Short on runs but not excitement
Those who are convinced the fifty over game has had its day will not be won over by this tense, slow motion struggle, but it demonstrated that ball flogging is not essential for excitement.
Low and slow scoring have their place if the two teams involved are evenly matched and compete remorselessly for control.
finished at quarter past eleven with a dropped catch yielding two runs and two batsmen in residence who did not know the game was over. Unsurprisingly, no one in a packed crowd left early.
The confusion at the end - even umpire Rudi Koertzen was uncertain - was down to a puzzling recalculation of England’s target under the Duckworth/Lewis method.
Sri Lanka were effectively docked a run, despite beginning their innings believing they had fifty overs in which to bat. Only in cricket…
The most relieved man on the ground was Owais Shah. His loose stroke against Sanath Jayasuriya when England were regaining control after an early collapse was in inexplicable contrast to the maturity of his innings in the second game.
They were others though who did keep their nerve. Stuart Broad proved his heroics at Old Trafford against India were not a fluke with a composed cameo, while Graeme Swann bowled and batted like a player already confident in his new surroundings. A place in the Test squad is beckoning.
The importance of winning the toss, a factor in the outcome of the first two matches, was negated by the weather.
Three rain breaks effectively turned the match into a night/night international - the lights were on by the 15th over of Sri Lanka’s innings.
Sri Lanka’s coach, the Australian Trevor Bayliss, will not be impressed. He has expressed surprise that all five matches in this series are day/night games.
He would prefer Sri Lanka to make the most of home advantage by baking England in the sun all day.
Plenty went England’s way in the field and they should have won with more comfort having restricted Sri Lanka’s batsmen. Mahela Jayawardene smacked a long hop straight to Paul Collingwood, Chamara Silva was caught via bottom edge and boot and Kumar Sangakkara, charitably, gave himself out caught behind when no one appealed.
England have had plenty of wicket-keepers who were not adverse to appealing when the batsman had not hit the ball. Phil Mustard is trying to start a new trend although ‘can’t detect nicks’ is not the most flattering thing to have on your wicket-keeping CV.
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What a win. Swann and Sidebottom have been brilliant all tour!
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Mustard's honesty is refreshing, as indeed was Sangakkara's (apologies to SL fans if I misspelled that). Personally, I think that whatever the personal specifics of the situation, good sportsmanship means that cricket as a whole wins, regardless of the result. As such, your snide aside at Mustard was uncalled for in my opinion.
I still can't warm to Swann, illogical though this may be. His innings are appropriately good for a number-8 and his bowling is exceptional thus far. I think he merits a place in the Test side, but Monty should definitely not be dropped permanantely from the ODI squad on Swann's account. Monty is far too good a spinner for that to be even partially justified. Overall, a nice Swann/Panesar partnership (with Hampshire's Dawson and Yorkshire's Rashid as future prospects) sounds encouraging to this England fan.
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Great match exciting cricket without too many 4s and 6s. Just what a fifty over match needed after the success of the 20 over format.
Nice to see England starting to win in shorter forms of the game. Swann today played a special match with 4 wickets and that innings under pressure along with Broad.
But yet again the umpires tried to play their part in making this match a farce by calling for a third umpire after the winning runs were scored. the umpires allowed the 2 runs and victory which could not have been cancelled anyway as ryan had completed 2.
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Not the first time an odi has ended embarassingly under the stewardship of Mr Koetzen. Allied to his reluctance to refer line calls to the third umpire when they are too close for the human eye, he is rapidly becoming one of the worst umpires in the game
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I fully agree with Simon's comments about the recalculating of England's target which was bizarre indeed.
Almost as bizarre is the inclusion of Shah in the Eng side. He just looks a bag of nerves when he bats under pressure and his dropped catch at slip today - which would have made SL 118-9 - could have cost Eng the game. Surely we have fitter, more aggressive, confident batsmen who could easily replace him: Benning at Surrey, Joyce at Middx, for example.
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This is the sort of game that even three months ago England would have lost and probably badly: you could imagine us collapsing for under a hundred. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't convincing. But England kept their heads and won, which is what counted. One more win and England will reach the dizzy heights of 4th in the ICC ODI table.
I remain to be convinced that Paul Collingwood is a tactical genius - all evidence says that he isn't - but England are starting to win and that will do for me. Maybe it's more due to slight changes in personel than to the change in captain but, so long as England do win tactical brilliance will not be an issue.
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Great win, why do England never make it easy? Do they feel embarrassed for the other team and try to make it as close as possible? We can bat so much better than this. Also KP looks very tired and lacklustre.
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Brilliant graft from the bowlers, some of the batsman need to adopt their mental strength if England are going to start competing consistently in one day cricket.
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This is the sort of game that even three months ago England would have lost and probably badly: you could imagine us collapsing for under a hundred. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't convincing. But England kept their heads and won, which is what counted. One more win and England will reach the dizzy heights of 4th in the ICC ODI table.
I remain to be convinced that Paul Collingwood is a tactical genius - all evidence says that he isn't - but England are starting to win and that will do for me. Maybe it's more due to slight changes in personel than to the change in captain but, so long as England do win tactical brilliance will not be an issue.
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why do we persist with Pietersen - his batting record is appalling, showing no commitment - lets have a committed batsman in his place, please!!!!
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Good evening,
What a great game of cricket. I really had thought that the game was lost by the time it was 107-7. However, I then remembered what a great number 8 Broad can potentially be. What an innings!
Also, tremendous credit to Swann. Him and Monty will cause havoc on these docile, slow wickets. We definitely won't require Freddie in Sri Lanka.
I can't believe that we are staring at the dizzy heights of 4th spot in the ICC rankings... Well not quite yet, but we will if we win this serious. It's enough to give you a nosebleed.
The only real negatives I can say from an England point of view is that Cook has to be dropped sooner rather than later. He is not a one day player, potentially a great test opener though! And why not give KP a rest? Poor boy, he is losing the plot at the moment!
Finally, I would like to give credit to the Sri Lankan performance. They truly are a great side and I bet on them winning the World Cup.. This would be a fantastic series to win.
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"Swann played once for England in South Africa in 2000 but fell out with coach Duncan Fletcher and was never chosen again under the Zimbabwean's regime."
I am surprised that coaches are empowered with
unquestionable rights.
Who losses? Country, Coach or Cricketer?
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Congradulations to England for holding thier nerves and winning this nail bitter. Thier young team looks far better than the team that we played in last summer in England and its good to see England doing well in this form of cricket which was lacking over the years.
I would also like to comment on few issues about the Sri lankan team selection.Chamara Silva has not done anything significant of late and I dont understand why he is the team. Kapugedera is a much better choice in particular if you consider the fact that he is also a big hitter towards the late overs. This was proved in Sri lankas last tour to Australia at the beginning of last year. Then after making the tour to England last summer nothing has been heard of him since.
The other point is Dilshan has to go. When was the last time he has done anything spectacular or something close to that in an ODI? He scores too slow and Sri lanka will be much better with some other player like Indika De Saram or Marven Attapathu.
So unless SL get these issues sorted out they will strugle with thier batting for the rest of the series if top order fails.
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Mustard out!
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The lads never make it easy do they? Oh well, a win's a win. But I'm surprised as to how well Swann has been doing. A complete shock. But the thing is, is Colombo going to be more of the same from Dambulla, or will it be time to whip out Parmesan Tony to form the Monty and Swanny Happy Smile Time Super Spin Show?
Carn you Ingerlanders, keep up this ruddy good piece of work!
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two of the most stupid comments i have ever seen!! james emmerson firstly "Almost as bizarre is the inclusion of Shah in the Eng side. He just looks a bag of nerves when he bats under pressure " do you have no knowledge of cricket whatsoever!!! last match (under pressure) shah produced 82 to set up the win!! how can you then come out and say what you did even if he did get out to a bad shot today....and the other one by david "why do we persist with Pietersen - his batting record is appalling, showing no commitment" his batting average is 49!! dont agree with your commitment thing either!
great result tho in general and these are the sort of games we need to win over the next four yrs!! this is the experience we need
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A bit harsh on Mustard there. He has shown himself to be a generally good keeper, better than Prior at any rate. That he didn't detect the nick is unfortunate, but sometimes it happens. Lest we forget, the last time he toured Australia, Alec Stewart (remember him? he was meant to be pretty handy with the gloves) did the smae thing, from an even thicker edge off Steve Waugh.
As for the assumption that Shah "looks a bag of nerves when he bats under pressure", that is utter tosh. Was the second ODI so long ago that you can't remember his 82 saving England's innings from mediocrity and helped set them up for the win? Or the 107 against India after England were struggling at 83-4. He averages 44.12 from his last 10 ODIs. If thats what hes like when hes nervous, i'd hate to bowl at him when he finds some confidence.
As for why we continue to persist with Pieterson, as someone asked, gee, i don't know. What is it about a player who up until recently was the best ODI player in the world and who has the highest average in the team in this format, which makes us want to play him? Gosh, i just can't work it out.
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Well, they won, and I am delighted, even if they tried their utmost to leave it as late as possible... 30 overs to make 100! All in all though, well done!
Couple of things though, even though they did win, we can still wheel out the most frustrating cliche of all... "Another ODI, another England collapse", at various stages 1-5, 2-3 and 3-13. Yes, Sri Lanka out-collapsed them, but it would be nice to see a couple of 50 partnerships!
And regarding Spacemand & jamesinbuenosaires, Pietersen does indeed have a good average, but he hasn't been helping it for a while now. Its got the stage where I am not at all surprised when the Wicket graphic comes up for Kevin after 5 to 25 runs. (´óÏó´«Ã½ text, the best way to follow a game!) I'd like to see his last 20 scores in ODIs. The guy probably just needs a little break.
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Why do we include an all rounder (Bopara) who does not ever bowl? Is this to replace an all rounder (Flintoff) who recently could not ever bat?
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Some interesting comments, although I can only imagine that some of them were made with tongue very firmly in cheek!
Kevin Pietersen:
Overall ODI average 48.89
Last 20 ODIs 38.29
Las 10 ODIs 28.75
Yes, some evidence there that tiredness and the pressure of always being expected to save England after another collapse is getting to him.
England's batting collapse:
This was a poor pitch in seriously bowler-friendly conditions and with England batting under lights. The average for the first innings at Dambulla is 221. I think that that says it all. Combine a difficult pitch, difficult batting conditions and an attack that is made for exploiting both and any line-up in the world will struggle. Even Australia would have had to battle to get the runs; true they might have lost only 5 wickets, but they would have been made to work hard for it too. The fact of the matter is that England are winning close games. During the match I said that Sri Lanka would feel that they had a chance with 160 and circumstances proved me right. 180 would probably have won them the match.
Mustard:
This was definitely tongue ion cheek... I hope. Over the last 12 months Jones, Read, Nixon, Prior, Solanki and Mustard have all had the gloves. Time to stop the merry-go-round. If we keep sniping and changing 'keepers (and a 7th name has been suggested as being the likely reserve for the Tests), we'll make the job impossible for anyone. Mustard has done ok. Prior is the man in posession in Tests. He deserves a series when the press and fans will not be so much on his back. If he fails in Sri Lanka then we can talk, until then, let's give the poor guys a chance.
Shah:
What a difference he has made to the ODI side. He may have looked a bundle of nerves in the Tests, but in the ODIs he has been a solid and calming influence. I really do wonder how much of England's changed fortunes has been down to the new captain and how much to Shah steadying things in the middle order.
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Totally agree with jamesinbuenosaires and Spaceman.
How people can come on here and criticize team selection after England have won 2 ODIs on the trot against the World Cup runners-up is beyond me.
I've not even going to mention Pietersen because the bloke who asked for him to be dropped doesn't merit a response, but Mustard & Shah have both shown real promise on this tour, and with a run in the team and a bit of fortune will develop into regulars in the side.
Dropping players after one or two failures is one of the reasons why the ODI team has done so badly in the past, so please don't come on here and insist that this practice continues.
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Isn't it time Shah made way for someone like Mascheranas, he bats aggresively and also bowls a very tight line which is useful for putting the breaks on, he can also field well.
I'm surprised he wasn't in from the start, maybe age goes against him, but if so why pick him.
If not him then Luke Wright.
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just had to agree with jamesinbuenosaires's comments after reading what david and james emmerson wrote. have they not been watching english cricket for more than one match??
ridiculous
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What is cook and bell doing in the one day side these 2 are not good enought they just dont score fast runs they must be out and open with someone who can get a run aball not 40 from 80 balls.
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England now have the makings of a very good one day side. Good pace bowling, a good spin bowling all rounder, a potentially explosive wicket keeper / opening batsman, solid pace bowling and good lower order batting.
Where can they improve?
Alastair Cook is a fine player, but I think it will be quite a while before he is a good one day player. Having him and Bell in the top three is not good enough for international one day cricket. They both start far too slowly so we can't really take advantage of the power plays on flat pitches. I would promote Bell to open, put Bopara and three and bring in Luke Wright at 7. We have got away with our lack of power hitting in this series because the pitches have been so poor.
Running between the wickets. At time it has been shocking. Pietersen and Shah seem to always run out other players and both seem to be very selfish runners. That needs to be addressed.
Collingwood's captaincy. It is just not good enough. He is very lucky that he has been given a very good group of players to work with, but his captaincy just isn't up to the mark. He makes tactical errors every game, the latest being to bowl himself when we had Sri Lanka 118-8. Those extra 45 runs were very nearly crucial.
But I'm just being too greedy. England have improved out of sight and it is nice to be able to watch them play one day cricket without a sense of utter dread.
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Some interesting comments, although I can only imagine that some of them were made with tongue very firmly in cheek!
Kevin Pietersen:
Overall ODI average 48.89
Last 20 ODIs 38.29
Las 10 ODIs 28.75
Yes, some evidence there that tiredness and the pressure of always being expected to save England after another collapse is getting to him.
England's batting collapse:
This was a poor pitch in seriously bowler-friendly conditions and with England batting under lights. The average for the first innings at Dambulla is 221. I think that that says it all. Combine a difficult pitch, difficult batting conditions and an attack that is made for exploiting both and any line-up in the world will struggle. Even Australia would have had to battle to get the runs; true they might have lost only 5 wickets, but they would have been made to work hard for it too. The fact of the matter is that England are winning close games. During the match I said that Sri Lanka would feel that they had a chance with 160 and circumstances proved me right. 180 would probably have won them the match.
Mustard:
This was definitely tongue in cheek... I hope. Over the last 12 months Jones, Read, Nixon, Prior, Solanki and Mustard have all had the gloves. Time to stop the merry-go-round. If we keep sniping and changing 'keepers (and a 7th name has been suggested as being the likely reserve for the Tests), we'll make the job impossible for anyone. Mustard has done ok. Prior is the man in posession in Tests. He deserves a series when the press and fans will not be so much on his back. If he fails in Sri Lanka then we can talk, until then, let's give the poor guys a chance.
Shah:
What a difference he has made to the ODI side. He may have looked a bundle of nerves in the Tests, but in the ODIs he has been a solid and calming influence. I really do wonder how much of England's changed fortunes has been down to the new captain and how much to Shah steadying things in the middle order.
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Is this the Same Ian Bell who in the last ODI series scored 422 runs at an average of 70.33 at a strike rate of 91.73? Good god, thats awful.
Honestly, if you're going to complain about somebody, find somebody who is worthy of the complaint.
"Isn't it time Shah made way for someone like Mascheranas"
no, its not. Dimi should be in the side, but not at the expense of Shah.
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MUSTARD REALLY DONE WELL HASNT HE ? I DONT THINK SO ? HAS THE SKILL BUT LIKE PRIOR THROWS HIS WICKET AWAY
Bring back Prior for the tests all the complaining about him is wrong , and we will have the same probelm with Mustard missed catch , no appeal and average of 20 wow thats really great !!!!!
to much presssure on mustard and prior give a break and they will only get better
COOK OUT AND COOL HAND LUKE IN
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Till now Monty had a great run as "The only spinner in the village" but now he has competition. On the whole its good for England, for they can play 2 spinners in the sub-continent if required.
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England are brilliantly confusing the opposition with most teams batting 1 to 7 - England bat 3-8 - or with the current Flintoff 3-5 and 7-8... This allows which ever wicket keeper is closest to Captain or Coach to be selected (as no one seems able to distinguish between them so the inner circle have made it a mate's position). This can only fail if Cook blocks up 1 end too long - Mal Loye obviously was not seen as the right sort of chap and that is obviously better than being the right sort of batter - see Cook an anti one day player if ever anyone saw one.
The difference between a ODI team who win 55/60% of their games and lose 55/60% is hard to tell short term and certainly not game by game. Nonetheless if England can get away from selection based on how much you are liked and seen as a good egg with a well cut Jib as seems to be happening we should improve from a low base and may already be doing so (but de-railed the twenty20 campaign under the lie of 'specialists' unless getting on with Moores makes you a specialist).
England are only a few months off a humiliating loss at the world cup after a previous seeming transformation winning 5 out of 10 in Australia.
A player like Swann if this can be taken as repeatable is the perfect riposte to people who would fill the team with mules like Monty who cannot bat but are test players. You wonder if Monty were more popular mind like Cook if he would be dropped. Seriously Cook has never looked even a poor one day player.
I also wonder if whilst unable to replace his bowling, which is great, the team benefit from not having the morning of game will he won't he about Flintoff's fitness.
If England can start selecting on merit and develop a plan the talent is more than there. Personally I see evidence Collingwood/Moores makes it up as he goes along ala Vaughan/Flintoff/Fletcher (who then justified it with his inner eye into a player's character! What a joke! The man who discovered that hearty fighter Harm-Less-Son).
For me I hope I am slightly wrong here but until England develop an ethos and thence proper selection criteria, not one based on the cut of people's jib, we will float around the 5th to 7th in the world with progress short term and illusory.
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Spot on jamesinbuenosaires! Two of the most totally ignorant comments I've ever seen!
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Great to see Swann doing so well for England. He should have been back in the England set up
years ago instead we have had to put up with Blackwell, Yardy and Dalrymple who all failed.
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The reason England are doing better is because we are actually picking bowlers who can bowl properly and are handy with the bat as opposed to batsmen who can turn their arm a bit but go for a lot of runs and then invariably get out quickly.
Well done to the 3 Notts players Sidebottom, Swann & Broad. We just need Read back behind the stumps again. An excellent wicketkeeper who can bat (average 54 in the CC last season) as opposed to these so called batsmen (with lower averages) that can't keep wicket very well
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Great performance by the ODI boys -hopefully we'll complete a series win on Wednesday.
Well done to Swann as well but let's not get too carried away - he has done well in 3 matches but a swallow doesn;t make a summer. He has bowled well ( in spin friendly conditions) and has batted well.
Monty ,accepted, is not a ODI player -he has a decent average but poor return in terms of wickets.
However he is a world class Test bowler who has done it in numerous matches and has an excellent return in wickets taken on a variety of playing surfaces -Swann is a long way away from the Test arena if we are comparing him to Monty.
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Wow, what a difference a year and a half makes.. Last summer we were absolutely trounced by the Sri Lankans at home and now we are in a strong position in their own 'backyard'. It is almost an unreal turn around of events, as over the past year, in places, noticeable improvements have been made and slowly but surely, we are starting to gain a little bit more consistency. Yes we were beaten by the West Indians this summer, but other than that, in the 50 over format, since the World Cup things have been picking up now that we are picking more players who are proven to be good players in the County game. Look at Swann and Sidebottom! Much more proven at One Day Cricket than bowlers like Monty and Plunkett. (Yes it might be hard for some to accept, but Swann is a BETTER One Day Spinner than Monty!) This realisation that bowlers should not be learning how to bowl in one day cricket at international level is vital, particularly in the aforementioned cases.
I think the opening partnership is an area of concern, particularly in Cook's case, should he be dropped? Probably and let someone like Luke Wright slot in further down the order with Bell opening. Mustard has at least scored his runs, although not enough at the moment, at a good rate, so at least he isn't scratching around like Prior was during the summer, on more than one occasion. So continue with Mustard, but I think Cook to needs to learn more about batting successfully in One Day Cricket at county level, where he has not scored that many centuries it must be said!
But most importantly, there seems to be a real sense of determination and scrap amongst the team, which is vital at any level of cricket, as we are just starting to edge some games which we certainly would not have done in the past!
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I've got a lot of respect for Stuart Broad and how he's stepped-up to International cricket, but has anyone else noticed how much he talks to the media? He's a young guy coming through and should be focusing on his game not talking about it. How about just shutting-up and bowling Stu?
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shorter forms of the game. Swann today played a special match with 4 wickets and that innings under pressure along with Broad.
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Luke Wright's name popped up in one of the posts to replace Owais Shah. I would not consider this as an option because of 2 reasons. One Owais has done a fabulous job at number 6 by holding the innings together which i suspect wright can do because of his aggressive nature. Second Wright did fail in all the matches except the 50 against india and the england lions match against india as well. He should be given exposure against the smaller teams like zimbabwe (the way pietersen and bell made their debuts for england) and play a lot more list A matches before he can settle in england properly.
I do believe that mustard can take prior's one day spot as he has batted aggressively that too in Dambulla where the pitch has always been painstakingly slow. Cook and Bell like the ball coming on to the bat and that normally never happens in the sub continent(especially in sl and bangladesh) so i do doubt they will do anything special this series. I do not consider comments about dropping pietersen as he is a match winner.
Sri Lanka have a few problems too Chamara Silva has done nothing special this series and they could bring in a specialist spinner like Malinga Bandara in place of Silva.
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It seems fairly unprofessional for so many cricket commentators at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and elsewhere to be unable to understand what is a fairly straightforward (conceptually) system in Duckworth-Lewis.
Losing 2 overs still fairly early in the game, but with 4 wickets already gone is generally more beneficial to the batting side than losing 2 overs with all 10 wickets remaining, even if the loss is from the start of the innings in the second case. Not by much, but then that is reflected in only a single run change in the target.
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edit previous post-
suspect wright can't do because of his aggressive nature.
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After the 1st game, those who had made the trip to SL were shelol shocked, none of the layers looked as if they wanted to be in SL, let alone playing cricket. The 2nd game was a remarkable turn around, closely followed by the nail biting 3rd. Some comments to pick up on - Mark Kidger's regarding Shah, yes he has performed with the bat but can England afford to retain him when his fielding leaves a lot to be desired. Various comments regarding Mustard; apart from one horrendous drop he has kept well and his batting is respectable. Finally, the inclusion or otherwise of Panesar; his one failing in ODIs is that he fails to flight the ball, preferring to fire it in, whereas Swann has used flight and contributed both in the field and with the bat.
Two further comments; why do we need to hurl the ball at one wicket or the other when the batsman is clearly standing in, main culprit Pietersen and, finally, is Shah on something? His bug eyed expression when batting looks suspicious!!
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Dear Sir,
I take this opportunity to say something about the racism controversy in India. I donot think any of it was racism in any manner. Mr.Symonds was at a receiving end for the way he had interacted on the field with fans heros. The lot which were evicted by the police from the ground would only be delighted to interact with Mr.Symonds in a friendly manner off the ground.
The whole situation seems to me as a fans overreaction.
Best Regards,
Subhash
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