General Cricket (not the chirpy kind) Discussion Thread

[Liventia]

11 am. Come back from work, head to bed with TMS on.
2 pm. Wake up and hear that they're in a rain break.
5 pm. Vaguely hear Geoffrey Boycott's voice on the radio (he's not summarising this Test, only doing end of day). Put it down to another rain break.
5:50 pm. Hear that TMS has gone off air. Realise the Test is over.

[Aryavartha]

just pathetic...

what a dreadful show from india. they should just jump into the thames or whatever there and drown.

[KoloToure]

That really was an embarrassing collapse.

And now we've got to wait 8 months to see if England are actually any good at Tests or if India were just really, really shite.

[Goram]

That really was an embarrassing collapse.

And now we've got to wait 8 months to see if England are actually any good at Tests or if India were just really, really shite.

England were decent. India were really, really shite. I'm optimistic for the future. Root, Ballance and Buttler all look to be the real deal.

But just in case, I've got this on ice.

[Liventia]

Lancashire, needing 107 in the final innings to beat Durham, collapse to 90/9 before winning with two balls to spare to climb out of the relegation zone.

England ODI squad:
AN Cook (c), JM Anderson, GS Ballance, IR Bell, JC Buttler (wk), ST Finn, HF Gurney, AD Hales, CJ Jordan, MM Ali, EJG Morgan, JE Root, BA Stokes, JC Tredwell, CR Woakes

Bopara dropped.

[Uitbregen]

Missing a trick not selecting Jason Roy. And perhaps James Taylor.

[Uitbregen]

Bloody hell, Alex Hales can bat!

[Liventia]

Warwickshire Bears post 194/4 in their T20 semi-final innings against Surrey, who have raised their 50 in 3.4 overs in response. Hants v Lancs the second semi later.

[Liventia]

English T20 Blast Finals Day at Edgbaston:

Semifinals:
Warwickshire 194/4 (Porterfield 81*) beat Surrey 178/7 (Roy 58) by 16 runs
Lancashire 160/5 (Prince 72*, Brown 41, Smith 3/15) beat Hampshire 101 (Adams 53) by 41 runs (D/L)

Final:
Warwickshire 181/5 (Evans 53) beat Lancashire 177/8 (Brown 55, Hannon-Dolby 3/31) by four runs
*Flintoff 1/20 and 20* (8)

[Uitbregen]

Demean Ramdin and Darren Bravo have set the world record for the 3rd Wicket in ODIs, currently 252*, against Bangladesh in Saint Kitts. They beat AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla's record of 238.

[Uitbregen]

Both England and India's bowling line-ups are horrendous. Stokes, Woakes and Jordan? Sure they can all bat, but I wouldn't call any of them an out-and-out seam bowlers. Plus Tredwell, who's an average spinner, but the best England have got ATM.

EDIT: Well, India are 19-2, Kohli gets a third ball duck, both wickets to Woakes.

[Uitbregen]

5 wides in an over from Chris Jordan, just not good enough.

[Aryavartha]

the manner of the test defeats still hurt,

but ODI is a different ball game and india showed that today.

Raina continues his blistering form. that 25 ball 87 in ipl semi vs Punjab was some amazing hitting.

[Liventia]

Prosper Utseya takes a five-for, including a hat-trick, as Zimbabwe bowl South Africa out for the second game in a row. However, SA still managed a 61-run win. Rilee Rossouw has faced two balls in ODIs and made two ducks.

[Uitbregen]

Steven Finn is marking out his run-up, which means he is almost certainly playing, which is good to see.

[Uitbregen]

Well, that was terrible.

If England are going to have any chance, Cook and Bell have to go, they just knock it about, get out, and put pressure on others. We need to follow other teams like Australia and New Zealand who have power all through their line-up, as opposed to power at 2 and 7.

My squad for the WC in Australia + New Zealand: 1. Hales, 2. Vince, 3. J. Taylor, 4. Root, 5. Morgan (c), 6. Roy, 7. Buttler (wk), 8. Woakes, 9. Broad, 10. Anderson, 11. Finn

12. Bopara, 13. Moeen Ali, 14. Ballance, 15. Ravi Patel, 16. Gurney

That's a strong line-up which teams will fear. No-one is scared of Bell or Tredwell.

[Liventia]

Jason Roy called up to England squad for T20s v India, then retires hurt for Surrey v New Zealand. No fracture shown in x-ray.

Meanwhile…
Zimbabwe 211/7 have beaten Australia 209/9 by 3 wickets in an ODI, for just the second time ever. First time in 31 years.

[Goram]

Jason Roy called up to England squad for T20s v India, then retires hurt for Surrey v New Zealand. No fracture shown in x-ray.

Meanwhile…
Zimbabwe 211/7 have beaten Australia 209/9 by 3 wickets in an ODI, for just the second time ever. First time in 31 years.

The party is on in Harare then?

[Goram]

I'm seriously beginning to wonder why we even bother playing ODI cricket.

[Uitbregen]

Good. At least the scale of the defeat will show Cook and the selectors that we need to change.

[Goram]

Good. At least the scale of the defeat will show Cook and the selectors that we need to change.

Yeah, but this is England. They won't change until just after an early World Cup exit. At which point, they'll all trot out almost exactly what Swann said a few days ago.

[Aryavartha]

england seems to have just given up on ODIs. their style of play is 90s..that too early 90s, before jayasurya and kaluwitharana showed how it can be done.

it is funny how england : India = tests : ODI.

while personally i prefer test wins over ODI wins, one should not exclude the other.

[Liventia]

England drop Gary Ballance for the final ODI while retaining Cook. What a joke.

[The Nihilistic view]

Well, that was terrible.

If England are going to have any chance, Cook and Bell have to go, they just knock it about, get out, and put pressure on others. We need to follow other teams like Australia and New Zealand who have power all through their line-up, as opposed to power at 2 and 7.

My squad for the WC in Australia + New Zealand: 1. Hales, 2. Vince, 3. J. Taylor, 4. Root, 5. Morgan (c), 6. Roy, 7. Buttler (wk), 8. Woakes, 9. Broad, 10. Anderson, 11. Finn

12. Bopara, 13. Moeen Ali, 14. Ballance, 15. Ravi Patel, 16. Gurney

That's a strong line-up which teams will fear. No-one is scared of Bell or Tredwell.

To be honest I think it's the tactics more than anything. Changing the players is not going to help unless the game plan from the coach changes. Like Fletcher did with the test side I think we need a foreign ODI coach to show us how it's done and to develop the right ODI culture and mentality. If the culture changes and they go with a different strategy there is no reason why most of the current team can't win games.

There was a good piece on the beeb yesterday about the batting strategy, it's not about the skill of the players it's the game plan laid out from the top that the players stick to. Bell for example can certainly smash it out the park when he wants to I just don't think he is encouraged to do it so early in the innings by the management. He has done it before, against India in fact when he got 126* off about 115 balls back in about 2006. I just think over the last 6-7 years England seem to not just have stood still but have gone backwards in how they approach ODIs. I think Cook could score faster than he does. The team needs a change of culture more than anything. Different players same culture is not going to see any improvement.

[Liventia]

Ben Stokes hits a career one-day best 164 for Durham against Notts in the RLODC semifinal as Durham post 353/8. Winner faces Warwickshire in the final at Lord's.