North vs South

This came across my Twitter feed earlier, and thought it might pose an interesting question... with the North vs South game pencilled in for the UAE, All Out Cricket have picked two teams to play an all time North vs South game: http://www.alloutcricket.com/blogs/englands-north-v-englands-south-who-wins

North

Hutton*
Sutcliffe
Boycott
Vaughan
Root
Beefy
Rhodes
Taylor (wk)
Truman
Statham
Anderson

Squad: Atherton, Amiss, Illingworth, Verity, Flintoff, Harwood

South

Gooch
Hobbs
Hammond
May*
Barrington
D. Compton
Knott (wk)
A. Bedser
Underwood
Snow
Willis

Squad: Cook, Gower, Stewart, Lock, Laker, Tate


Sides are picked on place of birth, rather than necessarily county played for!

So, what do we think? Are the teams correct, any changes you'd make? And, the million pound question, who would win?

I think the North are stronger with more wicket taking options. However, the South with Barrington at his most obdurate could probably hold out for a draw. Add to that, Boycott being unwilling to take on Bedser and risk his average as the North looked for quick second innings runs to set a target!

North vs South games are going to be ODI's, so wouldnt want obdurate blocking

In the 2 warm up games, the North team beat Worcestershire. Duckett got a 100, Mark Wood got some bowling under his belt and spinner Poysden took 3 wickets.

The South team also won their warm up vs UAE, Vince top scoring with 125* off 85 balls Lewis Gregory taking 3 wickets.

Game starts on Friday

Easy street for the South. DBD and Malan chased down a poor 202 without loss and 99 balls to spare.

Curran and Roland Jones took out the top of the North's line-up pretty cheaply - 3-19 and 2-23 respectively.

Was there any coverage of the match?

Electric Demon wrote:Easy street for the South. DBD and Malan chased down a poor 202 without loss and 99 balls to spare.

Curran and Roland Jones took out the top of the North's line-up pretty cheaply - 3-19 and 2-23 respectively.

Was there any coverage of the match?

Nope - although the final game will be covered on BBC radio - not sure why they can't just put up a stream online on the ecb website tbh

Tom Curran getting a very good return in yesterday's game. One thing to be said for the lad and possibly not emphasised enough in recent discussions on other threads is that he doesn't duck responsibility. That doesn't give him the right to be a full international but probably fair enough if it helps keep him in the shop window.

It should also be kept in mind that Curran was only 22 this month - his youth tends to be overlooked with so much of the focus being on his even younger brother.

Interesting to see how these Currans develop.

England are going to need some new pace bowlers sooner or later : Anderson and Broad won't be around for ever ; and we have already seen that the back up squad struggles to get a result when one or other of the main men don't make a contribution.

Not to deny the promise shown by Wood (but his injury record is a concern) and Woakes (the most likely - but he struggled in the sub continent ) . Finn still hasn't nailed a consistent spot ; and Ball is raw. I think there are openings...

Sam Northeast is a player who's always in the runs, but never really banded about in selection conversations

alfie wrote:Interesting to see how these Currans develop.

England are going to need some new pace bowlers sooner or later : Anderson and Broad won't be around for ever ; and we have already seen that the back up squad struggles to get a result when one or other of the main men don't make a contribution.

Not to deny the promise shown by Wood (but his injury record is a concern) and Woakes (the most likely - but he struggled in the sub continent ) .  Finn still hasn't nailed a consistent spot ; and Ball is raw. I think there are openings...

Saqib Mahmood of the Lankies is one to watch. Only 20 and seriously sharp.

South win again, pretty comfortably.

Malan 78 from 67 balls and 2 wickets

Northeast 118 not out

Dawson 83 from 68 balls. and 2 wickets (took 2-29 in the warm up game too)

3rd and final game. 40 overs a side because of rain.

South make 228-8. Bell Drummond 81, Roland Jones 43.
Poysden tool 3 but quite expensive. Wood and White with 2 each.

Looks like a third win on the spin for the South. Crane lifts out the middle order and gets a fourfer. More from Jimbo, I'm sure, and deservedly so!

Tom Curran wraps up the win for the South. He was the most expensive bowler - and took a fair bit of stick - but came back well at the end, finishing with 3 wickets.

I'm aboard the Crane train

Leading wicket taker - Tom Curran 8 at 16.00.
Leading run scorer - Malan 196 at 98.00

Hopefully those two will play the Ireland and South African ODIs. Certainly Curran replacing Finn, 2 wickets at 66.00.

Guildford you know im not one to talk up the Hampshire lads!

Very impressive by Crane, he's had a very good few weeks hasn't he?
I hope he isn't called up to England just yet. Needs to settle at Hampshire and gain more experience. He could make his debut for England next week, go around the park and his confidence would be shot. Think he needs to be eased in to the setup.

Dawson gets 'man of the series' in a 3-0 win for the South.

Bell Drummond impressive too. I've always liked the look of him.

Think Dawson could force his way into the CT side ahead of Ali or Rashid? Neither has really cut it as a bowler or bat for me.

I'm some ways though it's depressing that he's been the pick of the spinners. He's never going to be a great bowler, just a plucky all rounder. England are desperately short in all disciplines of a spinner who could get picked on bowling merit regardless of their batting.

Goose, i think he is just as good as Moeen Ali. That's why i was frustrated he didn't get a game vs West Indies when we were 2-0 up with the series won.

The good thing is Bayliss watched these games and the 2 coaches were Farbrace and Gibson so he must have impressed them.

Dawson's issue will always be that he doesn't turn the ball enough to challenge batsman regularly, especially in the step up to international cricket. It's a similar issue that I think will hold Ansari back as a bowler at the highest level.

Whether he has the control of pace and flight, i.e. guile, to do a better job than Moeen or Dilly are doing is yet to be seen. I'd wager he wouldn't do a much better job of keeping things tight and would threaten to take wickets less than Dilly does.

Dawson is a solid bat in his own right and a very good fielder. As such he does offer the selectors a good all rounder to balance the ODI side whilst they search for a genuine international spinner - Jack Leach? Will Mason Crane continue maturing?