Off Topic England in SAF

First of 3 T20's. England win by 5 wickets courtesy of a magnificent knock by Bairstow. Worth seeing if highlights are on tv.

 

interesting that the other batsmen scored 82, one fewer than bairstow.

 

Not only is it not interesting it's also wrong.

 

England scored 183
Bairstow scored 86
Extras 15 (3 leg byes, 12 wides)

Leaving 82 scored by the other batsmen, i.e. combined scores 4 less than YJB.

 

whoops.

 

Fantastic from Bairstow. Arguably the best one day opener in the world, and yet appears he's getting shunted down the batting yet again to accommodate the media's darling. Buttler. They ****ed up his test career by doing similar. Just leave him where he is at the top of the order.

 

Had totally forgot it was on tbf .. ahh well Sunday it is then

 

I'm not even sure Buttler likes opening himself.

 

I agree. Bairstow should open and Buttler should be coming in at 5 or 6 after Malan, Stokes and Morgan.
Roy needs a score today as he has been dire since the world cup.

 

But then Buttler would often come in with just 3 or 4 overs left and just the tail to bat with. It's a dilemma.

 

If he's coming in at 5 or 6 with 3 or 4 overs left, what's the problem )unless someone is slow ing the scoring, which doesn't tend to happen very often with this team. Bairstow shades Buttler's average in t20 and both at the same scoring rate. He also has far better test and one day stats and I think is the better keeper (certainly drops less).
Buttler's role use to be as a 'finisher;. He was suppose to be the best in the world at that. Not sure why they have moved him.
I guess games between now and the world cup are to find everyone's best roles, It's just a concern that Bairstow is messed around and loses his form (as what happened in his test career)

 

Am I the only one that thought this was about Sir Alex Ferguson?

 

I just think 3 or 4 overs left isn't enough to get in, especially if wickets are falling at the other end.

 

Buttler has said repeatedly that he wants to open as it's the easiest place to bat. One golden IPL season aside though, he's not been that consistently great at it - Stokes took over from him this IPL and he was back to be the finisher, I don't see many clamouring for Stokes to open for England.

Buttler is fine, but he is talked up far too much, and he is no QdK.

 

I personally think that with the array of (supposed) talent that we have that our batting order should be relatively fluid in T20 cricket, at least from 3 to 6 anyway, with no one after the openers having a set position. Roy would be the one under threat for me, and I'd be looking at Buttler and Bairstow to open. I cannot believe that Malan's place is under threat given his consistent form and world ranking, but his consistent 10 off 10 starting rate at the start of his innings concerns people.

 

I also think with our bowling attack that we have 1 too many all rounders in the team, and we'd be a lot better off with another out and out specialist bowler. With Curran S, Curran T, Archer and Jordan currently down to bat between 7 and 10 we can easily afford to bench one (TC at the moment) for a pure bowling option, be it another spinner or genuine quick.

 

We do need to find at least one other spinner with the world cup in Asia.
It's Root or Malan for me, no room for both. Root's spin bowling would edge it for me. It does show our batting is actually in good shape.

 

Well, Buttler bought himself another game but some massive hitting from Malan, 6's all over the place. 3-0 for the series.

 

I am a believer in flexibility in terms of selection.

 

I'll stand by what I said on Malan! Absolutely nailed on at 3.