Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

oh blimey.... another one?

whoever is in charge of marketing for the ECB probably needs to be dragged into the office for a performance related review

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Malan dominating the innings. Needed this innings given recent form.

77 off 39 is a very un-Malan-like innings, but most welcome for all that

Mo gets a first baller

India chasing 216

46 runs came out of those final 3 overs

Can't chase that...

here we go again... seamers on top, India struggling, lets bring on Livingstone and gift them 36 free runs in just a couple of overs.... you know it makes sense

73 required off 32 and somewhere along the line England have got to squeeze in an over from either Livingstone or Mo

Topley restores a bit of order

England giving Mo an over so Jordon can practice finishing under pressure.

on another occasion 20 off the penultimate over from Mo will hurt them.

Time that England starting picking 5 bowlers rather than 7 batters and hope they can fiddle 4 overs. Today 4 fiddled overs cost 67 runs, the next worst 4 overs went for 40

just as well the 7 batters posted 215 today. Every time they don't post 200+ they stand a good chance of losing...... so no pressure

England's attack is a bit underwhelming. No Woakes or Wood. Archer still out. Curran is absent. No Rashid.

But the problem is the batting. 26-5!

Eight down. This is a situation for Woakesy.

That was like a rainy day rerun of a game during the Moores-Cook era.

horror show, presumably

That was pretty awful. Happens sometimes in white ball though. Don't have to go back too far - and nothing to do with Cook Trott etc : May 2017 v SA. Crashed to 20/6 (Roy Hales Root Morgan Buttler Rashid ) before Bairstow Willey and Roland-Jones scrambled them to 153 - all out in 32 overs and SA chased it down for three wickets in 28 ...

OK , this is a little worse. But really a very similar narrative. And the other two games in that series , England made 330 both times and won. So probably not yet time to declare No Morgan no England

Concerns though. Roy looks very out of sorts at present - hope it isn't terminal ; but there is a mounting case for giving Salt a shot. And Livingstone looks as if he's been a bit too carried away by blasting Dutch part-timers into the surrounding countryside and imagines he can get away with crazy stuff against top class bowling...what he thought he was doing with four down for twenty odd is beyond me. Was surely the time to try and survive a few overs , see off the danger men , and work with Jos to put a partnership together and set up for a late dash while there was till a bit of batting left : almost certainly wouldn't have been enough but if they could have salvaged something close to 200 at least the crowd would have had a game to watch. And the bowling looked pretty toothless - though to be fair they had no hope from the start.

Hopefully Thursday brings something better !

My trust in this side is such that a few shakes can pass by without need for further comment. England play high risk cricket, days like this will happen as a result.