7 needed. 1 6 and it's super overs. Just push runs and let the pressure crack this lot. One bad ball will come and punch. This should be over here in this over.
Scratchy lol. Bowling killed Pakistan. Their lower order folded when thry needed to score. It really was a total where playing the right shots with the right shape of bat was going to hurt Pakistan and stokes did that. It's funny how the big hackers of limited overs fail but the guys who can bat at test level still shine through a bit by being about to score along ground where the gaps are at good enough rate.
Ben Stokes where do you start. He wont have the most runs or wickets when he retires. He won’t have the best bowling or batting average. His strike rate wont be ridiculously good. He won’t have a huge amount of 50s or 100s. His stats wont make him the best in test, odi or t20. but my god if you need someone in the middle on the big occasions when things are in the balance, that guy can pull the team through. What a hero
Superb all round performance from the ream and particularly Stokes - AGAIN! Big mentions for Rashid with a wicket maiden at a crucial time and Curran with 3 for 12 from 4. Excellent captaincy and early batting from Butler too. Only team to have ever held the two limited over world cups at the same time. Salvaged some pride after the egg-chaser debacle and the forthcoming hell cup of evil, which we don't have a ****ing chance in. Still not test cricket though
the thing is the hackers were exposed on a pitch with a bit of movement but the players with a bit more about them came through. The pakistani team left a gap a mile wide to punch the ball through if it was straight. that 4 was there nearly all game if you had a straight bat and hit into the ground. I think salt was caught swinging away after player was moved into that gap? they all had a horizontal bat there swinging like drunken baseballers. Stokes had better technique in both sri lanka game and this final and that's what carried him through imo. Same thing with curran. all he is doing is bowling variable pace and pitching it in as a bouncer or whatever very average bowler and not test cricket level but here he's catching the swing and a miss crowd out. I still don't know why people prefer a hacker slogging away to a player like root who will do the job in all conditions.
Was listening to Buttler being interviewed post match, both and the interviewer mentioned key performers during the final, Rashid, Stokes etc. Neither mentioned Sam Curran who literally minutes before won both Man of the Match and Player of the Series. Just found that odd!
A freebie. They are there anyway. So you save oodles of flight cash by keeping them out there or only bringing a few extra over to play rather than a full team.
Anyone see the crowd for the Eng/Aus ODI. Recorded at 4500, looked alot less, in a stadium that can hold 100,000.
