[JonB]

The 3pm starts in Oz tend to be the day night games they are having i think. England v New Zealand from Wellington starts at 1am on Friday morning as its in the Westpac Stadium which is one of the NZ grounds with lights so must be a day nighter as they play there again v Sri Lanka but it starts at 10pm our time.

Full fixtures here :-
http://www.espncrici...mplate=fixtures

[SpireiteFitzy]

I stay up to listen to what I thought might be an uneventful first hour against NZ and already we are under the cosh at 3 down. Hopefully I wake up to find a Taylor century and Anderson a five wickets haul turned it around for us, though that's about as likely as a me waking up next to Jessica Biel, still we can all dream

[JonB]

I wouldn't bother checking.

To be fair we've had a rough start playing the two teams which could possibly be the final if the format allows but we've played as if we're scared of making mistakes so made mistakes and played poorly. We have talented players but we haven't put a platform for them to perform in.

[Stents]

Didnt stay up for this and thank god! Heard on the radio this morning that we had lost. Just checked BBC Sport and we didn't just lose, we were humiliated!

[JonB]

NZ are on a roll at the moment especially with Mccullum firing but we seem to be playing with fear of making mistakes so making mistakes if that makes sense. The side isnt that bad but we are hampered by our focus on test cricket which isnt a bad thing. The flip of this is aside from possibly Hales or Stokes the side isnt that far away from what is probably the best side...although even Hales and Stokes for all the shouting for them to play havent done an awful lot in England colours when they've had chances.

We probably play the least ODI\T20 cricket than any other major country and whilst our focus on Test Cricket is to be admired compared to the Indian love of T20 money grabbing its always going to mean our players are playing catch up on the limited overs scene.

[SpireiteFitzy]

How much one day cricket have we played in the last year though? Series against Australia, India, West Indies, Sri Lanka home and away, the tri series. We've probably played the most of any country this last year.

There is no defending that no matter how experienced you are, Finn 2 overs for 49, 7 wickets lost for 20 runs and the run chase effectively over in the first 5 overs. Shambles.

[JonB]

We've played more recently as a build up to the world cup but thats not going to cover over a lack of playing it full stop. The collapse was poor but Finn isnt the first bowler to be taken apart by Mccullum and far better have been as well...he's good at the best of times and appears to be in the form of his life currently. Trust me, as a bowler who's been there, sometimes when someone takes to hitting you like that its hard to know where to bowl and how to bowl and the harder you try the further it goes.

There are bigger issues than a couple of Finn overs here and its not so much skills as mental and coaching. Shackling Morgan with the captaincy appears to have shackled his free flowing batting, Bell was doing ok prior to the world cup, Ali is ok but has been found out against the short ball so opening with him cant be the right decision, shouldnt have brought Ballance back but then i dont think Bopara should be in either, Woakes isnt good enough, Finn is hit and miss etc.

For me from here with the squad we have i'd be looking at Bell, Hales, Taylor, Morgan, Root, Ali, Buttler, Jordan, Broad, Anderson, Tredwell for the next game and here on in for the rest of the tournament.

[JonB]

Seems i'm in good company thinking the issue is more mental than actual skills etc....

@SkyCricket: Strauss: “England lacking confidence - all out in 12 of last 18 ODIs. Fear invades camp & mindset changes."

[Westbars Spireite]

England are now a minnow.

[firedodger]

Westbars Spireite, on 20 February 2015 - 08:22 PM, said:

England are now a minnow.

Is that a new word for ****?
Absolutely puerile performance, what is it with the English mindset of keeping bowling short no matter how many times you get clobbered to the boundary?

[SpireiteFitzy]

Good total, shouldn't be chased down by the Scots. Finish this off professionally and on to the next one.

[JonB]

Comfortable win in the end as was likely. Was a bit of a no win situation for England...win and its expected, lose and they get slaughtered. Watched up until Ali got his hundred but seems like the innings fell away a bit towards the end but wasnt a bad job up front.

[Benno Spire]

I watched till 168-0 expecting us to get 350. Then England collapsed again
Should still get 4th place

[JonB]

Gotta love Chris Gayle on days like today...just brutal. However today he got 200+...prior to that his last 12 innings had totalled 199!

[JonB]

Luck of the Irish in their current game v the UAE!?!? Ed Joyce just been bowled off stump only for the bail to jump up so the stumps and bail lit up but then it landed straight back in the groove! Not out...on you bat!

[azul]

Looks like franchise cricket is back on the agenda in England

That should finally kill off the smaller counties.

[Benno Spire]

The powers that be only want 10 teams at the next World Cup. How can they encourage the growth of cricket in other countries if they don't give smaller cricketing nations a chance. Maybe the so called bigger teams don't want to be embarrassed.
Great to see Ireland doing well

[JonB]

Folk are moaning about the length of the tournament as it stands so they think the only way to reduce this is reduce the number of teams. Think one plan is top 8 in the ODI rankings qualify automatically then rest have to go through some sort of qualifying for the last two places.

To be honest the make up of the tournament has been chopped and changed for ages including that bizarre spell of having group stages then a second "super 6" or "super 8" group stage where points carried over but they all played each other again that had qualifed so it just took ages.

I'm sure they'll come up with another fangled idea but for me the likes of Ireland, Afghanistan, Scotland, UAE and any other aspiring nations have to see the chance of being involved. The best two games so far have been Ireland v UAE and Scotland v Afghanistan!

[Benno Spire]

Just enjoyed watching A B Devilliers destry windies

[JonB]

Becoming a bit of a regular occurrence for De Villiers these days.....compared to some of the others he just hits it to all parts of the ground and with the new fielding rules allowing only four outside the circle its nigh on impossible to stop him.

De Villiers is the annoyingly talented kid from school....just a quick summary of his sporting career prior to being an international superstar at cricket!!

Quote

He is a talented sportsman and has excelled in golf, rugby, badminton, cricket and tennis. At his school he was part of the school's U-14 cricket team. He played golf and got a scratch handicap in it, which means he is a player whose average score for a round of golf is par or better. Rugby was the most followed sport at his school so he took it up too. He was gifted sportsman having a natural talent of anything that was a sport. He once had a flair for hockey, and made it to the U-16 side of the school. During his period as a team member his team did really well. He was shortlisted for South Africa's junior national hockey team.

He returned to play rugby when he stopped with hockey. He was soon part of the school's rugby team, the 1st XV of the Affies. He performed extraordinarily well and was selected for the Blue Bulls U-18 side, which had some big names that would later represent South African rugby.

He was the member of South Africa's junior Davis Cup tennis team. He was ranked in the top two in his age division for tennis in South Africa. He was also the South Africa's U-19 national badminton champion.

Other than that, he held six South African school swimming records in school and also held the record in the 100m dash in South Africa's junior athletics

This post has been edited by JonB: 27 February 2015 - 08:40 AM