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Mar 2015
6:35am, 3 Mar 2015
1,038 posts
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ThorntonRunner
Yep - for me the only thing worse than Pietersen whining is Pietersen gloating.
I agree about Broad, but I've not really seen anyone coming up to take his place.
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Mar 2015
6:38am, 3 Mar 2015
8,890 posts
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Wriggling Snake
YEs agreed about Broad. He do have Taylor,Hales, Root,Butler and Moeen, short on bolwers though, I do still hope Finn pulls through....
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Mar 2015
6:40am, 3 Mar 2015
8,892 posts
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Wriggling Snake
De Villiers isout, butSA may still make 400
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Mar 2015
8:09am, 3 Mar 2015
12,552 posts
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The Teaboy
The test batting lineup is fine. We've regenerated that well. The ODI thing we've never got a handle on. Surely they just have to throw Hales in and hope he gets hot. Purely on the basis that if he does, he can win a game on his own. We should beat Bangladesh regardless, so give him that to warm up and find his range - Aussie pitches should suit him. If we can't beat them then we didn't deserve anything anyway.
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Mar 2015
8:10am, 3 Mar 2015
1,039 posts
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ThorntonRunner
Ballance hasn't shown anything, definitely time for Hales
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Mar 2015
8:34am, 3 Mar 2015
10,172 posts
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TRO Saracen
Yes the bowling worries me intensely....test, ODI or T20. Jimmy's lost nis nip - possibly ermanently, as has Broad. Finn at best a partial recovery from what the coaches did to him (and nothing like the player he once could have been until they tried to turn him into a county trundler), no real test spinner. Come the next Ashes series we'll probably wheel Bresnan out for one last heave..
I really think it is attitude and mindset rather than ability though. Coaching by numbers and stats, every player looked at through what he can't do, not what he can. Is that Moores? Downton? Or just the way we are as a cricket team?
We were bold, aggressive for a while under Vaughan, but then got conservative and attritional (but still pretty decent), now we are conservative but way off being attritional or even half decent.
This world cup is a gonner. Getting to the quarters and avoiding total humiliation is the best we can hope for. But looming next Summer is the Ashes, and what has happened to us in ODI's will be more than replicated in tests. They'll gorge themselves on our predictable, unthreatening bowling and have 3/4 excellent quicks all who can do, on their day, what Mitchell Johnson did last Ashes. I think most of them are called Mitchell as well...it's going to be a fucking slaughter. Usually look forward to an Ashes Summer, dreading this one.
So, is our elimination time to get rid of Downton and Moores?
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Mar 2015
8:40am, 3 Mar 2015
12,553 posts
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The Teaboy
Downton is a committee man of the worst kind (from what I can tell).
Aaah. 2005. We totally took the handbrake off that summer. Went at them absolutely full throttle for 5 matches. Three outright quicks, a demon swinger and a functional spinner. The batting was aggressive too. If all the KP haters could remember how he set the tone at Lords and finished it at the Oval it would be appreciated - as a batsman he won more tests on his own than any other England player I can remember.
Swap Swann for Giles, upgrade Bell to the summer of 2013 version and G.Jones for peak Prior and you'd have one immense cricket team. (2004 Harmy was better than the 2005 version too)
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Mar 2015
8:55am, 3 Mar 2015
10,173 posts
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TRO Saracen
Yep. We beat South Africa away in a series the winter before as well. That Summer was a thing of beauty, I remember Flintoff's magic over and also one of the finest slow balls I've ever seen from Harmy. That test in Edgbaston was mayhem - think we smashed 400 on the first day just to make a point.
On a more sour note, is Moores a committee man as well. Downton's 'outstanding coach of his generation' goes completely missing when the flack flies, nothing has changed that I can see in any way and his big early call to remain faithful to Cook was a dud (reminiscent of Weetabix Head McClaren's England football call to cull Beckham). Yet he seems remarkable Teflon while the captain gets pelters all the time.
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Mar 2015
9:44am, 3 Mar 2015
8,893 posts
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Wriggling Snake
Yes, but the Aussie team, when you look back now was on it's way out, Gillespie, Kasprowicz, McGrath out, Warne held them together....and England's bowling then, good lord, Vaughan didn't need to do a lot really.
Look at Vaughan's ODI stuff, as pants as they are now.....
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Mar 2015
10:00am, 3 Mar 2015
10,175 posts
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TRO Saracen
..and Brett Lee...
Yep those Aussies were definitely on the way out - had drifted down to as low as No.1 in the world and were even more shot 18 months later when they gubbed us 5-0....
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The Ashes 2009
Jun 2022