Australia vs England - 4th ODI

First topic message reminder :

Will we ever win a game?

My team for this would be:

Cook
Bell
Carberry
Ballance
Morgan
Buttler
Stokes
Broad
Jordan
Briggs
Tredwell

Mix it up a bit. Would consider not playing Cook though.....

neck and neck again...with 95 needed off last 11.

To surge ahead again again.....Eng need the wicket of maxwell pretty much in the 40th or at the latest start of 41st over

Are you Trebs in disguise KPF?

so Eng surge ahead with Maxwell's wicket....and will remain so for the next 4 overs atleast......even with good batting Aus need four more overs to come neck to neck.

Should be a doddle for Faulkner this. Wonder if he'll drag out the agony or just finish it quickly

Eng get one more good over....and they would have a grip so firm.....that it would require an effort of miraculous proportions for Aus to win.


from Aus POV they need a 14 run over now

Good couple of overs, only 3 from them. Pressure building now...

Faulkner gone....game over.....there will be no miracles today.....finally Eng will see a win today

Not calling it until Australia run out of wickets or balls

Couldn't be much closer on compared progress scores...1 less run , 1 more wicket ...

But Stokes strikes again ! Not Faulkner this time then.

Surely they cant blow it from here against Aus B

Of course not, PSW.

Australia will probably lose the next one on Australia Day too.

Nadal 2 sets up, 2-2 in the 3rd.

A question of whether England or Nadal can win first really.

My money is on England.   <- no blisters....

Excellent all round performance from Stokes today - really like his character to bounce back from a poor performance with a man of the match display. And Buttler continues his good form.

From the wreckage of this tour at least England have found 2 players for the future across all formats (I know Buttler has been round a while but we can now see his improvement last summer wasn't a blip)

Linebreaker wrote:My money is on England.   <- no blisters....

You're still trying that reverse stuff , lb   

Two and a half per ball needed now...

Yes VTR but it's still a net loss of players from this tour.

Anyway, congratulations England. Well played today.   

No, not at all alfie.

Poor Jordan ! Should have had the last wicket twice that over ...

England fielding faltering at the end. Cook not happy.

Not sure about the net loss. Trott and Swann were not going to go on forever, both were already at the stage where you were thinking 1-2 more years before retirement (Trott might come back of course) with the distinct possibility of retiring after the Ashes anyway.

What we desperately needed were some under 25's coming through to rebuild a team that was already ageing. Also their performances will give confidence to others in the county system, there were doubts if the best youngsters could make the step up but these two are proving that they can.

Stokes is human

At the 9th attempt, England have won

Bresnan finishes it with a good catch by the keeper ...both had good games.

But I reckon Stokes is MoM

Result at last for England   

Australia the shortest ever reign as ODI number one ?

GSC wrote:A question of whether England or Nadal can win first really.

Here we go... match point again for Nadal. Very close call, GSC.

Also the longest, alfie.   

At last Australia's luck runs out and England's natural superiority asserts itself.    

Buttler or Stokes for MoM?

Australias batting let them down, Finch aside, Maxwell top scored with 26

A much needed shot in the foot... I mean arm for England.   

Stokes gets MoM. I missed his bowling, but I would have given it to Buttler. Think his knock was the game winner, without that we probably only get 280-300 at most.

Can we set up a gloating thread where we can heap abuse of Australias pathetic bowling and meek surrender with the bat?

What a bunch of jokers. Worst team in world cricket.



Hmmmm.

JDizzle wrote:Stokes gets MoM. I missed his bowling, but I would have given it to Buttler. Think his knock was the game winner, without that we probably only get 280-300 at most.

But then Stokes did it with bat and ball, his innings gave Buttler the platform.

Of course it was Buttlers catches that gave him the wickets ....

So all in they both deserve it!

Linebreaker wrote:

GSC wrote:A question of whether England or Nadal can win first really.

Here we go... match point again for Nadal. Very close call, GSC.

Also the longest, alfie.   

Haha ...good point , lb. but that is ancient history   

Anyway , now you have the record books covered both ways...

It's a farce I tell ya.     When do India next play?  

Who was that PM in 1945 again? Frank Forde. Oh, hang on - he was there for 8 days.

So England help India regain the number 1 ODI ranking!.
What happens if they lose tomorrow? Will it be back to Australia?
Anyways, a win at last for England. It took them 9 attempts, and came against a 2nd string side, but at this stage, this win would mean a lot for England from a rebuilding point of view.
Ben Stokes with a very fine all-round performance. Batted well to make 70 and then kept striking with the ball regularly to take 4 wickets. It was a fine effort from Jos Buttler as well, but Stokes' all-round performance makes him the rightful Man of the Match in my view.
Other than Finch, the rest of the Australian lineup wasn't up to mark in this game.

finally a win!!!

would like to see Briggs play at Adelaide, in place of Tredwell.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:And now Bopara comes on. I would have been very tempted to keep Bresnan on and bowl his full 10 on the reel. He was in a groove and an economical one at that - will he return to it immediately in his next spell?

With that, I have to be away. Fingers crossed.

Whereas Bopara has done what he does best. Set batsmen looking to accelerate, vary the bowling with someone they think they can hit out the park but somehow manages to produce a ball that doesnt do what was expected and gets a key wicket.
He has become a very effective bowler encouraging batsmen to get themselves out.

Hi Peter - I certainly can't disagree with that.

I would emphasise (as borne out by his recent stats) that Bopara is most effective as part of a fifth bowler combo. I agree he's a useful option to have available and to use with the ball. However, I would still be uneasy going into a ODI with the need or expectation for Bopara to bowl a full allocation. Imo, there's a captaincy knack / skill as to when to bring him on and, just as importantly, when to take him off. Put another way concerning withdrawing him from the attack, when to stick rather than risk going for broke. For all the criticism that Cook has received on this tour, he appears to have used Bopara well in these ODIs. Fair's fair, credit as well to Bopara for delivering for the skipper even though the timing and circumstances when he's had to bowl have often been helpfully and kindly chosen for him.

So, yes, I give praise to Bopara's bowling. Sorry if the praise seems a bit reserved. I guess that's just because it is.

Yeah but then most side now really go in with 4 bowlers and 2-3 who will combine 10+ overs between them.
I'd say its especially important for sides like England ( and aus) who don't exactly have a mystery spinner and rely largely on fast medium seam bowlers.
Bopara very much has a role in the England bowling attack and is more effective than his ability if that makes sense. Yes he isn't a 10 over bowler except on the odd occasion.

The frustration is he always seems to either bowl or bat effectively, rarely both.

Not sure teams really prefer the 4 bowler path any more with the additional fielding restrictions. Even handy parttimers like Yuvraj Singh struggled with the new rules, and India, who always preferred a 7 batsman 4 bowler formula now plays Ravindra Jadeja as the all-rounder. Sri Lanka have Thisara Perera in the top 7, Pakistan have Afridi and Hafeez, South Africa go in with McLaren and even Bangladesh have the luxury of having Shakib Al Hasan.
Ravi Bopara has done well with the ball since his comeback, but I don't think it'll be a good idea to go in with him as the 5th bowler. Particularly with Root struggling.....

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

The frustration is he always seems to either bowl or bat effectively, rarely both.

With that goes the difficulty of Bopara delivering a ''par'' performance.

If he does ok or better with the bat and chips in usefully with the ball off his typical 5 or 6 overs, he'll have put in a good to very good performance.

However, if he fails with the bat, I generally don't see his bowling being sufficient to rescue his own performance rating in the match.

I also suspect that the more Bopara continues to bowl in ODIs, the more that opponents will seek to target him. As the Corporal and I chew the cud over from time to time, memories still linger as to how the West Indies in the 1979 World Cup Final destroyed England's fifth bowler combo of Gooch / Boycott / Larkins.

He does have better career bowling figures (and batting) in ODIs than everyones favourite allround wonderkid Stokes, Mr 80 caps Bresnan and the "new old finn" Jordan

Tbh at this moment in time I'd rather Luke Weight was playing ahead of Bopara

Cook does make a good point about Stokes in his post match stuff, about not only him being a real competitor, but also learning from his experiences. We saw this in his batting from his debut to the next test, now his bowling from Brisbane to this game, its an encouraging trait to have.

Buttler ain't too shabby either. Ridiculously talent that boy has

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:He does have better career bowling figures (and batting) in ODIs than everyones favourite allround  wonderkid Stokes, Mr 80 caps Bresnan and the "new old finn" Jordan

Those ODI bowling figures are certainly to Bopara's credit. However, I doubt that they would compare so favourably if he was regularly bowling a full allocation of overs. That really was the thrust of my earlier posts. Those doubts do at least seem to be shared by Cook - else, why isn't Bopara bowling more?

PS Like every other Surrey supporter, I've heavily slated Jordan in the recent past for his wayward bowling accompanied by too many no balls. However, he's shown a massive improvement in form since his ODI debut in the summer - the main thing missing from his game in this series seems to have been luck!