The International Cricket Thread 2018

[paul_e]

Good start from Buttler here but Roy is looking a little out of touch, hasn't quite got his eye in here.

The abysmal misfield to gift him a 4 seems to have completely turned things around for Roy.  He was 7 for 7 when I wrote that, then got 45 from 16 after it.

[PaulWinch again]

Let that slip, will need to bowl really well now.

[paul_e]

Yeah, I think we were about 20 short in the end after our great start so India will have gone on thinking the chase is quite a bit smaller than it should have been.

Since then the bowlers just haven't been able to make the important breakthroughs to leave them with 2 new batters in, they did it to us twice and it changes the game.

[PaulWinch again]

Yeah we definitely finished 20/30 short.

[Villafirst]

Why did Stokes only bowl 2 overs conceding just 11 runs? Jake Ball 3 overs for 39?? Ball nearly lost us the the T20 game at Cardiff - he's shite!!

[Villan For Life]

I thought we really missed having a second spinner. Rashid had control and was economical, Ali tends to offer the same. With Stokes coming back we could have dropped Ball and had a shorter tail with Ali in at 7 and Wiley at 8. We may then have scored another 20 runs that would have made India’s chase difficult.

[paul_e]

I don't get why they keep looking at Ball (across the 3 formats) I've never seen anything to suggests he's more than a decent county player. I struggle with Plunkett as well who, for England, seems to have 1 good game for every 3 poor ones. He's got 1 for 101 in the 3 games this week and questions really should be asked.

[tomd2103]

I don't get why they keep looking at Ball (across the 3 formats) I've never seen anything to suggests he's more than a decent county player. I struggle with Plunkett as well who, for England, seems to have 1 good game for every 3 poor ones. He's got 1 for 101 in the 3 games this week and questions really should be asked.

I suppose Woakes has still got to come back in Paul, but it might be time to have a look at some of the options out there and try a and find some genuine pace.  Willey is a sitting duck in T20s if the ball isn't swinging and as you say, Plunkett doesn't really deliver consistently enough.

[paul_e]

I don't get why they keep looking at Ball (across the 3 formats) I've never seen anything to suggests he's more than a decent county player. I struggle with Plunkett as well who, for England, seems to have 1 good game for every 3 poor ones. He's got 1 for 101 in the 3 games this week and questions really should be asked.

I suppose Woakes has still got to come back in Paul, but it might be time to have a look at some of the options out there and try a and find some genuine pace.  Willey is a sitting duck in T20s if the ball isn't swinging and as you say, Plunkett doesn't really deliver consistently enough.

I don't mind Willey because he's dangerous with the new ball.  I'd love him to be more dangerous later on and I'd really like him to start taking flurries of wikcets in his 'good' phase but he has proven himself capable of breaking opening partnerships regularly and he's good enough with the bat to be picked as part of a 6 man bowling attacking, as are Woakes, Stokes and Moeen. If you add Rashid and Jordan (who offsets Willey by being a solid death bowler) then we're not far away.  Longer term Archer, Sam Curran and Brookes all look like excellent options in the short formats and I'd keep an eye on Parkinson (at Lancs) and Crane as options for leg spin.  Could do with a good off-spinner to cover/replace Moeen but there's not many about from what I've seen.

[cdbearsfan]

Bit disappointing but still, it's only 20/20. Hopefully we can continue our decent ODI form going into the World Cup. That has to be the main priority. And what a fucking catch by Jordan.

[tomd2103]

Bit disappointing but still, it's only 20/20. Hopefully we can continue our decent ODI form going into the World Cup. That has to be the main priority. And what a fucking catch by Jordan.

My one concern with the 50 over side is that we are peaking a bit too early, as the World Cup is 12 months away.  If it was this summer then I think we would be set for a really strong challenge, but a lot can happen in a year and I just hope we can maintain momentum. 

That's why I think we can't just look to tick over and should be looking at options who may improve or at least raise the level of competition in the squad. 

[UK Redsox]

England are in (kul)deep shit here

[UK Redsox]

Per Andy Zaltzmann, Kuldeep has taken 15 wickets in 16 overs

[paul_e]

Yeah, we just haven't worked out how to bat against him at all. What I find strange is that he's so slow we should b able to walk down at him but they seem to get deceived by the flight if they try that.

Should still be looking at at a decent score but I think this is a 360+ pitch and I'm not sure we have enough wickets in hand to push for that.

[paul_e]

Buttler is, unsurprisingly, going well but Stokes needs to start scoring more soon, he's done a great job of stabilising this but we need runs on the board now.