West Indies in England

[RoboRocks]

Dunno Ben, Soft dismissel from Prior that pegs Duckworth Lewis back a bit and West Indies look favorite from here.
England need a 100 partnership for me.
West Indies won't feel safe until Collingwood and Shah are out.

Well Collingwood is out, thats a big one for the West Indies.
I don't see Yardy or Mascarahas contributing to 100 partnership.

 

[angryangy]

Cook's batting is almost too technically correct and perfect for ODI's. He's playing how he always plays, but he just cannot find a gap for a single. It's fine in Test Cricket because the fields are either very attacking, with a lot of gaps, or defensive with sweepers leaving gaps. But in ODI's there's more enfisise on plugging gaps. Cook's struggling to find the gaps.

Mind you, if he ends up a 100 from 110 balls I'm not going to complain, even if he is 5 from 20 or something like that at the start.

Don't think too hard, I'm sure that's the advice he gets. He's still doing pretty good, he's just not Jayasuriya... yet. Let him work. Chanderpaul has a time honed skill. Don't go comparing him.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Dunno Ben, Soft dismissel from Prior that pegs Duckworth Lewis back a bit and West Indies look favorite from here.
England need a 100 partnership for me.
West Indies won't feel safe until Collingwood and Shah are out.

Well Collingwood is out, thats a big one for the West Indies/
I don't see Yardy or Mascarahas contributing to 100 partnership.

Colly is gone and now Windies can relax a bit

 

[Leicester Fox]

If Yardy doesn't win us this game then i say we feed him to Leverock so he can never play for England again, maybe thats harsh but he's average with bat and ball. We're never going to go anywhere unless we pick the players who can win us matches, Yardy won't, he might just make a contribution though

 

[angryangy]

If Yardy doesn't win us this game then i say we feed him to Leverock so he can never play for England again, maybe thats harsh but he's average with bat and ball. We're never going to go anywhere unless we pick the players who can win us matches, Yardy won't, he might just make a contribution though

Fershizzle. It's not about picking a hundred all-rounders, it's about picking blokes that do one thing really well and still fight with their teeth to do the other.

Fair enough that Macarena (yeah) bowled a good spell, but what about the spinner? South Africa suffer the fait of being a team that relies on replicated pace. Surely Panesar is not the product of such as system. Surely he offers options and ideas, the greatest weapon a captain can have.

At the same time, I query (as ever, everyone does) what the Windies are doing. Why Rampaul? Why not Taylor or Sammy? Sammy definitely shows the fight, both at bat and at bowl. Taylor may not be as resilient, but is full of potency. Great to see Samuels do some real work, work which restores ones' faith, but Smith's out wasn't one that should be regarded as a silly shot, rather, poor commitment. That was a ball that should have gone. It's not easy to breath confidence in from nothing, but somehow they need to somehow get more of it.

 

[Will_NA]

It's fo' shizzle

Could we actually win this?

EDIT: Yardy gone

 

[RoboRocks]

Shah's gone too and it down to 9,10,jack and the battle of the muppets is going to a decider.

 

[Animator!]

Mascharenhas is a good bowler. Showed today why he'll be benefical for us. He's a reliable bowler, just what we need. Somebody to bowl 10 overs every game for around 30-40 runs without every really getting slapped about. Whether he takes wickets is a neccesity after that. Broad, Plunkett and Andersen are all wicket taking bowlers and so they should work well with him and his tight spells.

However Dimi is far from an all-rounder. He is a bowler who can bat decently at County level, but batting at International is a large set-up and so I'd reckon he wouldn't be able to be anything more than a useful number 8. Which means we really should have included Ravi in our squad, even if he was to miss the 20/20's and the first ODI, I feel his selection would have held more of a purpose than that of Yardy.

Ideally the ODI atm would be;
Cook
Prior
Bell
Pietersen
Shah
Collingwood
Bopara
Mascherenhas.
Plunkett.
Andersen.
Panesar.

Collingwood seems happy to bowl himself and so he can share 10 overs with Ravi or even Bell or KP, if it's a turning pitch. When Flintoff gets fit and in form it makes the outfit look a whole lot better balanced.

 

[Leicester Fox]

When Flintoff gets back our side will look strong, it will make the batting extremely flexible with people being able to move dependant upon the situation. Looks like we've lost, not a bad game for Broady though Shows that theres still work needed to be done but I think we're improving enough and showing enough character to come back and win the next game.

 

[Animator!]

Personally, I though Broad bowled very well at the end. Good ball to get rid of Samuels, it was a good bit of thinking. Should have had Chanderpaul as well, with another smart piece of bowling.

Futures bright, considering he's very good in the field for someone as Tall and a bowler and can hold a bat. Hopefully he'll kick on in the way we all want him to.

 

[Skater]

Personally, I though Broad bowled very well at the end. Good ball to get rid of Samuels, it was a good bit of thinking. Should have had Chanderpaul as well, with another smart piece of bowling.

Futures bright, considering he's very good in the field for someone as Tall and a bowler and can hold a bat. Hopefully he'll kick on in the way we all want him to.

He can certainly hold a bat - 22 not out today!

 

[RoboRocks]

He looked good out there, his dad liked to punch the ball through the offside so he has some of his father's batting genes.

 

[Animator!]

Yeah, you have to remember he was going to be Leicestershire's next young opening bat until his Bowling took off.

 

[Sureshot]

Mascharenhas is a good bowler. Showed today why he'll be benefical for us. He's a reliable bowler, just what we need. Somebody to bowl 10 overs every game for around 30-40 runs without every really getting slapped about. Whether he takes wickets is a neccesity after that. Broad, Plunkett and Andersen are all wicket taking bowlers and so they should work well with him and his tight spells.

However Dimi is far from an all-rounder. He is a bowler who can bat decently at County level, but batting at International is a large set-up and so I'd reckon he wouldn't be able to be anything more than a useful number 8. Which means we really should have included Ravi in our squad, even if he was to miss the 20/20's and the first ODI, I feel his selection would have held more of a purpose than that of Yardy.

Ideally the ODI atm would be;
Cook
Prior
Bell
Pietersen
Shah
Collingwood
Bopara
Mascherenhas.
Plunkett.
Andersen.
Panesar.

Collingwood seems happy to bowl himself and so he can share 10 overs with Ravi or even Bell or KP, if it's a turning pitch. When Flintoff gets fit and in form it makes the outfit look a whole lot better balanced.

Broad in for Plunkett.

---

On the game. I saw bits and bobs of it as I was looking after my nephews today, of what I saw though.....

Mascarenhas and Broad were the pick of the bowlers whilst Anderson really struggled to pitch the ball at the end. That pitch was never a 278 pitch maybe 240 at most. The batting struggled but then like I say that wasn't a 278 pitch. Prior did well but got out to a poor shot. Shah could arguably go up the order. How about Bell and Prior open, Shah at 3 and Bopara in for Cook?

Yardy did look out of his depth, it's odd though as his batting is normally reliable for us, he looks nervous. Probably should be dropped, as Ravi is fit he should come in for Saturday, doubt he will though.

I am slightly worried about KP atm, he seems to have dipped in form a little of late. The WIndies did well but we didn't do ourselves any favours. Also, jerling made a shocker on Bells dismissal, never looked out, never was out. I could have put a stump at the crease and the ball would still have gone over it.

Makes Saturday interesting, hopefully we can win the series.

 

[pest]

Tell me guys is this the son of Chris. Broad looks a good bowler still young and lots of room for improvement. Chandrepaul should be given some sort of award from the Indies for the no. of times he has come to their rescue.