posted 3 Weeks Ago

Given that England's recent One Day form includes a 6-1 defeat against Australia, a narrow win against Ireland that went to the last ball and defeat against The Netherlands, anyone who calls a big win against credible opposition a poor performance has a curious way of viewing things.

Everyone has got some runs and, right now, KP might not even be an automatic pick. England will bat deep and have a useful and varied attack.

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posted 3 Weeks Ago

I've always thought that far too much emphasis is put on 'centuries' - indeed the 'need' to get one can actually impede a player and the team.

A century is a landmark figure - what is important is that our specialist batsmen score consistently heavily and at a decent rate consistent with the conditions, the bowling and the position of the game.

The cumulative effect and ultimate team total is far more important than any individual score - note Tendulkar's 175 of recent date.

Mike Hussey hasn't scored a century in the current series against the Indians, but his performances have been crucial.

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posted 3 Weeks Ago

KipperJohn,

I agree, and disagree.

While a century is not the be all and end all and sizeable partnerships are the biggest thing, far too often in recent times we have seen the specialist batsmen get in and not go on to make a significant score.

So we have seen, in the series vs Australia for example, Strauss several times getting past the 50 mark and being the biggest scorer and the best of the batsment getting 20/30 and out.

Our batsmen have to ensure that when they get in they capitalise. Take the win vs SA in Champions Trophy. I admit there were no hundreds, but Shah and Colingwood both got close, with Morgan coming in at the end to add considerable icing to the cake.

If we look at Australia recently when Ponting (and Watson) makes a hundred they win. Hussey coming in further down the order is there to maximise the total.

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posted 3 Weeks Ago

"Given that England's recent One Day form includes a 6-1 defeat against Australia, a narrow win against Ireland that went to the last ball and defeat against The Netherlands, anyone who calls a big win against credible opposition a poor performance has a curious way of viewing things."

I thought our recent form included reaching the semi's of the CT (beating SA and SL), against all expectation.

And the Netherlands game was a fluke. Premiership football teams have lost to League 2 teams in the FA Cup, it doesn't necessarily make them bad. After that game, we went on to beat Pakistan (eventual winners) and India, and would have beaten the Windies to make the semis were it not for a silly DL-calculated target.

I'm not saying we're great, because we're inconsistent and lack truly world class players, but our one day side has had some success in the last year.

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posted 3 Weeks Ago

Yes, Matt, we won 2 matches at the Champions Trophy and then lost the next two. We did beat South Africa and Sri Lanka and beat them well, which made the abysmal defeat that followed to New Zealand all the more infuriating. In fact, we have won 4 of our last 12 ODIs. That does not strike me as great success. But we have done enough, at times, to suggest that we can do much better. If winning a dead rubber against Australia followed by two good wins counts as success it shows just how low our expectectations are.

Incidentally, in recent times we have shown ourselves to be competitative against Sri Lanka in ODis - we almost beat them in the World Cup and won a series against them.

Maybe the defeat against The Netherlands was a fluke, but how far did we go in the World T20???

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posted 3 Weeks Ago

At the end of the day we are a very young and ordinary one day team who is going to blow very hot and then suddenly very cold. However the key word in that sentence is YOUNG, there is the foundations of a good team within our squad and there is lots of potential. Just need to stick with them and maybe the potential will grow and we could become a good team, think we are just going to need a lot of time and practice.

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posted 3 Weeks Ago

Sensible words, englandmad. We've shuffled the pack and have a side that has a lot of potential (mind you, we've said that before). We also have a captain with both tactical nous and the ability to raise his game when in charge: we haven't had this in ODIs for a long time.

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posted 3 Weeks Ago

We have said it plenty of the times and some of these players wont make the grade, but the key is finding little gems and stick with them. Young morgan is a example just lets stick with him, if he has a bad series lets not start campaigning for his head, to many players in the past have been thrown on the international scrap heap after one bad series.

It has to stop, but as you have said we now have a captain and a coach so dedicated to sucess that i really think we could be on the start of a very promising journey.

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posted 3 Weeks Ago

Where is Harmison? Many people, including me, said that the absence of a genuine fast bowler to spearhead the Test attack would be England's undoing. So far the England bowlers are proving that to be the case.

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posted 3 Weeks Ago

Where is Harmison?
Thankfully not in the team, why should he be picked? It doesn't matter how fast he bowls he has had no accuracy since 2005, why should we persist with him it makes no sense, he has done nothing to get himself anywhere near the squad, if he is ever picked again I would be amazed. To think Hoggard doesn't get a look in and people are still trying to claim that Harmison is still international quality, amazing.

Isn't our recent OD form v South Africa pretty darn good? If we play to our abilities we have a great chance, and if not it's tests that really matter and we should be competitive in that format for sure.

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