England Outclassed Twice
Get ready for another happy posting from me! After the success of the Twenty20 series our hopes were raised that things were moving in the right direction. However those thoughts have come crashing down on a slope steeper than the one I suggested New Zealand were on in my previous post (oops!).
Each of the first two games were compounded by one main thing - the complete inability to build an innings as a team and set a target which would test the Kiwi’s. In the first game, the pitch caught us out a bit, but these guys are professional and must have a plan of where the runs are going to come from. You know that players like Oram and Styris are going to bowl wicket to wicket, so the top order guys must know how they are going to counter that by using the crease, attacking at the right times etc. They didn’t do that, the run rate got completely stifled and players got out to bad shots. Not forgetting the fact that we had three run outs as well! At least with the ball we got a few wickets and showed a bit of fight - Stuart Broad in particular, but we were never going to win with the runs on the board. The areas we were bowling in weren’t quite right, but the Kiwi’s came out and showed how to bat aggressively in a one day game and taught us a lesson.
We didn’t learn though, and the second ODI was just plain embarrassing. Luckily I won’t be in this evening to see the “highlights” , but I saw the end of the game this morning and I’m just so frustrated that the team which looked so good a week or so ago now looks like its forgotten how to play. This game was even worse than the first one, with the bowlers taking a tanking as well. Admittedly they didn’t have much to defend, but they seemed to try and bowl shorter and shorter, which just meant getting dispatched further into the crowd by McMillan and Rob Key’s fatter brother Jesse Ryder! A couple of dropped catches, a missed chance or two for direct hit run outs just compounded the fact that it was a shockingly bad day at the office.
I don’t know where we go from here - after the first game there was already talk about shifting the team around a bit but the selectors resisted the urge but the team needs a bit of a shake up after this. Quite why Ravi Bop continued to play though is a complete mystery to me when Dimi played well in the Twenty20 and Ravi didn’t even bowl in the ODI’s following.
Then remember to bowl in one day mode -” keeping things tight and put the pressure on the batsman would be a start. Then the main thing is the batsmen need to step up to the plate - in particular KP needs to justify his billing as a world class player and now would be a damn good time to show that class. Its not that different out there to UK conditions, so why we appear to play like a bunch of numpties I do not know.
Anyway, I promised a happy posting and here comes the happy bit; We can do it, we can beat them. Just for some reason at the moment its not happening and the Coach and Skipper are the ones that need to start turning it around.
England in Series win!
Just two games in and England have already won a series in NZ! Ok, so it was only the twenty20 2 game series but it is still a series! I didn’t see any of the first game, and have yet to watch the highlights of the second, but the overwhelming feeling I’m getting is the Kiwi’s are on a step hill, one of the downhill variety.
They’ve lost so many key players in the past few weeks and months, ones that they could rely on to provide the goods whilst the rest of the players quietly have an impact on the game despite not being the ’star’ players. We should have won the series like we did, and we should win the upcoming series now having seen what we are up against, but that is by no means a certainty.
I can’t really go into individual performances having not seen the games, but lets hope it will put us on a decent platform for the upcoming ODI’s! If you have seen the games and have a quick opinion about any player’s performance stick it in the comments section and let me know what I’ve missed!
England in NZ
I’m glad to say that come Tuesday, England will be back in live action - its felt like ages since we last had a result to care about and I’ve been watching bits of Australian and South African series, but there is nothing quite like having an England result to talk about!
We start off with a Twenty20 game followed by some ODI’s, and for once our team is looking ok (yes I really did say that). There is a decent bit of competition for places and in the warm up games there are a few people scoring runs and taking wickets which bodes well. Its true to say that NZ are really struggling for players, with some out injured like Vettori - and their star bowler Shane Bond being unable to play due to signing up to the rebel Indian Cricket League. And when the test matches come around Styris won’t be playing either as he has decided to concentrate on the ODI’s.
I’m actually away this week for a bit so I’ll more than likely miss the first game and I won’t be able to post, but if I get the chance I will!
So all in all, its a tour we should come away from with some positive results, and if we don’t then there will be some people held accountable, but I’m not going to be too downbeat unless that happens!
I’ve signed up for a fantasy league thing at cricinfo based on the above series - its free to enter if you fancy your chances! I’ll let you know how well I get on!
P.S A couple of days ago on the 1st Feb, this blog became one year old! Hopefully you’ve enjoyed it for however long you’ve been reading and I hope that it goes from strength to strengh!
England win series in Sri Lanka shocker
To be honest I’m quite stumped by the latest turn of events today. I never once expected to be writing this post, and I still can’t believe it, England have won the one day series in Sri Lanka with a game to spare!! The way that we have played over the past few years you really wouldn’t have put money on this happening against most of the teams in the international arena, let alone one of the very best - and in their back yard!
I havn’t seen the highlights of today’s game yet (thanks to that thing called work), but it looks like a good performance with first ball then bat has cemented this historic occasion. There’s a couple of pleasing things from an England point of view, and the first of those is the settled side we’ve played. For so many years we’ve chopped and changed our team from one game to the next, which not only made us feel a bit uneasy as fans, but couldn’t do much to help the players know what they’re position is in the team. The second pleasing thing is the fact that the runs and wickets have been shared around the team. KP hasn’t had the greatest series, yet he scores over 60 today. Jimmy Anderson doesn’t take any wickets in the previous game, but takes 3 today - I think it all helps to show that they are playing well together as a “team” and for how long have we wanted that?!
I hope they don’t change the team for the final game unless there are injuries - another good performance from the same 11 will definately keep the positive vibe going for the future, and dropping anyone right now would seem a harsh thing to do anyway.
Its too early to say what has been the number one reason for this turn around in form - captain, head coach, coaching team etc etc. Lets just enjoy the fact we’ve beaten Sri Lanka and worry about that another day!
For those of you who want to say we only won because Murali didn’t play…… just don’t ok - I’m feeling positive for once!
England Cricket Team - Jekyll and Hyde
After the first two one-dayers between England and Sri Lanka, we have yet again shown how one day we can make everyone wonder why we watch them, to thinking we are world beaters.
I think we should first actually take a quick step back and look at our opposition. Sri Lanka were runners up in the “real” World Cup back earlier in the year, and they fully deserved that spot. And the last time they were over here they battered us, so taking them on in their own back yard was never going to be easy. Hence I wasn’t very surprised when we lost the first game, but I was very surprised when today we beat them!
Both the games have been won by the team winning the toss and batting first, so it seems that chasing under lights isn’t easy on the slow pitches of Sri Lanka. The team looks ok when winning, with someone coming to the front with the bat, and four bowlers taking 2 wickets each, but when we lose we look toothless. I suppose though that we are getting on the right track with at least winning a game or two - we won’t become world beaters overnight.
Swann had a good game today and showed why he was brought in instead of Monty, with vital runs and some good wicket taking balls - There is now the inevitible talk of whether he’ll stay on in Sri Lanla with the test team or not. I see no reason why not - he seems to know his game and we could always play two spinners. We won’t have Freddie in the team (out until next year), so we’ll have to do a bit of fiddling around with the team anyway. But that is a few weeks away- lets worry about the one day format at the moment - will the run of form be bad-good-bad?!
