A VERY unconvincing win for England

England's first world cup warm up match ended in a win over Canada by just 16 runs.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/engine/current/match/473332.html

This is very concerning. The only positives I can see here are the 78 from 80 balls by Matt Prior and Stuart Broad's 5 wickets. Jonathan Trott scored a pedestrian half century that would have been more apt for a Test Match

I'm glad They have dropped Prior down the order, where he is more likely to score runs. I think there is a problem with who opens with Strauss though. My instinct says open with Trott and have Pieterson at 3, but with Trott's slow scoring rate, my main worry with that is the extra pressure it may put on the skipper to score quickly from the off, before he's got his eye in.

What do you think?

 

You can't really do much about it, if one player is going to go and make a big score, it's not likely any bowlers can stop a man in that sort of nick. This Trott hating isn't really applicable now. He has upped his scoring rate now, and if the other batsmen aren't going to make runs, then it's down to Trott no matter what rate he scores them at.

 

My point wasn't a 'Trott hating' one. For me he would be the ideal opening partner for Strauss if both were in decent nick. Unfortunately the skipper isn't enjoying his best ever times with the bat at the moment, which means he needs an opening partner who can score quick runs in the powerplay while he gets his eye in. That's possibly why they experimented with Pieterson's quick strike rate at the top of the order. As mentioned by Nasser Hussain on many occasions during the ODI series in Australia, he needs to be more busy at the crease. No-one is suggesting he gives it the kitchen sink treatment in the opening salver with the opposition's premier fast bowlers, but many-a-time he will trott (no pun intended) a single, when running the first more aggressively will sometimes turn ones into twos.

 

A win is a win and after a poor showing in Australia the need to catch our breath and go again was more important than the scorline.
Lest we forget the stumbling early games against the Irish for example , that ultimately saw us win the T20 title.
Looking forward to it. C'mon England.

 

a winz a winz a win!

 

a bit of an insult to school boys, some of those catching chances were so easy, it almost seemed harder to put them down!