The old enemies meet at Melbourne. Remember 2013 in the Champions Trophy, when we made beating Australia in a world competition look routine? Not now. We are the team with the lack of class, and Australia are the home team and favourites.
Still, one World Cup match between us two in Australia and we lead 1-0.
Probably the match that hurts the most is this one…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2dTzER51-A
Interesting Stat – no Australian has made a century against England in the World Cup. Ricky Ponting has the highest score – 86 in Antigua.
England have the only centurion in World Cup games between the two. You might know the chap who did it, but we mustn’t mention him, as we’ve moved on. He made 104.
Being Outside Cricket 
Feel a bit sorry for Ballance, being thrown in after 1 match in about 6 months! His ODI record wasn’t sparkling anyway. Muddled thinking to change tack (tact?) so late in the day.
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Absolutely. Planning never seems high on the agenda. Anyone know what Plan B is, if our wicket keeper gets injured?
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Ballance has played one ODI since June 3rd. He scored 7.
You couldn’t make it up.
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We’re going to have sorted out our best ODI team by about June, aren’t we? FFS
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Remember the 2003 match very well. I had been out driving and was listening to it on the car radio. At one stage I thought we would win easily. When I got home, I was so transfixed by what I was listening to I stayed in the car to finish listening on the radio…….needless to say when Bichel got going with those wickets I was very disappointed, but not surprised….I don’t hold out much hope for us in the opening match against Aus….
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Ignore Taylor, pick Taylor, ignore Ballance, pick Ballance.
I think we got to the right place but it took a year too long and thus pissed away all the prep time we should have gotten from stuffing up the Ashes.
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How to beat England at ODI cricket without the need for a laptop and a statistician:
1. If you win the toss put England in and bowl spin.
2. If you lose the toss you will be batting first so score at 5.4 an over and you’ll have at least a 4 in 5 chance of winning.
Still, on the plus side I like the new kit much better than that godawful dayglow red/pink crap they were wearing before.
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England manage to get Finch run out, but Aus went from 70/3 (10.3) to 216/4 (36.3). England seem to be struggling in the middle overs. Does not bode well.
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England bowling short, getting smashed around the park and yet unable to do anything different.
Strange new problem we have never seen before!
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Eventually it will come off. Does not make it a good plan though.
I am not sure who is in the brains trust, but it seems that the members of said trust expired in 1932.
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The test team do it with different bowlers. It’s either Moores, the laptop or the bowling coach that insists they do it. Bonkers.
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It has not worked for 60 odd games now in 2013 and 2014. And when the bowlers changed plans, they actually got rewards (Test series vs India, after Lord’s fiasco). So, what to do? Revert back to non-working plans.
I cannot find a sane reason why a coach would insist on such idiotic plans. It is obvious for all to see, and has gone beyond mere incompetence. It is willful incompetence. I find it impossible to believe that no coach in England could spot the obvious here.
Is the ECB that destitute that foreign boards have to pay Moores?
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The bowling situation is driving me insane.
No-one managed to keep it under 6 RPO.
I just don’t see how the “brains trust” can be so blind or how the press can be so deluded or cowardly as not to call them on it…
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Finn gets 5 wickets, but three of those were of the last three balls. When it really did not matter much anymore.
England to chase 343 for the win. I’d be surprised if they even get within 50 runs.
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66/4 after 13.5, with Morgan and Taylor now in. Hopeless.
Greatest coach of his generation.
Strongest batting lineup Broad has played in.
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So let me get this right. You bring Taylor in, he’s a qualified success at a difficult spot in the order, so in the first game of a competition you’ve cleared the calendar for, you stick him at 6, and bring someone in who has barely played ODI cricket for 9 months.
That takes a special kind of genius.
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If you are going to play this XI, Taylor at 3, Ballance at 4, Root at 5, Morgan at 6 and Buttler at 7 would have made the most sense.
Provided one thinks both Taylor and Ballance can be in the same team (they can, but it would have been useful if they had some serious international experience under the belt – courtesy of the nicest lamber in England and incompetent coaches + selectors that did not happen).
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Moving Taylor for Ballance is enough, by itself, to make me wish defeat on England. That’s before even considering the bowling plans (and seeing another exoneration of Saker from Selvey, no doubt).
Like Tickerscricket said yesterday, people in general should be much angrier about this World Cup farce. OK, the likes of us are. But so many of the opinion-formers will make all sorts of excuses for their mates and sources.
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England innings, third over, Warne asks all the right questions. They are as baffled by it all as we are.
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…and I woke up at 3am (TMS not SKY) for this ‘MooresThePity’ ECB (last minute guesses inc.) planning ahead shambles…
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Another one gone. 73/5 after just 18 overs. Morgan just departed for a fat nought. Mitchell has taken 4 for 13. Marsh that is.
Chasing 343, a mere formality from here.
Strongest England batting lineup ever.
Brilliant tactics.
Associates are to be banned from World Cups, while England can’t even be bothered to put up a decent effort. Meritocracy.
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Might have to go to ‘Danny Bakers sausage sandwich game’ soon….
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Me too. Always listen in the car before 10am gym class.
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In case you needed any further incentive, Lovejoy is on TMS! I’m out.
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Buttler gone, 92/6 after 21.2 overs. England inching closer to the target. It is only 251 runs away.
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And Mitch Marsh has takn 5 wickets. Congrats to him.
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TMS commentary comments…
Aggers – sadly, becoming a self-important self-parody… a shame- he used to be interesting to listen to…
SwannyG – the best bits are when he doesn’t realise that he’s meant to provide brief yet incisive comment, so the silence is golden… yet he does give insight and knowledge when he’s not talking about his mates ‘Broady’, Jimmy’ , and when he isn’t trying to be intentionally jocular (Tuffers does that best yet with true insight, and doesn’t have to try – more natural!)
SirGeoffrey – more sense and good points than them all, sadly becoming a bit too repetitive on past events unless topic changed by main commentator
Allan Bordom….zzz
Jim Maxwell – tells it like it is, good detail, but allows co-comms too much time to spout drivel (see SwannyG)
Listening to the NZ/Sri comms earlier, although Simon Mann is a bit bland, he interacted with JConey well, who is always a good listen.even VictorMarks was good, away from being Aggers sidekick… I quite like Daggers from warm-ups and womens internationals
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This clearly proves the extreme levels of disruption within a dressing room caused by KP – he could be at some stage commentating an England match, while at the moment he is again being so totally disconnected in that covertly disruptive manner – such a c…..
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SirGeoffrey says… ‘it’s an embarrassment, nothing to laugh about…’
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red sauce, brown sauce… or no sauce at all?
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Useful player this Taylor at 3…Oh, he’s at 6 today? (Mooresthepity organisation….)
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Aggers on TMS – ‘a poorly executed plan…’ What plan?
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We need the ‘Iron-Rod’ to lead us….. waiting for the newman/selfie/prongle/etctheridge ensemble to sharpen their green crayons
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Pringle….
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It didn’t take long for the ECB press collective to bite! At least when Morgan goes cheaply, he doesn’t spend 10 overs thinking about it…
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The one batsman to play well is moved out of position, so he can bat with the tail. From the 19th over onwards. Brilliant.
Expect Taylor to be moved to 3, Ballance dropped and Jordan to be drafted in next game.
Don’t be too surprised if Taylor fails then (against NZ), and gets moved around again then. With maybe Hales coming in at #3, doing reasonably well (against Scotland), and England still having no clue about their best batting lineup halfway through the group stages.
People get paid to mess up their job, and get rewarded for it. Meritocracy ECB style.
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I’ve been writing about concerns about the bowling for months now – it seems all of my fears are realised. We can bamboozle India on these pitches (and perhaps we’ll give SL a tough time) but it’s hard to see any of the better batting line ups being scared of our attack.
I think Jimmy is done on Australian pitches, it’s the end of the road. I’m presuming that given the format, if Broad stays fit then by the time a month has gone he’ll have regained some penetration. But at the moment, it’s just ugly.
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Still, Finn got a hat trick, eh? A positive.
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Sometimes one man can swing a match with a prodigious effort, like a hat-trick at the vital time.
And sometimes your team is so bad that he puts in that effort and you still get tonked?
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Bit sad for Taylor, robbed of a chance of a century by bad umpiring. (Should have been a dead ball.)
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As someone points out. Last ball, there’s an appeal, it’s an absolute howler by the umpire, the ball has run away and the players have scored the winning run. The team were denied a chance of winning by an absolute howler.
Can an umpire clarify?
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it’s not fair! We scored more than our lappy 230 and still lost! (off to pub…)
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And it looks like we have a DRS howler to finish proceedings.
Australia win by 111 runs.
The positives? Finn taking wickets. Taylor doing well, batting out of position. Pity that the specialist batsmen all failed (might be a tad harsh on Bell).
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Cricinfo: “England’s previous highest against Australia at No. 6 – Kevin Pietersen’s 91 in 2005. Taylor has surpassed that score”
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Just imagine if they could have been both in the team… oh… er…
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That 91 thought pulled a game out of the fire. Sky still show it.
This 98 was, if truth be told, a total irrelevance. A sideshow.
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quite
“Michael Vaughan was delighted with England’s performance, as they beat Australia by three wickets at Bristol, and saved special praise for Kevin Pietersen’s 91 from 65 balls, which sealed the win.
“We didn’t chase too well until Kevin Pietersen came in and played an unbelievable knock, almost genius-like, to see us home. It was one of the best innings I’ve seen in one-day cricket.”
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Certainly the pressure was off in some ways, there was no win for Taylor to chase after the other end collapsed. Yet I think it’s fair to note that he faced some very good bowling and had the best SR in the England team. He (Taylor) deserves better treatment than he’ll likely get from our press and from Moores.
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Please don’t get me wrong, his last 50 runs were very, very good against good bowling, and at least someone showed up and looked in half decent nick.
But this obsessing over a duff decision is total diversionary stuff, and while I feel sorry he was denied a ton, we were humped.
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Well batted Mr Taylor -you have a pair
Pringle can now write how England was robbed of the WC IF only Woakes had held on to that catch…
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Under Cookie, he’d have been five yards deeper…
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Finch: “it’s a bit nervy being the first game of the tournament …. thought I hit it nicely off the middle, you’re not allowed to put fielders there!”
One up for Morgan!
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“Pringle can now write how England was robbed of the WC”.
I saw a Tweet from Sky Sports saying they’d put Pringle’s beloved moment of injustice through Hawkeye and it showed it was not out (impact outside off-stump).
That’ll shut Pringle up. Oh wait, no it won’t.
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