English Cricket Thread

[Durhamfootman]

3rd ODI starts soon not gonna lie I thought the series had already ended!!

it has now

another 'oops'

[sussexpob]

This might sound dramatic, but my previous negative opinions about Bazball have always carried the asterisk that if the doctrine England created could reach a better level of maturity and game management, then England could become a very good side. I don't think I really need to repeat that argument in details as I have stated it many times, but the match today felt like a real game changing moment for me, because I reached a point early in England's innings where I found myself concluding that England are not at all interested in bettering their style, and that any hopes I might have this will happen were being crushed infront of my eyes. Its been a few years now, and nothing changes - England have no plan B setting, they don't care about what the conditions are, who is bowling, what the match situation is - its all red meat, macho smashing the ball at every stage, and if it doesn't work then you may as well go down swinging. England made 220 odd, and you might say thats not a disaster worthy of an epic rant, but its the manner of the defeat and the idiotic nature of our batting that is really starting to p*ss me off.

Take the first ball. While Duffy is preparing to run up, the Kiwi commentator is saying the ball is likely to move at this venue, and that England might want to dispense the "helter-skelter batting" to the new ball to keep wickets. Duffy then delivers an absolute hand grenade that swing into Smith, then jags off the pitch passed his outside edge - so yeah, the ball is going to move a lot potentially, best to maybe see out a few....Next ball Duffy again swings it away at a good length, Smith responded by a caveman whack that flew just over 2nd slip. Zero footwork, zero control, just pre-meditated "I am hitting this whether you like it or not". Next over starts with a pull shot that is too tight to the body line, but Smith does very well to keep it down. Poor shot selection (see later down for why), great execution. Smith then attempts another wild hack to the next ball, the ball seams quite a way off the deck and cuts him to shreds, scrapes the wicket as it flies to the keeper. Next ball comes wide outside off stump, another windmill shot, footwork absent presumed dead, and this time Smith is not lucky and edges it behind. 6 balls could have been out 4 times.

Root comes in and gets unlucky. The ball kept low off the surface and beat his defence....

Duckett got one ball a bit fuller in his slot and majestically put it in the stand. He then gets a shorter ball on a tight line and tries to drag it into the leg side, and the ball is way too tight on his body and not short enough to do it - result is a skier to mid-on. Essentially the same high risk shot Smith pulled off before.

Bethell then comes in and is beaten first ball like a kipper. His front foot ends about 2 stumps outside the line of leg pointing down the pitch, his back foot is 45 degrees angle on off stump, and he ends in a position almost fully chest on to the bowler. Village cricket technique to world class bowling. Next ball he repeats the Duckett wicket shot, and just like Duckett can't hit the ball that length and line clean, loops it over the same fielder that just caught Duckett out by a bare margin and survives. He then wildly drives at a riser and is lucky not to edge it. Next over, ball fired wider, Bethell wildly swings with no footwork reaching a long way to the ball, edge flies over slips. Couple of balls later, same ball, same shot... this time the edge flies to the slip...

Brook at the other end responds to the movement by doing what Smith does. Throws the bat, gets beaten. Throws the bat, edges wildly behind square. He responds by changing his guard to the offside, and then next ball plays at one standing almost outside offstump and the slip fielder does the rest.

An absolute shower. Absolute idiocy....the white ball does not move much after the first 10, England should have batted out 10 overs and kept wickets intact, and then been aggressive. Their only answer to tough conditions was to plant feet and mow the lawn.

[sussexpob]

In the end, I guess England's approach can be summed up by the Kiwi commentator as their top order folded.....

"why are England batting like 400 is a par score, when 250 will win the game"...

My thoughts exactly

[Durhamfootman]

ah, well.... according to a BBC reporter, assessing England's ashes chances, few would think that Joe Root scoring 2 centuries in these 3 matches would make a blind bit of difference when Mitchell Starc stands at his mark with a red ball in his hand, so therefore the reverse must also be true

well, thank goodness for that!