England won by 4 wickets. I think. Pakistan were 2 for 3 and that was pretty much it. Sarfraz made a hundred, and really enjoyed it. England chased down the runs, Joe Root hobbled to a score of 89, Moeen Ali played enough shots to get people doing the ritual purr, Jason Roy played a shot that said “open in tests in India”, and a tedious 50 over “contest” played out in front of a crowd that had little to ignite it.
For the record, I fell asleep for 45 minutes during it.
I’m not sure the game merits much more comment.
Dmitri.
OOOOPS! 12-8 IN THE SUPER SERIES.
Being Outside Cricket 
Yup, there’ll always be ODIs like this and the occasion rarely survives a start like that. Worse, I had to watch it as my afternoon plans of golfing and watching club cricket were scuppered by the storms. Still, interesting day in Pretoria and some sugar coated fun in Florida, so together with an interesting couple of weeks in domestic cricket I’m a fairly happy bunny.
Back to Bangladesh, I have caught up with Strauss’s comments and agree they’re strange for the reasons previously mentioned. I also did not like the claim that the tour is “100% safe” – this is just plain dishonest.
Finally, did anyone catch the 2-part interview with Daryl Cullinan on cricinfo? Well worth a read I think.
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“100% safe” – this is just plain dishonest.”
Not just dishonest but irresponsible. There is no way they can guarantee 100% safety. No security force can. It’s a loose throw away remark……it trivialises the issue, and makes him look a complete moron if something shitty happens.
As for the game today, another straight forward run chase. Good to see the captain back in the runs because the grumbling from the usual places was starting. Another good innings by Joe Root. And another not so great show by Hales. I wonder if that green tinge in the pitch this morning was made to order. I hope not. If we are now going to create green seamers for ODI cricket then we might as well pack up, and try croquet.
I do hope Strauss is not going to take an axe to a great test series by claiming we are now winning the combind series on his Eddie Warring scoring system. England are playing the joker.
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In other news a rainbow appears.. For some it is black and white though😑
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Just seen a peculiar report in the MoS.
Aussies were being targeted by ISIS at a reception last October.
The week I left, the Australia team didn’t turn up because the terrorists had planned to take us out when we had an event sorted with the touring team,’ said Loye, who lived on the same street as the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, where 20 people including nine Italians and a US citizen were hacked to death in July.
‘My boss’s wife was arranging the event with the Australians. The Australian Government saw the plans from the underworld guys about what was going to happen. The plans didn’t work out for the terrorists because the Australia team didn’t arrive there. The Italians got shot that week. The terrorists obviously thought they’d take a few people out while they were there. That was enough for me. I knew after the shootings that my freedom as a westerner had gone.’
Am I misreading it? Or are October 2015 and July 2016 in the same week?
Something got lost there..
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100% safe — just like Matthew Prior was “100% fit” for five back-to-back test matches in 2014…
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Also this in that Sam Peters’ article:
“One-day captain Eoin Morgan was understood to be more vociferous in pointing out the risks of travelling during Thursday’s meeting than Test captain Alastair Cook. England’s players are yet to commit to the tour, with Jos Buttler expressing doubts on Friday, although senior players including Cook, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad are more relaxed about travelling than several younger squad members”.
Strauss said he wants a decision made as “a collective” – yet the media somehow are given to understand who said what in a private meeting?
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So Team ECB is leaking again. This time on who may have reservations about touring. Nice!
But it’s all about trust. Remember trust? Strauss claimed it was a big issue. I wouldn’t trust Strauss on anything, especially security. Notice how they let us all know that Cook has no problem touring.
The ECB/Media complex still scratching each other’s backs. Be very interested to see what action they tske against any player who decides not to go.
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Not sure we can say it is “good journalism” yet, Mark. Players “might” have said something in the public domain. We just don’t know.
But you can’t blame us for being sceptical.
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Ah, but I’ll still come back to Missus Cook having a sprog imminently due to coincide with the Bangla tour and Bell having been sounded out… so ECB can ‘trial’ Root as skip, even tho’ he’s the one who should be told to take a break…
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Only caught the first 10 overs or so as I was playing cricket myself. It appears that it was a rather routine win.
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This boring international came the day after the dramatic conclusion of two brilliant County Championship games. Obviously on Planet ECB, we need more of the former and fewer of the latter…
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Plenty of highlights of yesterday’s T20I on YT. Here are Evin Lewis’s five consecutive sixes off Stuart Binny:
The boundaries were about 75m so although it’s not the biggest ground, they weren’t unusually small for this type of game. Dhoni hit a six over long-on that TV gave as 108m off a ball that would have been an off-side wide.
The record score against a FM in a T20I wasn’t quite broken – that’s still held by the Aaron Finch match at Southampton.
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Neil Wagner currently has 4/75 out of 431/6. Those figures don’t flatter him – he’s been denied two LBWs by umpiring/DRS and had at least one catch dropped. as well
Boult and Southee have 1/202 between them. They’ve fallen off a cliff since Shane Bond went as bowling coach.
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He also accounts for Philander (bowled), so he has his 5-fer. A well deserved one for Wagner. Faf has made a ton, and South Africa are pushing towards 500 here (currently 460/7).
Also, the pitch is acting up quite substantially on day 2. Quite a few balls have kept low, and a few have bounced a bit more than you’d expect as well.
Can’t be fun having to bat on Day 5 to save the Test / chase a substantial target..
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Morkel’s a big miss here.
Steyn’s just hit Santner into orbit! And they’ve declared….
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Wow, NZ lost both openers, two more edges through the slips not caught and Taylor copped two Steyn bouncers on the body.
Not like Steyn and Philander were much missed when England toured. Morris and Viljoen are almost in this league……
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And it looks like Richard Illingworth overturned a good decision – and costing Latham his wicket. Yet another DRS howler…
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88 overs on Day 1, 82 (+2 from changeover) on Day 2. Not so great overrates …
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Terrific last hour’s play at Centurion – the game at its best.
I thought the Latham ball both flicked his pocket and took the inside edge – but whether there was enough evidence for an overturn is another matter. NZ certainly haven’t had the rub of the decisions here.
NZ’s opening partnership is a real worry for them. Guptill looks like he isn’t going to hack it at Test level and Latham, after making two superb centuries in UAE, has struggled against the better seam attacks.
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I’m eating humble pie regarding my comment about Wagner yesterday. That’s the beauty of the game.
How gutting that the SA bowling was gutted by injury last winter. I can’t wait to see Steyn, Philander and Rabada team up with Morne Morkel. Are they here next summer?
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If all four of them make it to the first test in 2017, I’ll be stunned. But it would set up a hell of a contest.
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@Simon
I think Guptill will be persevered with, as he can occasionally come off with a big hundred, and for NZ’s talent pool, that’s got to be good enough.
I hope that he’s got the desire for test cricket because his one-day reputation is such that he could jack it in and make a lot more money if he so desired.
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Hi Rooto, I think Wagner became stereotyped as a reverse-swing bang-it-in bowler and has reverted to a more orthodox method (with the old model still available as a Plan B).
I don’t think Guptill’s problem at Test level is lack of desire (if anything, he looks overly tense and doesn’t play shots like he does in ODIs – a bit like Hales at the moment). Guptill often hasn’t been selected in the IPL auction (amazingly not even after he’d made 237* in the WC!) so he can’t be certain of making megabucks in the franchise world. I suspect that it’s just that his technique isn’t quite good enough against the very best seamers. He didn’t make a fifty in five Test against Australia last winter despite some easy pitches. He’s good to watch and seems a decent bloke so I’d love him to prove me wrong.
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I just saw that Latham dismissal on the highlights. You have seriously got to be kidding me. There must be something we don’t know that the umpire did.
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Steyn and Rabada strike twice on review (one against Reiffel and Gould apiece).
New Zealand have had no luck with the reviews, didn’t take them when they should have,and the umpires have made at least 7 patently wrong decisions, and we have not even reached lunch on Day 3. And that includes Richard Illingworth – that Latham decision really stinks.
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That Latham decision was amazing, and probably not helped by not being plugged in to the 3rd umpire mic as he rationalised that decision.
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That Nicholls LBW was horrible by Reiffel – hitting two-thirds of the way up middle stump, on the back leg, missed the inside edge by a couple of inches.
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Maybe thought it pitched outside leg stump? I know it didn’t….
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And after the fiascos in Durban and Port-of-Spain, Lauderhill has given the first TV-mandated no-result. Yes, the broadcaster screwed up, before the start of play causing a 40 minute delay, in the full knowledge that rain was to be expected later in the day. Which promptly ensured a no-result as India could only bat 2 overs out of the required 5 to get a result. What a way to win a series for a home team.
I think something like this comes very close to match-fixing. The only question is: was it deliberate or not. Not that it will be investigated, since the authorities that run the game are so incompetent, that such occurences are pretty much par for the course …
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Duminy giving yet another demonstration why he should not bat at 4. But with the score effectively being 299/3, won’t really affect the result much in all likelihood.
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Is Simon Doull Paul Reiffel’s agent?
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42.3 overs in the New Zealand innings, 34 overs in the SA third innings. Changeover was at tea. So just 13 overs short for the day.
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