The Ashes and Cricket World Cup Discussion Thread

That last game somehow got away from England didn't it? Australia won without playing that well.

(22-01-2011 16:09 )george lusk Wrote:  That last game somehow got away from England didn't it? Australia won without playing that well.

Yes and now another one too! Australia now lead the series 3-0. England aren't putting enough runs on the board. Lee took 3 wickets today including Prior for his second duck in a row since his recall.

(23-01-2011 16:01 )cosmonaut Wrote:  

(22-01-2011 16:09 )george lusk Wrote:  That last game somehow got away from England didn't it? Australia won without playing that well.

Yes and now another one too! Australia now lead the series 3-0. England aren't putting enough runs on the board. Lee took 3 wickets today including Prior for his second duck in a row since his recall.

I would say its probably sensible to put Prior into the middle order and let Bell open. However i dont think this will happen, England are hell bent on the Keeper needing to Open the innings.
Neither side are really putting enough runs on the board, the bowling is ok especially considering its our second string attack at present. We need more of our batsmen to go on a make a big score, thats our biggest problem, and has been for some time

I'm just wondering if England will regret picking Prior for the world cup. His ODI batting average is 25 compared to the 35 of Davies and his strike rate is around 70 runs per 100 balls compared to the 108 of Davies. If Davies is scoring 40% more runs and getting them 50% quicker, it does beg the question what the case for Prior is and I'm not saying that because of his 2 ducks. But them someone said above that Davies looks out of touch at the moment. Andy Flower seemed to hint that the conditions in India were a factor in the decision.

I know where you are coming from, but Prior has played a hell of a lot more games than Davies, so perhaps Davies' stats dont tell a true story yet?

Well England got home by 21 runs in the 4th match, but were well beaten today as they once again failed with the bat. Too many soft dismissals when Australia had only set England a modest target and Australia now lead 4-1 with 2 matches left. In this series there are 6 Australian batsman who average over 30 compared with only 2 for England, Trott and Pietersen.

Am now very worried about the World Cup. We are really struggling against pace off the ball and in the slow conditions of the sub-continent, i really cant see us doing much unless we dramatically improve.

England have two major problems
Batsmen out of form.
Bowlers getting injured.
Shazad has joined the list which includes Tremlett, Bresnam, and Swann.
The good news is the Broad is back to fitness.

Plunkett has been drafted in, he is currently in the West Indies with the Lions.

Hope we can get two wins here to close the series, not a fan of 7 match series.

I expect Australia to rest Lee, since the series is won and to save him for the World Cup.

Another century for Trott in the last match but another defeat. Trott has now scored 361 runs in the ODI series, more than double that of any other England player. The last match in the series is tomorrow.