Sri Lanka v England

Rjd2

Important series for so many reasons for England this. After a brutal few months with some shocking but hilarious defeats they need to bounce back strong in all formats.

The ODI series is first and as the World Cup is next year teams will need to start treating these series importantly and England along with the Saffers have been guilty of neglecting them.

England have gone back to Carberry, not hugely keen tbh, I'd like to have seen Hales or Vince given an opportunity in the Fifty over series.

First ODI in a few hours.

booth70

After a month of watching the madness that is the IPL watching Cook and Bell was just just too painful:D:D

Will be lucky to get a full game today

booth70

Is there any right arm off spinner from Sri Lanka who does not chuck??!!!:mad::mad:

Senanayake's action looks very suspect IMHO

booth70

booth70 wrote: »

Is there any right arm off spinner from Sri Lanka who does not chuck??!!!:mad::mad:

Senanayake's action looks very suspect IMHO

Freddie seem to have picked this up as well:).....

https://twitter.com/flintoff11/status/469509436172935168/photo/1

Rjd2

Agnew has been pretty brutal on him as well, all spinners should be banned from wearing long shirts:pac:

Rjd2

Sri Lanka have been very off today, it does prove England are still a good fifty over team especially at home.

Jordan has been superb today indeed, that is promising for England, he along with Broad, Finn, Anderson and hopefully Gurney will provide decent fast bowling options for England in the build up for the world cup.

Still would like to see Hales have a go though opening just to try him out at least.

booth70

Has Carberry not had enough chances already:mad::mad:......He is certainly not an international cricketer

England were dreadful today

The question already after today will be ......will Moores last until next years World Cup??:pac::pac:

.....and all this while Senanayake continues to plunder without a worry in the world:(

Flashdean

Huge game tomorrow for the 3 lions.... id like to see moen ali given a game but i really doubt it.. Win th toss score 270+ and they will win!!

Sounds easy

NinetyForNone

Looking at the Weather Forecast and Completed Match Odds on Betfair I wouldn't be too hopeful of getting a completed game.

djimi

England should be using this series, and indeed the test series also, to start trying some new players. The likes of Carberry and Bopara could make way to try something new.

NinetyForNone

djimi wrote: »

...Bopara...

twitter wrote:

Players that have averaged less than Bopara with the bat in the last 12 months in ODIs Root, Buttler, Cook, Ballance, Stokes, Carberry

Bopara FTW...

Rjd2

Ballance only started his international career to be fair, while Stokes is probably better off away from white ball cricket, his bowling in T20 and ODI cricket has ben unimpressive. Don't mind him in tests, he looks gun in that format.

Bopara is the least of England concerns tbh, he has been reasonably consistent recently.

i'd like to see Vince get a chance for the limited over stuff, he is in cracking form at the moment, and Hales deserves a try as well.

At least England have stopped picking Jade:p

djimi

Im only using Bopara as he is a prime example of a guy who has never really settled in the side, and at 29 is not likely to be the long term future of the side either, in either format of the game. Instead of going to their tried and tested go to guys, they should be looking at bringing through some new players to inject some life into the squad, in both forms of the game. If it means writing off this summer as a period of development then so be it; the side is basically a write off either way, and stuggling to try to get results with the same tired panel of players is going to do little for the long term development. The era of success that they had over the past decade or so is quite clearly over; they should be looking at developing players now with a view to building the side back up over the next 5 years or so. Persisting with players like Carberry or even Bopara is not going to help them in this regard.

booth70

Make or break summer for Morgan as well I think.....he has had enough chances to establish himself in the England side

Rjd2

Hardly going to get a bat here is Morgan:pac:

I can't see how he gets in the test side tbh, that would be the line up I would go with.

Robson
Cook
Bell
Root
Ballance
Stokes
Prior
4 bowlers

booth70

Rjd2 wrote: »

Hardly going to get a bat here is Morgan:pac:

I can't see how he gets in the test side tbh, that would be the line up I would go with.

Won't be too sure of that.....England perfectly capable of making 68/8 in reply:D

Can't really see Morgan as a long term test batsman......he is better suited to the shorter version of the game......Cook is really not a one day batsman.....he needs to concentrate solely on Test cricket leaving Morgan to captain England's 50 over and T20 sides

booth70

The spectators should ask for money back....That match didn't even last as long as a T20 match

Dozen Wicked Words

Bizarre series. England win by 10 wickets. Jordan looks a handful.

Nice touch from Lancs. who are giving anyone in the crowd today a ticket for their T20 on Friday for a fiver.

booth70

Butler has probably just played the best one day innings by an England batsman but some rubbish batting by the top 5 means Butler and Bopara had too much to do at the end against Malinga

What an over by Malinga at the end

Rjd2

Yes times are changing, you simply can't bat that slow at the top anymore, yes you can't be trying to hit everything for six, but today Root and Ballance went to slow.

Hales and Vince have to be in the selectors thoughts for the India series.

booth70

About time.......

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-sri-lanka-2014/content/current/story/749647.html

padders67

be interesting to see what comes of this - Murali was under scruting for a long time too

booth70

England plodding along as usual.....

It may not be the worst thing in the world if England lose the ODI series to SL and Ind this summer

They are not going to get anywhere in the World cup with the current top 5 and the sooner the English selectors realize Cook and Bell are not one day players the better

Interesting to note that Hales in the meantime has just belted another century.....he definitely warrants a place in the side against India

y0ssar1an22

Some wicket by Sennanayake (sp). Butler was warned enough so fair enough in my books. And there goes Treadwell. England would settle for 230 at this stage.

Richard Hillman

I thought it was unbecoming but he did give him a warning to be fair to him. Buttler won't be doing that again in a hurry. It may also could have cost them the series if this is a tight finish.

Rjd2

Yep he had warned Buttler , but it is poor from Sri Lanka. Thirimanne done the same a few years ago and India recalled him, Mahela at the time said he would never do such a thing.:p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsZTPrU4JjY

Lanka are not exactly known for their sporting behavior, Randiv did this to stop Sehwag getting a century

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SayybzYkzcs

Then of course their was this from Kumar at the world cup final

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZZY2gaU6wg

And they still moan about this not been spirit of the game:pac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zgvjC9WUCs

Rjd2

But ultimately England need to cop on, the world cup is in Australia next year and scores of 300 will be no more than par. Cook has got some credit as he was doing quite well in this format before the last 12 months, but he should not be untouchable.

Root is not needed in this team and serious questions have to be asked of Ballance at number 3, get in Hales and maybe Vince. I still have hope that Morgan can get out of this slump, for a long time he was England's best ODI batsman.

Look at the favs for the world cup next year it is Australia, this is their top 7

Warner, Finch, Watson, Clarke, Bailey, Maxwell, Haddin

All those players will be expected to go at a run a ball, in Maxwells case much quicker than that, and we know if they get in they are all capable of slaughtering opponents in their backyard.

but this is not exactly classified information, they should know this by now.

Gillespy

Bit unbecoming of Cook at the end there. If you want to be mad at anyone be mad at Buttler or your batters. Another series defeat, new coach, new players and still the same turgid stuff from England's top and middle order.

riffmongous

I never got all the fuss over it, is it ok instead for the batsman to cheat by stealing yards? Which leads to the farcial last-ball ODI endings where the non striker is almost at the other end before the ball.

Dozen Wicked Words

riffmongous wrote: »

I never got all the fuss over it, is it ok instead for the batsman to cheat by stealing yards? Which leads to the farcial last-ball ODI endings where the non striker is almost at the other end before the ball.

Personally I think it's fine, particularly as the bowler warned the batsman on more than one occasion about being out of his ground. Just put the feckin bat behind the line. If it is good enough for Bradman, it's good enough for me:

Bradman defended Mankad for twice running out Bill Brown in a bizarre fashion, backing up too far at the bowler's end before delivery of the ball. Against Queensland, Brown was warned by Mankad, but he backed up very far a second time during a run chase and was run out. Mankad didn't warn when Brown (18) was found out of his crease in the second Test in Melbourne.

While the Australian media accused the Indians of being unsporting, Bradman supported Mankad's action.

"The laws of cricket make it quite clear that the non-striker must keep within his ground until the ball has been delivered. If not, why is the provision there which enables the bowler to run him out? Mankad was scrupulously fair that he first of all warned Brown before taking any action. There was absolutely no feeling in the matter as far as we were concerned, for we considered it quite a legitimate part of the game," wrote Bradman in his autobiography Farewell to Cricket. ('Mankad' has long been an officially approved term in the cricketing lexicon and any batsman getting out this way is described as being 'Mankaded'.)

http://m.rediff.com/cricket/report/special-don-bradmans-india-connection-haresh-pandya/20120827.htm

Never mind the warning stuff, just have the non-striker stay until he can go. It's complicated or tricky, it's basic and easy to follow.

booth70

I thought the umpires made the whole situation worse by asking Mathews whether he wanted to withdraw the appeal.....to the common man watching the game that would have implied that Matthews was in the wrong and that he was being offered a chance to put things right.....Butler had been warned , as it now turns out , in the previous match as well.....so what SL did was absolutely within the spirit and laws of the game

It's the likes of Vaughan who stoke this further with endless tweets about spirit of the game and so on

England complaining after the Grant Eliot incident against NZ a few years ago is like the pot calling the kettle black!

The ICC can , if they have any sense , put an end to all this nonsense by deeming that if you are out of the crease before the bowler hits his delivery stride you can be run out.....no warnings required period

The way Cook reacted at the end with Mathews was pathetic....he has ensured that the run out grabs all the headlines today while his and teams shortcomings as a one day side have been sidetracked for the moment.......he is unlikely to lose his one day captaincy bcos England do not have a suitable replacement..... Morgan's the closest they have got but he himself is barely hanging on to his place given how hopeless he has been this series

djimi

Butler can have no complaints with that run out; he knows the rules, he was warned once, and if he is so stupid as to continue to be a yard outside of his crease before the bowler enters his stride then he only has himself to blame.

I really dont get why this whole thing is such a taboo; its absolutley no different to stumpings in my opinion in that the batsman knows that they are supposed to be inside their crease when backing up until the ball is bowled, and if they decide to take their chances then they have to expect to suffer the consequences once in a while. Its one thing doing it to a seamer who most likely isnt going to stop mid run up, but to try it to a spinner is just asking for trouble.

Baseball has exactly the same thing for runners on base; if you take a couple of yards lead off and the pitchers throws to base and you will be out if you dont get back in time. Everyone knows it, nobody complains about it; its just part of the game. Batters take their lead off in order to make the run between bases shorter, and in doing so they know that there is a risk involved. Why cricket has to be any different is beyond me.

djimi

booth70 wrote: »

The ICC can , if they have any sense , put an end to all this nonsense by deeming that if you are out of the crease before the bowler hits his delivery stride you can be run out.....no warnings required period

I thought the rules on this did change a couple of years ago, in that you now do not need to warn a batsman if they are outside their crease when backing up? Or did the rules change that you do need to warn them first? Its honestly one of the most ridiculous grey areas in the game

TrueDub

booth70 wrote: »

I thought the umpires made the whole situation worse by asking Mathews whether he wanted to withdraw the appeal

Standard practice - it allows the fielding side to re-consider. If the captain upholds the appeal, the umpire has no choice but to give the player out.

djimi wrote: »

I thought the rules on this did change a couple of years ago, in that you now do not need to warn a batsman if they are outside their crease when backing up? Or did the rules change that you do need to warn them first? Its honestly one of the most ridiculous grey areas in the game

A warning has never been part of the Laws of the game - it's purely a practice. No warning is required, although custom says you should warn. If it happened, without a warning, the same procedure as above applies.

Rjd2

booth70 wrote: »

I thought the umpires made the whole situation worse by asking Mathews whether he wanted to withdraw the appeal.....to the common man watching the game that would have implied that Matthews was in the wrong and that he was being offered a chance to put things right.....
It's the likes of Vaughan who stoke this further with endless tweets about spirit of the game and so on

England complaining after the Grant Eliot incident against NZ a few years ago is like the pot calling the kettle black!

The ICC can , if they have any sense , put an end to all this nonsense by deeming that if you are out of the crease before the bowler hits his delivery stride you can be run out.....no warnings required period

The way Cook reacted at the end with Mathews was pathetic....he has ensured that the run out grabs all the headlines today while his and teams shortcomings as a one day side have been sidetracked for the moment.......he is unlikely to lose his one day captaincy bcos England do not have a suitable replacement..... Morgan's the closest they have got but he himself is barely hanging on to his place given how hopeless he has been this series

To be fair on Matthews as people on twitter pointed out yesterday, it would have been cruel on the bowler to recall Buttler as that was his first legal wicket:pac:

Their was a fine article on cricinfo about the series from George Dobell, here is a quote

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-sri-lanka-2014/content/story/750231.html

It would be nice, too, if England simply stopped talking about the spirit of cricket. It is not relevant when their batsmen decline to walk. It is not relevant when their batsmen, in fighting for a draw, change their gloves and ask for drinks in order to use up time. It is not relevant when their bowlers sledge or try to persuade the umpire to change a ball that is not swinging. And it is not relevant when they lure coaches from opposition teams weeks before they face them in a series.

And like others has pointed out England need to get a move on, its 2014 and their batsmen need to be scoring quicker in the same article.

England's batting is their primary concern. Not only do their batsmen score too slowly - Ian Bell was the only one of the top six to score at a rate in excess of 80 runs per 100 balls in this series; Alastair Cook limped along at a strike-rate of 63.63 - but they fail to retain their wickets.

Apart from Buttler's century at Lord's - a century that did much to mask another generally dismal performance by England - their next highest score in the series was just 64. To put it another way, England's top six contributed four half-centuries between them in the entire series with Gary Ballance's 64 remaining the highest score. They continue to miss Jonathan Trott - one of the key men in helping them to the final of the ICC Champions Trophy - terribly.

They also missed an opportunity in this series. They missed the chance to take a look at the likes of James Vince, James Taylor and Alex Hales at this level. They missed the chance to try something new. They missed the chance to formulate a strategy that could serve them at the World Cup. Their selection, like their tactics, was timid. And timid sides win nothing.

y0ssar1an22

I'm surprised how much press this is getting. 'Spirit of the game' is been thrown around a lot as well. Spirit of the game was giving him a friendly warning, followed by an official warning.
Dobell says it nicely above. No talk of spirit of the game when England practice cynical time wasting, refusing to walk, etc.

I also hope England soon get over their obsession with Joe Root. I think they really like the idea of the pretty boy that can be the face of English cricket, an opener for 15 years, along with occasional spin. Apart from the 180 against Australia he has really not done a whole lot.

Rjd2

Root has been so-so in ODI cricket in the last 12 months, I don't know if he is needed when you have Cook, Bell and Ballance their. His part time bowling will be butchered in Australia and I don't think it is much better than that of Boparas anyways.

I really hope they look at least one of Hales and Vince for the India ODI series. Vince excites me hugely, so much talent their and we all seen how Hales can be so destructive.

Skid X

The ICC should either scrap Mankading run outs or make it clear to all concerned (including Umpires) that they are a legitimate dismissal.

The current situation where the Bowler is demonised even where he follows the laws of the game to the letter is ridiculous. Batsmen who try to sneak down the crease at the bowler's end deserve to be dismissed.

minitrue

I think the ICC have been extremely clear on this. The Laws changed and gave the batsman a massive edge which made it nearly impossible to Mankad anyone:

The bowler is permitted, before entering his delivery stride, to attempt to run out the non-striker.

The ICC then changed the rules (for ODIs at least) to:

The bowler is permitted, before releasing the ball and provided he has not completed his usual delivery swing, to attempt to run out the non-striker.

Given one of the right pains of umpiring is to remember all the rules of the competition which differ from the Laws, the umpires can be in no doubt that this change is an explicit endorsement of the Mankad. It did not add any mention of warnings either so when a warning is given that should be the end of any consideration by the umpires of consulting the captain about withdrawing an appeal except in the sort of bizarre circumstances which might prompt them to ask about any other appeal.

Before the Laws were changed to allow the batsman leave his ground safely once the bowler entered his delivery stride I played with someone who loved to Mankad people and while he was a curmudgeon of sorts he gave a warning first (nearly always, if there was already bad blood in the game he wouldn't be one to shy away from pouring fuel on the fire) and there was never much of an uproar when he caught someone out.

The year the Laws changed I pretty much brought a game to a stop by flying out of the crease as the bowlers back foot landed in their delivery stride. Three non deliveries in a row (including the bails off twice afair) despite me explaining the rules to bowler and umpire after the first instance. Unusually for the level it was a neutral umpire, but he was fairly elderly and I suspect just umpiring a token game or two that year and so no longer caring so much about trying to stay on top of the latest changes. I ended up agreeing just to stay in my ground until the ball was released just to get the game moving again

booth70

The selection of Prior is a disgrace....

WHAT HAS MATT PRIOR DONE between been dropped during the Ashes series for being hopelessly out of form and now that has earned him a recall into the test side?

Oh wait.....he did tweet a bit:pac::pac:

Are there no other wicketkeepers in the 18 or so counties in England?

Butler should have been given a chance.....he's already had a fair bit of international exposure and has been amongst the runs recently.....simply can't understand the argument about his age and 'inexperience'

SRT played his first Test match aged 15 FFS against the likes of Akram and Younis at their prime.....Surely Butler can cope with the likes of Perera and Kulasekara!!

djimi

I wouldnt go so far as to call it a disgrace; the guy has done more than enough over the past few years to warrant selection, and quite frankly no other keeper that they have tried recently has filled me with any confidence at the top level. The reality is that they are turning to a guy that they know will do a very effective job in the lower middle order and who they can be confident of behind the stumps, and they need that right now. If his form doesnt improve then so be it, try someone else, but I had taken it as a given that he would be selected again this summer and I dont see any issue with that whatsoever.

booth70

Strange way to get back into a side....

You get dropped because you haven't scored any runs....then you get picked again even though you still have not scored any runs but you get picked anyway because you scored runs 2 years ago

Meanwhile the guy who is scoring runs is told by the captain he isn't ready for Test cricket

Smacks of favouritism to me....the captain standing by his trusted lieutenant who stood by him as the Ashes post mortem unravelled

Rjd2

To be fair on Prior he did get a century not to long ago for Sussex against a good Middlesex attack.

He has got runs since he came back to England.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/18675.html


Moores will like him because he has done well with him before, Buttler is awesome but their is some concern about his wicket keeping. Their is not to many alternatives really, Bairstow is average, Foster and Read are getting on, Bates is way to young, Davis no longer keeps in four day cricket.

Kiesswetter would be the only other alternative.

Gillespy

It was only a year ago he was voted their player of the year after saving the series in NZ. Had a poor English summer and an even worse Australian one but so did nearly all the English batsmen. Bell was the only consistent performer in that English Ashes series. He won't face anything like Harris or Siddle nevermind Johnston this summer and runs will flow for him and the rest again.

booth70

Rjd2 wrote: »

To be fair on Prior he did get a century not to long ago for Sussex against a good Middlesex attack.

He has got runs since he came back to England.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/18675.html


Moores will like him because he has done well with him before, Buttler is awesome but their is some concern about his wicket keeping. Their is not to many alternatives really, Bairstow is average, Foster and Read are getting on, Bates is way to young, Davis no longer keeps in four day cricket.

Kiesswetter would be the only other alternative.

Fair enough....I didn't realise he had made some runs this summer in the county game.....

Still feel England are carrying some baggage from the Ashes series.....SL and India (despite the likes of Binny and co in the team!!) may not be the walkover series that everyone is predicting....Make or break summer for the likes of Bell , Prior and Root I reckon

BTW just noticed there is no spinner in the England team that was picked today?!

Rjd2

Ali will play as the main spinner with Root chipping in. They have no options really, Monty was poor in Australia and has issues to say the least, he was dropped for the Essex four day game on Sunday for turning up late which is disgraceful as it was his last chance to impress before the squad was picked.

Borthwick hardly bowls for Durham, Kerrigan has done meh for Lancashire, Samit was tipped but seems to have burned a lot of bridges with the ECB.

Nobody else stepped up really. Its a tough summer as both India and Lanka are good against spin, so they will be relying on the pacers to do the most of the work with Ali bowling a few overs to give them a break.

Gillespy

Samit Patel > Ali for me. Who cares if he's a little rotund, he's an exciting batsmen and a very good spinner. Bumble really believes in the first vs second division difference too.

Rjd2

Gillespy wrote: »

Samit Patel > Ali for me. Who cares if he's a little rotund, he's an exciting batsmen and a very good spinner. Bumble really believes in the first vs second division difference too.

As do Northants and to a lesser extent Lancashire who have struggled horribly after getting promoted this season.

The second division is poor enough standard really, Hampshire are quite good and they would do well in division one, Surrey and Essex could cope but they would be also rans if promoted.

The other issue about Ali is his county Worc have signed Ajmal and understandably have bowled him into the ground which means that Ali has barely bowled since he arrived. Worc home pitch is the slowest in England, always been moans about it so that is another thing to consider.

Samit can feel annoyed, he would have been useful in the 20/20 world cup in Bangladesh as he did very well last time in Sri Lanka, but for some reason they won't pick him. I actually think Carberry or Compton will be picked before him and everyone agrees they may be done internationally.

Harsh on the man who has been top scorer in county championship one though.

Rjd2

booth70 wrote: »

Still feel England are carrying some baggage from the Ashes series.....SL and India (despite the likes of Binny and co in the team!!) may not be the walkover series that everyone is predicting....Make or break summer for the likes of Bell , Prior and Root I reckon

Sri Lanka have a poor test bowling attack, Herath is good but this time of year spinners do struggle a little in England they will be content to milk him. The quicks are meh, Kulkasera (sp) is a gun with the white ball but no so much with the red ball. Its not exactly Mitch and Harris all over again:pac:

It won't be a formality but England will have to play poorly to lose.

India? I don't think many English fans will be as confident about that one, yep they expect to win and they will be favs as India have just lost 2 tours to South Africa and New Zealand. Its all about India's bowling this series, they pick the right side and the spinners contribute they will push England, they flop like they did in 2011 and England will batter them, Kohli may do heroics but so did Dravid in 2011 and look what happened then.

Gillespy

It will be interesting to see Plunkett, conditions will be conducive for him now that Swann is gone. I assume he will open the bowling, short agressive spells like Aus used Johnston could be devastating against SL and India.