Sri Lanka in England/Netherlands

[BigCrickNan]

Batting is also collapsing, this is a disgrace. GoJo will have to do something great, which i highly doubt he will. I'm expecting a Sri Lankan whitewash.,.

 

[Sureshot]

For gods sake Geraint, if you're going to go for a shot put something into it, don't just chip it down long ons throat.

Get this heap of shite our of our team.

The English bowling attack is looking completely out of sorts in ODI cricket .
After the 5-1 thrashing in India and 4-1 in Pakistan, I expected them to be better at home (English weather being cooler than the ones in India and Pakistan)
I don`t think you have a great chance of winning with 2 spinners on English tracks against Asian teams.
England have to sort their troubles now before it is too late for the mega event next year.
Bringing in Jimmie Anderson.Goughie or Kabir Ali would help, maybe.
He is certainly a wickettaker.
Plunkett has done absolutely nothing to deserve a place in the side after last winter`s ODI performances.

Sri Lanka, however have turned things on dramatically after the 6-1 defeat in India and 4-1 in NZ to register impressive performances in the VB series and now here.
Pakistan will be a lot lot tougher and England will be the underdogs in that series.

It is high tim England now begin to take cricket other than th Ashes series as seriously as the Ashes (especially the ODIs)
ODI teams all over th world are now as competitive as they were ever before.
India,Pakistan,SRL,SA,NZ all possess the ability to win the world cup and now even the Windies have showed improvement in the recent series.

Anderson broke a vertabrate so isn't a option.

The slower English bowlers have been the most succesful (JD and Colly).

And we do take all cricket seriously, but it is difficult when you have to change your team every other game, and don't say it doesn't matter, the great teams never change as often as we have had too since the Ashes.

We also always up our performances for Australia, as it's a big rivalry.

 

[sachin]

Well i haven't kept up to dat with whats been happening lately in English cricket,but half your team doesn't seem to be playing!The wicket of Struass was where it really started to go downhill.I don't think anyone will turn up to the game at Old Trafford becuase England take on Portugal ata 4:00.Though they will have highlights on the big screen and if theres ectra time and penalties it will be shown live.

 

[ZexyZahid]

And England lost again. : It seems that the good old times are coming back. Dalrymple has been the greatest find so far. And I do hope the injured players will recover soon, since they've a got series to play against Pakistan.

 

[evertonfan]

Well played Sri Lanka! (again!) On the whole, I think England batted well today but the luck wasn't with them. For example; The openers made an excellent start,but instead of losing just the one settled opener, we lost both in quick succession, leaving Strauss and Bell needing to bed themselves in instead of further attacking the SL bowling. This happened again when Strauss got out; He and Bell put on a decent stand to put England right in the game, but Strauss' dismissal also brought Bell's freakish dissmissal with it. I felt this was Solanki's last chance, and as usual, he didn't take that chance as he played a trademark Solanki shot. For once, the tail contributed and made our final score a lot more respectable. Plunkett finally showed what he can do with the willow, and Dalrymple played another good innings, and he looks a very handy batsman in ODI's and maybe even tests, considering he can turn his arm over too. Overall, the bowling was still pathetic, but this batting performance has made this ODI defeat the least depressing of the series.

As for GoJo's critiscism; He came to the crease with a required run rate of over 10, and he injected a bit of spark into he innings. I have a feeling that people on this board would still be critiscising him even he had been clean bowled by a beauty.

 

[m_vaughan]

And England lost again. : It seems that the good old times are coming back. Dalrymple has been the greatest find so far. And I do hope the injured players will recover soon, since they've a got series to play against Pakistan.

Not just play. A series to win against Pakistan. How many more can we afford to lose?

 

[Sureshot]

Well played Sri Lanka! (again!) On the whole, I think England batted well today but the luck wasn't with them. For example; The openers made an excellent start,but instead of losing just the one settled opener, we lost both in quick succession, leaving Strauss and Bell needing to bed themselves in instead of further attacking the SL bowling. This happened again when Strauss got out; He and Bell put on a decent stand to put England right in the game, but Strauss' dismissal also brought Bell's freakish dissmissal with it. I felt this was Solanki's last chance, and as usual, he didn't take that chance as he played a trademark Solanki shot. For once, the tail contributed and made our final score a lot more respectable. Plunkett finally showed what he can do with the willow, and Dalrymple played another good innings, and he looks a very handy batsman in ODI's and maybe even tests, considering he can turn his arm over too. Overall, the bowling was still pathetic, but this batting performance has made this ODI defeat the least depressing of the series.

As for GoJo's critiscism; He came to the crease with a required run rate of over 10, and he injected a bit of spark into he innings. I have a feeling that people on this board would still be critiscising him even he had been clean bowled by a beauty.

And in 2 years as our Batsman/Keeper what has he done to deserve it?

1 hundred, and a couple of good ODI 50s?

Matt Prior is better, his record says so, he also keeps to the best spinner on the county circuit and he does it very well.

GoJo is a poor keeper to spinners.

 

[Gilchrist]

Prior didn't do much in the ODI Series against Pakistan, mainly used as a pinch hitter.

 

[irottev]

Kabir Ali's death bowling was disgraceful. Take that away and some of those excessive amoutns of wides and England could of gotten home.

Sri Lanka again, got the hundred and put a big score on the board. Sri Lanka have had four games for four hundreds. England 4 games for none. Thats a major problem. I am going to say Trescothick played a silly shot to get out. The runrate was going well. Then Cook was a little unfortonatly, forgivable. Strauss should have gone on. Its been a while since hes made a big one. So I would say he needed to be the one to step up.

The Bell stumping was pretty funny. Unfortonate really. Dalrymple played very well, the only good thing to come out of the series for England.

Plunkett probably did enough to keep his place again. He came back pretty well and batted well. Gave England an unlikly sniff. Bresnan was poor again, Kabir Ali was dreadful. Maybe he should be given a second chance. Those beamers and fulltossers at the death were bad. No excuses for that.

Sri Lankan spinners did damn well. Sri Lanka have totally outplayed England again with bat and ball.

 

[jdbais]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but if England lose the next match, they will drop to eighth in the ICC ODI rankings behind the West Indies. Some indication of just how bad England's ODI side are at the moment.

 

[Englishandproud]

I no everyone keeps harpen on about injuries, but as stated in a good article in the Daily Mail yesterday Fletcher at the curent time has only 4 maybe 5 of the side playing now that are due to play in the world cup with the rest being out injured.

However it does show how weak we are in reserve.

 

[irottev]

The amount of crucial injuries you guys have is definatly a huge factor. I agree totally, England don't have much backup.

 

[ZexyZahid]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but if England lose the next match, they will drop to eighth in the ICC ODI rankings behind the West Indies. Some indication of just how bad England's ODI side are at the moment.

Didn't know that. Thanks for mentioning it.

 

[Gilchrist]

Andrew Flintoff is doubtful of being fit for the first Test against Pakistan beginning July 13 at Lord's, with recurring pain in his injured left ankle.

Flintoff had been out of the one-day series against Sri Lanka and specialists feel that there might be floating bone particles in the ankle that are causing the pain.

"There is scar tissue in there and whether the bone fragments were the result of the operation or were already in there, we don't know," Flintoff told Sky Sports. "We will have another look in two weeks and see where we are."

Though unlikely to play the first Test, Flintoff was optimistic about recovery. "I am not running at the moment, I am doing a lot of cycling. I am doing things that don't cause pain and trying to tick over.


Andrew Flintoff doubtful for the first Test.

 

[Stephen Bailey]

It is high tim England now begin to take cricket other than th Ashes series as seriously as the Ashes (especially the ODIs)
ODI teams all over th world are now as competitive as they were ever before.
India,Pakistan,SRL,SA,NZ all possess the ability to win the world cup and now even the Windies have showed improvement in the recent series.

These sort of comments are really starting to get on my nerves. How the hell do we compete when over half our first choice ODI side is injured? This was the case in the last match.

Players missing in the last match:
Vaughan (not the best batsman but he is the captain)
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Simon Jones
Anderson
Giles/Blackwell

This would probably be the first choice side in the selectors eyes (yesterday's in brackets):
Trescothick
Strauss (c)
Vaughan c (Cook)
Pietersen (Bell)
Collingwood (Solanki)
Flintoff (Dalrymple)
G Jones
Giles/Blackwell (Bresnan)
S Jones (Plunkett)
Harmison
Anderson (Kabir Ali)

Jamie Dalrymple is the only one who has even looked close to being able to contribute something to the side. He's bowled brilliantly and batted extremely well considering the situation has been just about hopeless every time he has come to the crease. Other than him it's not good.

Bresnan isn't good enough, Solanki isn't good enough, Bell scores too slowly, Plunkett has been smashable (series econ. rate is 6.68) but came back well yesterday and Kabir Ali is far too unpredictable and arguably cost us the game with that last over.

Sooner some people realise the injuries are not an excuse and are a massive reason why England aren't at the level we'd like to see them at the better.

Just to finish off, do you really think the players enjoy getting thrashed? Do you think the fans like seeing their side getting thrashed? Answering these questions should show how ridiculous it is saying the Ashes is all we care about.