England v New Zealand, 1st ODI, Lords

First of 3 ODIs start at 10:45 today, with both sides looking to get in tune for the Champions Trophy. New Zealand have won the toss and will bowl first. Worryingly for England, Dernbach has been picked. Teams:

England: Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Jade Dernbach.

New Zealand: Brendon McCullum, Luke Ronchi (wkt), Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, James Franklin, Nathan McCullum, Tim Southee, Kyle Mills, Mitchell McClenaghan.

Share Duty's sense of worry regarding Dernbach. Hopefully he won't have one of those Rohit Sharma moments where he performs well in a game and thus stay in the side for an extended period of mediocrity. Him getting a right spanking is in England's best interests!.
No Daniel Vettori yet again, for New Zealand. He had a pretty fine practice game the other day, but still no international comeback. Kane Williamson yet again will have to front up as the led spinner.

Not sure about this new England uniform for the ODIs.

Must have seen those studies that suggest teams in red tend to do better...not sure it applies to cricket.

No Broad/Finn so the fringe bowlers have their chance.They will hope the batsmen can give them something decent to defend as NZ are bowling in possibly helpful conditions.

Lot of different faces in the NZ team today. Will be interesting.

Bit of a poor start from McLenaghan with some leg side freebies for Bell but pretty early yet. Reckon the Kiwis will be right in this today.

7 of the first over from the injury returning Mitchell McClenagan. Mills and not Southee from the other end with the new ball. Not sure its a good idea to keep Southee away from the new ball.

Much better from McLenaghan ...couple of balls past Cook's edge...make that three !
Four in fact : well bowled ... but the chef is still there and won't be too stressed.

England off to a solid start. I think this team has a good balance - plenty of batting depth, plenty of big hitters, and bowlers who can rip through a top order quickly.

My only concern is Dernbach, who always seems to get 2/3 wickets but never seems to be able to keep his run rate down to 3-4, it's always 5-6. He needs to get tighter.

I think England only have 2 batsmen who can be categorized as big hitters, Morgan and Buttler. They have Root who can adapt his game to score quickly, and Cook too can play a quickish game. But not enough power hitters, considering the kind of top order they've got.

Southee replaces McClenaghan.

Well if we're talking batsmen big hitters, I agree, but I think Swanny and Bresnan can both swing a bat in anger if the occasion calls for it can't they?

Speaking of Dernbach, I looked up his stats on cricinfo:

22 ODIs, 30 wickets @ 39 apiece, economy of 6.3

Why is the guy still being considered?

Decent start for England so far...Cook , apart from those few balls McLenaghan put past his edge , has looked to be carrying on nicely from his Test century.
And Bell has started rather well ...if he keeps this up it may help get that confidence back.
(hope that doesn't jinx him )

Mills was tight for four overs but getting knocked around a bit now...

Azzy

He was only called into the squad yesterday because both Broad and Finn are injured and out of this and the next game. Suggests he is (rightly) slipping down the pecking order, but was considered the 'safe' choice to call in at short notice because he does have some recent experience.

Bell's gone, Southee gets him, good catch by the wicketkeeper. England 45-1 in the 11th over.

Azzy Mahmood wrote:Speaking of Dernbach, I looked up his stats on cricinfo:

22 ODIs, 30 wickets @ 39 apiece, economy of 6.3

Why is the guy still being considered?

They seem to place a high value on his supposed skill in bowling at the death. Not totally convinced by that argument ...a couple of good overs at the end don't really make up for going round the park earlier on , do they ?
He might not have that many more chances.

And of course , I did jinx Bell.

Sorry.

alfie wrote:Decent start for England so far...Cook , apart from those few balls McLenaghan put past his edge , has looked to be carrying on nicely from his Test century.
And Bell has started rather well ...if he keeps this up it may help get that confidence back.
(hope that doesn't jinx him )

Mills was tight for four overs but getting knocked around a bit now...

Go stand in the corner immediately

I'd be looking elsewhere, What about guys who've been on the periphery in recent times, like Tremlett? There has to be a pace bowler out there with England experience, fit and ready, desperate to play and perform better than Dernbach.

Although I understand the 'safe' selection, it was probably the right thing to do.

Glad Bell's out, I still don't think he's a ODI opener. Or batsman full stop.

Wicket maiden from Southee. England 45-1 after 11.

Azzy Mahmood wrote:I'd be looking elsewhere, What about guys who've been on the periphery in recent times, like Tremlett? There has to be a pace bowler out there with England experience, fit and ready, desperate to play and perform better than Dernbach.

Although I understand the 'safe' selection, it was probably the right thing to do.

Glad Bell's out, I still don't think he's a ODI opener. Or batsman full stop.

Bell has done well for the last year or so. But I too, like you said, don't quite fancy him as ODI opener. Ones Pietersen's back, either he or Root would be my favored picks to open.

Southee and Ronchi at it again, Cook's gone this time. England 50-2.

Joe Root's in at 4.

Back to the Dernbach selection, who else could have come in? Meaker?
McClenaghan back on for his 2nd spell.

Nice catch there for Ronchi. Southee showing he is the gun bowler in this NZ team , Tests or ODIs.

A blow for England losing both openers after a good start...need Trott and Root to rebuild now. So I don't mind if Trott starts off slowly

Poor miss from Franklin giving away a boundary. And Jonathan Trott is away. He has to be careful not to get into a shell.

alfie wrote:Nice catch there for Ronchi. Southee showing he is the gun bowler in this NZ team , Tests or ODIs.

A blow for England losing both openers after a good start...need Trott and Root to rebuild now. So I don't mind if Trott starts off slowly

Alfie, I'd say I won't mind if Root takes a bit of time to get going, the lad is more than capable of stepping it up when the time comes, but not Trott. Noone expects him to even score a run-a-ball, but if he can't keep scoring at a decent clip, he's not the kind who could make it up later.

Nathan and Brendon having a nice fielding show there!.

England 12-2 in the last 5 overs. The RR has dropped below 4. Couple of wickets certainly mean they have to do a bit of rebuilding, but they should keep things positive.

msp83 wrote:Nathan and Brendon having a nice fielding show there!.

What'd they do, Cricinfo didn't mention anything.

An Aussie girl sitting near me in the office was offered 2 tickets for today last night & turned them down. There's wifi at Lords, I could have taken my laptop & "worked" remotely mutter mutter.

If this was Essex we'd drop to 60-5 before Foster and Napier come in to steer us to 250

Just keep rebuilding lads, don't really want Morgan/Buttler coming in too early

A boundary after some time, and no surprises that its of Root's bat.

Hey , msp ...I am not really expecting Trott to either start or finish scoring freely

As long as he anchors an end for a while and lets Root have enough strike I am accepting it , after the two wickets. Given a platform , I'm backing either Morgan or Butler to come off and see England to a decent total.

That said , Trott has 17 from 29 , which isn't awful.

Pete C (Kiwireddevil) wrote:

msp83 wrote:Nathan and Brendon having a nice fielding show there!.

What'd they do, Cricinfo didn't mention anything.

An Aussie girl sitting near me in the office was offered 2 tickets for today last night & turned them down. There's wifi at Lords, I could have taken my laptop & "worked" remotely mutter mutter.

Good stop and throw from Brendon, Fine backup from Nathan, and his return then hit the stumps at the striker's end. No damage done, but some good energy and effort there.

Franklin not getting his direction right, and Trott takes full advantage, tickling a boundary down the leg side to keep himself going. England 90-2 in the 22nd.

Root continues to present more reasons to be impressed. There is some good rist work involved in his batting, he looks busy in the middle, runs really hard and trys to convert 1s into 2s. I said it before, Root and Nasir Hossain of Bangladesh, I really want to follow their career progress, mature and impressive young players.

Bell and Cook made a good start and have proven they will be a decent opening pair the ICC trophy.

Sadly both of them lost there wickets cheaply. Trott and Root now at the crease to continue from there brilliant displays in the test match.

Oh, Root's gone, trying to be innovative there and is bowled by Nathan McCullum.

That was a bit silly from Root

Good attempt from Root, he plays the reverse sweep alright, the innings was building some momentum, but he just couldn't execute the shot well, and to be fair, credit to McCullum, he bowled it well.

Disappointing end for Root. Not quite the right ball to try the reverse sweep , and not really necessary at that point...

Never mind. Trott is going fairly smoothly today , and it gives Morgan plenty of time to get settled.

Morgan started off with a boundary 2nd ball. England would want to get him set and then take it on from there. NZ would want to see the back of him at the earliest. McClenaghan is back on.

McCullum has actually been reasonably economical up to now , despite the new rules rather loading the dice against spinners.

Trouble for NZ is that both McLenaghan and Franklin have been leaking runs. The skipper will need to juggle his bowlers carefully or it could get ugly for them in the later overs.

Well well well,! Jonathan Trott has lofted his way to self-destruction.

Now Trott gone ! McCullum again , and England are in danger of messing up a sound start.
These two could take them to a big score...but another wicket now could see the innings sawn off early - or at least failing to realize the potential

..and there is the wicket ! Morgan gone , NZ right on top !

Oh, the Root wicket is yet again followed by an England middle order collapse. Now its Morgan, McClenaghan with the wicket, and another catch to Ronchi.

Brendon has got bowled only 4 overs from the 5th bowler. But England the way they are going, are unlikely to take much advantage of it.

Boundary of a free hit from Woakes. Think McCullum should now think of getting a few bowled from his 5th bowler, Eliott, Williamson and Franklin. Tough chance put down of Woakes of Southee.

Three quick wickets have quite changed the game...hard to see England posting a decent score from here : we know Butler can hit the ball , and Woakes , Bresnan and even Swann have batting ability ; but I can't remember too many instances of England coming back to a big total from this sort of situation.
Their tail often wags in Tests , but less so in the short game for some reason.
Southee back and nearly gets another one ...

144/5 off 34 ...I would take 250 (maybe 230 !) from here , but not sure that would be enough.

Good test for Woakes .

McCullum is taking a bit of a chance here. Southee into his 8th over here. If Buttler and Woakes manage to build a partnership, the 5th bowlers can take some serious tapping later on.

Fair play to Root. Decent score and i don't think it was that silly of shot.

Morgan going for 6 is a huge dissapointment.

Chance for Butler and Woakes to shine. Never really got why Woakes is in the side.

I am 100% shocked that there is no Luke Wright in the side.