Cricket 35: Bat first, bat often

[Paxter]

If it does turn out to be England v NZ in the final, at least we will have a new World Cup winner. The last "new" winner was Sri Lanka in 1996, which is going back a long time now. 

[Paxter]

Just on Jason Roy: he's averaging over 50 against Australia with three hundreds and a SR over 100. Get him into that Ashes side! Haha. 

[The BlackBear]

Unfortunate decision, but shouldn't have used up the review.

[Mosi Mynn]

The BBC feed is great - every England fan feeling the same: immensely proud, slightly disbelieving, cautious and ever -hopeful https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cricket/47484055

[ljkeane]

43 minutes ago, Paxter said:

Just on Jason Roy: he's averaging over 50 against Australia with three hundreds and a SR over 100. Get him into that Ashes side! Haha. 

I see what you did there!

In all seriousness I’d probably have Roy in the team for the Ashes. It’d be a gamble but England’s test batting has been so bad why not give it a go?

[Jeor]

I don't see why you wouldn't put Roy in the Ashes team. He could play a bit of a Sehwag-like role - with attacking Test match fields he could smack a lot of boundaries, he would just have to have a good enough defence to withstand new ball attacks and fifth-day Test match pitches. To be fair, in the ODI side he seems to be a complete batsman, not just a slogger, so it would seem worth the risk.

Really hope NZ can pull off another shock win. It would be great for Williamson and the rest of the team who haven't got very much recognition, let alone very much cricket (especially Tests) in the past few years.

[Raja]

Yeah, have to pray New Zealand take the win or my English friends are going to be insufferable

[Mosi Mynn]

24 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

I see what you did there!

In all seriousness I’d probably have Roy in the team for the Ashes. It’d be a gamble but England’s test batting has been so bad why not give it a go?

I think he's a definite for the Ashes.  No point in not having him there.

[Paxter]

I also prefer Bairstow up the order a bit and not 'keeping. 

If Root could do the right thing and bat at first drop then you would have as your Ashes XI:

1. Roy
2. Burns
3. Root
4. Bairstow
5. Buttler 
6. Stokes
7. Foakes (wk)
8. Ali
9. Woakes/Curran/Archer
10. Broad
11. Anderson

The main problem with that team is that there is at least one dasher too many in the top 6. They really need a 'proper' test player in the mould of Trott or Collingwood to add some spine to the lineup. 

As an aside: could Roy be in trouble in the final for showing dissent?

ETA: Just re-watching the footage of Roy again and his reaction was pretty poor. I know it was a bad decision, but the fact is that if you squander your review (as batsmen often do), you only have yourself to blame. 

[Jeor]

7 minutes ago, Paxter said:

I also prefer Bairstow up the order a bit and not 'keeping. 

If Root could do the right thing and bat at first drop then you would have as your Ashes XI:

1. Roy
2. Burns
3. Root
4. Bairstow
5. Buttler 
6. Stokes
7. Foakes (wk)
8. Ali
9. Woakes/Curran/Archer
10. Broad
11. Anderson

The main problem with that team is that there is at least one dasher too many in the top 6. They really need a 'proper' test player in the mould of Trott or Collingwood to add some spine to the lineup. 

As an aside: could Roy be in trouble in the final for showing dissent?

Depending on Anderson's injury you could sub in any of the other pacemen too. That's a fearsomely long batting lineup - I think Australia are going to struggle in the Ashes. Ever since that fateful 2005 series we've had almighty trouble batting in English conditions against their seamers. Their lineup is also hardly settled - apart from Warner and Smith, the rest is up for grabs with Khawaja and Shaun Marsh injured. You'd have to think Wade would get a look-in. If you have Wade, Carey and Paine you could end up playing three 'keepers!

[Paxter]

1 minute ago, Jeor said:

Depending on Anderson's injury you could sub in any of the other pacemen too. That's a fearsomely long batting lineup - I think Australia are going to struggle in the Ashes. Ever since that fateful 2005 series we've had almighty trouble batting in English conditions against their seamers. Their lineup is also hardly settled - apart from Warner and Smith, the rest is up for grabs with Khawaja and Shaun Marsh injured. You'd have to think Wade would get a look-in. If you have Wade, Carey and Paine you could end up playing three 'keepers!

The problem is that Root doesn't want to bat 3. That makes England's top order a little on the pop-gun side and very reliant on the middle and lower order. They played Denly at 3 in the last test match against WI, which is pretty embarrassing. 

[ljkeane]

14 minutes ago, Paxter said:

I also prefer Bairstow up the order a bit and not 'keeping. 

If Root could do the right thing and bat at first drop then you would have as your Ashes XI:

1. Roy
2. Burns
3. Root
4. Bairstow
5. Buttler 
6. Stokes
7. Foakes (wk)
8. Ali
9. Woakes/Curran/Archer
10. Broad
11. Anderson

I wouldn't be averse to that lineup, I like Foakes, but I think they might stick with Denly at 3 and drop Buttler to 7. Hopefully they'll have him keeping wicket too.

[Maltaran]

Good thing England did knock the runs off quickly, it’s just started raining 

[Paxter]

4 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

I wouldn't be averse to that lineup, I like Foakes, but I think they might stick with Denly at 3 and drop Buttler to 7. Hopefully they'll have him keeping wicket too.

Jeez. Denly at 3 makes me cry. A mid-30s average in County cricket won't help much against Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins...is he really up for the job?

[ljkeane]

7 minutes ago, Paxter said:

Jeez. Denly at 3 makes me cry. A mid-30s average in County cricket won't help much against Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins...is he really up for the job?

In fairness I think he is a better player now than his career average but, yeah, he's not amazing. There's a bit of a dearth of options though. Root doesn't like batting at 3 and Denly got a 50 there last time they played.

[desire]

Dam  Well played England.............  

[Paxter]

2 minutes ago, desire said:

Dam  Well played England.............  

Surely it's hard to be too upset when Australia has won 5 WCs already (including all but one since 1996)?

I think it's good to share the love around a bit...especially if NZ win it!

A random question: how on earth did Kenya make it to the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup? I was looking at some old results and this caught my eye. Bizarro. I don't even remember that!

[Jeor]

@Paxter is clairvoyant, some articles now popping up about Kohli's poor average in ODI knockout games. Apparently it's about 31 over 14 games and mention was made of the 9, 1, 1 in World Cup semifinals. And he doesn't have a good comparison with Tendulkar who was 50+ over similar knockout games.

14 games is too small a sample space but Kohli will be disappointed with that, he just needs one big signature knock.

[Philokles]

Denly is a better player than his average suggests, but I think he was picked for the Sri Lanka and WI tours largely for his versatility - as he can bat anywhere in the top and middle order and bowl a bit of spin. I expect the top three for the Ashes will be Roy, Burns and Dom Sibley, or maybe Sam Northeast. It will be Zak Crawley opening sooner rather than later, but this will probably be too soon.

[Paxter]

8 minutes ago, Jeor said:

@Paxter is clairvoyant, some articles now popping up about Kohli's poor average in ODI knockout games. Apparently it's about 31 over 14 games and mention was made of the 9, 1, 1 in World Cup semifinals. And he doesn't have a good comparison with Tendulkar who was 50+ over similar knockout games.

14 games is too small a sample space but Kohli will be disappointed with that, he just needs one big signature knock.

Full disclosure - I had already seen a few articles posted about Kohli before I did my own research. I just think it's a bit more of a material talking point than the incessant Dhoni bashing/defending. Particularly when Virat is statistically one of the greatest ODI batsmen of all time. 

ETA: RE: Denly, I'm sure he has been in career form recently or else he wouldn't be in the conversation averaging mid-30s in FC cricket. My problem with it is that number 3 is the most sacrosanct position in the batting order for mine. Pujara was vital at 3 against Australia last summer. I don't care that Kohli is at 4...The Don batted at 3!