s.

Secondly if you care so little for T20, i presume deep down you dont think having a T20 world-cup makes sense either. Since surely you must agree it not smart cricket sense to have a world tournament for a format of cricket every two years, when in essence the majority of teams in between world cups, dont play enough T20s to build proper team chemistry, tactics etc. As they do in 50 overs WCs?.

Enough of him to know he shouldn't be near the England setup considering there is a long list of better younger players ahead of him with a brighter future.

Long list?. I dont know anything about that my friend.

If you want talk about young players who could potentially do his role long term, it just Bresnan & Woakes.

Bresnan is established now & was always going to start in the ODI setup. But Napier at this stage is more advanced version of Woakes.

But at the same time i'd still have Woakes in the ODI set-up, but their is no way Dernbach is better ODI/T20 option than Napier currently.

 

[Owzat]

Can and will. It is hit and giggle cricket and always will be.

I agree. Any proper tournament* England can win has to be seriously questionable

*doesn't include series with less than five teams in it


Bit surprised Sri Lanka chose to field, would have thought scoring a big total and defending it would have been the best way for either side to win.

England got five bowlers in the side, I guess they might get away with Bresnan at seven, Broad at eight and Swann at nine.

Have to laugh at the headline for this match "Anderson stars", "Anderson inspires England victory" etc He bowled well, but considering England set a target of 7.15 rpo over 32 overs the Sri Lankans were always under pressure. England didn't really accelerate later in the innings, but were consistently around the 6.7 rpo mark from the 15th over onwards.

And just look at some of Anderson's wickets - Dilshan out to a leg side delivery, Sangakkara too early on his shot, Kulasekera hits it softly to mid-on. While Anderson may take some credit for build up, delivery etc, the batsmen contributed to their own dismissal with not very good shots.

Did England bat well? Yet, but Sri Lanka didn't bowl too well. Did England bowl well? Yes, but Sri Lanka again didn't bat too well. England aren't consistent enough, they'll have good days like yesterday, but when it gets down to it they don't have the ability to win enough of the games that are there to be won - falling away from 281/2 against India in the World Cup, conceding 218 runs for the loss of only two futher wickets to lose against Ireland having had them 111/5, losing to Bangladesh having had them 169/8 needing another 57 runs to win - and that's just when England were in the match. When England struggle to get in the game they REALLY struggle.

Previous time we played Sri Lanka in an ODI was equally one sided, they waltzed home with TEN wickets to spare for what I'd say surely has to be THE most humiliating World Cup defeat of all time. There have been shocks, but this was a quarter-final between two Test nations and one made 229/6 while the other made 231/0 with over 10 overs to spare.