Group E - England, India, South Africa, West Indies

[R_D]

I hope they don't play Irfan today..... either RP or Parveen Kumar should be given go a today... Pathan's bowling has been medicore so far.

 

[Smith]

A good quote from Dhoni

"You don't need to plan too much for him [Gayle] as you can't have a field positioned outside the ropes,"

 

[GIMH]

Shah > Collingwood

 

[Scaly piscine]

I agree....

If three other England batsmen had done what Shah did - 38 from 33 balls - England would be nearer to 150 than 110!

It would be physically impossible for 3 other batsmen to get as lucky as he did in the same match - and can you imagine two Shahs batting together? Let alone the effect it would have on fielding.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Not to mention the running.

Until he was fed so very juicy full bungers from Botha & Van Der Merwe he looked as if he didn't know where his next boundary was coming from. If he's going to set himself to play through and wait for the bad ball he should to just that; fact is after he'd scored a few to up the run rate he got himself out.

TBF tho no-one else exactly covered themselves in glory either & rather him than Fat Bob or Morgan.

 

[longtom]

and can you imagine two Shahs batting together?

Don't need slomo action replays......

There is more to cricket than one lucky score because you got juicy full tosses to hit. I saw the lad yesterday for the first time and I was amazed how slow he is between the wickets. Makes Kallis look nimble... I am sure that can be worked on?? Why hasn't anybody started ...?

 

[Uppercut]

Taking nothing away from the Saffers in the field. One or two of the English batsmen might want to look at their shot selection which got them out, but aside from that, absolutely faultless from the Saffers in the field.

My gripe has been with Collingwood's captaincy in the field, and to a lesser extent his post match comments. In the field Collingwood didn't look like he believed England could pull off a shock, which he reflected in his post match comments.

It's hard to judge South Africa's batting performance as they spent the entire chase in 2nd gear, however, England at no point forced them to try and find a higher gear.

The openers and Shah all got absolute jaffas and KP fell to a wonder-catch. When you're 25/3 and tightarses like van der Merwe and Botha come on you kinda need some irresponsible shots to have a chance. Then there was the fielding (remember Gibbs's almost-run-out?), Jacques Kallis bowling at 90+mph, Parnell not giving away a thing and ending the innings with two yorkers. What the **** did everyone expect England to do? All I hear is bull**** like "should have been more aggressive" or "should have been more responsible". When a team bowls that well, anything short of transforming into Superman and you're ****ed.

Agree re: Colly's captaincy though. Was screaming at the TV to get a ****ing slip in. Defending 112 on a fast pitch with an outswing bowler on and he didn't have a slip. Poor. Then when he finally put one in in the 17th over he caught a wicket first ball.

 

[Scaly piscine]

I must have been watching different highlights, those three got fairly standard deliveries and had diagonal bat heaves at them.

Wright decided he should swing at 90mph bowlers from ball one. Brainless. England had all that pace on the ball, they don't need to take great big swings a it - especially when they've just come in. Rashid at least has an excuse because he's very inexperienced, the rest aren't.

England built themselves a platform at 70odd for 3 to set a score that at least gave their bowlers a chance. Instead they then threw 5 wickets away in 2-3 overs with thoughtless batting.

 

[Uppercut]

I must have been watching different highlights, those three got fairly standard deliveries and had diagonal bat heaves at them.

Wright decided he should swing at 90mph bowlers from ball one. Brainless. England had all that pace on the ball, they don't need to take great big swings a it - especially when they've just come in. Rashid at least has an excuse because he's very inexperienced, the rest aren't.

England built themselves a platform at 70odd for 3 to set a score that at least gave their bowlers a chance. Instead they then threw 5 wickets away in 2-3 overs with thoughtless batting.

They played aggressive shots in T20 cricket? What fools!

Steyn's ball to Bopara was a beast, starting wide and luring the batsman into the cut before cutting back in with a little bit less pace. The one that got Wright was awesome too- good full length, inviting the batsman to drive before seaming away late and taking the edge. Swinging from ball one is his job description too tbf, every team needs someone to do that in the powerplays and hope it comes off. The Shah-hate must make it impossible to explain why Kallis's 90mph leg-cutter on off-stump was a good ball, so i won't bother doing that.

Everyone points to something in cricket when their team loses. Shouldn't have picked this guy, should have used different tactics, should have had a fielder here or been more aggressive/less aggressive. Sometimes you should just accept that you were playing a team on a completely differently level to you.

 

[BoyBrumby]

They played aggressive shots in T20 cricket? What fools!

Steyn's ball to Bopara was a beast, starting wide and luring the batsman into the cut before cutting back in with a little bit less pace. The one that got Wright was awesome too- good full length, inviting the batsman to drive before seaming away late and taking the edge. Swinging from ball one is his job description too tbf, every team needs someone to do that in the powerplays and hope it comes off. The Shah-hate must make it impossible to explain why Kallis's 90mph leg-cutter on off-stump was a good ball, so i won't bother doing that.

Everyone points to something in cricket when their team loses. Shouldn't have picked this guy, should have used different tactics, should have had a fielder here or been more aggressive/less aggressive. Sometimes you should just accept that you were playing a team on a completely differently level to you.

Agree & disagree, really. Obviously if you're (say) a Scotland fan you have be realistic about your expectations and accept that defeats will on occasion be inevitable, but the old cliche about learning more in defeat than in victory comes to mind. One looks for hints of class or for who can or cannot perform under the gun.

I think it's fair enough to criticise a bloke who hasn't performed as one might've hoped; Rashid's "close eyes and swing wildly from the hips" batting technique might require adjustment if he's to prosper at international level and Collingwood's captaincy reminds one why it was a relief he gave it away in the first place.

Also wouldn't accept SA are on a totally different level to us; they're better, yes, but we should make more of a fist of things than we did.

 

[Scaly piscine]

They played aggressive shots in T20 cricket? What fools!

Steyn's ball to Bopara was a beast, starting wide and luring the batsman into the cut before cutting back in with a little bit less pace. The one that got Wright was awesome too- good full length, inviting the batsman to drive before seaming away late and taking the edge. Swinging from ball one is his job description too tbf, every team needs someone to do that in the powerplays and hope it comes off. The Shah-hate must make it impossible to explain why Kallis's 90mph leg-cutter on off-stump was a good ball, so i won't bother doing that.

Everyone points to something in cricket when their team loses. Shouldn't have picked this guy, should have used different tactics, should have had a fielder here or been more aggressive/less aggressive. Sometimes you should just accept that you were playing a team on a completely differently level to you.

You pick the right balls to try and hit boundaries off. You don't just indiscriminately waft at everything unless your name is Shahid Afridi. England didn't do that as well as executing shots badly. Wright just swung at everything, producing dots and eventually getting out.

 

[Uppercut]

Agree & disagree, really. Obviously if you're (say) a Scotland fan you have be realistic about your expectations and accept that defeats will on occasion be inevitable, but the old cliche about learning more in defeat than in victory comes to mind. One looks for hints of class or for who can or cannot perform under the gun.

I think it's fair enough to criticise a bloke who hasn't performed as one might've hoped; Rashid's "close eyes and swing wildly from the hips" batting technique might require adjustment if he's to prosper at international level and Collingwood's captaincy reminds one why it was a relief he gave it away in the first place.

Also wouldn't accept SA are on a totally different level to us; they're better, yes, but we should make more of a fist of things than we did.

I don't mean SA are on a totally different level to you in general, but yesterday they most certainly were. England quite simply aren't capable of matching that performance in the field. Noone is, in fact.

It's not like there's nothing to take from a loss but "we're not as good as them" of course, but all we got on CW was "Inglen r joke lolz at inglen."

 

[Steulen]

I don't mean SA are on a totally different level to you in general, but yesterday they most certainly were. England quite simply aren't capable of matching that performance in the field. Noone is, in fact.

It's not like there's nothing to take from a loss but "we're not as good as them" of course, but all we got on CW was "Inglen r joke lolz at inglen."

DWTBBA. I thought NZ were more than a match for SA in the field in their group match. Will accept that both teams are exceptional in that respect.

 

[longtom]

DWTBBA. I thought NZ were more than a match for SA in the field in their group match. Will accept that both teams are exceptional in that respect.

Agree on that one. I was really impressed by their fielding. Fielding and running between wickets is something you can work on how low your resources and the amount of talent availble might be in other aspects of the game. This is, why I can't understand nobody has worked with Shah on that before - or so it appears. I remember Harris - he was really hopeless when I first saw him. He's still no Jonty - but certainly acceptable now, taking his frame into account. He got there through hard work and dedication - and a lot of help from the coaching staff.

NZ are a good outfit on a day - they just need to string a couple of really good performances together....

 

[Uppercut]

DWTBBA. I thought NZ were more than a match for SA in the field in their group match. Will accept that both teams are exceptional in that respect.

Certainly, New Zealand are a fantastic fielding side. But i mean the whole picture; New Zealand's quicks aren't in the same league as Parnell and Steyn.

 

[Uppercut]

Fantastic line on South Africa's performance yesterday on cricinfo:

Jonty Rhodes seemed to have come back from retirement and to be fielding in about eight positions

 

[R_D]

This is good... India batting first.

 

[R_D]

What a fantastic short delivery by Taylor... Gauti had no idea.

 

[Shri]

Sharma gone. IND 12-1 atm. Raina hopefully to come in at 3.

 

[R_D]

Yeah.. good to see Raina come in.