Myfinger wrote:
Curiosity wrote:
After a couple of series of making the West Indians look like poor fielders, we've suddenly become a side where Monty Panesar could get a game as a specialist fielder. Nice work. Only four attempts at the stumps from a couple of yards away, lads.
I personally blame them dropping Dimi. He'd probably be in most world T20 teams, and despite ours being rubbish we drop him. Ummm, why? Also, why is Foster playing when prior is better than him at EVERYTHING.
Amusing.
If we beat Pakistan we still get through, but seriously terrible result.
Hold on.
The West Indies didn't want to be here, they came, collected a paycheque and are looking forward to leaving.
Yeah, they looked terrible against the Aussies!
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Panesar is better at nothing than none of those selected, let alone fielding. I agree Mascerenhas should have played instead of Key. England dropped catches they should have pouched no doubt, but the fact remains that they lost the game because they were not aggressive enough in the last 5 overs with the bat with wickets in the hutch. Broad hits the stumps at the end of the game and he's a fucking hero for winning the game, simple as.
I was joking about Panesar, obviously enough. I think they picked Key as a replacement for KP not being fit, but Macca would be probably my second or third name on the team sheet. I'd have had Swann playing too, as he's in great form.
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If we were playing anyone other than Netherlands there's no way those last few overs would have been poked about for ones and twos. That's where the game was lost. The Dutch deserve credit for a decent batting display. England deserve derision, but derision for the things they did wrong please.
I thought I was giving them derision for everything! I agree they lost momentum and messed up by not having someone who can score quick runs in the lower order, but players like the three I was upset at missing out can give that. Macca is our biggest hitter, I'd expect Prior to score runs at a better rate than Foster, and Swann is a tremendously useful batsman to come in around the lower middle order, and can be promoted if we need to get some boundaries (his ODI strike rate with the bat is, I think, the highest in the England set-up).
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Edit: Prior. A great bat, and maybe plays as a bat in his own right in most cricket (you could certainly make this case in T20 too), but I'm sorry, Foster is streets ahead with the gloves, stood back or up as is his speciality. Foster's huge strength is up to the medium fast bowlers, but England didn't pick any. So who's fault is that? But he's still better than Prior with the gloves, and with Prior batting in the keeper's slot, his batting doesn't make a lot of difference in this game I'm afraid.
I agree Foster is normally better with the gloves, but he didn't have a great game, and if you're not picking the bowlers who play to his strengths then why pick him over the better batsman? I also think Foster has a potentially suspect temperament for the big occasion, but could be wrong on that. Time may tell on that one.
Overall I think we had the set-up of the team wrong a bit, and I don't think Colly is a natural captain, and he was picked as it purely because he's a regular and senior player. I'd prefer to see someone more likely to take charge of the game. I only saw highlights of the Holland game, but if Colly didn't walk up to Broad and impress upon him that he must under no circumstances take a wild fling at the stumps, or tell the fielders to get round to back up then he needs a slap.
Still, T20 is still a lottery. I was discussing it a bit with some guys over the weekend, and saying how it is much more like American sports such as Baseball and Basketball. In these kinds of games, very few teams get amazing records of winning every match, because a lot of it is down to form and luck, much more so than a Test series. So the team that wins the World Series or the NBA Finals will doubtless have played some poor games and had some beatings along the way. They just play soooo many games that it doesn't matter as things even out over the long period. Having a round robin affair with 2 games each really increases the chances of this happening. Alas, it's happened to us.