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**Official** Sri Lanka in England / Scotland - 2011

Howe_zat

Howe_zat

Audio File
Cricinfo are still adamant that Morgan won't play.

England Lions v Sri Lankans: Eoin Morgan ton unlikely to help Test cause | England Lions v Sri Lankans, Derby, 1st day Report | Cricket News | ESPN Cricinfo

However, anything that happens in this match is unlikely to have a bearing on the England squad for Cardiff which will be named on Sunday. Geoff Miller, the national selector, and coach Andy Flower were both in attendance but this management group don't make last-minute decisions.


The momentum has grown behind Ravi Bopara in recent weeks as he has found form in the Championship so his scratchy 17, while a missed opportunity to impress, won't have been a deciding factor in his immediate future.
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This makes no sense, surely? If we're saying that they don't go back on themselves - which by and large I agree on - why would they drop Morgan now? Bopara's been given nothing public and he hasn't played a Test for nearly two years ffs.
 
Howe_zat

Howe_zat

Audio File
In fact, whoever wrote that report, it would seem, is being utterly moronic. In addition to the tea-time headline from earlier, we have him making excuses for Bopara:

Having watched the runs flow, Bopara will know he missed out. He had to bat when conditions were at their toughest after Sri Lanka won the toss but he never settled. Jayawardene dropped him at second slip on 4 then the visitors were convinced he'd edged behind on 8. They didn't have to wait long, though, as Bopara flashed a cut at Fernando and edged to the wicketkeeper. Unlike Morgan, the major question marks over Bopara are regarding temperament.
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Yeah, it was all conditions. I'm sure the difference between making 19 despite being getting lucky twice and making 156* at nearly a run a ball was conditions, after all Morgan must have come in about an hour or so after Bopara was out. The only question is his temperament. He couldn't have just been crap today or anything.

Later on, he describes Patel and Morgan's partnership as "consolidating". Eh? Unless I've been massively misinformed they put on over 200 fricking runs in a session. Less "consolidating", more "battering" in my book.

Edit - I know I wasn't there, btw, but I've been speaking to people who were and this just doesn't seem right to me.
 
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Lostman

Lostman

State Captain
A first choice test attack going at 4.5 RPO and giving up 400 runs in a day against an A side.:sick:

I don't care what the wickets looks like for the tests, if SL wins the toss and decide to bowl first it is a cop out.
 
Jacknife

Jacknife

International Captain
Howe_zat said:
In fact, whoever wrote that report, it would seem, is being utterly moronic. In addition to the tea-time headline from earlier, we have him making excuses for Bopara:

Yeah, it was all conditions. I'm sure the difference between making 19 despite being getting lucky twice and making 156* at nearly a run a ball was conditions, after all Morgan must have come in about an hour or so after Bopara was out. The only question is his temperament. He couldn't have just been crap today or anything.

Later on, he describes Patel and Morgan's partnership as "consolidating". Eh? Unless I've been massively misinformed they put on over 200 fricking runs in a session. Less "consolidating", more "battering" in my book.

Edit - I know I wasn't there, btw, but I've been speaking to people who were and this just doesn't seem right to me.
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He must be a bit of a Ravi fanboy, in fact McGlashan is, isn't he.
From the person who I've spoke to, they were really impressed with Taylor's knock, considering he isn't a opener by trade. Apparently there was a fair bit of swing this morning and it was a fairly green pitch, even so, Taylor was meant to have looked very good against the new ball and will be disappointed to get out when he had done all the hard work.
Mentioned as the day went on the bowling got quite poor, especially the seamers. By the sounds of it Morgans' innings was pretty much flawless, with his usual high quality shots on display and Patel backed him up and played well himself.
 
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Furball

Furball

Evil Scotsman
Congrats to both Morgan and Fat Sam, who passed 3,000 and 5,000 First Class runs respectively, in their innings.

Also, "momentum swinging behind Bopara" - really? He's had an above average start to the season in Division 2, he's hardly peeled off tons at will all season long.
 
Howe_zat

Howe_zat

Audio File
And as I said, he didn't even have a brilliant start to the season. He's just had a good few matches.

The only reason for picking Bopara was current form, and Morgan's just shown he's the man for that too now.
 
T

tooextracool

International Coach
Cant say that I'm not disappointed by the fact that a player that has been found out on two separate occasions in International cricket is being given another go. I'm not exactly sold on Morgan either, but one would think that he is the more logical option given that he wasn't an out and out failure during his only test run and that he has been successful in the other formats of the international arena.

I'm actually more curious about the cases of Samit Patel and James Hildreth. Seems to me from what I've heard and read is that the 2 of them have more potential of forging a successful test match career than the two being considered at the moment.

Also will be interested in seeing how the Lions bowlers do. My thoughts are that Onions and Shahzad are better options in England than Broad or Bresnan, though I don't think that will ever materialize to mean anything.
 
Spark

Spark

Global Moderator
What about James Taylor? Looks like Morgan will get the dig, biiiig partnership that.
 
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BoyBrumby

BoyBrumby

Englishman
I think, for Loins games to be of any benefit except getting the oppo's eyes in, a bloke outscoring his main rival by so much has to be a game changer.

Ravi did the right thing by not going to the IPL, etc, but it'd be such an old-fashioned, jobs for the boys type selection to go for him. Hopefully Dusty & co will make the kind of hard-nosed call that the two Andys made in dropping our leading wicket taker for the 4th Ashes test.
 
K

keeper

U19 Vice-Captain
Strange comments from cricinfo as I never imagined Bopara was in the frame and assumed Morgan would be given a chance (dubious myself but these selectors do give the next in line a good run in the team).

I suppose we can't ignore the possibility that cricinfo are making informed comments. It seems to depend on what conversations took place behind the scenes about IPL. If Flower took a hard line then, it could well be true that they won't back down after yesterday's innings.

If Morgan isn't selected I hope it's not Bopara. Thought this squad was a done deal. Will await the selection news with interest now.
 
Spark

Spark

Global Moderator
On the plus side it'll make a few people down here feel a bit better about themselves if we see massive scores racked up with even more merriness than we did in the series that shall not be named.
 
GIMH

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
193, not too shabby

If Bopara gets the gig it will be scandalous.

Good to see Onions back as well. Hopefully he has a good season and we've got another top-class quick pushing for contention.
 
Howe_zat

Howe_zat

Audio File
Morgan out for 193 in the end. shame, but I think he's made his point. Godawful tail starting now, Onions in at #9.

And he's out - stumped, no less - with Shahzad having hit a six in the same over. Not hanging around, then.

And declared, 493/8.
 
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shivfan

shivfan

Banned
This is just a one-off match, and yes, Morgan did make a big score in it....

But he's played no county cricket, and has indicated that if he's not in the squad, he's going back to the IPL. That tells me that he's not that serious about playing four-day county cricket right now.

On that basis, I would rather see Bopara, Samit Patel, or any of the Jameses in the side over Morgan....
 
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