The Cricket Thread 2014

[PaulWinch again]

This is becoming embarrassing at the moment.

[Dr Butler]

I have turned the radio off at 70/0.........

[tomd2103]

Yeah sounds like it. However whatever happens the England management and team need to look at how Moeen has played. This is how you play a one day innings, controlled aggression. He's attacked the bowlers to try and wrestle the initiative back. He'll probably be dropped for being too cavalier now.

Think Alec Stewart summed it perfectly on TMS before the game when he said that England are still employing 1990's tactics in ODIs. 

[PaulWinch again]

Well they're really putting us to the sword now, but to be honest this should be good for us in the long run. Cook and Moores can't keep coming out and saying our game plan is right, because it's plain for everyone to see that it's not. This team is completely wrong. The batting and bowling needs an overhaul and the team needs a change in philosophy as to how to approach the game.

[PaulWinch again]

I think Swann has summed it up nicely -

- "If the England management, captain and selectors cannot see there is a burning issue that needs to be changed, then I am worried, angry and sad. If they start spouting rubbish about 'not executing our plans' then we really should be worried because sanity is not prevailing."

I'm hoping Cook isn't as off in his post match interview today, because if he is he's in total denial.

[Villan For Life]

A 9 wicket loss with 117 balls to spare really does sum us up at the moment.

[PaulWinch again]

That is about as big of a thrashing as is possible.

[Rudy65]

I was there today. Great view, great company, great weather, great few beers, just a shame about the match!

We were shocking and looked beaten from the off. The only surprise was that India actually lost a wicket given our poor bowling attack.

[paul_e]

What I find most annoying about England in ODIs is that not only do we not play the game how every other side does but we don't even play to our strengths, if we were struggling in the field with a slip or 2 and trying to get edges I'd see the logic in it even if it was wrong, but we field at the edge of the circle and gift singles so the score keeps ticking and we offer very little threat, so when they decide to go after us they have wickets in hand and a decent total to start from.  I'd rather get a few close fielders in catching positions and try to get them playing over the top earlier, we need to stop letting teams get to 160-180 for 1-2 after 30 overs, you just don't win games from that position (or at least not without something spectacular happening).

[PaulWinch again]

I think there needs to be a complete change in mentality to the game and we need to be a lot more aggressive. You reduce pressure by putting pressure back on the other team and at the moment England do none of that. It's frustrating because it's so obvious that England's approach just does not work and has not worked for the last 20 years. I think my team would be something like -

Hales
Vince
Ballance
Morgan(captain)
Taylor/Roy
Buttler
Bopara
Ali
Willey
Broad
Finn

I think that keeps some experienced players in but also there's a good group of young exciting cricketers. I've included Willey as he's looks a real prospect and is a left arm bowler as well, which adds variety to our attack.

Edit - Amended to give the option of Taylor.

[paul_e]

Now's not the time for the sweeping team changes you have there, that should be post world cup.  The change we need to focus on for now is tactical, we need to at least approach the games the right way, get things moving in the right direction for the world cup, and then bring the new players in to an environment designed for them.  Hales, for example, looks like he's been told to play it safe early on, which is totally against the point of having him in the side.  He should be told to look to rotate the strike and punish the bad balls, a player like him should be going for a run a ball in the first powerplay as a minimum.

[Dr Butler]

how Bopara is not playing I don't know....Cook has to go and our ODI mentality has to change.

[Villan For Life]

Our top county one day sides would comfortably beat the current England squad. These teams have evolved their tactics and have produced a generation of young, fearless one day/T20 Cricketers. What the hell happens when they get a one day/T20 international call up is a mystery.

[PaulWinch again]

Now's not the time for the sweeping team changes you have there, that should be post world cup.  The change we need to focus on for now is tactical, we need to at least approach the games the right way, get things moving in the right direction for the world cup, and then bring the new players in to an environment designed for them.  Hales, for example, looks like he's been told to play it safe early on, which is totally against the point of having him in the side.  He should be told to look to rotate the strike and punish the bad balls, a player like him should be going for a run a ball in the first powerplay as a minimum.

I don't subscribe to the belief that you can't make wholesale changes to a side before a World Cup. The core of this side has lost their last 5 ODI series. I agree that there needs to be a complete change in philosophy and tactics as regards to how we approach the game. However I think the players I've mentioned are far more capable of achieving that.

[PaulWinch again]

Actually I'd be tempted to have Taylor in and about the squad as well, he's been treated terribly by England.