*Official* England Tour of West Indies 2019

[Beamer]

Carlos B really impressed me with his test knocks down here a few years ago. How come he's just a white ball biffer now

Edit - I see he took 1 wicket to go with his 3 fifties in the 3 tests he played. Interesting conundrum for a bowling all rounder.

He made our bowlers look pretty toothless though when they ran through the rest of his side

I honestly think that WC final and demand for T20 has ruined his development.

He was an accurate medium fast bowler who batted like a lesser version of Jason Holder. He took his time to get in and then played proper shots, scoring quickly like he did in Australia.

But now he tries to hit sixes early but can't and his bowling just hadn't developed.

 

[weldone]

I honestly think that WC final and demand for T20 has ruined his development.

He was an accurate medium fast bowler who batted like a lesser version of Jason Holder. He took his time to get in and then played proper shots, scoring quickly like he did in Australia.

But now he tries to hit sixes early but can't and his bowling just hadn't developed.

good points

 

[Daemon]

Apparently yesterday Stokes was the first English bowler to be called for overstepping in ODIs in over 11,000 deliveries. Quite a remarkable stat.

 

[Beamer]

Apparently yesterday Stokes was the first English bowler to be called for overstepping in ODIs in over 11,000 deliveries. Quite a remarkable stat.

This England side is seriously impressive. Their discipline is superb and their batting stupidly strong. Their bowling is actually not great IMHO but they make up for it with discipline, fielding and batting strength.

 

[Zinzan]

Great performance by the Windies, and although it was a god-awful chase given England's resources, it doesn't suddenly make them a bad side.

That said, a couple of early wickets could really throw them off the all out attacking approach which has worked so well for them. Are they able to reassess to aiming for a 260-270 kind of score if the wicket isn't great or they do lose 2-3 early?

 

[Woodster]

Great performance by the Windies, and although it was a god-awful chase given England's resources, it doesn't suddenly make them a bad side.

That said, a couple of early wickets could really throw them off the all out attacking approach which has worked so well for them. Are they able to reassess to aiming for a 260-270 kind of score if the wicket isn't great or they do lose 2-3 early?

It was a chase Engand had under full control until a couple of tame dismissals when we were cantering, that was the disappointing aspect.

A couple of early wickets tends not to change England's approach and that can lead to us being bowled out cheaply on occasions, just hope it's not a knockout game when that occurs.

 

[vcs]

Yeah I think their general approach tends to be "live by the sword, die by it". Think they've been bowled out early with overs to spare on some occasions.

 

[Woodster]

Yes it's a difficult one, it's that ultra positive approach in all situations that has seen our ODI form improve beyond all expectations so it's difficult to be too critical when the odd time it does inevitably blow up in our faces.

But in the last ODI I thought we were managing the chase expertly without over attacking and then natural instinct seem to kick in and we threw it away. That's going to be the main challenge for this batting unit when the World Cup comes along, esepcially if we do have a couple of juicy pitches over here.

As for the bowling, that continues to be a work in progress. The likes of Woakes and the Currans do become more of a threat on our pitches with a bit of movement around, so I can't see any major changes ahead of the World Cup, Joffra Archer may be the only 'surprise' inclusion.

 

[weldone]

There's nothing wrong with the approach from top 6. However, after losing 5 wickets within half overs any side must re-assess. Moeen is not fit for that kind of change, Woakes is. So in some situations England must consider sending Woakes ahead of Moeen.

 

[Woodster]

There's nothing wrong with the approach from top 6. However, after losing 5 wickets within half overs any side must re-assess. Moeen is not fit for that kind of change, Woakes is. So in some situations England must consider sending Woakes ahead of Moeen.

The approach of the top 6 is an admirable and entertaining one. It's difficult on the occasions where the batting aggression doesn't work to ask your bowling all-rounders/bowlers to then bat properly having seen the actual batsman play with gay abandon, hence I think they just keep going hard.

If there comes a time when expansive strokeplay isn't as easy as doing it on the flat decks and the pitch is doing plenty then I would expect at least a couple of the batsmen to take responsibility and bat accordingly. We've seen Buttler and Stokes do it recently in Test cricket where they were forced to dig in and go against their natural instincts and to great effect.

Collapses do happen and when they do and England keep going hard they will come under some criticism, but it is this approach that has seen us win some wonderful games. At least it looks like we have a clear mindset and strategy unlike the days of yesteryear.

 

[Andy1993]

There's nothing wrong with the approach from top 6. However, after losing 5 wickets within half overs any side must re-assess. Moeen is not fit for that kind of change, Woakes is. So in some situations England must consider sending Woakes ahead of Moeen.

same in the test series, when at times it was obvious that Foakes should have been sent in ahead of Moeen

 

[BSM]

Woakes has been a solid no.8 for our ODI team in terms of batting. He has scored a few 50+ NOs to help us win/tie games that we looked relatively far from reaching a result (That tied game against SL and a win in the Carribean last time we toured comes to mind). If Curran stays in the team, he is also a good No.9, apparently having averaged 31 in the Big Bash. I've hardly really thought of him as an all-rounder like his brother but he is.

The problem is, a few times we haven't only just underperformed with our main batsmen on occassion, but absolutely capitulated. I think we've been 12-6 vs SA and 8-5 against Aus in the last two years. Granted we managed to get some sort of score in both games (I think Woakes actually scored about 90 against Aus), but both times they were chased down with relative ease, as they should have been. It's hard to eliminate that aspect of our game, when it is ultimately the reason we have won so many in the last few years, and theoretically it can only possibly be a problem in the last two games of the WC, in which you'd hope we'd be more focused anyway. But it is slightly worrying nonetheless. You can have a great batting tail, but if they are basically having to bat from a score of nothing then they aren't going to do much.

 

[Andy1993]

Rain delaying the start of the game....how on earth in this day and age is an ODI being played at a ground with no lights....if play gets to 18:00 local time, then it has to stop there...so D/L will surely already be invovlved!

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

I'm loving this bowling clinic by Tymal Mills.

Trundler, are you watching?

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

England won the toss, bowling first.

No Stokes

 

[BSM]

I'm sorry but why does Hales displace Root at 3? This ruins a large part of our batting lineup's balance ffs. Would much rather have him in the middle order where Stokes was if not opening the batting

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

I'm sorry but why does Hales displace Root at 3? This ruins a large part of our batting lineup's balance ffs. Would much rather have him in the middle order where Stokes was if not opening the batting

Should have slotted in at Ben Stokes' spot

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Oh **** it's raining again

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

That's a decent fish caught by Key

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

And that's a 'proper' fish caught by Bumble: Spanish Mackerel