Comment here, but as this is more their bag, go over to the Full Toss.
I’ll have the reactions of my own later.
And here they are.
First of all, you have to have belief. I really don’t think they believed they could win today. They felt that they had to play Australia in an opening game in front of their largest crowd, and they just didn’t think it was on. Sure, they will tell you that they had this belief, but it is, as we are increasingly finding out, not a guide to future performance in listening to these media-trained automatons. Australia are in our heads. Just 18 months or so ago we scored around 270 in a Champions Trophy game in our backyard and we won it at a canter. That team had a good number of the players we met today, but we had mental strength over them. I still maintain we are the only team to win a test series 3-0 and come out of it believing we might have lost! We gave up our mental hold over them, and that’s the biggest crime of the end of Flower’s reign.
We had them at 70/3 and still allowed them to make 342. Good grief. There’s a lot said about our garbage death bowling, and I have to say I was sleeping and then tending to my sick border collie so unable to watch the game in this period. But it takes an innings long debacle to allow a score like that on the board. Then our batting subsided meekly. This was a performance that lacked heart and belief. James Taylor showed what could be done if you got in and picked your spots, and although a lot of the congoscenti are saying that it was easy pickings because Australia had taken their feet off the gas, this doesn’t ring true with me. Australia want to humiliate us, it is in their DNA. They want us buried, because, unlike us, they don’t feel any sorrow for losers. Just five or so years ago we sat here lording over the Aussies wondering when they’d next give us a contest. That arrogance is coming home to roost.
But in the end, this doesn’t really matter. As so many say, the format means that losing these games do not mean the competition is over. We need to win against those we are favoured against and perhaps nick one against Sri Lanka or New Zealand, and we’ll be safely in the Quarter Finals. Then it’s that puncher’s chance old crap. Our clearing of the decks, our minute, detailed preparation under the greatest coach of his generation, has come to this. Praying we might get lucky in three fights in a row. I weep. I truly weep.
This game taught us little, other than confirmation that our coaching and selectoral staff have the propensity to drop WTF decisions on us. Taylor has done really decently at number 3, but this brains trust thought the better option might be to drop Taylor to 6 to accommodate a test number 3 who has played one full ODI since June. It’s just mind-numbing. Others will go into it in much greater detail than I, but this should be one nail in Moores’ coffin should we go down that route.
Morgan’s lack of form is also a concern. This is also something the anti-KP lobby (I refuse to believe there is much of a pro-Cook one) are throwing at us refuseniks. “Look at Morgan, he’s not getting the stick that Cook is” is the lamentable, pathetic, mind-numbingly tedious drivel coming from these people who don’t quite reach “clown” status when it comes to debating this. This sort of thinking makes me want to poke needles in my eyes, pull them out of my socket and stick them in acid.
By any measure, and by the way he actually plays, Cook is not an ODI player now. There’s a great piece on Tim Sherwood by Spurs fans saying why Villa shouldn’t hire him. “He played Kyle Walker as a #10” is repeated ad nauseam. Persisting with Cook, who could not make a run, nor make them at any great pace when he did, and the circus surrounding him was a crushing error and akin to playing Walker behind the striker. This is our coaching brains trust trying to be too damn clever.
Morgan has a century amongst all these ducks, had one in Australia last year as well, and when he makes runs, he makes them at an electric pace. He is in shocking form, but he has more likelihood of getting it back than Cook, who was never really suited for ODI cricket in the first place. Stop using your anti-KP blindness to avoid the truth. Yes, Morgan isn’t doing well. But Cook never would have. We tried for so long that even these clowns in the ECB realised it. There are plenty of this apologists on the Guardian, but some absolute sockpuppet on the Telegraph who trolls incessantly is being wilfully obtuse. You’ll know him if you read below Boycott’s article today.
The KP appearances on BTL are now as tiresome as they are inevitable. Again, no doubt, people will be saying I want him in the team instead of someone else. Again, these people will just pass on their ignorance and not be bothered with what I am saying. That’s increasingly their problem, not mine. KP’s points need addressing, deny it if you want, but he’s not exactly being proved wrong on much at the moment (and hold your gums on Taylor – plenty of others agreed with him given he didn’t play for ages). It’s tiresome he does a Q&A on this evening, but he’s right about Downton, and deep down, you all know it. Admit it.
I also tried to get a fight like cornered… meme going on Twitter this morning, but no-one was biting. They were supposed to be English related, as we don’t have many tigers. Here’s some examples…
Be interested in your own suggestions.
UPDATE:
David on the comments on The Full Toss pretty much nails it for me…
The big thing to me between Aus and Eng is look at Finch, Maxwell & Warner, then look at Hales, Stokes & Roy. If Finch, Maxwell & Warner were English they’d be looked at with suspicion, not trusted, criticised in the press and be kept at a distance from the international side, they don’t play like the establishment men want, they don’t follow the MCC, Eton & Harrow coaching manuals, yet all match winners for Australia. Hales & Stokes, 2 players gone backwards big time under Moores, and Roy wouldn’t be trusted by the current management.
Being Outside Cricket 
I have been listening to the Match Point on Cricinfo and some analysis from Trott and Bevan.
The mystery of the inflexibility of bowling plans and execution – could this still be a hangover from unclarity who is actually in charge – the coach, the bowler clan, the keeper or the captain? This is in my opinion the legacy from the Flower era that has not been addressed and certainly not been resolved…We have not moved on from that white wash..
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My first prediction has come true. Selvey spends a very long paragraph explaining that it’s not easy to bowl yorkers, as if it’s short ball or yorker with nothing in between. The voice of experience it may be, but it doesn’t half read like an apologia for David Saker.
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I couldn’t resist a comment in reply to that point. Especially him not mentioning that Malinga is just back from injury.
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Someone asked MS on Twitter: “Is Saker leaving at the right time?”
Reply: “For him, not for England.”
Now, which way round do you think he means that, everyone?
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I think what’s weird is that it’s hard to see why Selvey has to be Saker’s best mate. Surely he could be something other than forever making excuses for Saker and still maintain decent relations with him?
Of course I’d still be asking for more as I think Saker’s performance deserves examination – but you could make a decent argument that it’s more about other factors…
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I don’t think Selvey is at the point of his career where he feels little need for objectivity or insight when writing about people he likes. He certainly doesn’t feel any responsibility to his readership.
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Selvey’s always had it in for James Taylor, too – he’s been unable to mention the guy without some nod-nod-wink-wink bullshit about problems in his game – and he managed this astonishing piece of writing:
“That England reached 231 was largely down to Australia, unusually, taking the foot off the pedal, almost patronisingly, thereby allowing Taylor to get in and add 92 for the seventh wicket with Woakes. There was probably some machiavellian planning behind even this.”
Jesus. What a knob.
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The insufferable MS reiterates the “friendly bowling” argument ‘re James Taylor, glosses over the change in batting order, makes yet more excuses for the death bowling and cites Malinga’s 0-84 again.
Bet he has precisely nothing to say about Ireland embarrassing Dave Richardson and the ICC.
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I’ve put it over on the Full Toss that part of the “collapse to medium pace Marsh” was scoreboard pressure and part lack of talent. But some of it has to be laid at the door of a culture of “240 is enough.” You learn to chase 350 by aiming to get 350 on a regular basis, not aiming for 240 and going for 350 when you have to. If you don’t build the right instincts you can’t do it…
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Utter rubbish. As Geoffrey would say, ‘my mother could do better in her pinny with a stick of rhubarb!’. I really don’t know what to expect for our remaining games and I certainly do not hold out any hope of us making progress to the latter stages of this tournament. How/can team ECB turn this around? I am completely miffed by the infusion of balance at 3 at such a late stage. Undoubtedly a very good player, but to throw him in after one game shows an utter lack of planning. How can we justify all the money spent clearing the schedule to focus on one day cricket for the past 6 months, only to balls it up with a lack of foresight, hindsight, planning, strategy, clear thinking, ideas, direction, good coaching, you name it we have not really looked like we have any of it……
Another thing that struck me was AUS bowlers are quick, they come in to the national team and seem even quicker (certainly the speed gun shows this). Our bowlers are quick (at times), come in to the national team and become 80 to 85mph dobblers! Work that out…..
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Well, that’s the big structural flaw that “Victory Down Under With Iron Rod” disguised. In 2005 we had a world-class seam attack with some real pace.
By 2011 we had slipped on that score, Tremlett was (at that time) a truly hostile bowler, but the supporting case were reliant on swing. The cracks were papered over by being better at reverse swing than the opposition and having a really great spinner (Swann.)
Fast forward to now, we’ve lost the hostile bowler and the great spinner. And reverse rarely plays out in ODIs with 2 white balls…
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I just paid $99 to ESPN so I could watch the World Cup live. Didn’t feel good doing it, but we don’t get to see a lot of cricket around here and since the tournament is in Aussie/NZ the time difference isn’t too hard to handle.
Please bear in mind I have not watched too many cricket matches in their entirety for many years.
WTF did I just watch?
Aussie got off to a good start and an early chance was missed. That happens. I thought England bowled quite well until they lost their heads, or perhaps went to the laptop. The last ten overs were appalling. What is it with slow long-hops that need to be bowled four times an over? Does any other country bowl like that? When the occasional yorker was bowled they went for few runs, but the slow balls were smashed to the boundary. But they kept bowling them.
Oh well, back to work..
Tom
A slow bouncer as a surprise tactic, maybe, but that last 10-over performance was idiotic.
I guess it doesn’t matter in the end. Once England couldn’t break through the 4th wicket partnership, they had lost.
Oh well, back to work…
Tom
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My apologies for the crap at the end of my post. Like England I seemed to have lost the plot towards the end!
New windows tablet here which I’ve been using to watch the cricket, but obviously not learning to type and edit…
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Great analysis as alwasy from Dobell at Cricinfo:
“The job of the coach is less about suggesting technical adjustments than it is about creating an environment in which players can perform to the best of their ability. By making such changes so late in the day, Peter Moores destabilised the dressing room and invited doubt into the minds of his players. It seems that, on the eve of his biggest match since he returned to the coaching role, he panicked”
So much on who has the biggest ability to destabilising the dressing room.
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The rumblings on Moores are starting, no doubt about it. This was, not coincidentally, about the time in his first spell that people (including people in the dressing room) started noticing he wasn’t up to the job…
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Still, could be worse…
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There’s a softlysoftly Cook-revisionism special below the Selvey piece. My god, the delusion is total.
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Sums up the reaction to England’s death bowling by anyone who isn’t a friend of David Saker.
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This is what you get when upper management establishes a solid track record of not caring about being objectively excellent at what the whole outfit is supposed to achieve (winning matches) over a long period of time.
You got a bunch of guys at best just showing up to work and try not to get injured. As someone who follows West Indies I have gotten used to this, which makes the times that some players individually or collectively get fired up about something and do well fun to watch, however rarely it happens.
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great post
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Someone on the G asked why we batted first – I replied (and I think it links up with your point LCL) that we lacked confidence in our batting.
On that pitch, if 2 evenly matched sides played, the side batting first would have an advantage.
To win the toss and put them in (all the more so when we are the weaker side) bespeaks either of a complete miscalculation, or much more likely an inability to believe that we could set a good score.
Instead, we hoped our bowlers would find some swing and keep Aus in range of a laptop score.
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I am confused:
Morgan in DT:
“I think every game the senior players should lead from the front especially when you’re playing against a side who have been on a bit of a run.” Morgan defended the team’s strategies, but said the execution of the plans had been lacking. “I’m hoping there’ll be a higher level of skill produced. I think the strategies are pretty solid as are everybody’s,”
Moores in Cricinfo
“Have we under-used the yorker? Yes. We have under-used it. But it wasn’t just about execution in this game. Our plans weren’t as good as they could have been.” “I think, in this game, the players were sucked into the width of the wide boundaries and felt that was the best option,” he said. “You have to set the right fields for that. The key for whoever bowls at that time is to be clear and committed in what they’re trying to do. And then bowl to their field.”
Broad im DM:
“So what about our death bowling? Well, the talk at the MCG is that you have to try to make the batsmen hit square because it’s 64 metres straight and 84 metres wide. The guidance here is that it is best to stay on the short side”
Morgan hinting plans are good, the senior players not executing / sticking to them?
Moores saying players (bowlers) “sucked” into bowling short, without the right field set (Morgan)
Broad saying the bowling short tactic was right
Is it just possible that the bowlers are doing what they see as fit, despite advice, plans, field settings etc?
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