England's Summer of Cricket 2021

First topic message reminder :

2nd June-14th June: Two tests v New Zealand

23rd June-26th June: Three T20s v Sri Lanka
29th June-4th July: Three ODIs v Sri Lanka

8th July-13th July: Three ODIs v Pakistan
16th July-20th July: Three T20s V Pakistan

4th August-14th September: Five Tests v India

England bowling first, Malan gone home for personal reasons hopefully all ok

Bairstow
Livingstone
Root
Morgan
Billings
Moeen
Woakes
Surran
Willey
Rashid
Wood

England probably not expecting too much resistance. Sri Lanka all out for under 200, comfortable chase, all done by 5.

Or maybe Sri Lanka will make a game of it?

It's in these situations where Hales continued omission grates. At full strength he'd be down the pecking order on merit now due to outstanding performances from other top batsman but with Roy, Stokes and Buttler all absent Hales would add to the top order here significantly. Burying his face in nose clams shortly before a CWC was absolutely moronic and I had no qualms with him being cut from the squad so ruthlessly then but I do think he's served his time at this point.

It's a big opportunity for Livingstone at the top and Moeen who is playing first and foremost for his batting in that side.

If we are picking 2 left-arm seamers I'd prefer Garton get a go for his extra pace but Surran and Willey do lengthen the batting order which isn't as strong as usual in the top 6.

Facing Sri Lankas batting lineup here must be what it's like to play England overseas

Sangakkara and Karthik are great addition to the Sky comms lineup

Olly, your boy is showing his class again today. It's a slight shame that he'll never get the plaudits his all round ability deserves.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Sangakkara and Karthik are great addition to the Sky comms lineup

Agreed. Sanga talks about the game about as well as any former player. Karthik was excellent during the India vs England Test series and I'm glad he's been picked up.

Only two batsmen with significant scores and they both needed a helping of luck to get that far. England, especially Wood and Woakes, have put it in the right areas and Sri Lanka can't deal with it.

This 8th wicket stand has seen some rather dubious running between the wickets.

Soul Requiem wrote:Olly, your boy is showing his class again today. It's a slight shame that he'll never get the plaudits his all round ability deserves.

In the Test side at home I think he's definitely started getting the plaudits he deserves. The batting depth he offers in a fragile batting side combined with his skill with the Dukes ball makes him absolutely vital at home and I think most have recognised it now.

He has been strangely overlooked by many in England's excellent white ball machine though. He is one of the best powerplay bowlers in the world which is vital for England. Between Bairstow and Roy batting, then Woakes bowling it's pretty rare that England are outdone in the PP.

Soul Requiem wrote:Olly, your boy is showing his class again today. It's a slight shame that he'll never get the plaudits his all round ability deserves.

He'll always be getting the plaudits in these quarters!

An absolute demon in home conditions

England should just treat the match as a T20 match and finish this off in 15 overs at most.
SL really not putting up a real fight so I don't see how England gain/learn anything from these matches.

Remarkable figures for Woakes...hope he can finish the innings now and get his Michelle...

Alas no...but still a great bowling performance

Billings not bad with the Direct hit run outs ... Pretty good for an off duty wicket keeper

Some 'entertaining' running between the wickets. Excellent figures for Woakes.

186 should be a doddle for England.

alfie wrote:Billings not bad with the Direct hit run outs ... Pretty good for an off duty wicket keeper

There was some footage of Ricky Ponting putting the Delhi Daredevils through some of his infamous fielding drills before this years IPL and Billings really stood out in it. He's absolutely rapid across the ground which always helps with fielding and he's got a very accurate arm. Yet another brilliant fielder in this England white ball unit.

Looks as if Bairstow wants to make sure this gets done early so he can go watch the football...

I think in modern cricketing parlance this is known as chopping the head off the chase...

Not the greatest innings that from Bairstow, once he'd got the team motoring think a slight squeeze on the brake would have been beneficial. It won't matter against Sri Lanka but we've lost games from similar positions in the past.

Soul Requiem wrote:Not the greatest innings that from Bairstow, once he'd got the team motoring think a slight squeeze on the brake would have been beneficial. It won't matter against Sri Lanka but we've lost games from similar positions in the past.

Perhaps he forgot this wasn't another t20

Bit unlucky really with that chop on. Might , as you say , have been advisable to throttle back a little after losing his partner ; but that's not really the way England play this format. And I think they have this chase well in hand.

Gives Morgan - who could do with some runs - a nice platform and time to play an innings...

This match is done and dusted. We saw however against India in a couple of the ODI's that a drastic collapse followed a blistering start.

Still not happening for Morgan. Bit of a frenetic innings today : had he thought to "bash" his way back into form ? Seems rather a waste of an opportunity to bat with little time pressure .

Not exactly worried yet about the skipper. But I'd like to see him play a solid hand or two so he's not going into the serious event doubting his own game a bit ...

Billings gone now and they're rather letting Sri Lanka back into this. The tourists bowling really isn't too bad : it's their batting that is totally limp.

80/4 and 37 overs to get another 106. So plenty of time for Moeen to delight his fans/feed his critics

Nearly did the latter immediately! Really should have been caught for an inglorious duck then. Settle down , England.

Root 62 off 69 with only two fours. Vintage Root.

JDizzle wrote:Root 62 off 69 with only two fours. Vintage Root.

There's a decent, albeit largely pointless argument he's England's greatest ODI batsman.

Comparing across different eras is nigh on impossible with differences in pitches, fielding regs, bats, etc though. Trescothick and Pietersen's raw numbers don't quite stack up for instance but both are a fair way ahead of their English contemporaries when considering both average and strike rate.

Lovely sunny day here 20 or so miles south of the Oval. Heading there later and expecting plenty of runs if England bat first ... and even some if Sri Lanka have first dig.

This game has been a long time coming. Bought the tickets for myself and some friends late 2019. Originally intended opposition was Ireland last summer, that went t*ts up due to covid and tickets were carried forward to today (although could have opted for a refund).

First thoughts were that we had done well in getting Sri Lanka for the price of Ireland, far from sure now given their poor form and self-inflicted difficulties with three of their team sent home.

Ah well, cricket, friends and some sun - what could be better? Oh yes!

guildfordbat wrote:Lovely sunny day here 20 or so miles south of the Oval. Heading there later and expecting plenty of runs if England bat first ... and even some if Sri Lanka have first dig.

This game has been a long time coming. Bought the tickets for myself and some friends late 2019. Originally intended opposition was Ireland last summer, that went t*ts up due to covid and tickets were carried forward to today (although could have opted for a refund).

First thoughts were that we had done well in getting Sri Lanka for the price of Ireland, far from sure now given their poor form and self-inflicted difficulties with three of their team sent home.

Ah well, cricket, friends and some sun - what could be better?  Oh yes!

Not jealous

Woakes still on course to be the most rested cricket player in the world. Sri Lanka continue to be utterly hopeless with the bat. They've also lost both their reviews inside two overs, which must be some sort of record?

6/2.

Rashid has 15 ODI wickets at 43 at an economy of 5.94 since the World Cup final. It’s a bit of an odd one as it seems to be coming out nicely, his googly looks good - which is what his shoulder most effected - and is generally bowling well. And the ODIs have been so stop start since that great day.

But that role is possibly the one England don’t really have a competent back up in, so hopefully the numbers catch up with the performance.

England won with ease. Perhaps a little poor to let Sri Lanka make 241 after they were 21/4, field placings were quite negative and allowed a lot of easy singles, but the chase was a doddle with Roy, Root and Morgan all making half-centuries.

The series is won for England and they should make it six wins from six in this mostly forgettable limited-overs run against Sri Lanka on Sunday.

Not looking good for Sri Lanka. These ODI games make up qualification for the next World Cup - currently Sri Lanka's record is one win from eight games, having lost series to the West Indies, Bangladesh and England, meaning that just making the next World Cup could be beyond them.

Not exactly exciting cricket yesterday at the Oval yesterday but still an enjoyable time and good to be there.

A few random comments and observations:

* The ground was about half full with 14k spectators. From an entirely selfish pov - that suited me fine. Still a decent atmosphere but you could spread out over a couple of seats whilst queues at the bars were much less than usual for an international fixture. It took a bit of time to get in the ground with proof of covid vaccinations etc needing to be shown but generally things seemed to work well for this Trial Event.

* Morgan's tactical choice of bowling upon winning the toss was understood but not appreciated by the majority of the crowd who feared they were not going to get their money's worth.

* That fear escalated after Sam Curran's two wickets in his opening over and even more as Sri Lanka stumbled to 21/4. Sam was certainly at his best whipping the ball in during that opening spell from the Vauxhall End.

* From then on throughout their knock, Sri Lanka had always lost 2 wickets too many and never looked like pulling things back. That was despte a commendable effort by de Silva who looked to be the only Sri Lankan who had an idea as to what to do with the bat. Some sympathy for him but felt he should have held on another 5 or 6 overs before attempting to go big and falling almost straightaway. He was ticking over nicely and there was little left to come. Made no difference to the outcome but would have upped their total a bit.

* Sri Lanka might have got a few more anyway with better running. They regularly appeared to have an eye for the single - fair enough. However, they too rarely tried to turn one run into two. Good as England's fielding was, they should have tried to apply pressure and not assume we would always get it right.

* Curran and his fellow left armer Willey bagged all the wickets but I was also impressed by Wood. Unlucky not to get even one. He never let up in his efforts, didn't let the batsmen settle and for a speedster where a bad delivery normally shoots to the rope, was pretty economical.

* I wasn't complaining yesterday but, as Duty suggested, we still let them accumulate too many from their perilous 21/4. A further 220 in fact. I would have kept a slip in for longer and given Moeen a bowl to try something different and break things up.

* That all said, Sri Lanka were imo at least 80 short of a properly competive total on a good batting track with virtually the whole of the large outfield in play. It really was too comfortable for England's batsmen with Morgan and Root epitomising efficient professionalism.

* Final random observation - Root is taller in real life than he appears on tv!

Anyway, hoping for better cricket and the same sort of bar queues for the India Test at the Oval in September. I should get the first but almost certainly not the second!

Hello everyone, long time no see

Not been on for a while as I've been busy with a new (proper?) job, but I thought I'd drop by and say hello. Good to see a lot of the familiar faces still around

Unfortunately I'm not in a very friendly time zone for watching live sport that's happening in Europe (at least stuff that goes on in the late afternoon/evening). But I did watch most of Sri Lanka's innings. England and Curran in particular exploited the few overs of swing that were available, and that left Sri Lanka too far behind to recover. It has to be said, Sri Lanka's top order were fairly woeful. Perrera perhaps gets a pass: the first ball from Curran swung away, and then the second one went straight on, maybe even nipped back a little. Fernando getting his foot stuck on off stump to a ball that pitched middle-and-leg/leg and was crashing into leg was dreadful batting, and his decision to review without even checking with his partner not much better.

I respectfully disagree with Duty and guildford about Morgan's conservative field settings. Yes, he went on the defensive quite early, but by then the ball had stopped swinging, da Silva was playing well, and it was clear the pitch was a belter to bat on. So I actually think he was quite astute in recognising that, and acted accordingly. The protection meant that SL had to take more risks to hit boundaries, something they couldn't really afford to do with their situation. How many edges actually went to where a slip would have been? He also kept point up to Hasaranga when Wood was bowling IIRC, so it wasn't full-on defensive mode.

In reality, the absolute ease with which England chased down the runs meant it didn't matter either way, but did emphasise how good the pitch was (SL's bowling has been their strong suit so far). I agree with guildford that SL were at least 80 short: I think had England batted first they would have scored 350+ most likely. Which brings me to my next point: the decision at the toss, and how it was greeted. Hard to disagree either with Morgan's decision, or the reaction of the crowd. With the series, and World Cup qualifying points on the line, Morgan understandably prioritised the win, and we know this side likes a chase. I do wonder if, with the series secure, he'll be tempted to bat first in the last ODI (am I right in saying he did so in the T20s, or did SL put England in for that one?). I also understand the crowd reaction of course, knowing how poor (being generous) SL's batting has been so far on tour.

Not much else to say really: in white ball stuff England are so far ahead of SL that this isn't really much of a contest. Could we see some rest/rotation in the last ODI? Garton in for Willey maybe? Wood getting a rest? Banton/Livingstone in?

Nice to see you back on here , MFC ... Hope your new job allows you to pop in from time to time - and get a chance to watch a bit more cricket.

Agree with your thoughts re ODI experimentation (bat first occasionally - the practice might come in handy) and do hope Garton gets a run in the next game.

A pity Sri Lanka is so off the pace : but I guess we are fortunate to have cricket to watch anyway...

Ollie Robinson effectively gets a suspended 5 match ban and a fine for his tweets

England win the toss and bowl. Woakes back in for Wood. Sri Lanka batting under very grey skies...think I can see where this one is going!

But rain forecast intermittently throughout the day, so maybe a saving grace for the tourists?

Struggling to understand continuing to pick Tom Curran at this point - surely worth giving Garton a game, we know unfortunately that Tom just isn’t really good enough by now

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Struggling to understand continuing to pick Tom Curran at this point - surely worth giving Garton a game, we know unfortunately that Tom just isn’t really good enough by now

Four cheap wickets later , Tom thanks you for the assist , Olly

166 all out this time and England heading for six comfortable wins out of six.

Hopefully Pakistan will provide a sterner test.

Duty281 wrote:166 all out this time and England heading for six comfortable wins out of six.

Hopefully Pakistan will provide a sterner test.

Weather seems to have other ideas...

Ah well. Le Tour , Stockholm Diamond League...who needs sleep ?

Yep, the weather won. 5-0 to England in the limited overs games, and 5 points to Sri Lanka for World Cup qualification.

Oh dear ... Covid has apparently struck the ODI squad. Several staff and players afflicted.

Replacements will be drafted in and given the strength in depth available it should not be any disaster : but it shows how much risk still attaches to sporting events...

Hope nothing similar happens to the footballers over the next few days !

Interesting to see who they call up - gotta feel for the likes of Garton/Banton who were brought into the bubble, carried drinks, and now presumably are in the close contacts who will miss out on a chance to play...

Yes apparently they are all close contacts and required to isolate so it's a whole new squad...which really will test the depth !

Good thing Stokes (who is going to captain) was outside the bubble. Be interesting to see who else is picked...

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