India lose for the second time, are the pre-tournament favourites even going to make the semis? Pakistan looking good at the moment.
Not looking great for them. Tbh I can’t see part England. Unless they have an absolute shocker in one of the knockouts, but they just look a class above everyone else. Prob out 5/6 of the England squad in a world 11. Roy, Butler, Bairstow, Rashid, Jordan would be in any team. Morgan of a year ago would be but dropped off but by far best captain out there. Then players like Lawrence, Moeen, Mills, Woakes who are prob a level down but as good as anything in the NZ, Australia, Sri Lanka team.
20/20 is one of the great levellers though. england have the batting and bowling here but one bad day and you are out. a bad 5 overs and you are out. I don't put as much store in t20 results, there's not that much to separate the sides so its really luck on the day or bad luck on the day rather than quality.
they have rather hurt ODI by making the bowling really be a don't think don't create. both might as well have a machine bowling on the same line all the time with a little pace variation. It is the equivalent of watching (or rather not bothering to watch) US tour golf. Who wants to watch guys take out max length max weight it it anywhere drives on miles wide fairways and smash it anywhere then ptich and putt and very forgiving greens. 20/20 is the equivalent. just swing away and hit it hard and long. a score of 65 on a real golf course is a stunning score. a score of 59 is not nothing special to these yanks who are not showing any real skill just brutality.
Jos Butler when on form is just unplayable. Paced his innings superbly even looked a very low scoring pitch.
Sri Lanka looked like they were making a good fist of the run chase, ahead of the required run rate for a while, might not have the depth of batting though if England get a couple more wickets now
Yes Jos buttler is good at closing his eyes and swinging away confident the ball is in the slot. In test cricket he looks bang average. That's the difference. Good luck to him, he will make a fortune off ipl but I'd rate a lot of former big hitters much higher than him. Flintoff, kluesner for example.
I think there's a hell of a lot more to it than that, you can clearly see his eyes open in the slow-mo replays for a start. He is just so much more confident in T20 than tests, i think its a mentality thing with him. I think in his head he thinks "in test cricket you have to play in a certain way, and it's not how T20's are played". He also plays a lot of ramps and flicks, he's clearly thinking about where he can score his runs based on fielding positions, its not all just swinging away. He also gets criticism for his glove work, but that runout last night was sensational.
Yes I am exaggerating here to make the point. This is not cricket its batting practice. My prediction is quality.bolwers will get rarer and rarer as they will only be specialist in bowling in a slot, a.few Yorkers and speed variation.
I think the wider point is the potential "death" of the test format. Player after player keep coming out and saying that the Test format is the most superior form of the game (which i agree with), but the administrators are chasing the money to the detriment of the test game. Moving T20s (or hundreds) to the middle of the summer and pushing 4 day games to the fringes. England letting players "rest" from Test games so they can concentrate on T20s or 1 dayers.
Test is test. I dont think it needs to be the ultimate format as it is frankly a snore fest when done badly. Theres enough time in 50 over game to allow more freedom with the ball and stop it being the longer t20 format. At this point the 100 is almost t20 is too long? What do they want a 2 hour batting nets session in front of a.machine to keep the balls flying? Imo Odi should be backed off this batter must be just a big hitter stiff and give the bowlers back some freedom. You should be able to down in and out swing, bouncers etc any time you want and let the batsmen chase the ball a bit. Forcing the ball down a narrow slot you might was well be using a giant shovel of a bat to hack it miles.
Decent total after a slow start. Great first 3 overs picking up Guptil and Williamson though. England favourites from here
166 is competitive. It's all about chasing now so nothing in the slot and every dot ball increases the pressure and lumpy hood of a hack at it and a wicket
Looks a 10 an over game now which is becoming a big big 10 overs. At this point though it's all a bit of luck and aggression or you are out so nz need to go hard now or go home.
