***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......

Gregers wrote: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?

Chanderpaul is a great player or does he not count?

How many time have England won the ICC World Cup?

I'm not getting drawn into a discussion on the WIndies. This is all about England and Sri Lanka.

Once again our top order has failed. Mahela MOTM surely?

Windies are rudey poo, let him dream it's different.

Useless rubbish. Iguess that's why they get solace in slagging off better teams.

dropping one of the Jaya clan sure proved costly.

OH well. On to the next game where whoever bats first wins then.

what a quality form of the game.

the wumming is boring now guys drop it

also we played really bad today, sri lanka deserved to win

yeah fair point crick.

they did indeed. better team by far on the day.

Swanns drop early on set the tone for a dire performance from England.

I think it'll be 4-1 to SL. Not sure Eng have the mental stength to bounce back.

trebellbobaggins wrote:
OH well. On to the next game where whoever bats first wins then.

what a quality form of the game.

Hardly, sri lanka were the best side today. England were better in the first match. Hopefully both sides will turn up for the 3rd match...

trebellbobaggins wrote:yeah fair point crick.

they did indeed. better team by far on the day.

Swanns drop early on set the tone for a dire performance from England.

I think it'll be 4-1 to SL. Not sure Eng have the mental stength to bounce back.

Whereas a few days ago England were by far the better team. Sri Lanka are just as acapable of bad days at the office, they didnt have much trouble bouncing back after doing the cricket equivelant of driving to dundee with no shoes and eating 3 large toblerones. Are England mentaly weaker? I dont thnk so, although they may not care quite as much but thatas another issue

I do think a change is in order though, perhaps bringing in Bopara for one of the batsmen (Trott?). It would semi fix 2 of the 3 big problems, but England will still be short a genuine limited overs strike bowler in the mould of Malinga. Have to say he must be the number one limited overs bowler now. Dropping Broad is an option, depending what County crikcet he wil get instead, rather than trying to bowl him through more of thsi as "prereation" for a test series against India..but who comes in? Woakes was woeful in the one days. Shazzad? Tremelt may be the wicket taking threat they lack , but the low order batting is feeble enough without him anderson and dernbach. So perhaps even Tremlett for Dernbach? But then that makes the seam bowling a bit one dimensional with only Anderson not being a tall medium quick. I dunno, maybe they could just try playing better?

England player poor today,hopefully they can bounce back in the 3rd one-dayer. Bresnan and Broad bowled terribly and really need to pick it up especially Broad going into the next one-dayer. Not fully convinced on Englands top order yet either.

Hildreth for KP
Bell at 3
Wright/Patel for Bresnan
Woakes for Broad

Cook (c)
Kieswetter (wk)
Bell
Hildreth
Morgan
Trott
Wright/Patel
Woakes
Swann
Anderson
Dernbach

Gregers wrote:Hildreth for KP
Bell at 3
Wright/Patel for Bresnan
Woakes for Broad

Cook (c)
Kieswetter (wk)
Bell
Hildreth
Morgan
Trott
Wright/Patel
Woakes
Swann
Anderson
Dernbach

England arn't going to drop KP he's in decent form. England didn't drop him after a string of bad performances they arn't going to drop him after one or two poor performances.

leave kp in the side

Okay then Bell at 3, Hildreth for Trott.

Cook
Kieswetter
Bell
Hildreth
Morgan
KP

Hildreth in for Trott makes more sense, but only increases the weakness in Englands support bowling. Boparas the man in the squad,and he can bowl better than Trott,and he did actually manage one good innings for England in and ODI amongst all the dross. So maybe.
Its hardly awe inspiring though is it?

Or Samit Patel? At least he gives a second spin option...

Gregers wrote:Okay then Bell at 3, Hildreth for Trott.

Cook
Kieswetter
Bell
Hildreth
Morgan
KP

Trott keeps Englands middle order together and has improved his strike rate of late.

He still worries me in the one day format. Test matches he is one of the best number 3's in the world at the moment. In the 50 over game I think we only need one of Bell and Trott

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:
I do think a change is in order though, perhaps bringing in Bopara for one of the batsmen (Trott?). It would semi fix 2 of the 3 big problems, but England will still be short a genuine limited overs strike bowler in the mould of Malinga. Have to say he must be the number one limited overs bowler now. Dropping Broad is an option, depending what County crikcet he wil get instead, rather than trying to bowl him through more of thsi as "prereation" for a test series against India..but who comes in? Woakes was woeful in the one days. Shazzad? Tremelt may be the wicket taking threat they lack , but the low order batting is feeble enough without him anderson and dernbach. So perhaps even Tremlett for Dernbach? But then that makes the seam bowling a bit one dimensional with only Anderson not being a tall medium quick. I dunno, maybe they could just try playing better?

Bopara for Trott wouldn't achieve anything. Despite their respective reputations, Trott gets more runs, more quickly than Bopara.

Tremlett's ODI record isn't great. Shahzad is massively out of form at the moment, more so than Broad.

In terms of the batting order, we lack a #6. Bell is not a #6 in this form of the game (and some people wanted him at #6 in the T20!). But who do we have? We have Patel in the squad but they haven't played him yet. Stokes looks a great option but is injured. Collingwood is a top-order player, so is Bopara, Wright isn't good enough to bat above 7 and, whilst he is still very much in their thoughts, England don't trust Rashid yet (and 6 would be too high anyway).

And our problems in the middle-to-late-order are being exposed because only two players in our team are capable of scoring ODI hundreds - Trott and Morgan. Cook, Kieswetter and Bell have each (although Kieswetter has only played a handful of games) whilst Pietersen hasn't scored one in well over 2 years. When you have that sort of a batting line-up, you are putting pressure on your all-rounders and bowlers to make up the difference.

Patel in for Bell seems the obvious answer to me.
Even though I'm a fan of Bell, he's not and ODI No. 6. If he's not going to bat in the top 3 so that he can build an innings, he's not going to achieve much. Patel offers bigger hitting and another bowling option.

we lost one game so what, no one suggested changes after the last game, maybe patel should have played, but dont criticse now after one defeat that isnt fair relle is it

I was calling for Patel to play over Bell/KP in the first game...

There's plenty of things we can do to improve the performance and there is all to play for in this series if the selectors react to what goes on out there on the field.

I think we have to add more positivity to the batting and see if that works. If we were always chasing 220 - 240 then maybe trott could stick around but against sides like sl we need more attacking batsmen in the first half of the innings.

It was a poor performance throughout and no excuses today after the great start we had at the Oval. We have to hold all the chances and bowl a lot better and sl will not be out of sight in any of the next games.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Whereas a few days ago England were by far the better team. Sri Lanka are just as acapable of bad days at the office, they didnt have much trouble bouncing back after doing the cricket equivelant of driving to dundee with no shoes and eating 3 large toblerones. Are England mentaly weaker? I dont thnk so, although they may not care quite as much but thatas another issue

I do think a change is in order though, perhaps bringing in Bopara for one of the batsmen (Trott?). It would semi fix 2 of the 3 big problems, but England will still be short a genuine limited overs strike bowler in the mould of Malinga. Have to say he must be the number one limited overs bowler now. Dropping Broad is an option, depending what County crikcet he wil get instead, rather than trying to bowl him through more of thsi as "prereation" for a test series against India..but who comes in? Woakes was woeful in the one days. Shazzad? Tremelt may be the wicket taking threat they lack , but the low order batting is feeble enough without him anderson and dernbach. So perhaps even Tremlett for Dernbach? But then that makes the seam bowling a bit one dimensional with only Anderson not being a tall medium quick. I dunno, maybe they could just try playing better?

That's fair. Both seem able to turn up and then completely fail to on any given day.

I think too much emphasis is placed on having big hitters up the order. We're not blessed with huge numbers of International class six-hitters, and I'd much rather see them down the order. I would much rather give the best batsmen more time to make big scores. Therefore my batting line-up would be:

Cook
Bell
Trott
Pietersen
Morgan
Kieswetter (wk)
Patel
Woakes
Bresnan
Swann
Anderson

Jayawardene has a ODI strike-rate of 77.94. Sangakkara has a ODI 75.70. Jonathan Trott has a ODI strike-rate of 78.66. Ian Bell has a ODI strike-rate of 72.78. Cook has a ODI strike-rate of 72.47. Ok, Bell and Cook do need to score possibly 3 more runs per hundred balls, but they're right up there with the top class ODI players in the opposition. If one of those can get in and get big runs, then they can accelerate and look to end up with a run-a-ball ton as Jayawardene did today. If we are regularly getting to around something like 140-2 after 30 overs, I think that's a good enough position to then push for 300 with Pietersen, Morgan, Kieswetter, Patel, Woakes and a batting powerplay to come.

Broad's form is terrible and I'd look to bring in Woakes in ODIs so Broad can go back and play some County Cricket, whilst I think our team is better balanced with Samit Patel as opposed to Dernbach, as we have another spin option and a good number 7 batsman.

I do think we lack an aggresive opener in the mould of a Dilshan or Jayasuria and a ODI strike bowler like Malinga or Steyn, but we don't have players like that itching to get into the team. It's all well and good saying we need players like that, but we just don't have the players around.