Post Ashes England Cricket discussion - ODIs and the NZ squads

First topic message reminder :

As Olly roundly predicted (and I can tell you, he aggressively told people), England have stormed the Ashes and now move forwards to a one-day series with the Aussies.

Tonight, they name the squad for New Zealand, with Vince expected to keep his place for more convincing knocks, whilst Liam Livingstone is tipped to get the call too.

alfie wrote:Fifty for YJB

Overtaking Hales...but not for long as he goes to fifty also with a six

Doing this too easily at present : Finch bowling . Really ?  Cannot fathom why Lyon can't get near the ODI team.  Or are they afraid bowling in the format might spoil his Test form ?

Its a bizzare aussie bowling line up, even more so for a pitch thats the slows.

Any idea what Maxwells done to upset the selctors? He wouldve been a real asset for them here


* commenters curse....england suddenly losing key wickets

So the new boy gets the breakthrough as Hales plays on to Richardson...

Can this be a turning point ? One wicket often brings two...and it does again as he follows up by having Bairstow caught at cover ! Quite a good debut performance so far

129/3 and a walk in the park has become a treacherous trail...up to Morgan and Root to consolidate now...

Morning / evening all - as Olly and Alfie have been saying, a strange make up for Australia's team. I don't know all the players well enough to be categorical but the side seems reminiscent of England's bits and pieces line ups in the '90s. They also ended up with a score more typical of that era than today.

Only saw our bowling in brief highlights and that doesn't always provide a true reflection but thought Moeen was much improved upon his wretched Test form. Lovely dismissal of Warner.

150/3 at the halfway stage. Hales and Bairstow gone now but it remains England's game to win or lose, surely the former.

Looking good for England against Australia's ramshackle bowling attack.

Of course, add Boycott's two wickets and it suddenly doesn't look so cosy, but it should be comfortable from here.

Ah, a wicket. That'll be my fault.

England seem intent on gifting wickets away, Morgan chops on like Hales did. Shame, he looked in decent nick

Hmm. Morgan plays on too. He'd been playing well ; bit of a surprise.

Four down and they can't afford too many more errors. A fair few overs due to be bowled by the spare parts so as long as they don't collapse England still have this chase in hand ; but another wicket now might cause a bit of rolling panic...

Yeah still well ahead on the rate but wickets are tighter now, the quicks are dangerous and still have a decent number of overs left. Worryingly theyve lost wickets whilst not scoring runs.
Still with so much reliance on part time bowlers England should be able to close this out batting sensibly with guys who can handle a bat down to 10.

This is poor from Australia.

So many easy singles and twos gifted to England; no pressure at all on the tourists.

Gooseberry wrote:Yeah still well ahead on the rate but wickets are tighter now, the quicks are dangerous and still have a decent number of overs left. Worryingly theyve lost wickets whilst not scoring runs.
Still with so much reliance on part time bowlers England should be able to close this out batting sensibly with guys who can handle a bat down to 10.

Well yes ; but the wickets have been a bit on the careless side , rather than any huge menace from the bowling : the pitch looks pretty easy , as you'd expect from an ODI track. Provided they don't get out to lose shots you'd think the remaining bats should have this covered.
Smith is using up Starc and Richardson - as he has to , in a quest for more wickets. But this will mean a fair bit of "friendly" stuff coming down later ...basically they just need to keep it ticking over until they get within reach and look to accelerate as needed against the lesser bowlers.

And as I type Buttler hits Stoinis over mid off ...suggesting he's getting into his rhythm. Think it's at least 75-25 England still...

Duty281 wrote:This is poor from Australia.

So many easy singles and twos gifted to England; no pressure at all on the tourists.

Strange captaincy from Smith - Morgan goes, and next over he introduced Travis Head into the attack.

209/4 with fifteen overs left...Buttler moving up the gears.

Head going at eight an over : Australia can't afford that.

Just as it was looking all over...Starc (in his last over) gets the dangerous Buttler caught behind...nice bit of bowling

Still a contest. Moeen could use some runs

No runs for Moeen ...again . Starc cleans him up and suddenly this game is really alive ...

Up to Root now . Though Starc has only two balls left...

That inswinging yorker to get Moeen was a thing of beauty, what a bowler

Wowee! Starc puts Boycs' 2 wickets on the scoreboard in the space of 4 balls and changes the look of things. I'm seeing him tonight - Boycs that is, in conversation with Aggers.

Starc finishes with 4/59

Kept his team in the game.

Moeen bowled well today : but his batting isn't looking any better (although that was a fine delivery !). Have to question how his confidence will be for NZ at this rate...

alfie wrote:Starc finishes with 4/59

Kept his team in the game.  

Moeen bowled well today : but his batting isn't looking any better (although that was a fine delivery !).  Have to question how his confidence will be for NZ at this rate...

I think it's pretty harsh to judge anything on getting that innings - anyone getting that delivery from Starc second up is getting cleaned up!

Sir Chris

Alfie - Olly just beat me to it. I thought you were uncharacteristically harsh on Moeen there.

Meanwhile, Root is serving up a quietly understated but very effective performance. Barring any major surprises from here, my man of the match.

Easy in the end.

Woakes looked good as soon as he came in... Comfortable win while Root just had to jog singles...

The odd wobble by England in reaching their target but in truth Australia rarely looked as if they had enough runs or bowlers.

Seems unclear why Steve Smith didn't use Mitchell Marsh as bowler.  He was only used for one over at the end where only one run was scored from it.

guildfordbat wrote:Alfie - Olly just beat me to it. I thought you were uncharacteristically harsh on Moeen there.

Meanwhile, Root is serving up a quietly understated but very effective performance. Barring any major surprises from here, my man of the match.

Haha ... I should explain ...

Not meaning to blame him for missing that one - it was a ripper. But more that we are two games into these ODIs and he hasn't got going yet : my point is that he needs to play an innings to recover his batting confidence. The way they play he mightn't get too many chances.

Of course when you're out of form you always attract those balls...

Agree Root for MoTM . Though Woakes did a good job too...

Quite similar patterns for the first two matches - Australia batting first and failing to make the most of a promising start. They've been at least 50 runs short both times.

England looking well in control of the run chase until a couple of late wickets perhaps caused a few jitters, but Root and the lower middle order seeing us home reasonably comfortably in the end.

Woakes late batting cameo after some effective bowling perhaps edging him ahead of Root for MotM? Generally for England though a good team effort rather than being built on the back of one strong individual performance.

Gotta love England at the minute. All they needed to do was marshall the tail and see out 10 overs ...so Woakes comes out blazing and wins it with 5 to spare

OK it was a makeshift Aus side but they keep winning and hold their nerve. They have that mentality that the test team seems to lack to back up their ability.

alfie wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:Alfie - Olly just beat me to it. I thought you were uncharacteristically harsh on Moeen there.

Meanwhile, Root is serving up a quietly understated but very effective performance. Barring any major surprises from here, my man of the match.

Haha ... I should explain ...

Not meaning to blame him for missing that one - it was a ripper.  But more that we are two games into these ODIs and he hasn't got going yet : my point is that he needs to play an innings to recover his batting confidence. The way they play he mightn't get too many chances.

Of course when you're out of form you always attract those balls...

Agree Root for MoTM . Though Woakes did a good job too...

Hokey doke, Alfie. Just maybe, Moeen bowling better will help his confidence as a whole including his batting. Admittedly, we didn't see it today but, as agreed, that was far more down to Starc than him.

Yes , I am also hoping his bowling success will rub off on Mo's batting , guildford.
I think he is a player who is very much affected by how his - somewhat fragile - confidence level goes. Certainly seemed failure in one area flowed into the other during the Test series.

I just worry he won't get to bat more than once more in the remaining games ...which is a novel problem for England

Good, comfortable win.

If only the World Cup were a month from now, not a year and a bit, I reckon I'd be backing England...

Absolutely Duty...although ditto for the CT and that went up poo creek.

That aside their record over the last couple of years has been brilliant. They have played a large number of home games ( partly due to the CT) and some of them have been against weakened line ups (this series) but the side has had a prolonged run of dominant form in both short formats.
The great thing is all of these players should still be around come that world cup, and that summer is what Bayliss is hoping to build his legacy on. Its only really morgan who'll be old by then.
Theres plenty of quality in reserve too, especially if guys like Crane and Curran can mature and Duckett stop being a Mr Winklechops then the squad could get even stronger.

Who do you drop when Stokes is back? Seems harsh but it's probably Hales at the moment. If I had to pick it would be Morgan, who I think is the weakest player in the line up. I don't expect that to happen though, can't see them changing captain before the World Cup now

Woakes, a much better one day player, has to have a shout for motm

England finding things a little harder today after being sent in. Roy , Hales , Bairstow and Root all gone for 110 looked like serious trouble (Cummins and Hazlewood being back also might have contributed !): currently Morgan and Buttler are mounting a bit of a recovery and at 153/4 with still nineteen overs to go they could yet make this into a defendable total.

This pitch may not be quite as favourable as the other two for the chasing team ; seems a bit slow and not that easy for stroke making.

Been some good bowling from the Australians though: not much loose stuff and they've forced the batsmen into errors.

Three hundred would be a very good score I think. Looks a way off at the moment though...

Morgan gone for 41 edging Hazlewood behind...a blow to the tourists .

On the plus side it lets Moeen in with time to play himself in and hopefully have some fun in the happy hour. Would love to see him get back in runs.

....and Moeen is immediately handed a huge slice of luck ! Hits Marsh straight up in the air : only for White , standing under the ball , to inexplicably fail to even get a hand to it !
Swirling wind ? Sun in eyes ? Bizarre miss...

Sadly Moeen can't take advantage...drags Marsh on and is gone for just six. Still can't buy a run. And it really wasn't a shot he'll be proud of...just a wild swing in truth. Not appropriate with Buttler playing well at the other end and still thirteen overs left.
There's positivity and then there's just silly...

Important fifty for Buttler

Need him to bat through from here : they won't get 300 now ; need to make sure they pass 260.

Woakes has started well. Hopefully he can be as effective as he was in Brisbane...

A difficult pitch to score quickly on as it is pretty slow-paced making timing the shot difficult.. England will.take a score of around 260 right now and still won't be giving up on a score of around 290.

Welcome , Craig : I was getting a bit lonely

Agree something between 260 and 280 would be quite challenging on this. But some work needed to get here yet...

Woakes going at run a ball with little fuss...rather showing up Moeen's current lack of focus. Should he bat ahead of him ?

On current form - definitely Alfie.

This pair playing sensibly and beginning to up the run rate. Now 270 looks more likely than 260.

Australia need a wicket now to stem this flow of runs that are building up.

CaledonianCraig wrote:Australia need a wicket now to stem this flow of runs that are building up.

Should have had one too ...run out missed as the bowler doesn't get back quick enough to take the throw with Woakes stranded. Might be costly.

Already is as Woakes clears the boundary...

This pair motoring now and bring up the 250 with back-to-back sixes.

Three overs left and these two have got it up to 254.

Starc and Cummins to finish : how many can they gather ? 280 would be excellent...

Ten from Starc's over ...good striking from Buttler as he moves to 80.

Buttler letting rip now and eyeing a century.

Jos finishing brilliantly ...another two sixes and a century within reach !
On 92 with 8 balls left...

Make that 96 with seven...

Buttler hits two sixes and a four to move onto 96.