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*Official* England in South Africa

longtom

School Boy/Girl Captain
I'm a bit lost, I thought I was watching South Africa v England, but now I can only see South Africans on the field? :blink:
Standing joke...

Question:
Where does the English Cricket team stay on their tour in SA.

Answer:
With their parents....

I am glad this slogfest is over and we are starting to see some decent cricket (hopefully).
 

tooextracool

International Coach
Problem with Cook is that hes primarily a leg side player, if you angle the ball across him, he struggles to get bat on ball let alone score runs because he plays with a straightish bat. South Africa bowled poorly to him yesterday and he ended up getting a lot of leg side balls to thrash but he's not going to be so fortunate in the future.

Denly on the other hand has a shocking t20 record. What on earth he is doing in a t20i shirt is beyond me.

On the bowling, I think Wright should never be allowed to come close to bowling in t20 cricket. I am not sure why they give him the ball every game despite the fact that he is taken to the cleaners in every one of his games bar none.

On Adil Rashid, I've expressed before that leg spinners, with the exception of a Warne or Kumble, should not be playing in this format of the game. Few wrist spin bowlers have the requisite accuracy to succeed in this format or the ability to counter a batter who is in the zone.

If Sidebottom is fit, England are really making a mess of it by not picking him in the limited over formats. He's certainly miles ahead of Bresnan and Saj. If Bresnan is to play, he should really be playing in Luke Wright's current role, which is as a bit part player rather than a player who can be counted on to deliver his full quota of overs in limited overs cricket.
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
I disagree with you about Wright's bowling. He was the least worst of England's bowlers, Jimmy aside. When apportioning blame for the carnage I wouldn't start with him by any means.
 
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Jarquis

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yeah agreeing with Zaremba here, from what I saw he was getting his yorkers in alright or at least trying towhich is more than can be said for some/most others. Besides his first over he did well tbh.
 

Woodster

International Captain
Yes a pretty dismal effort from England yesterday, althoguh great credit for the way they struck the ball so cleanly, must go to Bosman and Smith. England struggled to find their yorkers, and at times were some way from the required length, yet SA barely missed an opportunity to deposit them well onto the grassy hills. From that point on it was pretty much game over. On the England bowlers front, it is difficult to find any that will be pleased with how they bowled.

The two seemingly coming in for the criticism is Saj Mahmood and Adil Rashid. With Rashid, it was obviously going to be difficult coming on to bowl at two set batsmen on a small ground with minimal spin. I certainly didn't think it was a particularly bad decision before the game, with Swann being out, it is always nice to have a spinner, but Smith got hold of him, which can happen in this form, and that was that.

Mahmood, I'm going to continue to support him and hope he improves in the ODI's. It is difficult to judge in this slogfest of a format, and should he be treated with such disdain in the 50 over games then maybe I'll re-assess his ODI credentials. Perhaps too many slower balls for me, I'm aware he does possess a good change of pace, but the SA batsmen were picking him, why try a bouncer at 70mph when you can deliver one in excess of 90mph ?

The batting never really got going, and it was always going to be beyond us to knock that off. Frustrating then that our main matchwinner KP (although a lack of game time may have neutralised his usual threat) did not get in till half the overs were gone, and Morgan, match-winner from the first T20, did not arrive till near the end.

Trott's was a decent innings, but we needed much more in terms of strike rate to realistically chase the total down. He seemed content to work the ball around. when overs of 15 runs were needed. Perhaps it was a case of writing this particular game off and getting some time in the middle before the more serious business of the ODI's gets underway. Probably fair enough.
 

Woodster

International Captain
Problem with Cook is that hes primarily a leg side player, if you angle the ball across him, he struggles to get bat on ball let alone score runs because he plays with a straightish bat. South Africa bowled poorly to him yesterday and he ended up getting a lot of leg side balls to thrash but he's not going to be so fortunate in the future.

Denly on the other hand has a shocking t20 record. What on earth he is doing in a t20i shirt is beyond me.

On the bowling, I think Wright should never be allowed to come close to bowling in t20 cricket. I am not sure why they give him the ball every game despite the fact that he is taken to the cleaners in every one of his games bar none.

On Adil Rashid, I've expressed before that leg spinners, with the exception of a Warne or Kumble, should not be playing in this format of the game. Few wrist spin bowlers have the requisite accuracy to succeed in this format or the ability to counter a batter who is in the zone.

If Sidebottom is fit, England are really making a mess of it by not picking him in the limited over formats. He's certainly miles ahead of Bresnan and Saj. If Bresnan is to play, he should really be playing in Luke Wright's current role, which is as a bit part player rather than a player who can be counted on to deliver his full quota of overs in limited overs cricket.

Certainly in Cook's case I don't think he should be anywhere near a T20 side, but still think he has the ability to improve his 50 over record, and be a regular member of the ODI side. Again, you wonder how seriously these T20's games are taken by England, it could be a case of letting Cook play in these to try and help improve his innovative side so that he can compete much better in ODI's. With the 20 over game you need to be scoring off every ball and if he can improve his rotation of the strike, surely his 50 over game will improve. Just a thought.

Luke Wright- I can understand his T20 and ODI inclusions in the squad, but Test side ?? Not happy about that. A useful LO bowler I think who did land his yorkers more frequently than most yesterday, and has displayed in the past a character that does perform under pressure.
 

Uppercut

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On Adil Rashid, I've expressed before that leg spinners, with the exception of a Warne or Kumble, should not be playing in this format of the game. Few wrist spin bowlers have the requisite accuracy to succeed in this format or the ability to counter a batter who is in the zone.
I don't agree with this at all. Poor accuracy is much less likely to be punished in a T20 or ODI game than it is in a test match. Particularly in T20, so many shots are pre-meditated. Look at Johann Botha- shocking control of line and poor control of length- a fantastically effective limited overs bowler.

The key is variation, and leg-spinners generally have much more to call upon than finger-spinners. Obviously not everyone is a Warne or a Kumble, but decent leggies like Amit Mishra (avg 17 econ 6.95), Imran Tahir (avg 23, econ. 6.14), Danish Kaneria (avg 18, econ. 7.19) and Piyush Chawla (avg 21, econ. 7.33) can all hold their own.

In any case, there's no reason to exclude them from selection just because they're leg-spinners. Someone like Mishra or Kaneria is no less accurate than your average finger-spinner, but their method of bowling leads people to make assumptions about them very quickly.

Ha, almost forgot to mention that Adil Rashid is useless. Shouldn't really be playing any form of the game for England itbt.
 
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Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I am probably biased and I do understand his omission from the 50 overs side but surley Dimi is worth a spot in the 20twenty team am prepared to say he is a better bowler in that format than anyone who played yesterday. (I know that is not saying a great deal)
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
Why is Mahmood even in the squad? I don't even want him in the Lancashire team.
Had a pretty decent List A season for Lancashire tbf. Whether or not it works out for him this time, I don't think it's necessarily a terrible decision, given the paucity of good One Day quicks in England.
 

Pup Clarke

Cricketer Of The Year
Look at Johann Botha- shocking control of line and poor control of length- a fantastically effective limited overs bowler.
I don't know where you get this theory from, because his lines and length's are nowhere near as bad as you make them sound.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
I don't know where you get this theory from, because his lines and length's are nowhere near as bad as you make them sound.
Inclined to agree. I think he chucks every ball er, rather reserve judgements about his action, but his control looks pretty good whenever I've seen him "bowl".
 

Uppercut

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He bowls a lot of full tosses, probably the result of bowling such a full length at variable pace. I'm sure he could show better control if he tried to, but the point is that he doesn't suffer for it anywhere near as much as he would in test cricket. Inaccuracy in an ODI spinner is underrated I reckon.
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
Had a pretty decent List A season for Lancashire tbf.
In a poor List A competition as we have debated before.

Whether or not it works out for him this time, I don't think it's necessarily a terrible decision, given the paucity of good One Day quicks in England.
It is a terrible decision, the selectors are fools. I dont know what they could have seen in Mahmood's bowling that showed any improvement for Lancs. The paucity of good ODI quicks meant the selectos should have just stuck with the limited quality thats seem decent to good, in Anderson/broad/Sidebottom etc thats have had reasonable results.-

Mahmood & Onions should be nowhere near the ODI & T20 set-up MY GOD. Sidebottom & Mascarenhas should clearly have been in those squads.
 

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