The Cricket Thread 2016

[PaulWinch again]

We've gone the other way now and we're too aggressive at the top of the order.  Moeen Ali is a good player and I rate him highly, but he's taking too many risks. He needs to be more calculated and he's certainly capable of that.

[tomd2103]

We've gone the other way now and we're too aggressive at the top of the order.  Moeen Ali is a good player and I rate him highly, but he's taking too many risks. He needs to be more calculated and he's certainly capable of that.

You can tell the players we've picked aren't comfortable playing that way.  They'd be more than happy nudging the ball around for thirty or so overs and then having a go in the last ten.  I'm not sold on Moeen being an international top order batsman to be honest.  Unless he is going to offer something with his bowling then I'm not sure he warrants a place in the side. 

[Villan For Life]

The Saffers are suffering from an England-esque collapse.

You have to hand it to the Indians. They always come alive in big tournaments. At the start of this tournament they'd been in Oz since November and had not won a single game. They even lost to England.  Now they're ticking along nicely. I thought South Africa would comfortably beat them.

[PaulWinch again]

I rate Ali highly but I think they're asking him to do the wrong job.

[paul_e]

I disagree, I thin Moeen can be the aggressive opener in time but because he's not naturally this aggressive he's struggling to judge the right time to attack and the ease off.  The biggest issue this side has is that Cook was kept far too long and we've left them with nothing like enough time to develop an identity and settle in to their roles.

[PaulWinch again]

I don't mean he can't be an opener, but he needs to be more judicious with his shots. I'm a big fan of his, but he's not performing. England need to win and perform here, especially after naming the same team.

[tomd2103]

The two Birmingham boys looking fairly comfortable so far.

[PaulWinch again]

Moeen playing more sensibly here.

[Villan For Life]

Bell looks well short of form.

[paul_e]

This is what I mean though, he needs to learn to pick his shots even when the bowling gets a lot more aggressive and especially if wickets fall at the other end.

[tomd2103]

This is what I mean though, he needs to learn to pick his shots even when the bowling gets a lot more aggressive and especially if wickets fall at the other end.

The standard of bowling has to be taken into account Paul.  The commentators were saying that train of thought is that Moeen is particularly vulnerable to full pitched bowling after a short ball.

Don't really understand the logic of Ballance coming in at three when we're 174-1 after 30 overs against Scotland. 

[tomd2103]

Totally lost momentum after Bell was out and now we are 4 of down with 203 on the board.  When we ever learn.

[paul_e]

This is what I mean though, he needs to learn to pick his shots even when the bowling gets a lot more aggressive and especially if wickets fall at the other end.

The standard of bowling has to be taken into account Paul.  The commentators were saying that train of thought is that Moeen is particularly vulnerable to full pitched bowling after a short ball.

Don't really understand the logic of Ballance coming in at three when we're 174-1 after 30 overs against Scotland. 

I understand, but what I'm saying is that he has the ability to be there, he just gets a bit lost when he's put under pressure. With players like Moeen and Morgan they look better when they're trying to score off everything, once you 'tame' them and get them picking their shots they look far less effective.

Aside from that I agree on Ballance, he shouldn't be in the side but to bring him on at 3 in that situation was a huge error and is probably the biggest difference between what we got and the 350+ we should've achieved.

[PaulWinch again]

Excellent from Moeen, Bell did well and Morgan got some useful runs. Very worrying how we fell apart once the opening partnership was broken. Hales has to come in for Ballance, because he's offering nothing at all.

[Dave Cooper please]

Ballance plays further down the order for his county and can finish a one-day innings well, but he is pushed up for England because Morgan insists on playing himself at 5.