England v Australia ODI 2018

WOW!!!

What a result!

What do England do now when Stokes is fit? Looked odds-on Hales for the chop until today. The next two ODIs will be very interesting. If the top three continue in the way they played today, and you ain't gonna drop the skipper and Buttler, who is left but Root?

Especially as he was dropped down to 7 in the pursuit of 500. Sounds unthinkable I know, but...

I think England will win this time is not difficult in my view.

England have already sealed the series. This mammoth 242 run win at Trent Bridge gives England an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series with 2 matches to play.

4-0 and counting

Good to see a full house at the riverside in view of their financial problems; apparently it was sold out by Xmas last year and they had wonderful sunshine as well.

Also good to see Sky's experts debating the possibility of dropping Root for Stokes when the all-rounder is fit. They must have read my comments above! Are they members of this forum do you think?

Hales and Root didn't do much to enhance their reputations this time, but it's difficult to judge them when they came in at a time when we only needed 5 an over. Were they playing carefully to avoid losing wickets, or were they finding it difficult to score rapidly?

(22-06-2018 01:09 )Hawaiian Brian Wrote:  4-0 and counting

Good to see a full house at the riverside in view of their financial problems; apparently it was sold out by Xmas last year and they had wonderful sunshine as well.

Also good to see Sky's experts debating the possibility of dropping Root for Stokes when the all-rounder is fit. They must have read my comments above! Are they members of this forum do you think?

Hales and Root didn't do much to enhance their reputations this time, but it's difficult to judge them when they came in at a time when we only needed 5 an over. Were they playing carefully to avoid losing wickets, or were they finding it difficult to score rapidly?

I think Hales may have done his reputation some good. Stuck around when England lost a couple of quickish wickets and took them home at the end with Buttler. Proved he can bat a different way - more responsibly if you will - than 'just' hammering a quick ton to set up a big score.

The England win by 6 wickets with 5.2 overs in hand was a big margin of victory, but I think it flattered Australia a little, so comprehensively did England outplay them. In fact England's victory seemed highly likely and almost inevitable from the first moments of their chase.

England get their whitewash in a thrilling match decided by one wicket. After being 50/5 in pursuit of 206 and later 114/8, a brilliant 110 not out by Jos Buttler saw England home.

The first whitewash over Aussies in any format congrats to England

Stokes unlikely to be fit for the OZ T20, but may be fit for the T20s against India. After that we have ODIs against India, who may prove tougher opponents than Australia. So who makes way for Stokes?

These are the runs scored and strike rates for the six ODIs (inc. Scotland played so far:-


Bairstow 405 @ 142.61
Morgan 171 @ 127.61
Roy 338 @ 116.96
Buttler 275 @ 112.70
Hales 284 @ 105.19
Ali 98 @ 102.08
Willey 54 @ 96.43
Root 133 @ 81.10
Plunkett 51 @ 80.95
Billings 23 @ 71.88

Make your mind up time!

Just playing devil's advocate here to promote discussion, but I'm rooting for Root for the chop.

Buttlers going to be openning the innings