*Official* England in Australia (2 T20 & 7 ODIs)

[Jacknife]

Broad's ER is a fair bit above 5. Its hard to think of a regular anywhere in the world with a worse ER than that. Granted he takes wickets, but it shows that hes getting belted around the park while hes doing so, so it all balances out. Anderson does a job, which is take wickets with the new ball especially since he usually gets the white ball to swing (which is important to the side because I think Broad is really only a specialist death bowler) but to suggest that he's a quality bowler when he is averaging 30 @5RPO really highlights both how many poor bowlers there are in ODI cricket at the moment and how we tend to confuse the 2 forms of the game.

When you open and bowl at the death you are going to go for a few runs and to be honest 5.15 is not bad at all. When you compare Broads stats with someone like Steyn, he has much the better return, Steyn goes at 5.27 at 29 average, whereas Broad goes at 5.15 and averages 25. Even one of the best, Waqar Younis went at 4.7 and averaged 24 and he bowled without the power plays etc. So this talk of you won't find a worse ER than that and getting belted around the park is quite frankly wrong. When you look into Anderson stats he's been better than that 30 average shows, he had a terrible 2008 where he averaged 74, but most years he's been around 25 and while Strauss has been Captain he averages 27. I think on the whole around world cricket, there is a lack of really good one day bowlers, which is surprising considering how much they play.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Mildly horrified to read in today's i paper that Prior is going to open today. For God's sake, why? I'd assumed he'd be down around 6/7 to push the spinners around. Prior opening is just crazy talk. Bell & Strauss clearly the go.

 

[GIMH]

My guess would be they haven't decided where to bat him and might try both in the rest of this series

 

[Howe_zat]

FFS. I know I said I could handle the Prior over Davies decision but that was under the assuption that we had other opening partners in Strauss/Bell and Strauss/Trott. Meanwhile, the lower order is questionable with only Morgan the only specialist at 5/6.

Wasn't he also picked as the better player of spin? So we'll stick him in against Tait and Lee?

Prior opening doesn't provide a better partnership than Trott or a faster scorer than Bell. It just pushes more capable batsmen down the order.

Prior needs to find his spot in the order, and quickly. If it works, I won't complain, but come on...

 

[Burgey]

Is Davies injured or something? Surely they haven't dumped him after one game?

 

[GIMH]

They've gone with Prior for the World Cup and as such have decided to do the same for the remainder of the series.

 

[robinjr]

from english P0V i'd take Prior or even Bedwetter over Davis whom looked fairly average so far.And cant see anything wrong with Prior opening either

Strauss
Prior
KP
Bell
C'wood
Morgan

this look very good for me

 

[Burgey]

Is that the general consensus among England fans? I thought there was a fair bit of anti-Prior ODI sentiment about the place.

 

[Top_Cat]

Big win coming for Australia, I reckon. Reckon Lee's warming into leading the pace attack again and I like the look of the batting line-up.

 

[tooextracool]

When you open and bowl at the death you are going to go for a few runs and to be honest 5.15 is not bad at all. When you compare Broads stats with someone like Steyn, he has much the better return, Steyn goes at 5.27 at 29 average, whereas Broad goes at 5.15 and averages 25. So this talk of you won't find a worse ER than that and getting belted around the park is quite frankly wrong. When you look into Anderson stats he's been better than that 30 average shows, he had a terrible 2008 where he averaged 74, but most years he's been around 25 and while Strauss has been Captain he averages 27. I think on the whole around world cricket, there is a lack of really good one day bowlers, which is surprising considering how much they play.

Mate, I hate to break it to you, but Steyn is absolute garbage. The fact that someone like Mitchell Johnson has a better record than Broad and Steyn might just give you an idea about how ordinary these 2 are. You say that opening and bowling at the death is bound to result in a high ER, but what works against them also works for them because opening the bowling and bowling at the death has inflated both of their averages, especially Broad's. It all evens out. You can twist and turn their performances all you want, but there are some pretty ordinary England ODI players out there. Really the consistency of Swann and Morgan should be heralded because without them, they'd struggle to win half as many games as they've won recently.

 

[morgieb]

Australia batting first....if we don't score 300+ we aren't even trying.

 

[Spikey]

clarke 150* off 77 balls.

 

[Spark]

Decent start by the bowlers.

EDIT: And some wild and wooly shots. Is the pitch a bit two-paced?

Yeah that was coming. Big blow that. Silly shot, really.

 

[Burgey]

Australia batting first....if we don't score 300+ we aren't even trying.

LOL... how can you know that before a ball is bowled?

 

[Top_Cat]

clarke 77* off 150 balls.

Indeed.

/lowhangingfruit

4.3


Shahzad to Clarke, 1 run, nipping back in again and it's short of a length, Clarke thrusts the bat forward and gets a single off the inside edge away through square leg

I see someone hasn't been paying attention to a random 17-year-old's thoughts on batting. 'Will fix it in the nets', indeed!

 

[morgieb]

LOL... how can you know that before a ball is bowled?

I don't rate England's bowling tbh. Shahzad and Tremmers are pretty good, the rest....

 

[Spark]

Indeed.

/lowhangingfruit



I see someone hasn't been paying attention to a random 17-year-old's thoughts on batting. 'Will fix it in the nets', indeed!

Nice big gap between bat and pad too.

Ooh jaffa.

Bowling very well England.

 

[Spark]

Hmmm that's a dreadful shot. Didn't get his back leg across at all.

 

[vcs]

Yeah, horrible shot.

 

[Top_Cat]

Shazad moving them back in at pace, I sense early doom for White.