***England vs Sri Lanka*** 3rd of 5 ODI Live

Sunday, July 3, Lord's
Start time 1045am (0945 GMT)


Brief as per cricinfo....

The two one-sided matches have meant that, in keeping with the stuttering international summer, the series is yet to kick into life. Lord's is the ideal setting to change that. The weather is set fair, the pitch will be flat and a sellout crowd will lend an atmosphere that the series has lacked so far. Sri Lanka have little reason to deviate from the team that brought the 69-run Headingley win but England will be tempted to make changes. Graeme Swann was their best bowler in the last game and Cook may want a second slow-bowling option in Samit Patel. Jonathan Trott came in for familiar criticism for clogging up the middle overs with dot balls but, despite his 39 from 54, his record - averaging 53.68 from 27 games - is outstanding.

There are plenty of wise judges who don't see Alastair Cook as the long-term answer to England's one-day captaincy. Yet his record in charge suggests he can meet this challenge like he has all others in his career so far. In the five matches he's led the side he's made 209 runs at 41.80 striking, crucially, at 92 runs per 100 balls. That's a major step up from a record of 30.52 at 68 when back in the ranks. Lord's is a favourite venue for Cook in Tests and if he can transfer that success into the 50-over format England will have a much better hope of victory.

For most of this summer Sri Lanka have been without one of their brightest talents. Angelo Mathews missed the Test series recovering from a leg injury but returned for the Twenty20 in Bristol. It was at Headingley, though, where Sri Lanka fans were shown just what they missed. His 30-ball 46 helped Sri Lanka ambush 97 runs from their final 10 overs and left England needing to surpass their highest-ever successful run-chase to win the game. As promising, was the first sign of his bowling, which, however ginger, was the first time he'd bowled since the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in March.

Team news

England's line-up looks top-heavy with orthodox top-order batsmen so to squeeze a second spinner - in Samit Patel - into the side may demand a difficult decision to drop one of the big guns. However, Stuart Broad's ropey form can only be tolerated for so long and Cook may feel better off without him.

England (probable) 1 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 2 Alastair Cook (capt), 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Ian Bell/Samit Patel, 7 Tim Bresnan, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Stuart Broad/Samit Patel, 10 James Anderson, 11 Jade Dernbach.

Sri Lanka are likely to stick with the combination that brought them victory, though - after not bowling or batting at Headingley - quite what vice-captain Thilina Kandamby's role is exactly is not clear.

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

The weather has been the overriding factor all summer. Thankfully Lord's is set to look a picture with sunshine forecast for the whole day. The Test pitch earlier this summer held no terrors for the batsmen and while that made for an anodyne contest, a similar surface would suit the one-day format much better.



Your views and comments....

Patel for Broad would be stupid.

The seamers are hardly threatening as it is, so why remove one for an average left arm spinner?

Patel has to play. He's in awesome form, id say instead of broad as broad is so out of form atm. Plus 2 spinners works well, Swann and patel should work :-D

Cook
Bell
Patel
Trott
Kp
Morgan
Kieswetter
Bresnan

Sounds a much better ODI top 8 than with broad over patel

Problem is though if you replace broad with patel that means patel is the 5th recognised bowler. Do you really see him as someone who can regularly bowl is his alloted ten overs? I would much prefer to see patel as a sixth bowler in the team, getting through some good useful overs depending on the match situation. Seems to be putting all your eggs in one basket having him as one of the main five bowling options.

Broad has already been fine 50% of his fee for mouthing the impire!

Will Broad get ........a.....wicket........today! Is the burning question!

chat box will on be for cricket today as well guys, its at the bottom of your page should be on around 10-45

cook's up and running with a couple of early boundaries

kieswetter gone slower ball from malinga

Argh! Kieswetter gives up his wicket with a poor shot. Hope someone had a word with Trott, re getting a move on.

Cook indeed playing well ... a lot of people reckoned he couldn't play limited overs but recent evidence (admittedly based on only a handful of overs so far over a couple of matches , but still...) suggests he can.

On the other hand Kieswetter has gone early - nice bit of bowling Malinga...

we have made a slow start on a flat wicket

Oops ! Praise Cook and he nicks one - and gets lucky ! Chance to make them pay?

something has to be done with upping the rate.

Terrible start.

MInd you, not surprised people struggle to pick that guys balls up, it's just nothing like normal bowling.

Do they think it is a test match? Terrible rate at the moment, will only increase the pressure to score off the spinners later.

cricketfan90 wrote:something has to be done with upping the rate.

Won't be any fireworks from Trott so I think it will more likely be a gradual buildup - which need not be a disaster as long as (A) Someone settles and bats through (B) A couple of the hitters fire.

Anyway forget Trott 'cos he's gone .

KP needs to play a proper innings today...

Let's hope KP can boost the run rate. Rather loose swing by Trott there. Slower ball done him all ends.

Looks another failure in the making sadly.

we are so awful at this form of the game.

should have been a rethink after the WC but clearly wasn't.

32-2 off the first ten overs. Simply not fast enough and will put too much pressure on the later overs when they have the spinners, especially if Bell is in.

they'll just get burried again today.

cannot play slinger at all can they.

Great shot by KP. Got the footwork there spot on. Moved over lovely.

slow over during the first power play followed by a maiden over. You couldn't make it up...

KP 3 4's. Bit of release on the pressure.

Problem is that a big total for England is reliant on Pieterson and Morgan scoring well. It is not a healthy situation to be in, as the opposition know they can stifle the other players.

I am hopeful that Bell can add a score today.

Well, at least Trott didn't hang around long. Lets hope Cook and KP can see out at least half the innings and score well in the process.

Hopefully Bell will score well, I just think that the top 6 is a little unbalanced for the shorter format. Just don't see room for Trott and Bell in the same team. One or the other would be my strategy.

KP really motoring along - with this wicket with have to look at 285+.

i think getting past 230 would be good the way we've started, won't be enough though. You probably need 300 to beat that batting order unless you take the top 4 cheaply like the other night.

Another bright innings of Pietersen's cut short Bother.

On the plus side , it means Morgan has plenty of time to get 100...

Oh dear. Looks like this match is going the same way as the last one.

England trying to up the run rate, but the batsmen just not picking their shots. Think we'll be lucky to make 250 at this rate.

Dammit! As I type this Morgan gets out, having just scored 4. England's innings crumbling like a stale digestive biscuit. Cook and Bell with it all to do. If we lose another wicket before the 200-run mark we are in serious trouble.

I thought this was meant to be a good batting wicket?

Must stop jinxing these batsmen...

Resolve to make no further comments...

The problem is that there is so much pressure on the likes of KP and Morgan when they come to the wicket as they need to increase the scoring rate. Hence KP's dismissals this series going for big shots. England need to change the balance of the team and the mentality at the start. We still seem to have the old fashioned mentality of seeing off the new ball, while other teams look to attack from the beginning.

LivinginItaly wrote:The problem is that there is so much pressure on the likes of KP and Morgan when they come to the wicket as they need to increase the scoring rate. Hence KP's dismissals this series going for big shots. England need to change the balance of the team and the mentality at the start. We still seem to have the old fashioned mentality of seeing off the new ball, while other teams look to attack from the beginning.

Agreed. England seem to approach ODI's with a different (and entirely wrong) mindset compared to other teams, being conservative at the wrong time, then leaving themselves too much to do late on and panicking. They then end up trying to score quickly just when the opposition is deliberately setting out to restrict their scoring.

Not sure it's the mentality ... they are all getting out trying to push on , even the early bats. Maybe more a question of the ability : the jury is still out on Kieswetter as an international batsman and Trott has many merits but fast scoring from the start is not one of them.

Fifty for Cook

Not looking forward to the India ODI Series if we play like this.

Thats KP for you. All dash and no brain.

2 ODI 50's in 3 years, no centuries, and an average of 23. The record of a player who should be told to go away for a spell to work out how to play a proper innings for the team.

The cameo king is infuriating beyond endurance. Time to blood some others who, while not as talented maybe, have more than KP's modicum of concentration and intelligence.

Decent half-century from Cook. Could have been quicker, but at least he's maintained his composure and picked his shots well...just offering the one half chance of a catch.

More of the same from Ali and a nice 50 from Bell would be much appreciated.


@SirGreenMantle: In KP's defence, he at least made a score this time, currently 2nd highest of the innings and had done better than Trott, Kieswetter and Morgan.

I knew that Kp would get blamed for the shot. He was forced to play the shot by the slow scoring rate of the other players. He at least realised that risks needed to be taken to increase the rate which was shockingly poor. Of the top 6 only Kp played with a sr of nearly 100.

alfie wrote:Not sure it's the mentality ... they are all getting out trying to push on , even the early bats. Maybe more a question of the ability : the jury is still out on Kieswetter as an international batsman and Trott has many merits but fast scoring from the start is not one of them.

Fifty for Cook

Good point alfie, which is why I don't understand why they play Cook at 1, Trott at 3 and Bell at 6. Too many players in key positions that can be easily stifled. Cook is a given opening for the near future, therefore the selectors have to bite the bullet and choose Trott or Bell and bat him at 4 inbetween KP and Morgan at 3 and 5.

KP may have got some form back but he continues to infuriate.

80 % of scoring shots to the leg side is not that of a world class batsman but illogical rigid thinking processes. He's going again into the same death spiral of increasing risk in shots when there is no reason to play them. ???


Also the playing of the slow bowlers on this flat wicket is nothing more than dire by our middle order.

But KP had every reason to play the risky shot, he knows like the sri lankans do that a good score on this pitch is over 300. At this rate England will be lucky to get 230. He was forced to push due to the inability of his teammates. Look now at the inability of the batsmen to milk the spinners.

Jeez! 15 overs to go and England are just about to pass the 150 mark.

I'm thinking Sri Lanka will win with overs to spare.

Well his thinking is flawed and so's the approach of the team. If KP thinks we've got to score at 6 -7 an over now and start to aim to go over the ropes before the 20 th over and keep doing it then it's doomed to fail.

Not going to make 300 so no use dreaming about it - sure that would be a "good" score but what England have to do now is make sure they get as many as they can , ie not get bowled out or have Jimmy and Swann trying to use the powerplay...at least they've taken that early for once while the batsmen are in.
If they can get most of Malinga's overs used up there is some chance of some late hitting to reach near-respectability...

Then just have to pray for some early wickets to expose the Sri Lankan (longish) tail ... we have to work with what we have

bang goes that plan - and Bell

Wretched powerplay strikes again

Argh! Bell gone, another batsman who has unerringly found a fielder attempting a big hit.

England in deep doo-doo now.

@Stellar Key: I agree the team's approach is flawed, but you can't blame KP in this particular instance. He's the only one of our big-hitters who has made a notable contribution.

When 3 of the top 6 get out for single figures you have always got a problem...

Question is : are there better players around to replace them? A lot of names get thrown up but no guarantee that any of them will prove up to this level.

At least Cook is showing he is better at this ODI lark than many predicted.

By the way : Sri Lanka are actually quite good at this type of cricket. Just so we don't overlook that side of it ...

Stellar Key wrote: Well his thinking is flawed and so's the approach of the team. If KP thinks we've got to score at 6 -7 an over now and start to aim to go over the ropes before the 20 th over and keep doing it then it's doomed to fail.

My point was that if we had scored at a relatively modest 5 runs per over during the first power play then KP wouldn't have had to be taking risks trying to get our innings back on track. The fact that we only managed 32 runs from the first 11 overs led to KP being forced to try and score at 6 or 7 an over inorder to make up for the dross that went before.

Well done Cookie! Anchored the innings and scored nearly half England's total.

Shame a couple more batsmen couldn't have stuck with him a bit longer.

Hundred for Cookie

127 balls is OK, needs to push on in the last 5 overs now...Malinga back...