***England vs Sri Lanka*** 4th of 5 ODI Live

First topic message reminder :

Wednesday, July 6, Trent Bridge
Start time 2.00pm (1300 GMT)

Brief per cricinfo.....

Such is the recent history of England's one-day wicketkeeping merry-go-round, it won't take many failures for Craig Kieswetter to find his position under scrutiny. He is meant to be the motor to Cook's rudder at the top of England's line-up but in the games they have played together, Cook's strike-rate of 88.64 is marginally ahead of Kieswetter's 87.60. At Lord's, Kieswetter managed 3 from 13 balls, digging a crater that England were unable to lift themselves out of. At Trent Bridge if he can start with a flurry, Cook and the rest of the team will feel much more comfortable.

Kumar Sangakkara again demonstrated how deeply impressive a character he is with his MCC lecture. Already the fall-out from that speech has "disturbed a hornets nest" back home, according to the state-run Lankapuvath news agency in Sri Lanka. Having been brave enough to pen and deliver such powerful words, a match-winning innings would be the least he deserves.

Team news
England could as easily make four changes as none at Trent Bridge. Twice Graeme Swann has been England's best bowler and both times Cook has been unable to back him up with another slow bowler. If they can trust Samit Patel, on his home ground, with eight overs he could replace Stuart Broad - in doing so bolstering England's late-order hitting - but Broad has been publicly backed by his captain. England's attack lacked incisiveness on flat decks at Headingley and Lord's but a day-night game on a pitch that will offer a bit for the quicks could well remedy that.

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

With Dinesh Chandimal proving his ability at Lord's, Sri Lanka have almost all their places in order and will be reluctant to meddle. Thilina Kandamby remains a curiosity but while results stay good he can float under the radar.

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 Kulasekara, 9 Suranga Lakmal, 10 Suraj Randiv, 11 Lasith Malinga.

Pitch and conditions
The last two games have been played in the kind of sunny, benign conditions that England find most hostile. Trent Bridge, however, should suit them much better. Swing, a bit of nibble, and the chill of night cricket in Nottingham could well conspire to help England to victory. Added to that there are a few spots of rain about overnight which may not clear in time for the match.



Your say.....

Mostly good bowling from England. The rain will come in later which may bring DuckWorth Lewis into play.

sounds like a game of Mornington Crescent.

Cook has just hit 3 4s off the opening over! Very good, calms the nerves etc.

best not to go silly though. Take it steady as they have plenty of balls.

any early idea of the weather for the last game?

bit of cloud and rain would do nicely as they don't seem as keen with that.

Rain comes down now and we're still 12.2 overs away from a match.

A shame if they 've run out of time here as England have dominated the game.

New target of 171 from 48 overs now.

I see England have got off to a flyer! Looks like they could level the series here.

Only the weather can prevent a resounding England victory! Go Cookie and Kiesy!

Great half century from Cook...51 off 38 balls with 10 boundaries!

100 partnership, well done lads

Just walked back in and WOW! Looks like these two want to wrap this up in time for the Apprentice! If these two can finish with a couple of big not outs here it will do wonders for our confidence going into the last and probably decisive match.

What price on Kies blocking out so Cook can get 21 of the 34 remaining runs and get to 100?

robbo277 wrote:Just walked back in and WOW! Looks like these two want to wrap this up in time for the Apprentice! If these two can finish with a couple of big not outs here it will do wonders for our confidence going into the last and probably decisive match.

What price on Kies blocking out so Cook can get 21 of the 34 remaining runs and get to 100?

That could lead to all sorts of complications.


England are a Jekyll and Hyde team at the mo, 2 cruises to victory and 2 heavy losses in a week.

great win for england

swanny looked hacked off when bowden turned up down a plum lbw shout against menids

Fantastic job from Cap'n Cook and Kieswetter. Job done, as they say.

The decider should be interesting. I'm thinking England will be hoping for more showers and cool-ish weather...if its a hot, dry scorcher, England have no chance!

great win but what an odd series.

England either seem to crush SL or make a mess of it.

It really is cloud = Eng and Sun = SL.

Up in't North West on Saturday so lets hope for some good old Northern skies.

Swingometer...we are all now agreed that Cook is the greatest ODI capatin England have ever had and should be opening the batting in T20?
Staurt Broad and Jade Dernbach despite bowling dross for most of the match are now beter bowlers than Steyn and Malinga.

Happy times for club England.

cricketfan90 wrote:great win for england

swanny looked hacked off when bowden turned up down a plum lbw shout against menids

they robbed him of a howler the other day too. It mattered that day but not today thankfully.

who on earth said that?

Broad is clearly struggling for form and Derbache is nowhere near convincing anyone yet?

Cook however is turning into a great batsman.

Well played Eng!
It would have been great if Cook got a century..
Kieswetter could have helped his team mate if he wanted to...

Tim bresnan took a quality caught and bowled as well...

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Swingometer...we are all now agreed that Cook is the greatest ODI capatin England have ever had and should be opening the batting in T20?
Staurt Broad and Jade Dernbach despite bowling dross for most of the match are now beter bowlers than Steyn and Malinga.

Happy times for club England.

Cooks now looking like the player Gooch talked about in 2005 as a potential world class batter.

Stuart Broad is on a tight rope and can either take a fivefer or get hit for 6 sixes ( again ) - place your bets.

One of the most resounding wins for England in ODI cricket in recent times. The much criticised Alastair Cook led from the front with the bat, silencing most of the pandits and cricket lovers including your's truly. Lanka posted a pretty poor score, their bowling, other than SlingaMilinga is pretty ordinary on a track that wasn't slow and low. Still Cook had to do a job, had he got into a shel, it would have been a bit of a struggle.
Cook has to play more of this type of cricket, consistently, in pressure situations, against quality bowling attacks, in dificult conditions for the doubters to be fully convinced.
But for the time being, he has done a fabulous job, and full marks to him for that.

Captain Cook, Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant.

What the 1st and 4th ODIs showed is that without cloud cover and a greentop England are pathetic at limited overs cricket.

The next World Cup is in Australia and there wouldn't be any greentops, so it's hardly building towards that.

Masked Magician wrote:What the 1st and 4th ODIs showed is that without cloud cover and a greentop England are pathetic at limited overs cricket.

The next World Cup is in Australia and there wouldn't be any greentops, so it's hardly building towards that.

More anti-England garbage. Stop being so bitter and award some credit where it is due.

There is no doubting that England are better with cloud cover and a green pitch - each team has their strengths and weaknesses - but to label them pathetic is rather brash considering our attack has proven that they can take wickets on Australian pitches.

Masked Magician wrote:What the 1st and 4th ODIs showed is that without cloud cover and a greentop England are pathetic at limited overs cricket.

The next World Cup is in Australia and there wouldn't be any greentops, so it's hardly building towards that.

Building confidence.

Masked Magician wrote:What the 1st and 4th ODIs showed is that without cloud cover and a greentop England are pathetic at limited overs cricket.

The next World Cup is in Australia and there wouldn't be any greentops, so it's hardly building towards that.

No its the 2nd and 3rd ones that showed that.

Masked Magician, if you hate England so much why do you decide to comment on threads about them?

Anyways England would thrash the WIndies on any surface and in any conditions

he's going to give himself a stroke getting so wound up about somewhere he has no interest in or association to.

trebellbobaggins wrote:he's going to give himself a stroke getting so wound up about somewhere he has no interest in or association to.

A bit like Chris Gayle and the WICB then.....


Ignoring his bile though the underlying point is correct. This victory highlights what we already knew, England are fine when conditions suit them, but need to find a way of getting the bowling unit to function on flat pitches. They need players taking wickets in all games. It also shows that Sri Lanka are brittle and cant handle the swinging ball....which we also already knew.
Broad and Dernbachs figures flatter their peformance. Theres still big questions about how good this side really is.

Its moral boosting, but doesnt do anything other than paper over the cracks. The emaphsis on problems with the batting order is wrong, its the bowling thats been a problem and still remains so outside of helpfull conditions.

Although the magic man has a problem or 2 with England, there is a point lying somewhere there in that post. not something new, someting even England supporters have accepted at various points. England bowling, on flat tracks, other than Graeme Swann, hasn't found the going easy. moreover, their batting is not originally designed to consistently post today's ODI standard totals. Cook, Trott, and Bell have to do a lot of learning at the international level. Cook has taken some fine early steps, lets hope it is the beginning of something positive.

The idea that England's bowlers tend to struggle on flat wickets, in hot, dry conditions isn't exactly new (the recent Ashes series Down Under being something of an exception).

What I find really weird is that England's batting has struggled in conditions that are supposedly ideal (hot, dry and little or no cloud), yet can score at more than 7 an over in cool, damp, overcast conditions, where our bowlers skittled out SL for less than 200.

Am I missing something here?

dyrewolfe wrote:The idea that England's bowlers tend to struggle on flat wickets, in hot, dry conditions isn't exactly new (the recent Ashes series Down Under being something of an exception).

What I find really weird is that England's batting has struggled in conditions that are supposedly ideal (hot, dry and little or no cloud), yet can score at more than 7 an over in cool, damp, overcast conditions, where our bowlers skittled out SL for less than 200.

Am I missing something here?

Psychology.

Once youre on top its easier to play well and harder for the opposition.
When Englands bowling goes badly their batting crumbles ( and vice versa). Weve seen the same from Sri Lanka.

Theres also an element with both discplines of being out of ones comfort zones. Whereas the Asian teams struggle to adapt their batting style to the swing and seam here the English batsmen just dont have the game to really take apartt bowling on flat wickets, get themselves in pressure playing to defend against movement that wont occur.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

trebellbobaggins wrote:he's going to give himself a stroke getting so wound up about somewhere he has no interest in or association to.

A bit like Chris Gayle and the WICB then.....


Ignoring his bile though the underlying point is correct. This victory highlights what we already knew, England are fine when conditions suit them, but need to find a way of getting the bowling unit to function on flat pitches. They need players taking wickets in all games. It also shows that Sri Lanka are brittle and cant handle the swinging ball....which we also already knew.
Broad and Dernbachs figures flatter their peformance. Theres still big questions about how good this side really is.

Its moral boosting, but doesnt do anything other than paper over the cracks. The emaphsis on problems with the batting order is wrong, its the bowling thats been a problem and still remains so outside of helpfull conditions.

yes true.

Both teams have shown that they're only good in conditions that best suit them. It's even worse for SL as they have little bowling depth and virtually nothing past the top 4 in batting either.

But England have to find a way to win in all conditions to be a real contender for sure.

Gregers wrote:Masked Magician, if you hate England so much why do you decide to comment on threads about them?

Anyways England would thrash the WIndies on any surface and in any conditions

In recent years Wndies are very poor, in our pomp we crushed England for fun

and in their pomp they did the same to you.

the wonderful swings and roundabouts of sport.

i think paul collingwood's bowling will be missed against india

trebellbobaggins wrote:and in their pomp they did the same to you.

the wonderful swings and roundabouts of sport.

i think its ridiclous that when winides tour us next year, there wont be a test at lords