The Cricket Thread 2016

[Villan For Life]

We did well to get from 85-7 to 142-7 at the end of 20 overs.

The partnership between Ali and Willey doesn't guarantee success but gives us a chance.

[paul_e]

142 is a hell of a score from where we were when Stokes went.

Ali deserves huge credit for getting us to a decent target, need to bowl well now though.

[PaulWinch again]

Moeen did a hell of a job there, but we're going to have to bowl very well. Stokes owes us because his batting was terrible, he ran out Root and his bowling has been diabolical so far this tournament.

[PaulWinch again]

I'm not really sure why we didn't pick Dawson for this game, it looks like spin is the way to go.

[paul_e]

brilliant from Willey in the first over, that wicket is a beauty.

[paul_e]

Really good over from Jordan as well, should be 1-1 if Roy hadn't had a brain freeze, this is what we need to do, trust our bowlers to get wickets because we have it in the side to blow these away.

[PaulWinch again]

Good start, need to keep up this momentum.

[paul_e]

Another great over from Willey and another wicket.  Plunkett to come in as well so should continue to bowl good line and lengths.

[paul_e]

This looks pretty good for England now, the early wicket of Shahzad put them under a lot of pressure and it's shown.

The last wicket there (for Rashid) was another that 'stuck' in the pitch which makes me think that all the talk of this being a good pitch for batting is nonsense, unpredictable pace off the floor is probably even worse than sideways spin because it gives every delivery the chance to be a slow ball, which is a huge threat in a version of the game where you're trying to score off every ball.

[PaulWinch again]

Bowlers have dragged it back very well and Plunkett has to start now in place of Topley. We should win comfortably from here in spite of our batting efforts.

[Villan For Life]

In the other games our batsmen have been in reasonable form and the bowlers have been all over the place. Today the bowlers have been on top and the batsmen out of form. If we ever manage to get the batsmen and bowlers on form in the same game we could be a good side!

It can be so frustrating following England.

[DaveD]

Stokes doing his best to give it away.

[DaveD]

Well, two in a row where we were dead in the water. All comes down to Sri Lanka game now.

[paul_e]

Stokes hasn't had a great game with the ball but he did get a wicket and he's bowled this last over pretty well after a poor first delivery.

[paul_e]

Plunkett in for Topley worked exactly as expected and his experience gave us that bit of calm we'd been missing.