Super Eight

[pup11]

Good chance for Freddie to get a decent hit out in the middle.

 

[Prince EWS]

That was some innings from Bell, bring Straussy in for Bell.

Slow innings against Ireland or not, as I said already, Bell is infinitely better at one day cricket than Strauss.

 

[Loony BoB]

Seven bowlers used now, not entirely sure why as at least four of their bowlers have had a pretty good eco and the other three have already bowled 17 overs between them (the 7th bowler only just having been brought on).

Ranka should have his final three, Botha his final four, three more for McCallan... that's ten overs. Johnston wasn't bad (at least it doesn't seem so) and he's got five left. That'd make the final 15 overs.

 

[stumpski]

Ireland are a bit of an unknown quantity with the bat aren't they? They've only batted first once (making 183-8 in 48 vs West Indies) so 240-250 could well prove to be beyond them. They struggled to make 132 vs Pakistan, remember.

 

[pup11]

In the only game the Irish played against England they scored 263 chasing England's total of 301.


Obviously the conditions today are pretty different from that game.

 

[grecian]

Slow innings against Ireland or not, as I said already, Bell is infinitely better at one day cricket than Strauss.

Yes, Strauss isn't great, but IMO your utterly wrong there.

No-one expects Bell to hit it out of the stadium, but he seems utterly clueless in rotating the strike, and keeping innings ticking along, he never translates his scores into big innings either. He's utterly unfit for purpose as a one-day player. He manages to stagnate every England innings where he gets more then 20 runs.

Worse then a waste-of-space, I actually hope he gets out early each time, TBH.

 

[stumpski]

I'd sooner see Mal Loye in there than Bell, but as we know they want to keep the OD side as close to the Test side as possible.So it's only Cook, Hoggard and Read/Jones who miss out at this level.

Flintoff has gone past 3000 runs in ODIs, only seven others have done it for England - although some of Fred's have been for the World XI.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Yes, Strauss isn't great, but IMO your utterly wrong there.

No-one expects Bell to hit it out of the stadium, but he seems utterly clueless in rotating the strike, and keeping innings ticking along, he never translates his scores into big innings either. He's utterly unfit for purpose as a one-day player. He manages to stagnate every England innings where he gets more then 20 runs.

Worse then a waste-of-space, I actually hope he gets out early each time, TBH.

To be fair to Bell there was a stat trotted out on TMS where of his 9 50s, England won 7 of those matches and 1 was rained off.

But today he was dire.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yes, Strauss isn't great, but IMO your utterly wrong there.

No-one expects Bell to hit it out of the stadium, but he seems utterly clueless in rotating the strike, and keeping innings ticking along, he never translates his scores into big innings either. He's utterly unfit for purpose as a one-day player. He manages to stagnate every England innings where he gets more then 20 runs.

Worse then a waste-of-space, I actually hope he gets out early each time, TBH.

Agree to disagree about Bell, I suppose. He's never going to be a top class ODI performer, but he's not even close to as bad as you make out.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Dire performance from England here. If you are 4 down after 43 overs against a true minnow, then you would definetley want to have more than 192 on the board.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Piece of stats (inspired by Cricinfo showing fours and sixes on their live stats):

"Ran runs" - New Zealand and England
Collingwood: 1861 from 3833 balls = 48.55 %
Pietersen: 831 from 1882 balls = 44.15 %
Vaughan: 1021 from 2722 balls = 37.50 %
Joyce: 241 from 688 balls = 35.02 %
Bell: 574 from 1824 balls = 31.46 %
Flintoff: 909 from 3440 balls = 26.42 %

...

Vettori: 854 from 1607 = 53.14 %
H. Marshall: 970 from 1915 = 50.65 %
Styris: 1729 from 3699 = 46.74 %
Fulton 500 from 1122 = 44.56 %
McCullum: 851 from 1921 = 44.29 %
McMillan: 2664 from 6082 = 43.80 %
Oram: 753 from 1831 = 41.12 %
Fleming: 4288 from 11038 = 38.84 %

It should be pretty clear why New Zealand win one-dayers...

 

[Prince EWS]

It gets harder and harder to believe that England beat Australia two games in a row in Australia just recently, given the way each team has played in this tournament.

Credit to the Irish bowlers though - they've been accurate and disciplined even if innocuous.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Paul Collingwood is so gun.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Well the good thing for England is the top order have played the middle and lower order into form.

 

[stumpski]

Collingwood run out ... and on 90 with 4 balls to go, he was in with a shout of a 100.

 

[Prince EWS]

A bit of a sidenote... but Andrew White - I've never seen anyone professing to be a spinner to turn the ball less. In fact, I genuinely think it would be impossible. He doesn't turn the bowl one iota, his action lends to the fact that he's at least trying to. I realise he's more of a batsman who bowls, but really, it's quite remarkable for a spinner at any level to get absolutely no spin.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Chris Gayle doesn't spin it.

 

[LA ICE-E]

is it an impossible target for ireland to get? they got to 260's last time they played england...

 

[Prince EWS]

Chris Gayle doesn't spin it.

I've seen Gayle spin it. Most often, he just doesn't try to, but when he tosses it up a bit more, it does turn. White gets zero spin, every ball.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Yes Jimmy