***England vs Sri Lanka*** 2nd of 5 ODI Live

First topic message reminder :

Friday, July 1, Headingley
Start time 10.45am (0945 GMT)

Brief as per cricinfo...

Stuart Broad is under pressure for his place like never before. His stock within the England dressing-room remains as high as ever, but compared to the angry mongrel who hassled and hurried all batsmen in 2010, this season he has been disturbingly toothless. Despite possessing (in the opinion of England's bowling coach, David Saker) the "best bouncer in world cricket", his short balls have lacked venom of late, as if he no longer trusts a body that broke down on him twice in the winter - once at Adelaide during the Ashes, and again in Chennai during the World Cup. A haul of wickets would help settle his mind, but they remain elusive for now.

Tillakaratne Dilshan's comeback from a broken thumb was so brief it was hard to ascertain whether his form has elapsed in the interim. His innings was only two balls old when he wafted an Anderson short ball to fine leg and trudged off for a single, and he didn't bring himself on to bowl either. Sri Lanka need him to return to his explosive best, although at least, having been through two stand-in captains in Kumar Sangakkara and Thilina Kandamby, the team is finally back with the appointed leader at the helm.

Team news
There's no real reason for England to tinker with a winning combination. Craig Kieswetter produced a diligent 61 from 56 balls to answer his critics at the top of the order, and with the exception of Broad, all of England's front-line bowlers chipped in with wickets in the Oval victory. With Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan looking in ominous form, the engine-room of the batting is in fine fettle as well.

England (probable) 1 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 2 Alastair Cook (capt), 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Tim Bresnan, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Anderson, 11 Jade Dernbach.

Jayasuriya's retirement creates a vacancy at the top of the Sri Lankan order, which is likely to be filled by Mahela Jayawardene, after his return to form in that position in the Bristol Twenty20. Dinesh Chandimal could be restored to the middle order, while the bowling attack will once again be spearheaded by Lasith Malinga.

Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt) 2 Mahela Jayawardene, 3 Dinesh Chandimal, 4 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 5 Thilina Kandamby, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Jeevan Mendis, 8 Nuwan Kulasekera, 9 Suranga Lakmal, 10 Suraj Randiv, 11 Lasith Malinga,

Pitch and conditions
England's mini-heatwave may have s


Your say......

I am dont say he is there yet liverbnz but he certainly has the makings of being one.

Hmm...very fine by Keieswetter

Great score from Sri Lanka today. England missing a genuine strike bowler. Anderson looked average when the sun came out. Bresnan shouldn't be an opening international bowler. Broad was beyond awful, he needs to be dropped and allowed to get his form back in county cricket. Dernbach is no where near ready for international cricket, you cannot bowl short bowls every delivery against Sanga/Mahela when they've got in.

Swann once again looked like our only decent bowler.

Having said that we've made a great start in the run chase...

Bang goes that idea

Kieswetter throws it away

Was a good catch ... but he could have hit that ball anywhere...

Kieswetter showing inexperience, why isnt Patel playing today? Seriously why have him in the side and not play him?

sadly the clouds are overhead and the run rate is climbing.

only one winner now. sl to square the series.

I knew as soon as someone said Kies was off to a bright start that he would fail. why do we insist on jinxing our own team?

sl cannot fail... cannot fail (poor attempt a reverse jinx i know).

Gregers wrote:Great score from Sri Lanka today. England missing a genuine strike bowler. Anderson looked average when the sun came out. Bresnan shouldn't be an opening international bowler. Broad was beyond awful, he needs to be dropped and allowed to get his form back in county cricket. Dernbach is no where near ready for international cricket, you cannot bowl short bowls every delivery against Sanga/Mahela when they've got in.

Swann once again looked like our only decent bowler.

Having said that we've made a great start in the run chase...

blimey. harsh. don't really agree to be honest. SL had a perfect road in perfect conditions. hard to see how that batting order (upper order) could fail on such a day against anyone.

Hello! Cook brings out the Dill-scoop, not sure where that came from but he gets four for it, lovely improvisation!

Reversing already , trebell ?

Not time to panic yet - Cook is ticking over quite well , and as long as Trott doesn't get too bogged down the rate won't get away (England are actually ahead of Sri Lanka at the same stage).

Plenty of overs left and the next few batsmen can all give it a nice thump ...

Surprised Dilshan didn't bowl himself a bit there to try and get his overs out of the way. England still have eight overs from him and Mendis to take advantage off.

Kieswetter waa a little unlucky with that dismissal, that could have gone anywhere yet he picked out the man perfectly. A combination of bad luck and poor play.

I still like Eng here though, if they can leave themselves 150/160 to get off the last 20 with 8 wickets left with Morgan and Kp in, they will be in a very good position.

Cook rather surprisingly gets out caught at deep cover, ends a promising innings, but England are in a spot of bother now. Come on KP, remind us what you're capable of!

Well cancel what I was about to say. Not convinced with Trott at 3 as a cook -Trott partnership isn't assertive enough. It reminds me too much of Boycott- Brearley batting together.

At least we have the faster scoring potential there now.

Cook fails.

This is 15 higher than Englands highest ever run chase at home.

Not happening is it.

Whoever won the toss were winning here, sadly too often this case in these short forms.

find it hard to see Eng doing well in this series. SL are behind us a test side but way ahead in ODI's.

What are the bbc like now.. that Pranav bloke seems to revel in England being rudey poo. Yeah very British bbc.

Patel at 3 would be a great decision for the selectors. We need someone at 3 who can accelerate the innings, Trott is an amazing batsmen but he doesn't appear to be able to 'switch gears' quickly enough

From the bbc live text: 20 overs Eng 96-6

Um nope thats not the score!

4 down and well short. bad times.

Pieterson played well today.... :P

Anyways, the phrase Catches win Matches is being very clear today. Sri Lanka are fielding brilliantly, where as our fielding was sub par today

KP got out to a stupid shot though sadly.

England slightly ahead at similar stage (34 overs) but have lost 2 extra wickets.

I still think they can do the biz.

trebellbobaggins wrote:KP got out to a stupid shot though sadly.

Totally agree, no need to play that shot. We needed KP to play through to the end of the 50 overs (or get as close as). Mind you we all know that getting out stupidly is Pietersons game

Our hopes rest with Bell and Morgan. Morgan must get fed up of having to get England home. Personally I don't believe Bresnan/Broad/Swann are good enough as a 7/8/9 trio. Luke Wright/Samit Patel/Adil Rashid would be a better choice given form of Broad atm

what amazed me is he just had a six that could have been caught and yet he just goes and takes the same risk directly after.

i think he just doesn't think a lot of the time.

Bell and Morgan are going well here, this match is still winnable for England. At least one of these two will need to be there at the end though.

KP needs to learn the hit a boundary then get off strike. Especially in a 50 over game.

Vaughan is busy slagging off Bell...

would so love to have a little surprise return from Trecothick for these final overs. There's a man that could smash SL out of the game here.

Tresco is unbelievably good, always has been always will.

Batting powerplay needs to be taken soonish. No point waiting only to take it after both Morgan and Bell are out... great Morgan out just as I was typing this

ah well, game over.

I have no doubt we'd have won had we batted first.

Just like the other night, whoever batted first had the match.

we do suck at this form though. pants of the highest order.

dear God though Moggy.

Both in the field and batting our players left their brains at home today.

We're missing a genuine all rounder. By that I don't mean Bresnan or Broad

we're missing any sign of IQ's is what we're missing.

bunch of dumb asses.

And our 'all rounder' batting at 7 has match figures of 2 with the bat and 1-70 off of 9 overs with the ball.

Poor very poor

well done Eng. Make a painfully average team look great.

Might as well just put Athers back in charge after this sort of throwback to the 90's.

Being honest, we just suck hard outside of test cricket don't we.

Bresnan had another horror show at home just like in 06.

You do have to question his mental toughness then i have to admit.

but who do you fix it with? you tell me. too many options and yet no a certainty is our problem. and we just dont understand this form. new coaches needed i think.

Why are England so bad at the 50 over format?

And our other 'all-rounder' finishes with 1 with the bat. And 0-70 off of 10 overs.

Sri Lanka have fielded brilliantly today tho, and Mahela's innings was a joy

Duty281 wrote:Masked Magician - Anderson is the best bowler going around in World Cricket at the moment with the possible exception of Swann. Your posts just show you have no cricketing knowledge or are a WUM - take your pick.

The best bowler in the World is none other than the great Dale Steyn.

Anderson isn't fit to lace King Dale's boots

yeah engs fielding was pathetic. joke team today again as we too often are in this form.

Well played England, no really I mean it.

So rubbish vs spin its unheard of.

With tours to UAE and Sri Lanka to come in the winter, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be smiling with glee.

Best Bowler as Steyn? Do you mean fast bowler or just bowler in general? Because the best bowler is Vettori.

trebellbobaggins - Do you think there is an easy/quick fix for England in this format?

and you care so much why?

like to latch onto other countries heroes because yours has none?

Gregers wrote:Best Bowler as Steyn? Do you mean fast bowler or just bowler in general? Because the best bowler is Vettori.

trebellbobaggins - Do you think there is an easy/quick fix for England in this format?

Vettori has quit ODIs, so his ranking no longer counts.

Steyn is best fast bowler.

trebellbobaggins wrote:and you care so much why?

like to latch onto other countries heroes because yours has none?

Barbados has produced some of the finest of all time.

at the moment?

utter guff.

you were good for a short time, you're dire now.

Last great west indian?

Gregers wrote:Why are England so bad at the 50 over format?

We were that good a few days ago.

The reality is that England are a decent side. The last game showed their strengths ( quality batsmen, quality bowlers).
This game has exposed all their weaknesses:
Lack of part time bowling options
Lack of an aggressive bowler who regulalry takes wickets
Over reliance on Morgan as a six htter down the order

England are better at test cricket because they focus their resources on that. To most other sides 50 over cricket is the focus.

true that sl show that. no interest in the long form just a bits and pieces one day side.

more than the windies have mind, they just don't have a side at all.

Gregers wrote:Last great west indian?

From Barbados or Windies?

Lara, remember him?

trebellbobaggins wrote:true that sl show that. no interest in the long form just a bits and pieces one day side.

more than the windies have mind, they just don't have a side at all.

SL will destroy England in the Test series in SL.

and you care why?

hang to others , you have nothing yourself.

trebellbobaggins wrote:and you care why?

hang to others , you have nothing yourself.

hahaha

Lara was a few years ago now. Gayle is the only one from this generation.

Oh and where are the Windies in the IIC rankings?