Back to normal. Defeat in the World Cup doesn’t seem to have stung as much as on previous occasions, perhaps because rather than being unlucky this time, England were simply outplayed by a superior side in the end. But perhaps the striking thing was that in many ways, football did come home, as a youthful, inexperienced side managed to engage the public both on the pitch and off it. The use of social media by the players added to the sense of being “our” team, and the normal dismissal of them as millionaire, uncaring young men was placed in abeyance.
In years to come, it may be that this is the most striking element of this World Cup, and yes, its availability on free to air television to truly engage with the nation is a huge part of that.
But it’s more too, an establishment of principles, a desire to play a certain way and the willingness of the players to be a part of that, to sacrifice their personal roles for the whole. Above all else, the generation of hope for the future is what has been taken from it.
And so to cricket, where the feeling of envy for what football has achieved won’t go away. It has happened before, in 2005, but those days are long gone and more than anything, there’s no sense of any possibility that they will return. Sadness and a deep anger at that is a constant refrain.
Thus we begin the ODI series, and in an ideal world this would be the antidote to disappointment, another national side to rally around. If only. Though if even through the newspaper reports, a nation would dearly love to see an England side victorious, and grab at any bit of success there is.
The ODI series against Australia at the height of the summer felt pointless then, and feels pointless now. But it also detracted from what would otherwise have been a fairly sensible schedule against India. Three T20s, three ODIs and five Tests builds the anticipation for the main event well, and the longer white ball format perhaps gives a better indication of the merits of the sides than the shortest form (until the ECB create their latest, anyway).
So in all, this has the potential to be an interesting match up, and cricket finally has the chance to move up from footnote to byline. Progress of a sort.
Comments on the game below.
Being Outside Cricket 
Looking forward to an ODI game not against Australia.
Novelty and a bit of excitement in seeing how the two sides match up.
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Mind you “seeing” is a bit of an exaggeration – with free to air Tour de France coverage, I’ve little incentive to pay for a streaming to watch the cricket. I’ll just follow along with the score.
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Not watching either but it seems England are hardly cruising serenely at 111/4 after 22 overs. Current English batsmen against competent spin bowling. Nuff said 😒
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It’s entertaining watching the Indian spinners doing their thing. Also enjoying Sanga on commentary – “bowling slowly and with plenty of air gives the batsman time to get himself confused”
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That’s a classic from Sanga.
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Alex Hales gets no respect. Unfathomable.
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I was going to say maybe it’s because he’s a bit of an idiot, but then so is Stokes and they all love him.
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The qualifier “a bit” seems rather kind.
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Aw come on guys. Are we so sure of that? What I do know is that we had the best ODI batting line up we’ve ever enjoyed, that Hales is one of the best ODI batsmen we’ve ever produced, and our response was to mess with that line up and drop Hales in no way taking in to account his performances.
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Seems Yadav had quite an innings: 10 overs 0 maidens 25 runs 6 wickets.
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Kuldeep Yadav did the same sort of thing in the first T20I. Then in the second one the England batsmen seemed to get some idea of how to play him. Now he’s back again.
He’s 23, so likely to get better. Bit of a worry.
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My thinking is that the second pitch was one favoring pace over spin. That is the kind of track England need against teams from the sub continent or wi.
Completely flat tracks will mean that English bowling will come out worse than teams with a more balanced bowling attack unless the English batsmen do extremely well when setting a target
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Specialist bowlers. It will never catch on.
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I’m increasingly fond of Rashid. I like the way he always looks absolutely furious while bowling, and then flashes a charming smile when he gets a wicket.
I also like it when he gets Kohli out.
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☺. This will be like we feel when we get cook out in tests.
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You’ll be doing England a favour every time you get Cook out. Careful what you wish for!
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Excellent batting. Bowling other than spin is a concern but then one can’t have everything fall in place in cricket.
England have to think about how well they go against spin. Teams are going to bowl three spinners against England especially Asian teams and west indies.
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West Indies had a good day at least.
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Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka refused to leave the pitch for two hours after Nigel Llong made a questionable decision (then again, the decision the umpires arrived at in the second Test in the West Indies was pretty straightforward, given the video evidence). It probably helped that the decision was in their favour, and meant they could add an additional 58 runs to their total.
And the pitch is certainly not doctored, because only spinners have bowled for Sri Lanka, when we are 25 overs into the reply (or rather lack thereof from South Africa, 58/6). Clearly not a doctored pitch, and clearly the investigation by Al Jazeera was utterly baseless. Seriously, when will independent pitch curators be appointed, because this is complete nonsense. If this was day 5, fair enough. But this is just the start of Day 2.
Why anyone bothers to show up for the actual game is beyond me, since if a visiting team loses the toss, they have all the disadvantages you can imagine.
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Seriously, pitches like this reduce contests to whoever wins the toss will win. Well tossed SL, and well batted Karunaratne. Otherwise Sri Lanka batting has been just as crap as South Africa’s.
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I’m so glad we’ve totally decimated our test side in our quest to become the best white-ball team in the world. Clearly its paid off in spades and has been totally worth it.
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This is my analysis of the game. I would really appreciate any feedback you have on my index. I have two seamers and three spinners including Moeen Ali in my ODI XI. Is that brave or foolish? https://soanstimes.com/2018/07/13/cricket-portfolio-index-odi-england-falls-to-spin-again/
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I still haven’t seen any of this game, but are we totally sure England is just like everywhere else where they produce home pitches to suit the home team?
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Based on the crowds at the stadium, we are the home team Q. English fans are anyway not bothered about white ball cricket.
😁😁
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