The Cricket Thread 2013

[PaulWinch again]

It was never a 'great' performance by our top order. It was ok, but they have to have a lot more intensity and better sides would have been a much bigger threat. The bowlers fortunately have been excellently.

[The Left Side]

I love listening to Bumble commentate, top man.

[eastie]

Pieterson is the big hitter we are missing - we have a good side but he is the crown jewel.

[cdbearsfan]

That was an excellent day's entertainment, even if I have got a bit burned!

[Villan For Life]

Always a pleasure to beat the Crims!

[The Left Side]

Always a pleasure to beat the Crims!

This

[tomd2103]

It was never a 'great' performance by our top order. It was ok, but they have to have a lot more intensity and better sides would have been a much bigger threat. The bowlers fortunately have been excellently.

Yep, agree with that Paul.  We got away with one today and I hope a few lessons have been learnt along the way. 

[paul_e]

I've only seen highlights but any game where the 2 main seamers get 4 for 65 from their 20 overs should end in a victory.  Jimmy will get a lot of credit for his 3 wickets but Broad has been very important to the result today, and then the others backed them up reasonably well.  Swann back to give us a bit more threat and I think the side is pretty close.  Bell seems to have found some form in the last few games.

Regarding the scoring rate it is a bit low from the top order but Edgbaston isn't a massively high scoring ground anyway, the pitch always rewards good bowling so to finish with a team wide rate of just under 5.5 an over is probably par.  They need to play the conditions, when i get frustrated is when the pitch is dead and they still won't accelerate.

[Villan For Life]

I hope Swann's back problem isn't a long term thing. I think he will be massive for us this summer. Some of the comments coming out of the England camp suggest that they've asked for dry pitches for the Ashes. This will help Swann and also make the ball reverse very early on. Bell said that he'd never known a drier Edgbaston square and they don't stage a test this summer.

The Aussies were mesmerised by the reverse swing yesterday. Watson said that the ball started to reverse after about 2 overs. They couldn't cope with it in 2009, it seems that they still can't. Their bowlers struggle to bowl reverse deliveries too.

[Dave Cooper please]

Had a fine day at Edgbaston yesterday.
The "flat pitch" you were all going on about yesterday wasn't flat, The Aussies have a particularly poor bowling unit at the moment but they were moving it about and even getting reverse swing at times, England showed it up for what it was, a good pitch offering something to pace and spin alike. From my side-on view it even seemed to hold up at times meaning the Aussies were often early into their shots.

 Like you, most of us at the game were bemused as to why Morgan and Buttler weren't promoted up the order but it seems that England are going to stick to their plans no matter what, and during a tournament is no time to experiment I suppose, we needed to use the series against NZ to look at possible batting line-ups. Get used to it!
 Anyway, it's all about The Ashes, and if Cook, Bell and Trott can bat themselves into great form for that then I'll live with mediocre ODIs!

[paul_e]

The "flat pitch" you were all going on about yesterday wasn't flat

Didn't looks flat on the highlights I watched, it was a near perfect pitch as far as I'm concerned, gave the bowlers enough without being a minefield for the batsmen, all English pitches should be like that.

[eastie]

You are right dave , the ashes is the main course - ive always loved test match cricket , the one dayers serve their purpose but test cricket is just pure theatre.

[PaulWinch again]

Some poor decisions from the umpires today.

[oldtimernow]

had enough of SL appeals!

[bertlambshank]

had enough of SL appeals!

They are called 'the chuckers' round these parts.