Aus vs England proper cricket T20s way more important than tests

Well now all that test nonsense is out of the way we can settle down to main event of the tour, the T20 games. Obviously everyone in England(and Wales) got over the Ashses years ago and its only the quaint little colonials who still insist on clinging on to this outdated worthless format.
*cough*

The big news is that despite taking a public kicking from Farbrace James Vince has been included in the squad in favour of Moeen.
I guess this shows just how badly shell shocked Moeen really is, he otherwise would be considered an integral part of Englands limited overs plans in the build up to 2019. It also may have given him the opportunity to hit his way out of trouble in a format his attacking batting style and regular heroic failures are more acceptable.

It also leaves them with Dawson and Rashid as the two spin bowlers, who both move the ball in the same direction robbing England of a weapon against left handers. Crane does not get a place. Maybe a case of muddled thinking or "differences of poinion" between the limited over selectors and test team; Plunkett also gets a place despite missing out on the Ashes amongst the injury and form crisis.

Bairstow has also been rested which give Hales a good opportunity to pressure for his place back in the ODI side. It does make some sense to avoid burnout, if theya re going to play him dont make him hang aorund carrying drinks when he could be off down the bar getting into fights. Speaking of which Stokes is again included but unlikely to play.

Wood is included, he should be well over the injury by then....just short of cricket.

Overall its not far off the strongest squad but still lacks quality in the bowling. The real surprise is Vince.

Eoin Morgan (capt), Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, David Willey, Mark Wood

Possible side:
Hales
Roy
Root
Morgan
Malan/Dawson
Buttler
Rashid
Willey
Plunkett
Jordan
Wood

Early observations on the Hobart T20

Billy Stanlake... From 3/15 to 27 off two : .some days are diamonds , some days - well you know the rest. At least he's only gone for eight in his third.

Facing Travis Head for a living might be a reasonable gig. (He might yet get his own back with the bat)


Ashton Agar could be a key bowler in this stuff.

Malan can really play. Odd that his preferred format is 50 over but he can't get in the team: his t20 record (brief as it is !) is fairly spectacular ; and he's done well so far in Tests. Strikes me as a thinking cricketer : perhaps a good aspect to having to wait for his chance at the top level ? You know your game...

Three down at half way but for 96 so looks like a decent score is on. More if Buttler gets going.

Ha . Hexed Jos.

Buttler exits tamely and the innings stalls somewhat ...113/4 off 13

How many more chances does Billings get? Albeit his opportunities are few and far between, he never really seems to much with them...

Can't see Billings getting a regular spot. Already quite enough wicketkeepers.

Innings totally collapsing against Agar and Maxwell . Need a Jordan cameo to get anything respectable now. Hasn't been smart batting.

Probably aren't going to bat out the 20 overs as Rashid holes out...

Spin doing the trick for the Aussies... Whilst Dawson is left out (after taking 3 wickets for 16 in the warm up game)

Billings over Dawson/S.Curran is a strange one. Leaves us relying on our 5 bowlers and hoping no one has a mare and with Jordan in the team that is always possible!

Questionable tactics today. Got a bit carried away with the fast start , perhaps ? Think they overreached , looking for 200 plus on a pitch that probably ought to have a par score of about 175....pace off the ball the key.

Think this total is considerably light. Reckon the Aussies will do this easily.

Good finish ! but 155 is surely well short of requirements

jimbohammers wrote:Billings over Dawson/S.Curran is a strange one. Leaves us relying on our 5 bowlers and hoping no one has a mare and with Jordan in the team that is always possible!

Agree with this - strange to leave Dawson out after his performance in the warm up game (and generally in shorter form cricket).

155 is not undefendable - but it is below par. Will need to pickup some early wickets

Brisk start

Warner ...four ...and out.

Think early overs , new ball is the time to score...

But none for Lynn as Willey cleans him up for a duck !

Game on...

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

jimbohammers wrote:Billings over Dawson/S.Curran is a strange one. Leaves us relying on our 5 bowlers and hoping no one has a mare and with Jordan in the team that is always possible!

Agree with this - strange to leave Dawson out after his performance in the warm up game (and generally in shorter form cricket).

155 is not undefendable - but it is below par. Will need to pickup some early wickets

Two in the first over as ordered , Olly

Maxwell and Short collecting regular sixes to get the score moving...

Unless Rashid can work a minor miracle I think they'll run this down pretty comfortably . Already a similar score to England's at six overs despite the early wickets.

You can see England are getting desperate as they review an lbw clearly pitched outside leg.

Aussie innings stumbling like the England one...except that Maxwell (clearly caught at deep mid off) is reprieved by a ridiculous third umpire decision

Who is the idiot judging that ? Roy quite obviously had his fingers under that and no need for slow motion stuff...Crucial moment in the game and a classic example of the misuse of technology.

Awful awful third umpiring - how have they overturned that???

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Awful awful third umpiring - how have they overturned that???

I reckon the third umpiring has been a bit poor all through this tour...some very odd decisions : seems some of these TV umpires see their role as to replace the on field umpires rather than just make quite certain that the original decision was wrong. That was a particularly bad one - and as the other batsmen are falling around him it appears the "life" for Maxwell will just about decide the match.

Mind you England only have themselves to blame as Hales should have caught him much earlier anyway...

Maxwell duly brings them home with a six and and a century with nine balls to spare...

Terrific innings though he had a generous helping of luck...which he just about deserved for some of his strokes.

Closer than it looked like being but Australia definitely played the better game tonight. England white ball bats need to be a bit more adaptable , I think.

alfie wrote:  England white ball bats need to be a bit more adaptable , I think.

The Aussies didnt really do any better aside from Maxwell. His innings was an absolute stand out in this game. Yeah England couldve made more but Australia wouldve been struggling enourmosuly without his individual contribution.

Its also worth remembering that England are short Root, Stokes and Woakes from this line up..and also couldve played Moeen. Thats a lot of batting talent not used. Hales is on a bad run of form too. The positive is Malans continuing to show he has all formats potential.
Billings on the other hand ...how many more chances can he get? Hes not young anymore and hads played in all the major T20 leagues as a specialist ...but consistently failed at international level. He should and will play again in the series, but his England career to date has been a real let down. If they ever get around to having all the best players available for teh world cup ( and know who they are) Im not sure he'd make the squad.

Gooseberry wrote:

alfie wrote:  England white ball bats need to be a bit more adaptable , I think.

The Aussies didnt really do any better aside from Maxwell. His innings was an absolute stand out in this game. Yeah England couldve made more but Australia wouldve been struggling enourmosuly without his individual contribution.

Its also worth remembering that England are short Root, Stokes and Woakes from this line up..and also couldve played Moeen. Thats a lot of batting talent not used. Hales is on a bad run of form too. The positive is Malans continuing to show he has all formats potential.
Billings on the other hand ...how many more chances can he get? Hes not young anymore and hads played in all the major T20 leagues as a specialist ...but consistently failed at international level. He should and will play again in the series, but his England career to date has been a real let down. If they ever get around to having all the best players available for teh world cup ( and know who they are) Im not sure he'd make the squad.

Woakes last played T20s in Nov 2015. His bowling 36.14 econ 9.37. I think they have moved on from him. There is Plunkett, Willey, Wood, Curran, Jordan, Stokes etc. Funny that Woakes was bought in the IPL for £820,000 and Jordan for £110,000. Maybe if Woakes is successful in the IPL again he might get another go.

Gooseberry wrote:

alfie wrote:  England white ball bats need to be a bit more adaptable , I think.

The Aussies didnt really do any better aside from Maxwell. His innings was an absolute stand out in this game. Yeah England couldve made more but Australia wouldve been struggling enourmosuly without his individual contribution.

Its also worth remembering that England are short Root, Stokes and Woakes from this line up..and also couldve played Moeen. Thats a lot of batting talent not used. Hales is on a bad run of form too. The positive is Malans continuing to show he has all formats potential.
Billings on the other hand ...how many more chances can he get? Hes not young anymore and hads played in all the major T20 leagues as a specialist ...but consistently failed at international level. He should and will play again in the series, but his England career to date has been a real let down. If they ever get around to having all the best players available for teh world cup ( and know who they are) Im not sure he'd make the squad.

Yeah I don't really mean to be too critical of them - the aggressive approach works 9 times out of ten. Just that occasionally it seems to me they fail to recognize that the pitch on which they are playing isn't ideal for all out attack and they could achieve a better result with a slightly more conservative method...if only for a few overs before going nuts again at the end. I think 175 would have won them this game ; and I think it was reachable even after Buttler got out.
But as you say , Maxwell played a blinder. So we can really just blame Hales for dropping him ...wasn't his best match in a red shirt.

I wouldn't play Billings. Try Vince or an extra bowler.

T20 is Vince's strongest format. Allows him to get a flashy 30/40 and in t20s that's a good score. If you look at his record for Hampshire it is bloody good.

Woke up and saw the score - did england never get going? Weird that the likes of Buttler would be in for so long but struggle to score a run a ball!

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Woke up and saw the score - did england never get going? Weird that the likes of Buttler would be in for so long but struggle to score a run a ball!

We definitely made it look like it was hard to score on. Thought 140 would have been acceptable but the Aussies showing that we were about 35-40 short!

At the MCG 140 is never enough, we just batted poorly, had OZ batted first and played like that, they would have scored 200 with ease...our bowling was way off the mark too

Gah Hales was looking good there - of all the deliveries to hole out too!

Not sure I'd have sent Vince in ahead of Buttler here - think we need Jos to be in for a long time to get close here

Malan playing a bit of a stinker here - a run a ball 23, not middling anything tonight - strangely for him!

Vince has run himself out again

good opportunity for Billings here as Buttler fails

and Billings fails again

His time might be coming to an end in an England shirt

Not really sure what game Ian Smith has been watching if he thinks England have thrown this away - NZ have always been ahead in the game!

Yeah not looking great for Billings is it, a real dissapointment in an England shirt. If hes not in as a keeper then they really need to look elsewhere...espeically as this side couldve done with an additional bowler.
Maybe the last game of the series just to have given him a genuine run in the side, but its going to be hard batting at 6 to get the opportunity to demand long term retention even if he does manage to be less rubbish.

Roys had 5 single digit scores on the bounce in this format, Add to that his brilliant first ODI innings has been sandwiched by poor runs. Unlike Billings he has enough credit in the bank and has proven he can deliver matchwinning performances ...but if youre looking at why Englands batting has struggled so much recently hes part of the problem.

Malans the one bright spark in all this.

Selection of the side maybe wasnt the best, and yes they are short a few players. But the scale of these defeats is dissapointing and worrying. England have been utterly outdone. We cant blame a lack of exposure to BBL/IPL etc or not picking specialists. They have a variety of bowlers too.
All in pretty deflating....aside form being less rubbish theres not an obvious best side, balance or change ina pproach that will bring england the major change they need.

I'm not too worried about it from a macro sense - they're missing Stokes, Woakes, Ali, Root and Morgan from their best XI in this format. It's just a bit disappointing to see some of the backups fail to take their opportunity

Probably shouldn't ever get too worried about a couple of poor performances in this form of the game - it is such a hit and miss affair (and I'm not denying there is plenty of skill involved : just saying luck plays a larger part than in the other formats)
Agree with Olly England never really looked likely to win : had a half-decent chance around the time Malan got out but with that tail all reasonable hope went with his wicket. Do think the tail is too long : yes Willey can hit the odd six (so can Jordan and Plunkett) but none of them will do it often enough against class international bowlers. If the top six don't fire they are always going to struggle. And with Billings occupying a space , Vince arguably not quite up to this level , and Roy as inconsistent as ever (though his highs are worth watching !) that is always something on which only a fool would risk a wager...

Its not just this game though Alfie, theyve been awful through this series and masked a poor run prior to it with good wins in 50 overs. Since the last world cup theyve won 4 lost 8, with many of those loses being by wide margins.

OK its a bit of a phoney war in T20 currently with a big gap untill the next world cup, and England are still experiementing with a wide range of players ...but they look a long way off having a solid squad of worthy players to be challenging for it or knowing what their side should look like and finding a style that works for them.

I dont thinnk its unreasoanble to be dissapointed that we are rubbish in this format. Through the pprevious world cup cycle  we had a side that was winning far more games than it lost, whilst often carrying the likes of Billings. I guess Root and Stokes would make a big difference, but the bowling looks short of inspiration too. Losing heavily 4 on the bounce is not a good sign.

England Lions lost by two wickets vs Windies A earlier today, on a pitch that sounds like it was ragging square from very early on.

Lions 252 (Jennings 49, Gubbins 50, Coughlin 60)
Windies A 279 (Leach 3/84) - Dowrich got a 100 apparently... Christ.
Lions 132 (Hameed 39, Clarke 31)
Windies A 108-8 (Leach 5-26)

Dowrich got a hundred and Jomel Warrican got a fifty - sheesh

Hameed can still defend. Still cant score.
Crane was expensive, Leach took 8 of the 17 West Indies wickets. Guess which plays for the senior side

So the last qualification match in the trans - Tasman t20 gets under way...winless England trying to sneak into the final with Australia via the cat-flap...

Bright start by Roy with 22 off the first two overs. Morgan back - and Dawson and Curran. But I see Billings is selected again (why ?)

Hales out . Not what was wanted with the tail starting at six.

Roy spoons up a simple catch off a slower ball from Boult and this - after a great first two overs - looks like going the same way as the other games. 24/2 in the fourth and unless Morgan or Buttler have a day out I can't see them getting a serious score to defend.

Might be just as well : the way they've been playing , another clash with Australia now might just be embarrassing .

Couple of nice drives from Malan. He is the best thing to come out of this tour so far

Some impressive hitting from Malan. Good fifty though he went shortly after and Buttler followed almost immediately.

Captain Morgan keeping the ship afloat with some nice placement and some massive blows ... 66 off 39 so far : 154/4 with 17 balls left...

Billings is proper pants

Boult goes for a couple of straight sixes but hits back with the wicket of Billings for another underwhelming effort of 6 off eight balls...

166/5 : two overs left. England will want them to be big ones.

Southee has been excellent today : just twelve off three overs ...but he's gone for ten off his last. Gets Willey though and it's 176/6 with one over left.

Might be enough to win (?) but doubt it will be enough to see the run rate working for England. Morgan not getting enough strike late here...

Dawson comes out smoking ! Six , four ...and out. 187 with two balls left and Morgan on strike...but just a single.

Jordan hits the last ball for six so a total of 194 is much better than it looked like being. Morgan not out 80 off 46

Still think NZ will - at worst - get close enough to make the final on run rate. Fifty-fifty on the result I reckon.

How about we stop bowling half trackers on Munro’s legs lads

Munro enjoying this not very smart bowling...dealing exclusively in sixes. Spoils it with a mere four...

England bowling rubbish : get the spinners on .

Jordan bowls a bit better over but NZ are cruising this...

Just keep bowling half volleys Willey, it’s clearly working so well...

Munro is playing well but England are bowling pure filth here

Rashid comes on (too late I think) and immediately gets Munro. Great little innings over

I do think Morgan could have gone to spin earlier , even with the fielding restrictions. Could hardly have done worse than the pace hacks...

Need a miracle spell from Rashid : and probably Dawson - and Malan - as well.

NZ will do this easily.

This has been a brainless display from England. Credit to NZ , sure : but right to the end England are doing daft things ...Jordan mixes an over of impeccable Yorkers with rubbish - wides , no balls (including one which bowled Chapman!) free hits - only actually conceded nine somehow.

NZ safe in the final but need thirteen off Curran's last.

Now need nine off three. Oh what might have been ...five off two...Buttler fumbles and concedes a bye...

Curran with the last ball : keeps them to a single to win the game ; well done Tom but it is all a bit flat as the run rate sees them out.

Morgan , Malan , Rashid and Dawson all get paid for today , I reckon. The rest should pay back their match fees