Posts under topic: ‘Limited Over’

If Twenty20 is too sedate for you, try the upcoming Hong Kong Sixes. A Six-a-side, 5 over tournament played over two days at the Kowloon Cricket Club on the 31st October/1st November.

Having taken an enforced week off, I was fully expecting to see England efficiently eliminated from the Champions Trophy with a minimum of fuss. Instead, I find that they have beaten the two strongest teams in their group. Not only that, but their middle order has been scoring runs. James Anderson has been taking wickets. Now that I’ve established that I am not dreaming (and consequently my arm hurts) I find myself wondering: How did this miraculous turnaround occur?

Many think that England have already lost the plot after their Ashes victory. They are mistaken. Preparations are already underway for the next Ashes series in Australia in 2010/11, and early plans are currently being executed with great success.

John Bracewell, the Gloucestershire coach and one-day guru, has made an interesting point regarding England’s ODI batting woes. He suggests that Ravi Bopara and Owais Shah are playing for their own places rather than the team. Consider this in the light of selection policy, however, and it is the selectors who are at fault for fostering this environment.

Aside from the 3-0 scoreline, there are signs that the England team just aren’t that into this ODI series. First Stuart Broad and now Paul Collingwood and James Anderson are being rested from the team.

For the 3rd consecutive match, Andrew Strauss tells us, England’s batsmen have underperformed. Tell us something we don’t know. Actually, this is the 4th ODI in a row if you count the game against Ireland when England mustered just 203/9 and narrowly won a rain-affected match.

Fifty over cricket is the runt of the cricketing litter. We know what happens to the runt. To start with, it gets the leftovers, but when the rest of the litter’s appetite increases the leftovers suddenly disappear. It hangs on for a while, then it dies.

Watching England and Australia muddle their way through seven ODIs after the Ashes has finished is like going to your favourite restaurant and having the main course before the starter. Nobody wants a bowl of soup when they’ve just finished a plate of steak and chips.

During the course of England’s Test matches, reference is often made to their batsmen’s habit of making starts but failing to convert them into centuries. Generally, blame is placed upon the proliferation of limited overs cricket. Today, England again lost an ODI against Australia, and again a number of their batsmen established themselves, only to lose their wickets. The same trait was their downfall in the 1st ODI on Friday.

Is this a regular feature of their limited overs batting, and what are the reasons behind it?

With Joe Denly being the latest England cricketer injured during a football warmup, you wonder just what is going on. England’s disastrous first morning in the Ashes Test at Headingley was prompted by an injury to Matt Prior, yet they do not seem to have learnt their lesson.