The Cricket Thread

Were there any takers?

 

Oh dear.

 

Moeen Ali is a joke. Hits a 6 then holes out. He's awful and shouldn't be playing for England.

 

Sri Lanka win .

Our next three games

Australia , India , NewZeland…...

 

Disgraceful if we don't make the semis with one of the best teams we've had...should have been no problem getting such a low target. Very disappointing.

 

Why does a low target make it a " should win " ?

I'm no expert but when I left work this evening a couple of people said " Tricky wicket " , that would make me think it may not have been such a bad score ?

 

If Moeen is a joke , what does that make James Vince ?

 

Only because we are usually a high scoring team.

 

I agree , but if it's a low scoring pitch ?

 

Someone who's had little ODI experience. He's had two innings.

 

Only had two innings ?

Think you may want to re-check that .

 

Ok a few innings. Not many anyway. My point was Moeen should never have tried to clear the ropes twice in a row. There was no need. He does it time and time again. Time to give Dawson a go.

 

Like I said earlier , I don't know that much about the game , but Moeen has done well in the past .

Lets hope it's a blip

 

I don't understand why the Beeb were saying this was the first shock of the world cup. We also lost to a Poor Pakistan! We are going to struggle from here...

 

Can't say I'm worried in the slightest. Yes we lost a game that we shouldn't, and yes it means we'll now do well to get a top three finish. But the top four is sufficient to qualify. And, almost certainly, just one more win will do that. And to be honest, I'd rather play at Old Trafford (by finishing 4th) than at Edgbaston (by finishing 2nd or 3rd).

Yes our last three games are our hardest three games, but I'd have wanted to win at least one of them even if we'd won yesterday. Who wants to go into the SFs off the back of three consecutive defeats - and all against the fellow semi-finalists? So winning at least one of our next three games was pretty essential even before yesterday.

It's unfair to bring in Dawson at this stage now, given the opposition ahead of us and his lack of international experience. He really should have come in earlier. His game would have been perfected suited to accompanying Stokes across the line yesterday, as so often he starts his innings with a run-a-ball 40 with few, or no, boundaries. Exactly what we and Stokes needed, as opposed to what Moeen did. That is why we lost yesterday. Just look at NZ a few days ago vs SA. They were in a very similar position to us, five down chasing a low-ish score, needing someone to provide company to the guy at the other end. CDH duly came in at no.7 and played a great innings. Yes he got out just before the finish, but by then Williamson had been provided with more than sufficient company. There's no reason why Stokes wouldn't have copied Williamson in getting his own 100 yesterday, had we not been bowled out with three overs to spare.

 

Exceptional effort from Afghanistan, restricting India to 224-8.

Let’s hope their batsmen can finish the job!

 

and New Zealand doing even worse! getting interesting all of a sudden!

 

As great as they have been for the first 50 overs, my fear is that the hardest part is still to come. I wouldn't be shocked to see 130 all out.

 

India win by 11 runs, a fantastic hat trick from Mohammed Shami in the last over. Great effort by Afghanistan but it was just too much in the end.

 

Very unlucky, but ultimately they were made to pay for not turning enough 1s into 2s, and 2s into 3s. That's pretty criminal in cricket full stop, but especially at the Rose Bowl where the boundaries are so big.

The difference between needing, say, 6 or 7 off the last over or needing 14.