Champions Trophy - England and Wales 2013

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Jimmy ends up with 2 wickets for his troubles and Broad leads England with 3.

Its a funny game.

Agree GSC it's been a very good tournament, however it seems as if it will end up in an anti-climax.

Lots of showers and heavy rain in the afternoon is the forecast for tomorrow

But it will be windy, so I guess if we avoid prolonged heavy rain, the showers will pass by sharpish

Fists of Fury wrote:India do look very strong. I'll be hoping for some swing and some seam, similar to yesterday and today. I think the English top order is probably more suited to such conditions. Flat pitch and India win comfortably.

Fist Please give us some of the updates of the weather that would be there at Birmingham today. Whether we will get a full match or there would be some disturbance because of rain.

Keeping fingers firmly crossed on the weather front. Some cricket is better than no cricket, but anything less than a full match will be a massive shame for the 2 teams and for the tournament.

There will definitely be some rain but my gut feeling is we might get lucky today. Showers will blow through and with it being a final and all that I think the umpires will be positive and not worry too much about wet outfields and the like.

Shelsey93 wrote:There will definitely be some rain but my gut feeling is we might get lucky today. Showers will blow through and with it being a final and all that I think the umpires will be positive and not worry too much about wet outfields and the like.

Lets hope so, shelsey.

Massive toss to win. Whoever fields first will win I feel. Fingers crossed that the weather will be fine.

YES WE WIN THE TOSS!!!!!

England bowling first. Bressy in for Finn. Superb chance for England.

Bresnan back in for Finn. He did bowl well here against the Aussies. He will need to again today

Alastair Cook has won a very crucial toss on a cloudy morning. There are chances of the weather getting involved, and in such circumstances bowling first comes with a great deal of advantage.
India are unchanged, while England have dropped Steven Finn for Tim Bresnan.
The Indian openers have to do really very well to keep Anderson and company away in the early overs.

England to win by 4 wickets and Jos Buttler to get Man of the Match is my prediction

How are we winning by 4 wickets when we bowl first?

Because that's how cricket works...

And you can tell I just woke up

Bres for Finn?  What? Why?

Switched on...delighted to see the toss made and anthems sung...and then out come the covers 

Any hope of seeing a match today ?

SO I SET MY BLUDDY ALARM, IM HUNGOVER AND THERE'S NO CRICKET ON

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

trebellbobaggins wrote:Bres for Finn?  What?

Not surprised , tbh. Finn didn't tear down any trees on Wednesday , and Bresnan bowled well here in the group game. They like his reversing skills...I actually think either might do a great job - or not ! They had to make a choice and I vowed not to complain whichever way they went : will stick to that.

Yeah I can't complain about Bresnan for Finn. Finn didnt really impress much in the semi final and Bresnan bowled well here before

Shame to see a section of the crowd booing the hosts.  Not nice.

Fair point on Bres I suppose.  He can get some swing. Though these white balls don't seem to get much.

He's just more expensive and facing big hitters, that's more my worry.

http://uk.weather.com/weather/hourByHour-UKXX0018:1:UK

Weather clearing up from 12:45 onwards. Looks decent for the rest of the day then.

alfie wrote:

trebellbobaggins wrote:Bres for Finn?  What?

Not surprised , tbh. Finn didn't tear down any trees on Wednesday , and Bresnan bowled well here in the group game.  They like his reversing skills...I actually think either might do a great job - or not ! They had to make a choice and I vowed not to complain whichever way they went : will stick to that.

I have been very critical of the treatment meted out to Steven Finn and I am not changing my views here either. Its not without reasons that he has become the 2nd ranked ODI bowler in the world. Agreed Finn wasn't at his est in the semi final against South Africa though he provided the massive wicket of Hashim Amla very early. But Bresnan was atrocious against New Zealand, and he was poor against Sri Lanka as well.
Anyways, none of it seems to matter today, the day seems to belong to the bloody weather.

On a different note, Australia and South Africa had played a few indoor games in the last decade didn't they? What has happened to the concept since then? Could be particularly handy in England!.

Will the tournament be decided by an indoor bowl off?

so far rain has played a role in shortening the game....we don't know by how much....but Eng are better placed by winning the toss and knowing their target.
It's shocking that they left out the best fast bowlers in the world after Steyn.....and will pay a heavy price for it.

NickisBHAFC wrote:Will the tournament be decided by an indoor bowl off?

Or possibly a game of indoor cricket, using soft balls and springy stumps.

KP_fan wrote:so far rain has played a role in shortening the game....we don't know by how much....but Eng are better placed by winning the toss and knowing their target.
It's shocking that they left out the best fast bowlers in the world after Steyn.....and will pay a heavy price for it.

Anderson is playing no?

Olly wrote:

KP_fan wrote:so far rain has played a role in shortening the game....we don't know by how much....but Eng are better placed by winning the toss and knowing their target.
It's shocking that they left out the best fast bowlers in the world after Steyn.....and will pay a heavy price for it.

Anderson is playing no?

Anderson is a fast bowler

Well he's hardly a spinner

Olly wrote:Well he's hardly a spinner

between fast and spin...there is Medium, MF, FM
he is at best FM

Alas, nobody is actually "playing" and judging from the latest weather reports, its doubtful whether there'll be any play today.

Looks like England and India will be sharing the trophy.
Early lunch called and another pitch inspection "when conditions permit".

Anderson is pretty quick tbf.

Anyway Finn is good, but he's too inconsistent to be considered one of the best at the moment

Not looking good at all for play today.

Still can't believe they didn't book reserve days for the knockouts

Olly wrote:Anderson is pretty quick tbf.

Anyway Finn is good, but he's too inconsistent to be considered one of the best at the moment

Finn might go for a few runs now and then, but he's a wicket taker. Bresnan hasn't done too well at the economy rate front, in fact Finn has a much better economy rate. They say Bresnan gets the ball to reverse. There is not much swing available with the ball they are playing in this tournament, and even England haven't managed to get it going consistently in any other game other than the Australia one. Don't think Reverse will be too much of a factor, and in fact Finn did manage to move the old ball in India before. Better strike rate, better economy, better pace, yet Finn's dropped for Bresnan.

As much as we all pile on Bresnan, Finn really didnt bowl very well against SA in conditions that suited him. At Edgbaston, conditions maybe more suited to Bresnan.

Cricinfo doesn't hold much hope for today. It still is raining, and there should be more of it for the day. What a cricketing disaster for the tournament after a largely interesting path to the final. The ICC are yet again made to look like what they are, good for nothing idiots!.

Yeah I can't complain about Bresnan back in for Finn today. Finn didn't perform great against SA, and Bresnan is a more than capable performer

The Indians must be thinking they're cursed with the ICC Knockout/Champions Trophy. 

They reached the final of the ICC Knockout 2000 and lost to a fantastic Chris Cairns 100. 

Reached the final of the 2002 Champions Trophy and they shared the trophy with Sri Lanka after the two finals where rained off. 

Now 2013 and rain again.

Olly wrote:Yeah I can't complain about Bresnan back in for Finn today. Finn didn't perform great against SA, and Bresnan is a more than capable performer

Again, Finn may not have had a terrific day against the South Africans. But then how did Bresnan perform against New Zealand and Sri Lanka?

Basically we should drop both

Bring back Dernbach

http://uk.weather.com/weather/hourByHour-UKXX0018:1:UK

This forecast is near-enough perfect. Got until 4:18 to start a T20.

I was about to ask when.  Thanks Duty.

so we might get a bosh?

India should enjoy it, the IPL was perfect practice.

Pitch inspection at 3 as long as there's no further rain. Hope?

Duty281 wrote:Pitch inspection at 3 as long as there's no further rain. Hope?

The cricinfo updates suggests there is nothing much to hope about, there would be a few intervals between spells of rain, but that's what they are, just intervals. Disgusting weather.

It will probably start raining again at about 2.59 just as the umpires are making their way out for the pitch inspection.  Does this count as our first one day international tournament win?

LivinginItaly wrote:It will probably start raining again at about 2.59 just as the umpires are making their way out for the pitch inspection.  Does this count as our first one day international tournament win?

Yeah why not! 

msp83 wrote:Cricinfo doesn't hold much hope for today. It still is raining, and there should be more of it for the day. What a cricketing disaster for the tournament after a largely interesting path to the final. The ICC are yet again made to look like what they are, good for nothing idiots!.

it's a 25 over a side game.
why even 25 overs...just do a T20...it will have some allwance of absorbing one or two small showers