The Warm-Ups...

[Manee]

Colly goes, but that KP let-off still looks fairly decisive.

Meh, Foster had a stumping and run out (what a throw, btw) not given.

 

[Uppercut]

Meh, Foster had a stumping and run out (what a throw, btw) not given.

I don't mean it as in "if it weren't for the umpires Scotland would have won!!!", but it does look like that particular umpiring decision (the KP one) has cost them a shot at an unlikely victory.

 

[Manee]

I don't mean it as in "if it weren't for the umpires Scotland would have won!!!", but it does look like that particular umpiring decision (the KP one) has cost them a shot at an unlikely victory.

Oh yeah, true that.

 

[Prince EWS]

Drummond's an interesting bowler. I think it's fair to say the first impression he gives is of an absolute pie-chucker, but I imagine he could be really tricky to play in all limited overs cricket if the pitch was a little bit up and down.

 

[stumpski]

Odd that a side who performed so poorly against other Associates in the recent WCL have managed to give England a good match today. 37 wanted off the last five, England will win but it's hardly been convincing.

 

[King Pietersen]

This is truely embarassing to watch, almost as bad as that game in the WC against Canada. We seem to make the associate sides look far better than they actually are. Collingwood was especially poor, Morgan should definitely be batting ahead of him in the middle overs. Lucky we've got KP really.

 

[Uppercut]

This is truely embarassing to watch, almost as bad as that game in the WC against Canada. We seem to make the associate sides look far better than they actually are. Collingwood was especially poor, Morgan should definitely be batting ahead of him in the middle overs. Lucky we've got KP really.

If the team think like you do, then that explains exactly why. Why the **** complain when you don't quite beat Scotland by as big a margin as you think you have the right to? It's not embarrassing, you're ****ing winning.

 

[Prince EWS]

Anyone else think MacLeod's action looks a little suspect?

 

[stumpski]

You would obviously like your team to win easily against the minnows, but I for one am glad we didn't cruise it by 10 wickets. The middle order need practice too, and KP has got a 50 after not playing for a while.

 

[King Pietersen]

If the team think like you do, then that explains exactly why. Why the **** complain when you don't quite beat Scotland by as big a margin as you think you have the right to? It's not embarrassing, you're ****ing winning.

If we truely harbour hopes of winning the tournament we need to be beating sides like Scotland in a far more convincing manner. The nature of the performance was embarassing, we'd have been hammered by a decent side playing like that. Typical England.

 

[grecian]

If we truly harbour hopes of winning the tournament we need to be beating sides like Scotland in a far more convincing manner. The nature of the performance was embarassing, we'd have been hammered by a decent side playing like that. Typical England.

Do we, seriously? I'd be happy not to be humiliated to be honest

 

[Uppercut]

If we truely harbour hopes of winning the tournament we need to be beating sides like Scotland in a far more convincing manner. The nature of the performance was embarassing, we'd have been hammered by a decent side playing like that. Typical England.

Bull****. You don't conquer tournaments by winning the straightforward games comfortably. You just find a way to win whoever you're up against.

Or can no team who "only" beats Scotland by six wickets possibly beat someone better?

 

[Manee]

Bull****. You don't conquer tournaments by winning the straightforward games comfortably. You just find a way to win whoever you're up against.

Or can no team who "only" beats Scotland by six wickets possibly beat someone better?

Very interesting debate, it must be said.

 

[King Pietersen]

Do we, seriously? I'd be happy not to be humiliated to be honest

Well, us fans don't honestly believe we can, especially with the group of death awaiting us if we get through the Group Stages, but I'd presume that the England camp believe they can win the tournament.

Bull****. You don't conquer tournaments by winning the straightforward games comfortably. You just find a way to win whoever you're up against.

Or can no team who "only" beats Scotland by six wickets possibly beat someone better?

I beg to differ. I've not checked the records, but I'd be pretty confident in presuming that generally the teams that perform very well throughout competitions gain more than convincing wins against the Associate sides. Australia certainly wouldn't have been happy with a performance like that against Scotland. Scotland are arguably the worst side in the competition, so England, who are ranked far higher in the competition, should be expecting to beat them convincingly. Sure on paper it looks like a convincing win, but the nature of the performance was incredibly disappointing. Maybe I'm being a little harsh on Scotland, but personally I'd like to see England playing a heck of alot better, against a side on the level of the Scots, and if we play like that against one of the top sides we would get hammered, simple as.

 

[jondavluc]

Very interesting debate, it must be said.

*Grabs Popcorn*

 

[Uppercut]

Well, us fans don't honestly believe we can, especially with the group of death awaiting us if we get through the Group Stages, but I'd presume that the England camp believe they can win the tournament.



I beg to differ. I've not checked the records, but I'd be pretty confident in presuming that generally the teams that perform very well throughout competitions gain more than convincing wins against the Associate sides. Australia certainly wouldn't have been happy with a performance like that against Scotland. Scotland are arguably the worst side in the competition, so England, who are ranked far higher in the competition, should be expecting to beat them convincingly. Sure on paper it looks like a convincing win, but the nature of the performance was incredibly disappointing. Maybe I'm being a little harsh on Scotland, but personally I'd like to see England playing a heck of alot better, against a side on the level of the Scots, and if we play like that against one of the top sides we would get hammered, simple as.

Of the teams who made the semis in the 2007 ODI world cup,

South Africa were bowled out for 192 in their first warm-up against Ireland, needing a major bail-out from their bowlers to take the match by 35 runs. They then lost fairly convincingly to Pakistan by seven wickets.

Australia utterly thumped Zimbabwe and England. As Australia do.

New Zealand suffered a shock two-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in their first warm-up, before recovering to beat Sri Lanka by 18 runs. Sri Lanka did convincingly beat Scotland before this defeat, however.

The two big winners in the warm-up games were India and Pakistan. India set 300 against the Netherlands to win by 182 runs, then knocked over West Indies for 85 for another extremely comfortable win. Pakistan, meanwhile, comfortably conquered Canada on Duckworth-Lewis before the excellent display in their final game against South Africa. Let me know how the tournament went for those guys.

P.S. I can't find any info on the first world T20 warm-ups, but if anyone could it'd be interesting to see how everyone did.

 

[King Pietersen]

Proves my point then doesn't it? Unless I've completely mis-read it. In the main, the big sides managed more than convincing wins against the associate nations and in the warm-ups as a whole. England did not perform well today. The result on paper looks convincing, but the performance itself was very, very poor considering the high standards set against the Windies earlier in the summer. I was expecting a very good performance from England today, to give us some momentum going into the tournament, but this performance just nailed home the fact that England aren't good enough to win the tournament, unless by some miracle we see massive improvement.

 

[Uppercut]

Proves my point then doesn't it? Unless I've completely mis-read it. In the main, the big sides managed more than convincing wins against the associate nations and in the warm-ups as a whole. England did not perform well today. The result on paper looks convincing, but the performance itself was very, very poor considering the high standards set against the Windies earlier in the summer. I was expecting a very good performance from England today, to give us some momentum going into the tournament, but this performance just nailed home the fact that England aren't good enough to win the tournament, unless by some miracle we see massive improvement.

You may have missed, these were warm-ups for the ODI world cup. I looked for T20 WC warm-ups, but couldn't find any- if you manage to, do a similar analysis. Could be interesting.

 

[King Pietersen]

Ah got ya, I thought those were the warm ups for the T20 WC, my mistake :P I guess I may be wrong then, I just presumed that the more ruthless, successful sides like your Australia's, South Africa's and Sri Lanka's would have dominated the weaker sides in ODi's and then carried that momentum through to the rest of the tournament.

Even though I've been somewhat proven wrong on that aspect, I am still very disappointed by England's performance, and still am of the firm belief that we need to drastically improve if we're going to have any hope of getting through the Super 8's (should we get there of course, which I am expecting us to). No disrespect intended towards the Associate nations, but if the England camp do realistically think we can win this tournament, they're going to have to perform alot better than that. Only Pietersen and Sidebottom shone, with Morgan and Bopara performing decently without being brilliant, which just won't be enough against the top sides, Pietersen can't continue to carry this side, especially in a format he's not too strong in.

 

[Uppercut]

Ah got ya, I thought those were the warm ups for the T20 WC, my mistake :P I guess I may be wrong then, I just presumed that the more ruthless, successful sides like your Australia's, South Africa's and Sri Lanka's would have dominated the weaker sides in ODi's and then carried that momentum through to the rest of the tournament.

Even though I've been somewhat proven wrong on that aspect, I am still very disappointed by England's performance, and still am of the firm belief that we need to drastically improve if we're going to have any hope of getting through the Super 8's (should we get there of course, which I am expecting us to). No disrespect intended towards the Associate nations, but if the England camp do realistically think we can win this tournament, they're going to have to perform alot better than that. Only Pietersen and Sidebottom shone, with Morgan and Bopara performing decently without being brilliant, which just won't be enough against the top sides, Pietersen can't continue to carry this side, especially in a format he's not too strong in.

The result of the matches is immaterial, in a way. It's what you take from that matters. Crushing an exceptionally weak team wouldn't have done them much good. If they've discovered they need to improve or go back to the drawing board on their approach, then it's been a success.