I have not mentioned using Root as a bowler, you did. I'd have him as a batsman only.

Nice to see Mark Boucher on commentary duty. Seems to have recovered well

Yes, good to see . He's been doing quite a bit on TMS

Has he ? Good. I must admit I don't listen to TMS as much as I used to in case Phil Tuffnel comes on commentary.

good start with the ball anyway getting a couple of early wickets

doubt we'll see SA pushing as hard as we did when they know its a small target they are chasing tho , fingers crossed they do

edit : literally just pressed submit as that ball was hit down the fielders throat

onus on the big two now with SA having a long tail

Topley takes another.
Bloody hell just placed a small wager on SA to win at nice odds as well.

Just flicked over at half time in the Footy........brilliant start for England with the ball

22-3..........

obviously you'd think we have to bowl them out to win with such a low score so one more wicket (preferably Abba) and we're right in there !

probably get even better odds now

I've been watching the football

Great to see England fighting back

nah not really only 1.8, was 1.6 before the wicket.
they corrected them selves now, was high when I placed the bet.
Hopefully it becomes a train now.

Ashwin has 4/5 in 2.2 overs in the T20 against SL

Sri lanka look awful, they might get destroyed in england during the may tour.

Although looking forward to the bowlers, got some decent bowlers now in the pace department.

Moeen gets the breakthrough by having Amla stumped

Poor umpiring again as that was defo a wide and not given

well you can be stumped off a wide.

That's what I mean

He drew him down the pitch and bowled it well wide for Buttler to gather and stump him

Some very poor umpiring today.

Senayeke given out caught behind when he missed it by quite a way

Sri Lanka recovering to 72/8

MimiUK is right we clearly need another accumulator just to get through the overs. Despite all the talk about Rashid being our better spinner, his record still isn't as good as Moeen's. or particalarly close, he goes at 5.89an over, Ali goes at 4.91. Also average of 38 to 44.

Anyway for the T20 World Cup we clearly need as much spin as possible, so not bothered with this line-up for that. Without Broad obviously. Going on in ODI's I'd rather Ali opened with Hales, Tough on Roy, but it's tougher on Taylor not to be picked, perhaps even Bairstow..

Sir Geoff did have an average of 36 in ODIs


Assuming that there are reviews available.


Ali is not wasted at 8. He doesn't score runs.

The standard is poor but no good umpires want the job.

And that was in an era of small bats, no fielding restrictions and uncovered wickets!

But at a strike rate of 55 compared to 88 for Hales. Mind you, Sir Geoffs mum could have scored runs on that pitch. In her pinny

My thoughts on the past 3 months cricket abroad is how well England did. They came close to winning a test against Pakistan and even closer to holding out for a draw.

Also we proved to be a much improved one day outfit in the series in the UAE.

South Africa test series turned out to be surprisingly fun as a battered SA team were there for the taking and we didn't miss the opportunity. I was pessimistic before the tests began but England showed who were the better team in the first three tests.

Onto the one day stuff and once again we had the series in our grasp only to let it get away.

All in all its been much improved and now I'm optimistic for the forthcoming 2 series and their 7 tests in the UK this year. Pakistan may have hopes but I think we can win both series this summer.

Wow Adam Voges averaging better than Sir Don Bradman he must be some player but give him a pitch with a bit of movement then his average would go way down

Without power plays it was Sir Geoff's role to give England a steady start and achieve a target between 200 and 250.

The only time he let England down with a slow score was in the 1979 world cup final when he was far too slow and left the rest with too much to do.

I wouldnt say "clearly", but yes i completely agree that more top order Eng batsmen need to go to the crease with intention of batting for 30+ overs. I just don't think we need to make personnel changes to achieve that -

Jason Roy, a very talented player, is still trying to make the step up to intnl cricket so should bat more overs soon (or otherwise replaced for someone who can).

Hales has just proved he can bat overs and accumulate.

Root the same.

And Eoin Morgan can most certainly bat time if he's prepared to stop batting like a headless chicken intent on playing high risk shots early in innings just to make a statement to his own players. 3 of his dismissals in this series were unnecessary, holed out to long-on when in the 20s at a run a ball and then twice charged the bowler giving away his wkt because he was struggling to get started. The man has 8 ODI centuries, 4 of them being not outs. He can bat long.

Moeen Ali is the other batsman who can also offer more crease occupation, although he's currently so happy to swat at anything outside off-stump and head back to the pavilion. He's been at crease twice recently with the ship needing steadying and 20+ overs of innings remaining. Again he has the ability to do this job if he can be bothered to use his brain cells. But Ali currently lucky to be batting at 7 the way he's been performing with the bat so i certainly wouldn't move him up the order whatsoever.

the guy you forgot to mention is stokes

i am not doubting his ability, his talent or his potential but here is a guy who we kept getting told was too good to bat at #8 in ODIs , a guy who bats in the top 6 in tests and after 39 ODIs is averaging barely over 20 with a top score of 70 and is currently batting at #5. is that really good enough for a #5 at this level ?

i just think we are compromising our batting atm and hiding behind the depth potential. the contributions we are getting from the likes of stokes and ali with the bat is just not good enough imo especially when we have someone like taylor carrying drinks.

Moeens record at opener, better than Roy's, Gives you a left-right hand option,Taylor can then play. Seems pretty logical to me.Yet I don't much rate Roy I guess.

If you've lost faith in Ali as a bat, fair enough, but he's a better bowler and importantly fielder than Rashid, so he plays instead of Adil at 8 or 9. Bayliss has emphasised fielding and catching in his pressers after the series.

I agree. I am sorry mimik, i just don't get the 'drop Ali' argument, for me he offers too much.