Sri Lanka in England/Netherlands

[Sureshot]

Read is a better keeper and now probably batsman.

Read>Jones.

---------

Off that debate.

Plunkett finally rewarded for his splendid bowling, and KP produced one of the most exhilerating test innings I've seen.

Cook's solidity kept us together for the second innings.

 

[irottev]

Congrats England.

Sri Lanka just can't pull their first innings together.

Plunkett impressed me again. Getting out the lower order fast is important. The batting was a little dissapointing i nthe fourth innings, but they got there in the end.

 

[Sureshot]

Yeh, Strauss was very unlucky though.

Murali's sheer genius got him Tres and KP.

 

[gary0808]

England have pulled off a very satisfying win due to fantastic bowling on Day 1 and the brilliance of Kevin Pietersen.

Murali really does seem to carry the Lankans. Without him they would struggle to compete with Bangladesh. Plunkett was excellent.

Trescothick-5
Strauss-6
Cook-6
Pietersen-9
Collingwood-7
Flintoff(c)-7
Jones(wk)-4
Plunkett-8
Hoggard-8
Mahmmod-6
Panesar-6

I would play the same team at Trent Bridge except maybe Harmison in for Sajid Mahmood who hasn't impressed me at International level.

 

[Sureshot]

Panesar 6?

He bowled very well imo.

What did Jones do to deserve 4?

Ok, one half chance drop and a stupid shot.

Cook held it together very well imo, 8 for him.

 

[Yorkshire_No1]

Mahmood would get a 4 for me. I havn't been impressed by him too much but they havn't called up Harmison for the final test so he's got one more chance to shine. Plunkett on the other hand has bowled really well

 

[wolf]

England squad: A Flintoff (capt), M Trescothick, A Strauss, A Cook, K Pietersen, P Collingwood, G Jones (wkt), L Plunkett, M Hoggard, S Mahmood, M Panesar, J Lewis.

 

[evertonfan]

Well if England wanted a keeper who could bat how come Trescothick didn't stay on as keeper?

Good point! That might not be such a bad idea! I always have Tresco as a keeper on ICC, it allows me to be play an extra batsman, seamer or spinner. Although a computer game can hardly be called a good reference can it?

P.S: Gutted once again that Harmy won't be playing, but maybe it's better in the long term to keep him fresh. Also good to see Vaughan back playing and amongst the runs, just don't rush him back like last time England!!

 

[Sureshot]

Tres is a brilliant slip fielder, we don't want to weaken that area.

Chris Read is good enough batsman now imo.

Infact in ODIs he should have never been dropped.

 

[gary0808]

Panesar 6?

He bowled very well imo.

What did Jones do to deserve 4?

Ok, one half chance drop and a stupid shot.

Cook held it together very well imo, 8 for him.

Panesar got a 6 due to lazy fielding, bad batting and also some good bowling. He did bowl well but overall Panesar should get a six.

Jones got a 4 because he got 4 runs and for a batsman of his quality he should have added more runs. We needed our No. 7 to have a good knock. He wasn't up to the task.

Cook did do well in the secoond innings and batted nicely. I would have given him a seven if he picked Murali but he seemed to struggle with the doosra. I never felt confident when Cook was batting vs Murali.

 

[puddleduck]

Why would we want Tresco to keep? As a reference take Alec Stewart. Averaged over 40 with the bat as an opener, averaged around 35 by the end of his career once he took over the gloves.

Tresco is one of our most consistent performers with the bat, and as Sureshot said the best slip fielder we have. To have him trying to balance both keeping and opening the batting could be highly detrimental to his game, and considering his importance as opener over the last 4 years, that would be a massive gamble to take.

Not to mention that as a keeper, he is almost certainly not as good as Geraint Jones. If he was, that would reflect extremely poorly on Jones considering Tresco is a part-time keeper.

For me Geraint needs to produce consistently with the gloves for the rest of this series v Sri Lanka, and since he will play against Pakistan barring injury, for that tour as well. He has a tendency to have a good game, and then follow it up with a poor game. If he can average over 30 with the bat again that would be nice too, but at the least he has to start being consistent with the gloves, at the most refind some form with the bat.

 

[evertonfan]

Why would we want Tresco to keep? As a reference take Alec Stewart. Averaged over 40 with the bat as an opener, averaged around 35 by the end of his career once he took over the gloves.

Tresco is one of our most consistent performers with the bat, and as Sureshot said the best slip fielder we have. To have him trying to balance both keeping and opening the batting could be highly detrimental to his game, and considering his importance as opener over the last 4 years, that would be a massive gamble to take.

Not to mention that as a keeper, he is almost certainly not as good as Geraint Jones. If he was, that would reflect extremely poorly on Jones considering Tresco is a part-time keeper.

For me Geraint needs to produce consistently with the gloves for the rest of this series v Sri Lanka, and since he will play against Pakistan barring injury, for that tour as well. He has a tendency to have a good game, and then follow it up with a poor game. If he can average over 30 with the bat again that would be nice too, but at the least he has to start being consistent with the gloves, at the most refind some form with the bat.

Forgive my optimistic faithfulness to my first choice keeper, but Geraint's last 100 was in 2004, so another must be due soon. Also, he seems to conjure up a classy performance whenever he is in for some stick. For example at the Natwest final last year, many people were saying that he wouldn't make the ashes; he followed this up by scoring a match saving 80. During the ashes he was again being called for the axe, and on Chris Read's homeground, he contributed 85 to a potentially match-winning partnership with Flintoff. In India, he was again up for criticism so he took 5 stunning catches in a match winning cause. Although Jones doesn't perfrom consistentley with the bat, the potential for a good innings is always there, whereas with Read, it wasn't.

 

[irottev]

Panesar would be 7 at most for me. Id say gary's scores were very reasonable.

 

[Sureshot]

Panesar got a 6 due to lazy fielding, bad batting and also some good bowling. He did bowl well but overall Panesar should get a six.

Jones got a 4 because he got 4 runs and for a batsman of his quality he should have added more runs. We needed our No. 7 to have a good knock. He wasn't up to the task.

Cook did do well in the secoond innings and batted nicely. I would have given him a seven if he picked Murali but he seemed to struggle with the doosra. I never felt confident when Cook was batting vs Murali.

He's a flipping bowler, you can't rate him on his batting.

KP 4

His bowling was dire

 

[BigCrickNan]

What did Jones do to deserve 4?

Ok, one half chance drop and a stupid shot.

I agree, GoJo was part of a big collapse and was batting with the tail, he had to take more risks. Also his Wicket keeping was pretty good.