England v Pakistan ODI/T20i Series - Aug 24 - Sept 7

[Aidan11]

Lot of grass on that wicket.

[alfie]

Bright start ...though Hales has rather thrown it away now. Got a bit carried away , perhaps ?
37/1 off five.

Roy could do with a score ; bit fortunate to survive a close lbw in the first over. I need him to bat well here : not many left playing out of my fantasy team with all this rotation !


Pleased to see Dawson getting a game though.

[alfie]

Anyway because of the discussion checked the super series scorecard to see how the team lined up and from my earliest cricket memory it was a thrashing even being 11 I saw that the teams at the time were strategically flawed.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/220935.html

Dravid at 5 lol and Kp 6
Afridi 8

Next game Dravid 6, Lara 5, pieterson 8

Although that was probably close to being Australia all time great ODI team with a few names missing but quite few close to being in it, not many weak links with only Katich being questionable ODI player the rest are Australia great or close to being australian greats in the format.

Might also have a bit to do with (a) Matches played in Australia ; and (b) "World" XI s , strong as they might be on paper , are by definition just a collection of individuals : they will always lack the national team spirit that helps to drive their opponents. Not everything , of course. But a factor.

[Aidan11]

Root gone now.

Morgan needs to play a captain's innings.

[alfie]

64/2 with Root failing at last . Had to happen some day I guess.

Ridiculous run rate but it will be interesting to see how they bat with the centre piece of the order removed so early.

"Tail" a bit longer than usual today. Still more of a stump though...

[KipperJohn]

Still bowling no balls in the 5th game of a series with the third umpire adjudicating beggars belief.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Stats team

Gilchrist
Sehwag
Viv Richards
deVilliers
Dhoni
Mike Hussey
Afridi
Hadlee
Akram
Ajmal (Warne if you rule out doosra bowlers)
McGrath

No Murali?

Murali scores with a lot of wickets. Ajmal has better stats than any spinner though, given a minimum of 150 wickets. I only included games v top eight sides though.

[Aidan11]

Root gone now.

Morgan needs to play a captain's innings.

He didn't

[Aidan11]

50 for Roy.

Played a sensible innings so far.

[alfie]

Losing a wicket every five overs. But scoring at 6.3.

So will they be all out for 319 in the last over ? What does the WASP say ?

[ianp1970]

Losing a wicket every five overs. But scoring at 6.3.

So will they be all out for 319 in the last over ? What does the WASP say ?

Not sure in the WASP, but these are the current bookies odds:

Over 320 = 11/10
Under 300 = 11/8
300 to 320 Inclusive = 7/2

[Arthur Crabtree]

Stokes survives a rv, Roy commendably going at a run a ball.

Listening to Boycott commentate on ODIs is painful (on C5). eVERY TIME SOMEONE GETS OUT HE'LL SAY THAT THERE WAS NO need for that, that he'd just hit a four that over, etc. And he's actually typical of most commentators, just the most annoying. They need to be trained in modern, attack first limited overs cricket.

Just while on the subject of Boycott, he now cannot comprehend what is happening live. He guesses at what happens (Blofeld style) while shouting 'is it? is it?' at you. Even though you can quite clearly see what has happened. And then when the replay comes on, he lectures you on what happened, even though you knew before him. And just to turn the screw, he'll keep saying 'you see' while he commentates on the replay, as if he's some wise old Yorkshire seer revealing the secrets of the arcane practices.

Still, all the players will be patronised by all the commentators if they don't bat out the 50 overs. As if Hussain and Athers never got bowled out, though in their case, trying to nurdle a score of 220 and failing.

[alfie]

Quite like the 7/2

But Imad is rather pinning them back ; and with three down already the chances are a few wickets could derail them at some point. I don't bet anyway.

Roy is enjoying himself !

[alfie]

Stokes survives a rv, Roy commendably going at a run a ball.

Listening to Boycott commentate on ODIs is painful (on C5). eVERY TIME SOMEONE GETS OUT HE'LL SAY THAT THERE WAS NO need for that, that he'd just hit a four that over, etc. And he's actually typical of most commentators, just the most annoying. They need to be trained in modern, attack first limited overs cricket.

Just while on the subject of Boycott, he now cannot comprehend what is happening live. He guesses at what happens (Blofeld style) while shouting 'is it? is it?' at you. Even though you can quite clearly see what has happened. And then when the replay comes on, he lectures you on what happened, even though you knew before him. And just to turn the screw, he'll keep saying 'you see' while he commentates on the replay, as if he's some wise old Yorkshire seer revealing the secrets of the arcane practices.

Still, all the players will be patronised by all the commentators if they don't bat out the 50 overs. As if Hussain and Athers never got bowled out, though in their case, trying to nurdle a score of 220 and failing.

Quite happy not to have the Boycott commentary.

Is it a Yorkshire thing ? Remember old Fiery Fred constantly informing listeners he just didn't know what was going off out there...
Which rather defeated the purpose of having him describing the game

[Arthur Crabtree]

Excellent knock from Jase. Could get 320 here, if wickets aren't a problem. Not having Buttler is a blow, and after two years of dreadful ODI batting form, Mo was starting to contribute. No Plunkett or Rashid. Handy tail still though.